There's a saying bandied around in sport that goes along the lines of "form is temporary, class is permanent". I think the 3D multisport festival last week proved to me that a) any past MTB results were the result of well planned training (ie form), and that b) maybe I am really a runner....
After being dealt a hiding in the paddle leg of the Multisport race last year, I opted for the Duathlon option this time around. With some ptrretty stiff competition it was never going to be easy. Starting with the seperate MTB event the pace was pretty hot right through. Sam Gaze eventually skipped clear, chased hard by Olly, as I drifted off to a distant 3rd. Out of sight, out of mind, Olly's gap on me sneaked out to almost 2min by the end of the ride. Although I did score a couple of Strava KOM's. The other boys can't have uploaded their GPS files?!
Credit where its due though, as he smashed it. Accounting for the variation in courses (more on the Du option), he was probably a couple of minutes quicker than both Richard Ussher and Dougal Allen. So it was a bit dissapointing he missed the prize for quickest MTB split. Maybe next year the organisers could put a timing mat where the courses merge?
Onto the run I pushed hard but felt awful. Legs cramping. Forced to walk the stairs. And this was in the first 1km. While I've raced plenty in recent times, any actual training has been next to nothing, so I was paying the price. I started to feel better midway through, and to my surprise caught a glimpse of Olly near the finish as I closed fast. 2nd across the line, and the days fastest Duathlon run (and bettered by just two of the multisporters), saw me close the gap to just over 20sec. Happy with that. Apparently I'm a runner? Even if I have been barely able to walk all week since...
It's been a mad week, as I then went straight to Sydney for a work conference. The super keen (and somewhat mad) Magellan brand manager had arranged a few CX bikes, and before I knew it I was seeing Sydney from the seat of bike at 5:30 each morning. Turned out to be pretty adventurous. TT smashfests on a bike jammed in little ring. Dragging brakes. Getting an opening truck door to the side of the head in traffic. Paniced missions in rush hour traffic running late for meetings. And one legged pedalling missions after Tony stripped the pedal out of his crank. 100+ km in a couple of days exploring sydney in the small hours. Was quite Epic.
The cycling highlight of the Sydney trip was riding tis stair/ramp on the CX bike in amongst commuter cycling traffic pushing/carrying their bikes. Apparently its rarely done, and the bridge security was most impressed. My riding buddy perhaps not so impressed as aparently his attempts ended with stalls and crashes about 3/5 of the way up....
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