Report by Nigel Adcock:

dosage for flagyl
A repeat of the AFL grand final had Chris Browne and yours truly arriving on Saturday a day late getting ready for the Adelaide Mountain Bike Club “Foxy 1000”.

Advertised as the hardest Mountain Bike Enduro race in Australia and, as we would find out, it lives up to its well-deserved reputation.

 

Bikes quickly thrown together

and a quick test spin in the park across from our unusually nice accommodation the Hilton hotel, we raced to get our race provisions.  Blueberry muffins, choc chip cookies, bananas, 10l of South Australian spring water, squirm snakes for the quick glucose hit added to our various bars and gels that we would need to get through over 8 hours in the saddle.

The Cudlee Creek sustainable trail network is situated in what was once a timber production forest that is slowly being transformed into a conservation area.

The Foxy 1000 course had been extensively redesigned from previous races; out was the continuous fire trails and rutted climbs and included was over 12km of sweet flowing single track over varied terrain.

To have the hardest race in Australia you need hills and there was NO shortage of those in the 13km  rounding out a 25km total lap. The two killer hills “Mini Heart Break” which steepens to 32% or its big brother “Heart Break Hill” which only gets to 27% but is the last 4km to the start /finish transition.

Daylight Saving had just started, 1hour less sleep, so pre dawn we stumbled out of our 5 star lodging ready for a long day in the saddle.

The 45 minute planned drive turned into 1hour 15 of getting lost when:

a) The “Super iPhone 4” loses signal and our map is useless!  Thanks Chris!

b) I forget the printed road directions back at the hotel.

Finally a little short of preparation time we make it to registration.

In a sign of things to come Chris and I see a rider with a Jens inspired “Shut Up Legs” jersey………… I’m thinking, what have we done!

8am start time and the brave or foolhardy 100km competitors lined up for a big day. Due to so many DNF’s the organisers had included 75km and 50km (soft) options.

Lap 1: learning the trail, single track,

climb,

do part of a down hill course,

climb,

and climb,

single track (nice),

oh climb and climb,

single track and climb!

“Spin the cranks, save your energy buddy”!!

Lap 2: eat,

hydrate,

course is sussed out,

cool have some fun,

climb, legs get sore, “shut up legs”,

climb…

Lap 3: eat,

hydrate,

seriously contemplate getting in the car and going back to the hotel,

single track still fun.

climb,

CLIMB,

lower lip quivers, admit defeat and walk any climb over 25% grade.

N.B. Chris to his credit rode the climbs on all 4 laps, as well as dodging 2 crazy emus and a magpie attack on his last lap!

Lap 4: eat,

 

consider giving up mountain bike riding,

ride on the grass not the trail to soften the ride for the aching arse!

don’t look at the Garmin counting down the km home.

climb,

and climb…

Tell Jens;

“ Go to hell!”

and…

“You do the F*#king hills Jens, psycho roadie! ”

Finish, sore, happy and exhausted in 8hrs2min .Revel in the fact only 33 people have finished the “Foxy 1000” before cut off, with a DNF of about 40% per race.

The race is a tough day out, the most climbing on dirt I’ve done so far and the most vertical you can get in Australia. This year’s course, 105km with 3500 m total ascent.

The Foxy 1000 only runs bi-annually and I’m not sure 2 years is long enough to forget the pain.

If you like to climb, have a crack. The trails are awesome, flowing single track and very scary downhill

spaced out with torturous climbing.

If you’re still with me, thanks for reading this rough prose.

Nige