Tinker Juarez was in Australia last weekend to race the "Otway Odyssey". A 100km Mountainbike race, held in the beautiful Otway ranges near the Great Ocean Road.
We started Saturday morning at 7am in Apollo Bay and finished in Forrest some 7 hours later.
Tinker is a three-time U.S. National Champion, a two-time U.S. Olympian, a Pan Am Games Gold Medalist, and a World Championships Silver Medallist. He was inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 2001. And I was hugged by him....More about the hard and cruelling, but fantastic race:http://www.rapidascent.com.au/asp/Main.aspI had an awesome day and finished 8th in a very competitive field of Australias best female riders, I am very happy!Race report to follow soon...
The first Enduro race of the year and one that I didn't missed out on doing during the last 3 or 4 years. Unfortunately the number of participants a bit cut down due to the busy race calendar and the Otway Odyssey coming up the weekend after.
On Saturday night everybody went up to the pub in town to register for the race and to have the much needed pre-race meal. Thumbs down for the pub not being able to care for the number of people and for the worst Raviolis I had for a long time after waiting for 1.5 hours....!
Ahead of us 8 hours of combination of heat, dust and challenging race tracks. Unfortunately I saw myself more or less without competition, as only one other female rider entered the female solo category. Hard to keep motivated when there is really no point, but I my goal was to race for 7 hours and to use the race as a race preparation for the 24hr National race coming up in Easter. Admittedly my mind was more challenged than my body. I felt a bit bored by the lack of race excitement in my category and even sat down for 'afternoon tea'. 
After 12 laps and 7.5 hours, I decided to call it a day and to leave work earlier. I could have pushed it harder and spent less time in transition cooling down under a so longed for ice-water shower. But racing in extreme heat and facing the technical, switch back single tracks and sometimes demoralizing climbs and fast descents was a fair demand on the rider’s concentration and energy. And I was never really challenged which was little bit boring.
Well done to everybody out there!
The best was still to come that afternoon - jumping into the cold river afterwards with Katie, Tom, Ali and Vinca ........ ah, I forgot to mention that I won the race.
I shouldn't have raced....I should have stayed in bed instead and have crunchy, yummy bacon and eggs for breaky........as easy as that! But what do you do if social events clash with the race calendar, I refuse to become a social retarded bike nerd!
I am not 19 anymore, which I had to realize that day feeling a little bit sick with my Extraordinary race preparation(see picture).
My body and mind didn't want to wake up until late afternoon, when -after the race- we rode some additionally 2hrs of sweet single track with a few 'race left overs', as there were Tory Thomas, Rohin Adams, Jack Lamshed, Ben Rendall and his girl Mel....I am sure there were more of us, but can't remember.
Looks like I had a pretty good night and a pretty cool and long day!
But next time, I stay in bed..........Prost!
Tinker Juarez was in Australia last weekend to race the "Otway Odyssey". A 100km Mountainbike race, held in the beautiful Otway ranges near the Great Ocean Road.
