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.

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Bike Buller

For those who don’t know, I am a keen mountain biker, and have recently started attending some organised races. Although, I technically can’t claim to be a serious racer, for me it’s more about the experience and the atmosphere at a race meet. Last weekend, I attended the Mt Buller Mountain Bike Festival at Mt Buller, Victoria. This is all part of our training towards the BMC 100km. It was an enourmously enjoyable event, even though the courses were pretty brutal. The event consisted of a 20km ride on the Saturday, followed by a 6km downhill race (which I didn’t take part in) and then a 50km race on the sunday.

The 20km course was very technical. Being a mountain, the course relief was pretty much straight up and straight down again. Long, twisting climbs (some with up to 15 switchbacks) followed by bone jarring and very technical singletrack descents. It was what my old friend Tom would describe as “darn technegol”.

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