The Husky 100ker

foolbis

foolbis

Likes Dirt
Well....so much for umming and ahhing over tyre choice.... turns out unless you were running with Spikes, there was not a lot of chance you were going to get traction on a lot of the course!

Going in with all reports saying it was fast and flat and with the expectation of a 5hr ish finish, finally crossing the line in 6:39 was a bit of a killer!!

Mud mud mud, bog, more mud, lose the bike in a hole and have to practically dig it out. Was fun, for the first 20kms...but with 80kms of that to go, racing turned into survival mode.

It's unfortunate the weather didnt hold out that well pre race, but...from looking at the course, some of that water must never leave the place.

Fortunately no one had any serious off the bike moments, mostly because falling off meant landing in a foot of squishy wet stuff, and made for quite funny viewing as long as you were the 'fallee'. Apologies to anyone I may have let out a little giggle at as I watched you go a over t into a pile of bog! :biggrin:

Now all that is left is to see what is salvageable in all the running gear. Chain (which broke about 35kms in) and cassette are definitely gone. Will most likely need a new BB as well unless the LBS can work their magic and clean all the crap outta it!

Lastly.... who knew bikes could float. Thanks to that waist deep river crossing, now I do!
 
Last edited:
JD26

JD26

Likes Dirt
I thought it was a pretty cool event. Definitely tough, but that's just racing. I was impressed with that water crossing early on that was super deep!

That place would rock in the dry. The organisers did a great job in very trying conditions. Props to them.

I'll be back next year for sure
 
O

oldbean

NSWMTB
Yep, sure was muddy! I was close to the front of the Hundred field and it was sloppy and slippery enough already when we went through, so I'm sure it was worse for the rest of the field. Coming back along the same sections of trail at the end, it had definitely deteriorated further.

There was plenty of sloppy sections that covered your bike in gunk, then there was the slick clay sections that had your bike sliding sideways as much as rolling forwards! The sections of singletrack that had dried out were really fun! Good flowing trails with the occasional technical feature. Would love to get back there in better conditions to really rail it.

Organisers can't really control the weather, but I was a bit disappointed in the lack of marshals out on course. It was a LONG way between seeing any sort of official out there to help with possible injuries or to direct people with terminal mechanicals. Perhaps more marshals would also have helped cut down the number of short cuts that were taken! Either that or more places where times and places were recorded to make sure there were no 'abnormalities' in the results. At about the 25km mark I saw 3 people coming up a fireroad as I turned out of some singletrack. They said they didn't know they had cut out a whole section of singletrack and they were just following the group of 10 people in front of them! One of these three came back past me in the last 2kms. When I asked him after the finish if he was going to let the officials know he had (unintentionally) cut the course, he replied with, "I didn't know I had." When I reminded him that I had pointed it out to him he shrugged and said, "Oh well, doesn't matter." Well it matters to me when you're ahead of me in the results! It's sad that Black Heart haven't got this sorted out. After hearing similar reports from previous events down there, I thought they would've made some changes. Hope they get the results sorted out, but no idea how they will.

Oh, and I was on a CX bike. Steel, full rigid, canti brakes, 700 x 38 tyres and 1x10 drivetrain. I never ran out of gears, but the shifter and/or derailleur decided they'd had enough after about 45kms. Shifting gear required using the shifter, then giving the gear cable on the top tube a pull to prompt the derailleur to move. Rear brake packed it in after about 40kms too. I don't think the pads had worn down. More likely just glazed over.

Previous furthest distance I'd ridden on this bike was about 35kms with only 1/3 of that off road. Stepping up to 100kms off road brought a few challenges. Rigid fork and less powerful brakes meant my hands, arms and upper body worked harder and I fatigued faster. By the end of the race I couldn't find a comfortable position for my hands. Fatigue and no rear brake also meant I couldn't enjoy some of the dryer sections of singletrack as much as I would've liked.

