Dirt Works 100km Classic

The commitment has been made, 4th May 2008, myself and a small group of keen riders from work are going to attempt the Dirtworks 100km Classic. This is a 100km off-road MTB race (if you choose to race) around St Albans about 1.5hr north of Sydney just on the other side of the Hawkesbury river. I remember reading a review of this about 2 years ago, not long after getting my MTB and thinking you must be kidding, a 100km off-road, scary steep hills, why would you do it to yourself? Well mot much has changed, I am just now one of the crazies going put them selves through the pain of it all. I have begun training…. To a point. I have now got the knobblies back on the bike after having the slicks on there for many months, in the lead up to the Sydney to Gong ride.

On the weekend I had a rude shock as to how out of form I am ridding the bush. Besides being the sweeper guy to clear all the single track of spider webs, I seemed never to be prepared for the next rise or dip, which saw me scrambling up a few hills in the walking (climbing) gear. A word of warning for everyone who thinks this is the safest gear on the bike, you can still fall and do damage. Ouch. Well, didn’t need that skin anyway. After doing battle at the foot of the mountain with the mud caking on the bike and clogging every moving part, I did manage to get higher enough to turn around and get some speed up, however this only brought its own issues as the mud began to fling back in my face. So I guess what I am saying here is I have much work to do before 4th May. Lucky there is still some time left to do it.