Southern Highlands 5 Hour MTB Race

[lefty]

For anyone looking for some more racing this weekend:

The Southern Highlands Cycling Club has a 5 Hour MTB race on this Sunday,...perfect timing pre the MONT.

Craig Gordon and his Rock Star team are riding...

March 21 Commences 8am.

Lots of prizes donated by Enduro magazine - including Cycling computers, jerseys, sunglasses, Enduro Mags, Gels, subscriptions etc.

Online entries @
www.southernhighlandscc.com.au/news/mtb/wingello-5-hour

[crummy]

The sense of achievement continued on Sunday with a different challenge. The Southern Highlands Cycling Club held a 5hr Enduro on part of the well known Wingello MTB trails. The field of riders wasn’t big but many rides had traveled as far as I to race. There was quite a bit of open fire-trail from the start before we hit the first great sections of single track. No slow start this time, I was in the right gear during the uphill start. Twenty seconds later someone called out "hold his wheel", the terrain leveled out and I found myself tucked in behind the lead rider wearing a McGee jersey. The trail started to descend and in my pre-race warm-up I had noticed the worn line on the left, I moved out of the riders shadow and across to the line. Briefly I held the lead across the flat, through a very sandy corner and down the next section before the McGee jersey span past me. All I saw were legs ferociously spinning the single gear and the rider pilot the full ridged bike first into the single track.
Leaping forward to the end of the first lap I had managed to hold 3rd position through all the single track sections, till the last fire trail climb this is where the young teams made ground. It wasn’t the last time I saw the teams, we jostled positions numerous times throughout the race. Over the first few hours I maintained a XC rhythm and it was late in the third hour as I was lapped by the lead rider that I kicked back into more of an endurance rhythm.
Highlights of the race have to be the single track sections that are very easy to flow. Knowing the right line through corners, over obstacles and when to or not to brake paid dividends to your speed. Fire trail sections were kept to a minimum but was still plenty for grabbing a bit to eat or drink. The race organisers had quite a few free giveaways and plenty of bits for the podium places. It was nice to place on the podium in this race, a solid 2nd.
Turns out the closest we came to a Rockstar was a lycra TT suit clad Popstar trendsetter with the name McGee.