2005 Highland Fling 100 KM Mountain Bike Marathon

A whole heap of mtb-oz'ers and Canberrans and other people I knew had signed up to compete so I thought, what the heck lets go do it. Dave Sutton gave Crash and I a lift up on Saturday arvo and back on Sunday arvo, we used Crash's large Carden Camping Palace to sleep in, saw the rather entertaining, though somewhat weird movie "The Triplets of Belleville" in Bundanoon on Saturday night and then rode a 100 KM mtb race on Sunday.

I had picked up a cold on Wednesday prior to the race and had not been able to ride Friday morning, I probably should not have ridden Thursday morning, and generally I felt like crap, so I planned to take the race moderately easily and try to keep myself fresh for the Triple Tri next weekend. In the end I did slow down a lot for the entire race and did not push myself much at any point so it was a pretty easy day in the saddle on the whole.

Although I complained about the high entry fee I must say the event was brilliantly organised, there were marshals (of the volunteer rescue type in bright overalls) all over the course, almost every time you looked up there was a marshal, also the signage on the entire 100 KM course was fantastic, there really was very little chance of getting lost. Also the course itself was amazing, with a huge variety of terrain from fun flowing single track through penrose in leg 1, to glorious descents and interesting climbs in leg 2 in the national park on to interesting sandy sections and some other cool stuff in leg 3.

I will probably be back next year, and hopefully I wont have a cold so I can have a decent stab at it.

Oh yeah, just to ensure google and co do not get too confused, the Highland Fling website is over at Wild Horizons.

fullsize Waiting for the start while Huw does the race briefing in a fetching Skirt^WKilt. fullsize More of the collected riders waiting to start fullsize Jim and Crash fullsize An interesting way to store the race food, I like the matching tape. fullsize Glennnnnnnnnnnnnn awaiting the start. fullsize As I decided to carry he camera during the race I should use it, Glennnnnnnn is in the middle (Red top ahead in this shot) fullsize Oh yeah I am carrying a rather heavy camera for this entire race I should take a photo or two, this I remember very close to the finish.

fullsize The final section of dirt before the last turn in the race. fullsize The marshals on the last corner. fullsize Dave's van with the Carden Camping Palace on the other side. fullsize Marshals at the finishing chute. fullsize The finish. fullsize My finish time, 5h48m, not too shabby considering how crappy I felt all day. fullsize Craig Armour who finished a few minutes before me. fullsize Morgs and I doing the photograph the photographer thing, Morgs finished 1 hour ahead of me almost exactly.

fullsize This is the photo Morgs took of me. fullsize Roy who did the half fling due to not having much riding under his belt all winter, and Liam to the left of the frame, who had a nasty crash and still did a sub 5 hour time. fullsize Crash and Warren, normally teamed up for Polaris, Warren put 42 minutes into Crash which I think shows Crash he needs to put on some fitness before the Alpine Classic. fullsize Dave lining up for a coffee soon after finishing. fullsize Morgs and Joo. fullsize Matt upon finishing. fullsize A pink Cannondale Jekyl from Port Macquarie.