BMC 100km Classic

It’s taken me a while to get my rear end in gear and write this. I like to think that this is down to the amount of time it’s taken me to recover. The race was almost 2 weeks ago, and yet I’ve only just managed to get back on the commuter bike – mainly due to the crook knee I have managed to acquire.

Honest.

It was my first attempt at 100km on a mountain bike. I’ve done 100 on road before (Around the Bay in a Day) but that was relatively flat and relaxed (took us about 3 hours 45 minutes at quite a gentle pace). I had no doubt however, that 100km off road would be in a whole new world of pain.

I had a great time. I really did. It hurt a lot, and I’ve done some damage to my knee (as I’ve mentioned! Patella tendon I think), but it was still an enormous amount of fun. The trails at Woodend are among the best I’ve ever ridden, in fact they pip Innerleithen in Scotland to number 1 spot in my experience. There was an incredible amount of singletrack on offer, and we never once went over a section twice. The trails were all fast and flowing, just the sort of thing I like. The trail fairies up there have managed to achieve that perfect blend of man made trail and natural trail, giving the rider the impression that he/she is riding something that God himself has created.

We (Annie and I) clocked up a time of 9 hours 6 minutes, which we were pretty pleased with for our first attempt. I think if we hadn’t had 3 weeks off in the lead up to the race (holidays) we might have got under 9 hours, but now we have something to aim for. The winner (Matthew Flemming) did some ludicrous time of 4 hours 38 minutes and was probably back in Melbourne at the pub by the time we rolled in.

I will certainly be signing up for this event next year, and highly recommend it to anyone else considering a 100km. You can check out some of my images here.

The next event to look forward to will be the Chase the Sun Series Round 2 at Lysterfield Park.