Words by Belinda Althaus.
Flowing, fast, super fun, and
amazing weather. This was round 4 of the Chocolate Foot STM Series at Coondoo
in a nutshell. The weather put on
a show after what had been a pretty miserable week and even had the organisers
on their toes right till the last minute. However the correct decision was made
to keep the race going ahead and I’m glad they did!
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| BMC Setup. |
I was keen for this race, it was my
local track and that meant one thing….I knew it!! This eased the anxiety and allowed for a relatively cruisy
morning for the travelling and setup. After helping the BerryMountain Cycles crew a little to set up their shop tent, it was time
to prep the bike, sort my food and get in a warm up – Done! Before long we were all riding up
Coondoo road in anticipation for the start. With minutes to spare, we were off and racing.
The race as usual had a mass start
followed by single-track which created the well-known bottleneck and slowed to
snail’s pace, but I had managed to stay near the front bunch and this provided
a good position going into the laps.
I knew I had at least three other competitors, but in reality I only
really new who one of these were.
The girls I was up against had been challenging each other over the
whole series and therefore I was the dark horse.
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| Race Reporter, Bel Athaus. |
The first lap went well…until the
mud. We had been warned about this, and true to their word we just had to suck
it up and grind it out. I still to
this day vouch that this was the hardest part physically of the entire lap...No
not really it, it just slowed me down
Coming round to the end of the first lap and I found Eva Boland
approaching my tail. She had been
scanning for competitors coming up the snake track. I made the mistake of identifying myself as her fellow
competitor in the 4hr open female category, and this was my first mistake. She
followed me to the climb and at this point opened up a gap which was going to
make me work hard. I held back fearing we were only on the first lap and had quite
a few to go and came up towards the “Bridge” at transition. Pedal hard, power
up and don’t think too hard about it. Down the other side and I was relieved to
have successfully gotten over it.
Lap 2 saw me approach Eva again in the mud section. I stayed with her, but again she hit it
on the climbs, and slowly creeped away.
I knew at this time that the only thing holding me back was some
fitness, and therefore settled into a comfortable but consistent pace. My goal now was to ensure no other
competitors in my category passed me.
The laps went well, I was racing pretty well and about mid-way learned I
was in second place. I was determined to stay at this position and pushed on to
the end. The final hour saw me
squeeze in the last two laps and bring my total to 7. I was relieved to finish, and congratulated Eva on her ride
well done. Melissa Nuttal came
home in third place.
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| Photo: Dave Bateman |
Another great and successful day out
on the bike. The girls were fair,
raced hard and proved to be worthy competitors. The team at Chocolate Foot did an amazing job with
organising and I’m glad they held the race even against the weather gods. The amazing trail blazers from South
Coast United Mountain bikers had the track mickey-mouse and have worked
tirelessly over recent months to build new tracks and refresh the older ones,
and this day was a showcase of some awesome trails. I’m glad to have the privilege to ride them whenever! Thanks
also to the continued support from BerryMountain Cycles for keeping me geared up, my bike tuned and just for
the encouragement. You guys
rock!
The final round of the CF series sees
it heading to Orange in October. I’ve locked this one in because they too have
some amazing trails, and I can’t wait to get back there…Till next time.
