Day 3.
Start – Dongla
9km Kayak
20km MTB
3km Orienteering
100m Tyrolean traverse
20km MTBO
22km Run
Finish – LeYe Town
Day 3 arrived about three hours too early. The bus trip back to the hotel after day 2 had been a genuine experience with a few athletes vomiting in the bus as we drove flat out along windy mountain roads in the dark. By the time we got back to the hotel we only had about 90 minutes to clean and re-pack our race gear for day 3 before the 2200hrs cut-off. Fortunately, even though I was still adjusting my derailleur at about 2230, they still hadn’t come to take our gear away. By the time we got to bed it was nearly midnight, so a 0530 breakfast and 0600 depart wasn't exactly ideal recovery after two tough days of racing.
Almost expectedly, day 3 began how day 2 ended; on a bus at breakneck speed. I was paranoid about getting bus sick on the way to the start so moved up the front and chatted with the Aussies on the Chiru Endurance team until our bus got lost, and our driver attempted to do a 50 point turn on the side of a mountain. Eventually, he gave up and drove on to a village further up the road but the delayed start made us nervous as the closing ceremony wouldn’t be moved and, as such, we were expecting the cut-off times to be brought forward to account for the delay.
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| The endless sun through the fog. Start Day 3 (Courtesy Jocelin) |
All of the talk at the start was about the final run to the finish, given how brutal the previous two had been, but with the organisers using the word ‘steep’ for the first time today. I was quietly glad that we weren't at the pointy end of the field because there were mini battles going on for 3rd, 5th and 7th places. Peak Adventure and Chiru Endurance were separated by less than a minute for 3rd and the thought of driving hard to the line was pretty tiring in itself (even if its what I enjoy most about racing).
Day 3’s racing started with a 9km mixed flat/white water kayak down the Builu river. This was one of the highlights of the trip for me as we paddled short sections of flat water interspersed with grade 2-3 white water rapids. I didn’t have any of the problems with my flexors that I’d had the previous day and I really enjoyed the challenge of crashing through the rapids, powering the paddle through the water and surfacing upright on the other side. It was also one of the most scenic parts of the trip, paddling through the jungle with ancient pagodas on the waterfront.
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| Pavel (R) and I enjoying some flowing water down the Builu (Courtesy Jocelin) |
The bike leg started up, and stayed that way for about 5km @ ~10%. I was in a comfortable gear and glad we were on probably the best made road we had ridden on for the duration of the race. Today was Maria’s turn to struggle and she was suffering from stomach problems from the start, still feeling unwell from the bus trip the night before. Each of today’s climbs were steep, particularly the final one just before the TA that was only short (~2km) but well over 12-3%.
When we arrived in the TA, the race ahead of us was well and truly on. Peak Adventure and Chiru Endurance were literally shoulder to shoulder, fumbling through transition boxes, desperately trying to get an edge over the other team. Champion System (NZ, Spain, Thai), Thule (Sweden) and Adidas TERREX (UK) were also having a red hot battle just behind them. We grabbed our climbing gear and headed off down the road with Pavel ‘navigating’ to the tyrolean traverse. Unfortunately, for us the nav was pretty much non-existent so we really didn’t benefit from having four highly competent navigators in the team.
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| The Builu. We paddled under the cave in the arch (bottom right) (Courtesy Jocelin) |
I hadn’t done a Tyrolean traverse for a good few years, so it was fun to have a crack at one again. For anyone not familiar, a Tyrolean traverse is like a flying fox, but where the rope is level, and you pull yourself across rather than going with gravity (or alternatively, made famous during the opening scene of Cliffhanger http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKqlwKfH8R4 @6:40). We were only crossing a small river so it wasn't nervy, but my puny runners arms had their work cut out for them once I past halfway and started pulling myself uphill. Then, in true adventure race fashion, we then had to wade back across the river before the run back to the TA, jingle jangling with our climbing gear still on.
Back onto our bikes at the TA for some MTBO that really lacked the O. Pavel was navigating again, but a quick look at the aerial photo showed we basically just had to follow the road along the river through a few towns until we reached the TA. The road was undulating and rough which made for a tough 20kms on the body. I was eternally grateful to be riding a Merida dually as a few days of racing started to catch up with me and the aches set in.
The run was the last stanza of the race. We were well under the cut-off time so headed out into the paddy fields with some local children following us, jai-yo, jai-yo. We followed a stream up a long gully, climbing slowly over some more rough terrain of narrow single trail cutting through the heavily worked farmland that was surprisingly tough going. Eventually, we reached the base of the ‘steep’ hill and began the long trek to the top pushing out a solid tempo. As we climbed through 1100m, we knew we had reached the highest point for the day.
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| Poor Jamesy. Spent, but in 3rd Place :-D (Courtesy Guy Andrews) |
Unfortunately, it wasn’t all down hill from here but we were able to get back on a good run again through the last few villages. We arrived in LeYe, at the opposite end of town and ran with a Police escort all the way back to where the race had started three days and about 25hrs of racing beforehand. The legs were heavy, but that didn’t seem to matter, we were running on pavement for the first time in three days and that was exciting enough!
We were the last team to officially finish in 13th place, but with 7 experienced teams (30% of entrants) withdrawn or retired before the finish that was no disgrace. The main goal of the trip was to gain some valuable international experience and I had certainly done that. You don't take it to the pro's in your first race at this level. We'd had an unlucky race, and everyone had suffered at some point but we'd pulled through and toughed it out. A big thank-you to everyone who has supported me this season, its been a bit of an epic. Merida and MBC Clifton Hill for the best bikes in the business, Melbourne Uni Sport entrusting me in their Elite Athlete Support Program, and Coaches Foz and JK from Fluid Movements and Peak Adventure respectively. Thanks also to the guys at Bogong Equiment in the CBD for their quality service and advice. Finally, a big 'danka' to my coffee buddies, without you and coffee training wouldn't be much fun.
Rest time!
Rest time!
Guy Andrews' (Peak Adventure) Blog for Day 3
Dougal Allan's (Chiru Pro) Blog for Day 3
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