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Team EP Blog - Rock Wallaby Enduro
- Category: Team EP News & Blog
- Tuesday, 17 May 2011 10:10
- Written by Craig Baylis
Last Sunday saw the first running of the Rock Wallaby Enduro at Appin in NSW. Appin is renowned for being a technical and rocky course and the Wallaby certainly delivered on this reputation and then some.
I was lined up in the 25km distance and couldn’t remember when I last did a race this short. With so many enduros, marathons and stage races on I seem to have slipped away from the close to the traditional cross country race distance.
My aim for this event was just to have fun, and it didn’t take long for that. Of the line and about 10 riders streamed past. I wasn’t too concerned with this as I was running a helmet camera and thought some chase sequences would make for good footage.
The 25km race started about 15 minutes behind the 50km distance so after about 20 minutes when we started to hit some traffic it became hard to keep track of which category rider you were passing.
It turns out that a Bernard Beer Rider was cruising along at about the same pace as me so we started passing through the field before I just dropped back going up a short tarmac climb. The course was quite rocky and fresh and post race hearing quite a few guys complaining of sore limbs I was quite thankful for packing the Yeti ARC. Definitely not a hardtail course!
Coming into the finish the gap had closed as my Bernard Rider was starting to slow and I was letting it all out having a ball on the last moto descents towards the creek. I had no idea what position I was in all racer however the Bernard Beer Riders are usually pretty damn quick so I just knew to keep up the pace!
Crossing the line I rolled in just a few seconds behind Victor Svacek from Bernard Riders who finished in second which left me to round out the podium in third. No bad for just a super laid back short race.
Next up though and the racing is getting longer, a lot longer with the Kona Paterson 24 Hour on this weekend. This time round I’m going to hit up the 6+6 category which will hopefully just see some good km’s get into the legs.
Further afield and following Paterson I’m tackling the Singletrack Mind Series in Nowra on the 29th May then stretching the legs again at the 18 Hours of Melrose, this time soooolo. It’s going to be fun!
Photo credit to Bernard Riders
