2012 Briars Highland Fling
Known as the toughest 100km race on the XCM calendar, the Highland Fling is a must do event. My good mate and training partner Andrew “Snadzy” Snaidero tried to get me to come to this event in 2011 insisting it was his favourite race. I hadn’t planned to do it in 2012 but stumbled across a race entry for sale on Twitter. Local rider and Team Quon rider, Liam Odea was unable to make the event and was happy for me to take his entry off his hands! I struggled with the choice of entering my age category Vets (30-35yo) or take the plunge and race elite. I had raced Capital Punishment earlier in the year in the open category and managed to secure 2nd place. I thought i would continue the trend racing my age category for 2012 before taking the plunge into the elite category. I knew i would get some stick from the ONYA boys since we had all been riding pretty strong. I still felt a bit green in the XCM race world since i had only ever competed in two Capital Punishment events. 2011 I placed 97th open/209 overall, then in 2012 i placed 2nd open/17th overall. So one more event in the non elite categories was justified, and elite entries were coming in 2013!
Snadzy and I (+ wives) hooked up for the convoy and camp setup. We met up with OnyaBike riders Mark ‘Tupac’ Tupalski and Brad ‘Morto’ Morton, Ben Carmody was also camped just near us. We had a modest little setup but it was comfortable. Jess (heavily pregnant) and I adapted Johnny Stokman’s hilux to become a semi enclosed sleeping quarters. Lucky i had a zip-off hood to wear to bed, otherwise a head cold was a certainty! Should have borrowed a VAN!
Highland Fling camp setup
Registration was an event in itself. Great idea! The town of Bundanoon was chockers with riders, support people and locals who were lining up to sign on for the event. Music and PA were cranked while the well organised rego process chugged along. After sign-on, we headed over to the steep ass ‘Constutution Hill’ that was to be the finale of the Bundanoon Dash! What a cool event to run in tandem with registration! Morto was all signed up and had to be one of the favourites cause if you have ever seen the guy sprint, you would know that he is one of the quickest guys around! National XCM champ Andy Blair and Roady/MTB superman Brendan ‘Trekky’ Johnson were also in the house, so the race would be hot!!!!
The Dash hill
Happy little campers
A bunch rolled out four to five wide, they came back in ones and twos… Andy Blair well out in front who drove it home for the win… Brendan ‘Trekky’ Johnston chasing hard… Morto was in 4th or 5th.
The evening consisted of a bargain and substantial two course dinner in the town hall. The locals really had a good thing going, $15 got you a generous plate of pasta, bread, salad, cordial and then an awesome sticky date pudding!!! Perfect prep for a hard day out in the bush around Bundanoon. Even better when the wife doesn’t want her pudding… hand it on over to me please!
Come race day the entire camp ground was disturbed at the crack of dawn by a man wearing a kilt and blowing bagpipes loud and clear! Not ideal, but probably fitting! Up and and at em i chowed down my favourite race day fuel, pancakes and honey. Was the worst setup though, i used my little gas cooker to slightly toast the pancakes, but they cooled down so quick it was hardly worth the effort. I kitted up in my familiar OnyaBike Belconnen and Civic kit and joined Snadzy and Ben Carmody for a warm up. The three of us were in the same category so we started to talk tactics. We aimed to be in the front ten riders after the first couple of corners and see what happens from there.
At the start line it was great to see so many familiar faces from Canberra. It was also refreshing to know that it was mainly the Canberra riders who were the people to watch in the race, so you knew their strengths and riding styles.
Typical of any race start we went flat out along the gravel driveway and out on to the tar road at the end. Within 20m along the gravel driveway one of the 100 milers ate shite right in front of the stampeding pack causing a pile up. I managed to scoot round the riders on the ground while hollering at them ‘Yeeeooow”! Gotta love a good stack! I quickly sprinted my way to the top ten position we had spoken about. The first bit is dirt road which saw a large pack form and cover the whole road. I found myself in a pretty ordinary position. It was either ride on the right and pick the smooth line, or try and tuck in on the left hand side where the majority of the pack were and fight against the deep corrugations in the road. I chose the right and rode on the front! Glad i did cause the pic below was all over the post race write ups on the net! Ed McDonald (Anytime Fitness/Trek) on one side, me on the other!
