Start line, and curious glances are going everywhere “Damm, everyone is on the line”.

Bang, we’re smashing up the climb, with a pace equal to that of a XC race. Sitting happy in third and even a kilometre into the race, the field was spread out. Awesome, only 84km to go. By the 3km mark, Josh (Race Elements) and I had a gap and we laughed that we should kick it up a notch to see what happens. 8km in and we are at the first ‘hike-a-bike’ section and we look to have 20 seconds. Onto the ridgeline, Josh and I were rolling fast, the legs for me were feeling great and the heart rate was low. The second hike-a-bike section came and went quickly, middle chainring all the way, and again I kept the heart rate under 175.

14km in and we hit a long bitumen climb, it was till we neared the top of this long climb, that I looked back and saw chasers were only just starting to climb at the bottom. Once at the top, I took some time to look back and could see the chase group was down to 8. Rolling again over the 1st ridgeline we got our first time check of 1min to the chasers, I was surprised we were putting time into them. My goal now was to make it to Boonah before being caught.

We flew down the hill into Boonah, with my eyeballs bouncing, I could see I was sitting on a nice 83km/hr (it’s around here I think, did I tighten my quick release skewers). Onto the road section, with 9km of paceline to get to Boonah Showgrounds, and Josh is talking about needing to stop to stretch his sore back. This had me worried, as I needed him to help share the pace, and without him I would be reeled in by the chasing group quickly. I told him I would keep going but was a little disappointed, and that got him into race mode again, and we were motoring again. Into the boonah turnaround, and we were out of there quickly, and I noted the time. We passed the chasers and by my watch we now had a 1 min 40sec gap.

Out of Boonah I knew it was 25km of rolling hills until the WALL, I can tell you, that Josh or I spoke very little for these 25. We rolled turns, and it was around the 55km mark that I decided to test his legs. There was a long road climb, and I upped the pace ever so slightly. I could see the cracks being put into him, but also into me, so slowed down to conserve energy for the wall. We needed one another for the next 5 kms till the wall. By now the chase group was down to 4, and only 1min10 sec backs. Josh and I we still out in front, some 55kms together and working to maintain what lead we could.

We turned a tight right-hander, and were into the wall. I look upwards and saw nothing but road. The legs were feeling good, fluid intake high and slammed my last gel. I slammed the chain into the middle chainring and settled into trying to ride a easy tempo, without busting my HR. My plan here was to get caught by the chasegroup, but have done an easy enough climb so when they went past I could hang onto the back of them.

Only Frendo (RiverCity Cycles) and Garry (Cannondale) got up to me, and as soon as they got onto my wheel they attacked. 65km I was out in front, and now I was going to lose it in a second, NOT LIKELY. I turned my body inside-out and jumped on the back of Garry’s wheel, I was hurting but I was holding the pace….but just.

Onto the top of the climb, frendo and gary were off and I was suddenly struggling a little, but held a 300 meter gap to them, but just couldn’t close it. Still 20km to go, anything can happen. The rolling undulations were fast, and when I passed the 15km to go Frendo and Garry had close to a minute into me. A fair timegap in a short time, so I dug a little bit more.

The technical downhills were where I made time. My hands were hurting, so rather than brake I used the point and shoot approach and hammered as fast as I could on 50psi tyres. From the 10km to go, I was with a new anger, I wanted to do well and knew the legs had some more in them. I saw a flash of garry with 7 km to go as he was riding through the off-camber rock garden, he was my sole focus and the big chainring was back in action.

5Km to go, and the long road section up into singletrack. Cramping in my legs, sore back, face twisted in an ugly way, I was now hurting and out of food and water. I knew I was close but needed to ride smart enough to make the finish. Time check to Frendo was around 2 min, and as much as I would have loved to reel him in, my body was broken and I settle to conserve energy for a podium spot of 3rd. The final singletrack into the finish, started to feel like the first kms of the day. Bouncing off everything, bunnyhops, monos just enjoying myself. I was riding fast, but enjoying and savouring the singletrack.

Crossed the line in second place (sadly Garry had taken a wrong turn in the singletrack), and it wasn’t until ‘I tried’ to get off the bike that I realized that ‘yep, I dug today’. Post-race interview was done with me lying on the ground. Took a good couple of mins before I could un-clip.

Race stats:

• 3 hours 34 min 50 secs.
• 170 bpm avg.
• 196 bpm max.
• 84.2 km.
• 23.3 km/hr avg.
• 84.7 max speed.

[Ryan Hawson]