Anyway, I've only got myself to blame! But I am glad I was on a bike I wasn't worried about too much in the conditions. No fancy carbon frame or cranks to scuff up. No suspension fork to have mud sucked into. I can tick "100km off road enduro on CX bike" off the list now!
 
tate6969

tate6969

Likes Bikes
oldbean said:
Organisers can't really control the weather, but I was a bit disappointed in the lack of marshals out on course. It was a LONG way between seeing any sort of official out there to help with possible injuries or to direct people with terminal mechanicals. Perhaps more marshals would also have helped cut down the number of short cuts that were taken! Either that or more places where times and places were recorded to make sure there were no 'abnormalities' in the results.
Click to expand...
Yeah, what he said!
 
Rambler

Rambler

Likes Dirt
I was spectating today and cheering on my sister in law completing her first 50km race. It looked like very trying conditions. Congrats to all the finishers. One guy who put many to shame was the fella on the uni-cycle. Attempting enduro MTBing on two wheels is hard enough let alone doing it in mud and slop on one wheel. If you are the uni-cycler and are viewing this I have posted some video here of you riding through the slop at the end of the race.
 
top_oz_bloke

top_oz_bloke

Likes Dirt
The first 50k was pretty sloppy but the second 50 I thought was ok.

It was a bit of a strange event for me. I somehow managed to get myself in between groups so spent a lot of it going solo without another rider in sight. Esp at the end, I reckon from 65k until the back markers of the 50 came up I saw one other rider.

Have to laugh at the self seeding again.

A lot of the course markings I thought were really good but some were pretty ordinary. A couple of places I was a bit unsure, but not as much as the bloke who I saw heading away from the finish line instead of towards it!

I thought I was going totally crap but seems like it was slowing everyone else down too. If only I hadn't binned it so much I might have snuck into the top 50!

When I got home my mate couldn't believe any of my gears worked at all - but other than the obligatory stick, didn't miss a beat.

 
B

Boreit

Likes Dirt
was the section of track that heaps of riders missed around the 85km mark? just read the article on marathonmtb, shed a bit of light on the delayed preso's.... remember seeing the split in the track, i went right & it was well & truly worn in. thinking now that might have been the "wrong" way now :( for the most part the track marking was pretty good though.

felt sorry for the ladies at the feed station that had run out of water... that would have been the critical stop for most.

was pumped to go ride down there, the single track is rad+. the creek crossings were certainly a novel twist, it would have sucked for the short folk that got their pouch soaked :) it was tough, both mentally & physically anyone that finished can be happy.
 
U

undulator

Squid
Hey oldbean. Ditch that rear canti and go for the mini V Brake to match the front. Maybe see you at the fling in the CX cat.
I was rocking a rigid fork too with V Brakes on my Karate Monkey SS. Got pretty beaten up.
I was the ham in the sandwich trying to chase down a mate on his SS whilst trying not to be caught by another mate behind on his SS.
Hardest race I've done in a while. The pineapple at the stops was a winner.
 
S

Smiker

Likes Dirt
I just speed-read the new posts. The main thing I could take from it is a few more people will be doing the Fling CX??

J/k. Sounds like a hard day out.

Smiker
 
M

murf58

Likes Bikes
I finished the 100km yesterday and yes conditions were very challenging but there is a certain sense of achievement that comes with overcoming the numerous mechnicals, physical fatigue and ignoring the little man on your shoulder telling you to pull the pin! I came off a few times but no major damage done. On one stack, I ended up in the bushes and there was a Garmin 305 in the mud, someone earlier must have stacked in the same spot. If you lost your Garmin watch yesterday contact the race organisers.

I agree with some of the other comments here about the race organisation. It could have been better. Very few (if any?) marshalls on the course, the trail poorly marked at points (towards the end) and poorly supplied aid stations (not the fault of the oldies serving - they were awesome). Running out of water at a major stop is unforgiveable. The lack of marshalls meant that it would have been easy (for those inclined) to take short cuts and it would have been easy to make an honest mistake and take a wrong turn. The fact is, a well organised and staffed event would be set up to minimise the chance of these things happening (eg Dirtworks) and just save everyone a lot of grief.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top