2006 Dw100

[Dreggsy]

How did everybody go?
Very cold start as i wasnt wearing any warm gear, I knew it was coming off at the top of the first hill.
I had a lot of fun in a hurty way.
Legs still feel like jelly.
I nearly climbed the first hill but put too much weight forward 3/4 of the way up and nearly went OTB,
The sand sucked but that only took up 1% of the course. And was mostly rideable apart from the last creek (dried) crossing
As for the rocky sections, I loved them and have always ridden those types of trails, especially the old convict road. How much fun was the gully down the end of that section, Im sure I came out of there with an ear to ear grin and some sore hands.
For the lack of training I did, I managed fairly well and spent a surpising amount of time in the big ring.
Loved a bit of track where I turned the corner to find it aboslutley covered in babyhead rocks.
the hike a bike sucked out alot of energy and I actually got over taken going up there, I was that tired. still am........zzzzzzzzzzz.

[rockydog]

Did anyone see my stack?
It was about 40ks in...I was in front of a group of 4-5 riders.
I think my pedal came down on a rock and bounced the whole bike, for a 20k/hr + faceplant. Must have looked pretty stupid.

[craign]

Just over 6 1/2 hours in my first 100k effort. So I was happy.

Climbed all of the first hill except for a few dabs when the single speeders in front of me (who sped passed me at the bottom of the hill while I changed down) came to an abrupt holt.

The walking section hammered me and made the last 25k a bit slower than I would have liked.

Love Sephards Gully, but took it easy as there was still a bit of riding to go.

Recovered better than expected, but drove to work this morning :(.

Edit: Noticed some bitching about the course on 26inches...

[McBain]

26inches users are crybabies.

Course was much better than last year - took 1.5hrs off my time from last year. Yeah, it is sandy out there, but this is Sydney, we have sandstone, lots of sandstone - sandstone is made from SAND!

The hike a bike up the hill sucked nuts, but that's probably the only real downside to the course.

I had fun. In a painful kind of way. Feel pretty good today, which probably means I didn't ride hard enough.

[alchemist]

So now you know you can push harder next Monday.

[craign]

26inches users are crybabies.

Spoiled by all that pine forest singletrack????? :p

[PDogg]

I had a ball...

Jumped on my ride to warm up, and a seal in my shock went.... why does that sort of thing happen when you're about to race an epic, not just going for a 1 hour punt after work?!

Well, missed my start. Disassmebled shock in bush mechanic style and reassembled. OK, working now. Rode out of the start in dead last spot, top way to begin :) Got 2 km's down the road, and the shock packed it in again. Oh well I thought.... a day of hanging out by the river in the pub. Not all bad I guess.

Gavin from Netti heard my story, and without hesitation offered me his Scott MC40. It was the right size, and we even weighed the same! Off I went for the second time, this time in an even worse last place (about 40 minutes behind!).

The road out was a harsh warm up, no one to draft or work with. Got to the first climb and attampted to tame the beast. It beat me. Lots of walking... got to the top and adjusted the saddle and handlebar height. After the alterations I felt far better on the bike, and actually had some power. Form then on, it was sweet! Awesome descents and sweet singletrack. It was a great ego booster to start passing people after their head start. Finally got to the hike a bike, which almost sapped my will to live, what a bitch!

The final fire trails were loonnnnggggg, but rolling into the finish I felt great and had had a total ball. MASSIVE thanks to Gav and the Netti/Scott crew for the bike. As a elitist boutique bike riding snob, I have to say the Scott kicked ass!

[alchemist]

You should have been riding the green bike. You'll find from now on you'll have lots of little niggling things go wrong with all your other bikes. Have you seen the move "Christine"?

[PDogg]

As soon as mike shock started it's tantrum, my brain went 'where's the Surly, why am I riding this multi pivot beast?!'

But it would have been a looooooooooooooooonnng day on the SS!

[DaGonz]

As a elitist boutique bike riding snob, I have to say the Scott kicked ass!

Do you want one? I have an mc30 frame here you could have for the right price? And I've decided to keep the spoon but will pre form another as required.

Cheers
DaGonz

[PrOd]

I did the half course. Was a bit disappointed there wasn't any single track. Was there any in the 100km?

The sand pits at the bottom of hills (and at base of next climb) ruined my usual tactic of going as fast as I can down to decrease my effort going up the next hill!

Had a couple of scares getting a lot more air than I anticipated on some of the erosion humps but all in all a fun, energy sucking day :)

[Carlin]

I'm sure there was more than 1k of sand! But who is complaining that last decent through the sand got very interedting in a drifty-bitey Is-this-going-to-swallow-my-front-wheel sort of way. Loads of fun.

Waking up in the dark and cold with ice on the tent was not the most ideal for this warm wather lover. Fumbling around in the dark the night before putting the wheels on and connecting the v-brakes on the trusty retro singlespeed the night before was definately preferable to doing the same thing with numb fingers in the morning.

The start went smoothly in the fridge-like conditions. cruising down the road through the valley was eerie; fog shrouded mountainbikers, with red LEDs flashing as we passed the "no overtaking or passing signs". The sun was not far away, making the fog orange and turning the riders into sillouetts as they wound along the base of the hills. The terrain shot up to the left and was flat on the flood line to the right.

Soon the track went up. There was no point in blowing cold legs on the 2:1 so I was the first to get off and walk. The track then undulated as riders tried to find their rythm. I took it easy spinning lightly on the flats and not being ashamed to walk if need be. The viewes out over the valley were sublime. By the time I got to the rocky stuff I was warmed up and fed. The slght up hill with well spaced rocky steps was enough to give any singlespeeder a wet dream. The rythm was perfect, crank step crank turn crank step crank turn. Using a little more energy than i wanted too at that stahe but that could be made up later.

