Killer Kowalski

In early July, Cath and I committed to participating in the Kowalski Classic mountain bike race. We did the 25km last year and this year signed up for the 50km. It was to be the last ever Kowalski Classic as the pines at Kowen are being harvested and as a result the mountain bike trails are to be lost.

We believed that our Centenary trail adventure would be a good base from which could build onto. Plus Monday's when neither of us work meant we could head out for more bike rides. The first part of our plan was executed well unlike the second part. Mondays were interrupted with life, work and public holidays and we didn't get around to riding as much as we had wanted.

October rolled around and I was becoming more nervous about having to ride the 50km under prepared. Nevertheless we decided to approach it as another adventure!

Sunday dawned a little chilly but with the promise of sunny warm dry conditions. Perfect weather for our ride. Allocated in wave 3, we positioned ourselves towards the back of the line at 8.45am ready for the briefing and 9am start. Unfortunately we didn't realise how far back we were and that the line had a large dogleg.

With 50ish riders going off every 5 minutes, and wave 3 containing the majority of the 600 riders participating in the 50km distance, we didn't end up starting for an hour! Had we known this we would of happily gone off for a coffee and kept warm!

Eventually we started. It took a little while to sort ourselves out in relation to other riders but we soon found our own little bubble as Cath called it. The riding was fun and the first 10km ticked by quickly and easily. We came across a lady who had an impressive crash on a tight downhill corner. After untangling her from her bike, she fortunately came away without any serious injuries.

For the next 10km the course was great especially a section weaving through the lines of the pine trees. After a break along the fire trails, we entered a tough area. The trails here were made according to Patrick by motorbikes - very bumpy with steep pinches up and down. I found it hard riding spending lots of time getting on and off my bike.

At this point I also felt sick from the lollies I had had earlier. Water wasn't helping either. Struggling on, we then hit the hill known as Excesscalator. It was full of sharp rocks and tight uphill corners. Too  technical for me and again I spent quite a bit of time walking. Cath was going much better. Her recent MTBO events had helped and so she patiently waited at the top for me to catch up.

Back on the bike at the top I was focussing on making it to the 32km feed station with thoughts of perhaps pulling the pin if things didn't improve. Music echoed through the forest lifting my spirits but it turned out to be a few more km's before the feed station actually appeared. We stopped to consume some of the food on offer. The watermelon hit the spot!

From here, there were a few long mostly downhill fire trail sections and before we knew it we were at the top of the Romper Room descent. This is the track that Susie had stacked on a few weeks earlier making us scared!! We made it down having to hop off a few times but neither of us crashed so that was good.

At the bottom was the final, impossible hill aptly known as Stairway to Heaven. I'm not sure how people actually ride up this. I found it impossible and walked most of it. Cath had another good crack which was fuelled by her crankiness of the difficulty and did an awesome job of riding a good portion of it. Again very nicely she rested at the top until I appeared again!

It was then an easy roll over the last few km's before popping back out in the paddock and across the finish line. The 50km took us just over 5 hours which included the 20mins or so rest at the feed station. So glad to have survived this one! The post ride hot chips, coke and coffee were much appreciated!