112km 2688m Climbing

SXC Racing finishing time 5:59:29

What have we done? What have we signed up for? Today we would jointly agree that this is the hardest marathon race we have done - and it is only day 1!

To describe what we have done is hard, as the stats don't tell you what the track conditions are like. Riding with 100's of equally fast riders, communicating with people who don't speak English and even some that do speak some dialect of English I just don't understand. Just staying on the bike and getting the bike back in one piece. If you have done the Cape Epic you will know what I am talking about. for others I will try to explain.

Day starts with light drizzle. Our Prologue results seeded us into Group 1 i.e where all the fast guys are and a 7am start. The rain was a positive thing to settle the dust and keeps us a little cooler.

BANG goes the gun, and we spent the next 20km in the red zone - we average around 40 km/h in a group of 100 riders, dodged 3 massive crashes, and really just hanging on. This seeded us in the second group, where we seemed to stay with most riders for the rest of the day.

Water point 1 refill. Then the climbing starts. 2000m in the next 45km. All i can say, is we were way over geared running a 34T 1 x chainring. But we climbed and we climbed, we held our own, walked a bit, and just kept climbing. The best example i can give to the Sydney locals is - Manly Dam heart break hill for one and a half hours.

This is then followed by a ball braking descent - steep - rough - today I had to lift my arse of the rear tyre - i couldn't get back far enough. The descents are long so there is absolutely no relief.

Holding ourselves and our bikes together for just under 6 hrs was an achievement in itself. The damage toll this stage took on the field was extraordinary with the pros and general classification having mishaps right through the field.

Our plan today was to stay with the top mixed and women's teams. We somehow achieved this, without any real strategy and just riding. when you are in the hurt box the entire day. Brain was a trooper today, climbed awesome, and rode way into his threshold levels when we were pushing to the finish. this really is a TEAM event.

Our novelty today was crossing the finish line with the Merida team, who must have a disastrous day with Mechanicals. As they rode past us came the chant Aussie Aussie Aussie, which gave us the encouragement to finish the last 1km. This is the epic - only 6 days to go ;-)

After stage 1

General Classification position 86
Category Position 15