After some ups-downs, long waterbar filled decents, popping off a few for fun, stopping to read the plaque near the bridge/gully I was eventually at the checkpoint bang on three hours into the ride. Chatted to a guy there on an awsome singlespeed Fat chance retro down to the tyres:cool: , ate some food and was on my way. The track soon went up again, being on the single speed, halfway through the race and having just eaten this was a climb to go for. Out of the saddle in a good rythm I made it to the top and then looked to recover over the flats. From here on in the track was fery nice a single line winding along overgrown firetrail. There were snottly rocky ascents more waterbars one massive lump of dirt and so on before a beautiful fast singletrack on fire road descent through the rainforest.

More roads avoiding the corrugations was fun and then the hike a bike just as I was starting to fade. nothing to be said here, get your bike, go up hill, no point in complaining. Got to the top of the hike a bike and the fire trail still went up. more hurting, more walking but nothing to do but shut up and get on with it. by now the firld had sorted itself out , there was not muck overtaking or being overtaken. Most of the riders areound me were in the same condition, the grinded past me up the hills in granny gear when I was walking, I would spin past them in 2 to 1 when I could get the cranks spinning until the next hill. The last descent was a welcome sight the sand that was a little annoying beforehand was now momentum and morale sapping. At least now the sand was pointing down hill and all we had to do was hang of the back of the bike and oversteer as our rigs plowed through the soft dusty track.

Once at the bottom I could tell that I was in the valley and was pretty confident that there would be few ups until the finish. The straight poweraid that I had been sipping up the top of the loop had held off the cramps and the descent had given me a slight recovery, so now it was time to just spin keep the cranks turning and get to the finish. This is where the single speed came into its own I had no choice but to spin the gear and by now that was all I could do, as there was no slow rpm power left in the legs at all.

So that was about it, kept pushing all the way to the end, go handed a beer ate food and watched some of the other riders come in. I was pretty pleased with 6 hours 11 ish for my first century on dirt.

Cheers to Rik who packed up the tent and kept me awake on the trip home;)

[Balderick]

Other than my cramping problem (see 26inches for that) I had a ball. Climbs seemed easier than expected, despite no granny gear most of the time - you SS nuts have my respect. Only time I wanted rear suspension was on two of the descents - a guy on a Reign rocketed past me at warp speed, politely of course. Nice views from the top.

McBane - not all 26inches-ers are cry babies. Some of us are mama's boys as well. "Bitty - I want bitty mummy"

[McBain]

Gavin from Netti heard my story, and without hesitation offered me his Scott MC40. It was the right size, and we even weighed the same! Off I went for the second time, this time in an even worse last place (about 40 minutes behind!).Now it finally makes sense. I thought I was hallucinating when you passed me after Shepherd's Gully (and not just because you grabbed my arse - the 2nd person to do that ... hmmm).

Not only was I in front of PDogg for 70km (wtf?) but he was riding a Scott (omgwtfbbq?!). Very trippy. :)

[Sumgy]

Yep.
Made it around in 7hrs 45 minutes according to the clock at the end.
Possibly came last in the SS category but dont really care.
Some of the SS'ers were flying.
Hey to the brothers on the Spot 29ers from the guy in the pink jersey riding the Ventana El Comandante.

[El Guapo]

No wonder I didn't see you out there P Dogg.

All in all a good day out, although the cramps setting in at 60 km's did little to impress, made the transition in record time, but slowed right down on the second half. Did a good impression of a statue on the hike-a-bike when my calves seized up. Also sure there was more than one km of sand, that last descent was good in a sketchy sort of way. Absolutely shattered upon return to St. Alban's (no suprises there) and then my release buckle broke off of my shoe and I resorted to cutting the strap with the cable cutters - I din't need to do that but I was so rogered that it was the quickest and easiest option.
Didn't ever think I would want to look at another MTB again, but that always happens on the long suffer-fests.

[PDogg]

No wonder I didn't see you out there P Dogg. .

Yeah. I was looking all around, but never spotted a rare El Guapo

[tjb]

So has anyone seen results ?

[tjb]

Results are up ....

http://www.maxadventure.com.au/dirtworksclassic/docs/Ov100km.pdf

[Sumgy]

Results are up ....

http://www.maxadventure.com.au/dirtworksclassic/docs/Ov100km.pdf

312th overall and 2nd last in the SS category.

http://www.mtbdirt.com.au/modules/Forums/images/smiles/biglaugha.gif

[Topple's]

312th overall and 2nd last in the SS category.

http://www.mtbdirt.com.au/modules/Forums/images/smiles/biglaugha.gif

Were you staying next to a really tall guy and his dad in a lodge and next to some swearing fisherman?

[Sumgy]

Were you staying next to a really tall guy and his dad in a lodge and next to some swearing fisherman?

Stayed at the Del Rio Country "Resort".
I was on my orange Ventana El Comandante and wearing a pink jersey.

Kind of like this:

http://www.mtbdirt.com.au/modules/coppermine/albums/userpics/11061/Dirtworks%20008.jpg

[PrOd]

Photos are up at http://www.pixelpics.com.au/events_06dirt100.php

[Topple's]

Are we were also at said "resort" however it was rider 123 next door to us. Just got the race repair bill, $260......
Best get back to cleaning the house and building up browny points before the Boss gets home.

[Carlin]

1: Starting in the fog, and the cold (did anyone forget to mention that:p )

2: The ferry.