Highland Fling Start
The first 30+km stage was hard, and a little boring. Not having done the race before, i just put my head down and stayed near the front. I didn’t look back and took very little time to enjoy the sprawling green scenery. The course consisted mostly of dead paddocks that either had a couple of wheel ruts ground in by a farmers 4WD or a freshly mown bit of grass to follow. There was an older guy from Jet Racing setting a furious pace which meant none of us really had the juice to go around him. I was lucky enough to just sit on his wheel nearly the whole way to the first transition. If the man wants to work, then let the man work! He reminded me of Snadzy a bit – work all day till you blow!
Transition was a welcome sight with Jess and Elaina waiting patiently with our food and fresh drinks. Unfortunately i didn’t grab my Em’s Cookie which probably hurt me a little. I was equipped only with a muesli bar or two, some lollies and a Gel. I think next time i will relax and take my time in the un-timed transition. Instead i was pumped up and rushed my way through transition. Ben Carmody, an experienced Flinger, took his time and dawdled over to the end of the untimed section using all 5 minutes of neutral. Me however, punched it out on to the firetrail with a couple of guys who basically sat around waiting for the guys behind to catch up and form a larger group again. So basically we were sitting up allowing the guys behind to make up time on us. Fail.
Anyway we were back on the road again and about to tackle the most challenging 60+km of the race. This section had the most fun sections, but also the most brutal! I got on the front early in this section and drove it pretty hard, i wasn’t really up for a chat unlike some of the other fellas. The fire trail climbs started to splinter our group and it whittled down to about 10 or less. In the group was veteran MTB legend Graeme Albon, myself and Ben Carmody. Ben was in some fine form this day, and needless to say Graeme had his climbing legs. We hit ‘The Wall’ and i rode about half way up before bailing and running the rest. Ben rode all the way up and was first in to the fun single track section up the top. I was up second and didn’t get close to Ben for quite a while.
My group slowly dragged him back and we were in a group of about 8 at the food station. I quickly re-filled water and scoffed down whatever was on offer, a hot cross bun i think! I remember the descent out of the feed zone being particularly hairy, and Ben offered some very wise advice, eat your food before the descent!
The next part of the race i remember is the KOM climb. Our group was about 6 by this stage and i was feeling alright. Again, never having raced the Fling I was unaware of the two part climb… I was still with Graeme and Ben after the first part of the hill and cruising along to the next part feeling good cause i was apparently over the climb. Then i saw it started to climb again. Doh! Slowly but surely i was loosing the wheel in front and Graeme was forced to make a move around me to stay with the group. Apparently Graeme made a vicious attack to take the KOM but upon arrival at the KOM line, he realised there were no marshals and therefore nothing up for grabs in age categories! Only the spoiled Elite boys and girls were going to battle it out for that one. Kinda funny cause Graeme still talks about it, must have been a HUGE attack! I wouldn’t know cause i was way out the back.
The next section leading back to transition was a little better, very flat and eventually a nice smooth dirt road. I managed to hook up with an older guy with a pommy or Irish accent. He was flying and we worked really well together all the way back to transition. I felt bad for the guy, he mentioned in the very last stretch that his back was screwed and he ended up pulling out at that point. Thanks for the help though, who ever you are!
It was great to see Jess the second time around, quick bit of food and a water re-fill. This time I waited. I sat just before the timing mat and waited for the guys who came in behind me to start to head out again. This way i knew i would have a time advantage on whoever they were and that i would have a group to work with. It was a good move because our group of four swapped off for a long time until we got back into the bush tracks and single track.
