Over the last 3 years The Otway is the one race that has consistently denied me any satisfaction and sense of achievement!
When I first attempted the Otway in 2009 I got 4 punctures on the first 50km and lost touch with the race, completely disheartened I pulled out at the 70km point.
Determined to tick it off my list I made my second attempt in 2010. I had made a great start, climbing well and taking out the KOM at the top of the hill. All was well until I managed to come off on the steep descent in the private property section, knocking myself out and also one of my teeth! Miraculously in a concussed state I managed to make it out to the first check point where I got off my bike and went straight to the Geelong hospital!
So 2011 was all about knocking it off and finishing with all my teeth!
Listening to the rain pounding the roof on Friday night was not a particularly soothing sound, it was sure to be an interesting day! The morning actually dawned pretty dry, quite warm but very windy.The pace was steady up the climb, and I chose to drop back and climb at my own pace, letting the roadies up the front battle it out for the KOM glory.
Nicky Fisher and I ended up rolling turns to maintain momentum until we hit the dirty fire road section, she gaped me on the descents, she was riding like an absolute mad woman!! It was unbelievable slippery and steep and I was just a little cautious with last years memory playing out in my head!
Once we got into the sustained climbing on the freshly graded fire road which had turned into one slick clay pan, I seemed to be rapidly pulling some position back. I entered the muddy fire road section in 8th place and well before the red carpet decent, I had managed to work my way into 2nd place, was quite surprised!!
I managed to hold my position until we were almost at the footy ground, Peta caught me in the single track and we rode together into the first feed zone. Peta took off in front of me and smashed it on the fire road climb, the legs were starting to feel pretty slow on any incline now! It seemed a gap of about 2 min was established and Peta seemed to hold this for quite some time.
Going into the final loop, I gave the fire road climb everything I had, as I figured there had to be a decent amount of descending I was hopeful that I might be able to work at closing the gap to Peta. Sure enough, I caught sight of her at the bottom of the very slippery descent. The sledge hammer was hilarious!!! I could see Peta just 20m up ahead, so close but the harder I tried at moving faster the worse it was. We were both attempting to run but struggling to stay on our feet and keep moving forwards and upwards!!! I worked hard to keep Peta in my sight, she was fighting so hard and managing to gap me on any open sections.
Coming up the final fire road section she slipped out of view and left me to cross the line 20 seconds in her wake! It was great to have such a close race over such a long distance and extended time. We both finished around the 5 hrs and 52 minute mark.
The final placings for the race saw a drastic re-adjustment, and I only learned of this once we had finished. Gracie, who was 4 minutes up on Peta and I had been given a 30min time penalty for taking outside assistance. The race rules were that you could not feed or accept any technical assistance outside the designated feed zones. Apparently Gracie had been given a camel back at the top of the main climb by a team van. She accepted the feed unaware of the penalties that would apply. It was a really tricky situation, I believe that the act did not give her the winning edge, it did not enable her to ride faster and take the win, but on the other hand they are the race rules and the officials needed to be seen to stick to their guns. So unfortunately Gracie was relegated to 6th position which bumped Peta and I into 1st and 2nd.
Regardless of the days result I was just ecstatic to actually get to the finish...... but also with the bonus of retaining a full set of pearly white chompers!!!
So the Otway has been well and truly ticked off.......... until next year!!!
