Fast or stupid?

The question I had rolling around my head on Saturday night after the Black Stump Adventure Ride was: "Am I fast, or stupid?" I raced (sort of) the women's singlespeed class over the 30km course.

The day started out clear, but cloudy and with a hint that rain could be on the way. It had been raining overnight, so more could be expected. By Black Stump standards it was almost a drought! It was certainly a lot warmer than last year. I arrived late (again) and had to park up on the airstrip, about 700m from the race village. I geared up and coasted down the hill to register. After that it was time to scoff a banana, devour a OSM, talk some shit and take a pee. I neglected to leave enough time for a warm up ride, but no great loss as we had to stand around at the start for so long anyway.

*Giggle* Nervous anticipation

We were herded into the stock yards and waited for the 40km riders to be sent off. I remembered part of my to-do checklist from last year and lined up in the third row. The shotgun sounded and we were off.

About 3/4 of the way up the hill I hit traffic again and opted to walk. Through the paddock and things were flowing much better. The first big downhill was great, with not many other riders around me and there was some grip between tyres and dirt. Then the nemesis climb; better than last year, but still requiring a fair chunk of walking (about half I reckon). It's a long gradual climb, with a few tricky slippery patches to catch you out, rob you of speed and dash all hope of staying on top of your gear. Once again a few gearies were walking, and some were already stopping to rest!

Rolling off the start line

We circled around and back through the race village. It was nice to see some cheering faces, but also a little disheartening to know we'd only covered about 6km. The next part of the track was a slippery snake of clay slithering through the brush. Progress was a little stop-start, more traffic, thick mud, and slippery roots. I felt quite uncoordinated with a serious lack of traction as my tyres turned into two big brown donuts.

Those two big brown donuts had to be pushed through the track and forward progress became my mission of the day. Up Mount Oh Not Again, by foot (again). This walking and pushing was getting rather annoying.

I felt pretty good going past the turn-off for the 18km ride, and knew I had it in me to get to the end. That was until I hit The Boiler Room. Steep, slippery, unrelenting, seemingly never-ending. It sucked. Everyone was pushing up this hill. I think I blew my fufu valve somewhere around the 22km mark. Every hill was a mountain, and the headwind could no longer be overcome. The headwind was so strong I even had to pedal on one of the downhills, so that I didn't come to a complete stop. Strangely, on the brief occasions it was a tailwind, it didn't seem to have anywhere near the same force.

I was relieved to make it back to the 18km turn-off point and see the sign saying 3 1/2km to go. And I felt an even greater sense of relief when we bypassed the Turnip field we had to trudge through last year. One more slippery uncoordinated downhill and I was done. When I was asked how I felt at the finishing chute, I replied "good... well, not really good, but it's good that I've finished."

Cheesy podium shot with the sponsor

A couple of riders commented that I was "brave" for riding the race singlespeed, I corrected them and said, "no, not brave, just stupid." And the results confirmed I was the only woman stupid enough to ride singlespeed - all the others were smart enough to use gears! My finish time was 3 hours 19 minutes something, eighth place in open women and first place in singlespeed. I earned some jelly legs and a big hunk of metal trophy for my efforts.

Thanks to Greg Gibb from Imagine Media for the photos.