It's Aliiiivvvveeeee!!! .......
Stage 1:
This was a lot of public road dirt up a mountain down the mountain up the mountain.I was very happy / surprised with my effort I rode the climbs and passed some people I never expected to then the "Single Trail" hit. It was around 5 kms of enduro motorbike trail that was churned up and shit before I got there let alone after 500 bikes had passed over it (they had actually held an enduro motorbike race on them at Easter). For me it was unridable and it cut along, down and around the side of the mountain so we dropped elevation that had to be taken back before we got home. At the 28km mark my knee started to hurt but I finished the stage. One rider was choppered out (we haven't heard how she is and was in a very bad way when I went past) after a very fast crash on a dirt road descent.
Pros:
Amazing views
Undulating hillsides
Cons:
"Single Trail" universally bagged by everyone
Stage 2:
Swollen Knee could barely walk and after advice from yesterdays sweep it was going to be much more technical with pinch climbs so I just spectated.
Stage 3:
Decided the knee was just pain and we can all push past it so rode as we had come so far anyway. This stage utilised some of the Awaba trail network that was amazing. We did about 12kms of single trail then came onto the road and climbed a friggin mountain literally. Could ride at 4km/hr or walk at about 4.5km/hr so did a mixture of both. I rode at the back with a group of 6 that all bailed on day 4. We didn't even come last and they all said they were out. Saw a few retired from this stage with broken bikes in the single track.
Pros:
Single trail for sure
Amazing views
Cons:
Every marshall telling you its all down from here (it never was)
Now Garmin Elevation has this as more than stage 1 by about 30m Strava says lower.
Stage 4:
This was pretty brutal mentally as I was backing up from stage 3 after a huge stage 1 and I hurt. i dug deep and pushed away the pain and just had to deal with the fatigue. We went through a lot of amazing single trail here but mentally it fucked me as every time you would climb to the top you would loop back to the bottom. Rinse and repeat about 5 times. Amazing network and I am sure would have enjoyed it in any other scenario. Some techy bits I am still not sure how I didn't die on.Almost stacked it 3 times in this section 2 of which were up hill sharp corners where the front wheel unloaded and just skipped out. Fatigue contributed to that. one was just pure and simple I got half way in to the descent and committed with out realising I didn't have the skill to commit. The single trail claimed 2 broken wrists so it wasn't just me finding it tough. After the single trail we hit a bit of suburbia then we hit the beach. Yup the fucking beach!! I can tell you the only people not shitty at the end were the sponsored riders not paying for their own shit 3 brutal days and they run you through 2kms of soft unridable barely walkable sand. Out of the sand and on to some more single trail. this is where I came across 3 guys walking together as one of them had a broken chain. All of them were on older style cheaper bikes ( I say this to paint a picture not be derogatory) I asked do you not have a quicklink? Which of course they didn't and the look of sheer surprise was amazing when I said I did. "Really" they asked and I said "sure I do I am a mountinbiker". They gathered around in awe when I pulled out the multitool to remove the pin on his broken quicklink. I felt like a god then and there. Fixed it up and then on to the finish.
Pros:
Really good single trail
Great views
Cons:
The beach
Cheaters (I will expand on this below)
Overall:
141Kms
3518m elevation
13hrs 24m Saddle time
The event was amazing and they cater more for the accomplished rider. Everyday people were dropping out after not realising what they had signed up for and I ran into heaps of roadies and triathlet's that were riding mountain bikes for the first time or close to the first time. This caused a bit of a mess in the single trail as they had no idea of trail etiquette they were just absorbed with themselves and didn't clear the trail quickly when they couldn't do something. Me being at the back wasn't really effected but the people I went with are more elite and ran into problems. As they were on time constraints if you were at the back they would shuttle you up the hills or divert you to an quicker route to open the roads again which is fair enough. However the trick here is to be slow enough that happens not just quick enough that they just shuttle people past you
.
Cheating is a difficult term to use as mostly you cheated yourself. Often the marshalls would re-route you or shuttle you however on stage 4 in particular in the single trail it looped back past itself a lot. There were quite a few people that I had passed on the single trail that beat me substantially to the finish. they had just cut off most of the single trail and jumped across to the out track. There were no marshalls in the single trail to reroute they had just decided to. Stage 4 in particular was bolstered with lots of 1 day riders who I think thought it was a lovely Sunday morning bike ride to do with family and friends they were so wrong.
Final words:- Super proud of what I did but super disappointed I didn't attempt stage 2. I do believe if i had done stage 2 I would have failed stage 4 but will never know for sure now. Do i recommend it? Yup its an experience. Would I do again yes but only after I had ticked other things off my bucket list.