It was some single track switchbacks where we lost my main competitor. Poor dude just couldn’t hold the wheel and me and one other rode away from the other two. I forget the kit of the guy i was riding with but we were pretty evenly matched until we reached the farmland that had the super steep pinches and finally the grass paddock switchbacks. I was able to apply a bit of punch up the steep pinches which unhitched this guy from my wheel. At this stage i was pretty confident that i was racing him for a podium spot in the category. When i noticed him drop off, i just kept the hammer down and called track from miles back to move the traffic! It was a huge relief to get over the switchback paddock climb of death, the temp seemed to climb several degrees out there in the beaming sun. It was a great relief to get back into the trees and wind through the unique rocky outcrops. The event photographers snapped some awesome shots through this section, one of which was used as the feature on Marathon-photos.com! Famous!
Fling feature shot
At the end of this awesome single track section i caught Graeme Albon. Apprently he spent ages looking for his food back at transition, his partner/wife had placed it somewhere for him but he never found out where! Bummer! I was on his wheel and i was stoked, thought i’d get a nice tow back to the finish from the former Australian Masters Athlete of the Year! WROOONG! He soon put the power down and rode away from me. So i was left in no mans land, passing the odd punter but really just riding on my own. I was hurting, really hurting! The 2nd stage was incredibly brutal and now i was really struggling in the last 10km of the the 3rd and final stage.
One feature of the Fling is the ‘Choice’ between the shorter steeper section, or the longer flatter section. Approaching the choice i was struggling with the good old mental battle where one voice says; ‘just stop, you don’t need to do this, its ok you can stop’ the other voice says; ‘you wanted this, keep going, you were so keen to do this race, you wanted to smash it – you can do it!’. The pussys voice got the better of me and i went the long flat track… For those who are smart and went the other way, the long flat track is a long false flat, super dead and slow. As i reach the end of it and re-join the main trail i see a familiar kit in the distance… it was OLD MATE! The guy i dropped in the steep pinches. He was a good 200m+ in front! WTF! Talk about a bad choice, the long flat track must have been three times as long as the short steep track! At this stage we are back on the road where the above photo of our bunch was taken, so we are only about 3 km from the finish. I managed to jump behind a big unit who was flying down the hill. he was hitting good speeds so i stayed in his draft until the road flattened. There was one little pinch about 50m long and OLD MATE was struggling. I easily caught him and then just sat on his wheel. Here i am still thinking “i’ve got this guy, he is slightly behind on time, i’ll just out sprint him to make sure.” So i followed him through the farm yard, under the bridge and hit him hard in the last 40m to the finish line. BOOM! Surely i got 2nd or 3rd. Ben Carmody was never to be seen again, i assume he won!
I sat down on my top tube, head on the bars. Wrecked, in pain and probably dehydrated! The first thing i look up to is Jess’ curious face, i couldn’t make out if she was happy worried or just over the heat. At this stage i just grabbed the water from her and walked to some shade and sat on the ground. She finally mutters a congratulations and well done. I reply with a “yeah thanks should be 2nd or 3rd. Did you see Ben?” She looks weird “nah, he hasn’t been through, I think you won!” Me: “what no way, he left me up the climb and i didn’t see him again.” Jess: “Well i haven’t seen him.”
The rest is history, Jess was right. Ben was in red hot form and out in the lead when he was hit with a flat somewhere in the single track after the grass paddock switch back climb. I felt pretty bad for him as he was the defending his win from the previous year. Also turns out OLD MATE wasn’t even in my category! Funny.
Waiting for presentations was LONG. It was good to have a chat and a feed, but the sun was hurting! Morto secured 3rd place in the Real Insurance XCM 50km series, and I was stoked to win the Fling in the Veterans (30-35) category. I now know why it is labelled the hardest race in the calendar, but I also know why Snadzy says “its his favourite race”!
Good times! With the help of OnyaBike Belconnen and Civic, i’ll have a crack at Elite in 2013.
Lewy Highland Fling 100km – 1st Vets Men
Morto XCM Series 50km – 3rd
Onya Bike and Ride 