We awoke on Day 4 knowing that this was the last big effort before some well earned beers in the evening (and the afternoon as it happened – but that’s another story that did not end too well for me !)
Day 4 started at the Colonial Brewery and again talk on the line was that apart from the two singletrack sections – Middle Earth and the final section at the golf course just before the finish line at Dunsborough most of it was either fire track or road. The plan at the startline was to get into a group and work together on the long sections. This proved to be the best course of action and so I spent 2hrs and 40 minutes of balls out on the rivet bike riding – think criterium inner city road race interspersed with singletrack sections all on a mountain bike.
After 10km or so of this I soon realised that I was never going to get away from the group of 10 that I had hooked up with so I spent the whole time hanging on for dear life on the flats and cruising and dropping every one on the climbs – only to be caught up again to find myself hanging off the back. After a few sessions like this I decided to take it easier on the climbs and this made it easier to stay in the group for the remainder of the 65km stage.
Middle Earth Singletrack
The 6km of man made singletrack snaked through the forest and was just technical enough to make it interesting with little jumps / logs drops and berms. There were alse sections of singletrack climbs making it hard to get into a rhythm. I was in a pretty fast group trying to stay with the guy in front and trying to defend my position from behind. It certainly challenged me because of the speed at which I was hitting it.
Golf course Section
The last section of singletrack was over a 4 km section and was tightly packed into a very small area. There were riders all around you but you could never tell how far ahead or behind they were. This section of singletrack – again man made – was beautifully built but because of the terrain had sharper rocks , pea gravel and bigger drops. By this time with only a kilometer of so to go I became very aware that I had nearly finished so took it a little more steady.
Andy came in about an hour down. His legs had finally gone at the 30km mark. Not being a mountain biker he had done extremely well to complete the 4 days.
It was a great 4 days of laid back Australian mountain biking and I would highly recommend it but make sure you are as fit as you can be.
PROMPT CYCLE CULTURE 
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