Last night they put on a great feast for us with some killer steaks and a great atmosphere as the town put on a fantastic display of hospitality.
Today was the first real race day that counted. A 91km smash-fest where, in my humble opinion, we went much too fast, and if I had enough air in my lungs at any point during the ride, I would definitely have told Minter to slow down. Average speed was just over 26kmph and our ride time was 3:28 which put us into 27th place out of the 350 odd teams that raced today.....a result which I am very happy with as there are some very very strong riders. Winning time for the day was 3:11.
Racing for most of the day was in groups. We just missed the first group and settled in drafting in the second group. This group included the top female pair and a few mixed couples. The girls were really strong but were a bit slow on the technical (for SA but merely a few rocks and not even comparable to Manly dam) bits. Three teams including ourselves broke away from the group at the 82km mark in order to position ourselves for the Red Bull run, 2km single track with a 5km run into town. We had a good descent although we're held up a bit by one of the other teams. The last 5km ride into town was hard pushing the 90%HR zone. I think this is where we pushed to hard and may come back to haunt us - we'll know soon enough tomorrow.
After the race we arrived at the race village and headed to get our bags, but Minters had somehow disappeared, which meant no sleeping bag etc, and it is very cold here at night. Anyway, he starts hinting about how cold he will be etc etc and all I was thinking was that this was a scam so he could ask to share my sleeping bag. I don't blame him. My shaved legs are pretty irresistible and the girls doing the massages were making similar hints. It's tough being a babe magnet. Anyway, we eventually located his bag and he headed off to the showers.....a very welcome development as he was smelling way over his "use by" date.
The massages were agony as our legs are already very sore, but hopefully they will feel better for the 130km awaiting us tomorrow. Worth noting is that the furthest I have ever ridden a mountain bike is 114km at the Highland Fling, and that was after a taper and with fresh legs. I am thinking about slipping some laxatives into Minters water bottle to ensure I get a few stops en-route.
The Magellan GPS units have been great and the battery life is fantastic which is very convenient on an event like this. Based on where the battery is, it looks like it will be between 18 and 20 hours.
With respect to the Syntace Hi-flex seat post, it is difficult to know how much more comfortable it is or isn't but what I have noticed is Minter (who is almost always riding in front of me.......so I can make sure he is ok) often stands over ground where I am still seated, so perhaps this is the difference between the aluminium seat post he has on the Scott and the Syntace carbon post which is specifically designed to provide a level of flex. Early days still though so watch this space!
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