Wildside Tasmania Day 2

We're departing this morning from the little 250 person town of Tullah in a haze of forest fire smoke.  I'm optimistic about the day, changed my chain out for my spare (the amount I saved relative to buying one here is staggering).  Turns out that's the fourth XT/Ultegra level chain I've broken in the last two years. 

It's fun chatting to all the Aussies, seems like they're very outdoorsy (yes I realize it's a biased sample), but there's a lot of people here who aren't mountain bikers (or racers anyway), they're just do-ers looking for fun things to get out and do.  It also seems like half of them have worked at a ski resort in Canada - go figure.  The Tasmanians in particular are friendly, but the stereotype holds - they're a bit off sometimes, I see where all the Tassie jokes come from (like Newfie jokes).

This morning's stage was real mountain biking, BC rainforest like.  Up a massive technical singletrack climb then back down the other side.  I started way back in some slow group due to my mechanical.  Thought it'd be fun to hole shot and tt'd off the front (too bad I didn't actually have talent to do that in other packs, it feels good), tried to catch at least the 2 minute group before the gravel narrowed to the singletrack.  After that, it was picking off riders one at a time, or in bunches, by negotiating polite passes on the narrow trail.  I also took to bushrunning (bushwalking is their phrase for hiking) when the trail was full of hike-a-bikers who couldn't make it over obstacles such as... well I don't know, a wet rock or something that got the group confounded.  Once the top was crested it was a full on Canadian style descent, except for the "traffic".  I did my best to a) mimic a brake failure, and b) impersonate Jon Nutbrown by taking the off the edge lines through the rock drops to pass groups of people walking. 

I could have done that all day long, and with chain in tact I was doing my best to show this island it wasn't gonna get the best of me.  Man I was smiling from ear to muddy ear, I live for biking on trails like that. As a side note, on one spot we crossed a bit of a gravel road, and were greeted by a sign saying "keep your mouth closed, bees!"  Considering we were going mach speed, 2 seconds later I had bees pelting off me like crazy as they had huge colonies set up.  I don't think that section would be popular with those who are allergic. 

I think I made decent time, but the passing and slowing both up and down grinds off a few minutes.  The riding part was an honest performance, which always feels good.

Lunch was in a beautiful spot and it was getting hot.  The rest of the participants seemed fine with it, but waiting for stage 2 to start at the 1:30pm heat of day doesn't ideally suit this guy, and I started to worry when the Aussies were complaining about the heat.  Oh well.

Before the second competition, which would be the longest, they had a "dash for cash" around the steeply banked asphalt, err I mean bitumen running track.  Two laps, with about 10 guys stepping up to the challenge.  The massive guy who won put down a mad sprint, and it all became clear!  He's the one who passed me on the headwind flat gravel section yesterday like a freight train... and he's got a Dutch looking last name but is Aussie... and apparently a national level track guy here.  Ahhh... that's why I felt so futile trying to hold onto that train!

The second competition started in the baking heat, up a 7km bitumen mountain climb in the baking heat, kind of Moose Mountain gravel road-ish but paved, and it just happened to be in the baking heat.  I figured to hell with the heat, I'll just ride and see how I feel once I get to the "special" water station they added in the last 10k to help people in.  Right when we were about to start, a guy from the A group who had a mechanical (in the start queue a guy fell over and landed on this guy's derailleur) came up and was allowed to start with us (we didn't reshuffle from the morning so I was back again.  He took off the front and I stayed 5m behind.  After 20 minutes I was on his wheel, which apparently wasn't popular.  He continued to attack, but we were going into a headwind.  He wouldn't say anything conversational so I just sat in.

Once we crested the top it was gravel descent.  I slid by with a "lesser preference for braking" and that was it, nice start.  As it so happens, never saw him again till I was lounging at the finish.

We did a monster down on good trails, I flew past riders like they were in reverse, easy to do at the mid pack level.  After that it was a long controlled grade climb that was perfect to power out in a higher cog in mid ring, just reeling in riders non stop, but with passing space.  All was going well until the corner with the high hanging foot bridge... that had a huge lineup.  Stood around for 5 minutes as people progressed across in small numbers not to weigh it down too much, later to find out the groups I'd "normally" ride with had no bunch up and just ran across.  Oh well.

From there it was a little more climbing, then a 10k narrow descent at a mild grade.  I heard two arguments instantaneously: one side said just cruise it in and keep the bike upright.  The other said "live life, taste death".  The latter half won.  Big ring took me up to mach speed, I felt like a motorcycle.  Many people preferred half pedaling or coasting that'd leave you at 18km/h instead of over 40.   I stood for most of the 10k to float the hardtail over the chop and kept pedaling non stop; there was always a "worse" line to pass people on so it wasn't bunched up.  We're on the rainy side and I was one with the mud, it'll be coming out in the wash for a month.  Smooth riding, arms sore from the fork being pushed to its max and my hands blistered.  That was a real day of mountain biking - I LOVE THIS STUFF. 

Compared notes with a guy who rode a few minutes behind me on the first stage of day one and it sounds like we were equal time, but he didn't do the suspension bridge wait.  Fun is what counts, but maybe tomorrow I'll eke my way up to a start block with less traffic ahead. 

The little towns we're in are awesome, the people are so fun to talk to.