2015 Mitas Ruben Tathra Enduro 50km - 30-39 - 3rd place

Everyone I have spoken to who rides have at least heard of the Tathra mtb trails. Sweet flowing single track in humble settings of a small coastal town. Not to mention access to the trails only a few hundred metres from the local pub and golf club. People who have ridden the trails always speak of them highly. I heard about relentless gully runs, trees so close together you have to wheelie through them with your bars sideways, sweet berms that flow perfectly. Rocks, roots and jumps.  With a little hype in the pipe, it was easy for me to enter the Tathra enduro when it came online. I managed to plan and train for this race with a good amount of time. Actually I think its the most prepared I have ever been for a race. I even had my good friend Duncan there with me to hand out a water bottle or two #semipro.

Short video of the race, filmed by Duncan, edited by me:
https://youtu.be/7b8UTAUxu4M

Ed was heading down to same race and a had a new cvar that needed a run so the three of us piled in and drove down the highway for a typical race day trip. I would just like say that I am now a massive fan of heated leather seats fo the trip to a race. I felt like my hamstrings were ready to go before I even got on the bike.

I still feel very new to 120min+ races so I had the usual plan. Get a strong start, stay in touch with the lead group, push hard on the climbs, recover on the descents, keep momentum and stay smooth. As with any plan the world usual has a chaotic way of changing things pretty fast.

Chaos 1 - 5mins into the race, Ben Henderson nearly decapitates a poor little wallaby and flies over the bars in the process. Bike upside down in a bush and wallaby twicthing by the edge of the track.

Chaos 2 - Shortly after Ben passes me after an awesome comeback from a massive off. The lead group hits a steep uphill gully and someone unclipped on the way out, one guy fell back into the gully and I was left high and dry, stopped waiting for everyone to get going again.

Back on the grind and into the first climb. I was already going lactic and my SenseCore app was telling me to slow down but I wanted to get back in touch with the leaders. On a long straight down a fencline I could see the tail end of them but they were 300m down the road. I thought I beter get back to a good pace and slowly draw them back.

The next period of the race I settled into a groove and repeated my mantra, smooth is fast, breath, recover, push. It was a tad lonely for awhile but it wasn't long before I was being blown away by awesome technical trails, bar brushing trees and generally just loving the variety of the trails.

Chaos 3 - Managed to turn left out of a gully when the trail went right, got caught by the rider behind as I was hugging a tree like its life depended on it.

The final 1/3 of the race got interesting I starting catching a few riders and it gave me new motivation to push hard to the end. I was feeling strong and my simple hydration plan of moderatly mixed Hammertime Heed and elctrolyte capsules was paying. There was a long slow 4WD track so I got up and smashed it, still didnt catch the next guy but I could see I was closing the gap. Slowly but surely I closed it up and finally I overtook him and shortly after 2 more riders fell back. "Ferrk what a powerhouse" one dude said as I tried to make it look like I was fresh and wanting more. But I was in the zone now, everything hurting, but still feeling like I had some power.

5kms to go, I get stopped at a road crossing, 1, 2, 3 cars, oh man that rocked me and mad me angry, I told Mr Lollipop to do the same to the rider behind me. Sure enough a few mins down the track a new rider had closed up on me. He was charging and I was hurting. With no idea what the final trail looked like I just had to focus and smash everything, brake late, out of the saddle, spin, smash, stomp, no brakes, focus.

He was right there and I was riding these trails as fast as my tyres would allow. I sensed we were in the final 1km, keep it clean, lay down the power, be ready for a sprint finish.

I just managed to hold him at bay by a few bike lengths. But it wasn't him I needed to worry about, the 2 guys I had caught a few kms earlier were in my category and I just managed to climb onto the podium. With 60+ riders in the field, totally new trails and no practice lap, I was stoked to finish where I did.

This felt like a personal best effort, although with some practice of the trails and a few less mishaps I think I can get a better result next year. I want to some social rides down there between now and then to dial in the trails a bit better.