Riding six hours at the Rocky Trail Entertainment hosted Yellowmundie Grand Prix 6 hour was hard enough. I would say harder than the eight hour, though I was probably trying to kill myself out there a little bit more. What's a six hour? Only two hours longer than a four hour. And a four hour you can keep the tempo slightly under XC, so I just ran with that...for three hours until I had a bad gel experience and thought my stomach was about to explode.
Cue Waz and with a dose of Quik-Eze, and him telling me to slow down because I was way up. I didn't need to be told- it was going to happen. And the stomach pain (it was acute) subsided, and the back pain kicked in.
Anyway, It was nice to know after killing myself for four hours, trying to punch up every hill and pedal down descents, that I could relax and be content to fluff up the climbs and freewheel down the descents while appreciating the tunes of J-5, Cut Copy, Midnight Juggernaughts, INXS, Bang Gang DJ's and some Faithless. And other assorted artists as well. The rain held off, the first two laps were a bit slippery, but from there it was tack-fabulous.
Anyway, as it went I won, which was pretty nice after coming second at the eight hour a few months ago. I would say it definately hurt more, but I guess that is what happens when you have a slightly shorter race, and you trick yourself into believing that 27m laps are sustainible for six hours (it should have been 30, so inevitably it blew out near the end)
Anyway, onwards and upwards, now all I have to do is negotiate to keep the SRAM XO shifters I chose for my bike from the prizer table. Aido has declared that they're his as what's his is mine, and whats his is his...apparentely.
Pain and suffering (thanks RP!)
