2013 Bike SA Annual Tour - Kangaroo Island - The Bob's on holiday

Mr Carl relaxing on the ferry

Earlier in the year, Mr Carl and myself were talked into taking an October holiday by Nutella and Spiky Bob (aka Brett and Karen). Mostly this consisted of them pointing out that it included bikes and Kangaroo Island, with an added bonus of not really having to organise anything ourselves as Bike SA were running it as their annual tour. So it was that we found ourselves with a car full of bike stuff heading down to Cape Jervis to catch a ferry to Kangaroo Island.
        

Nutella Bob - not quite as relaxed

 



I was hoping for glass like conditions, and was somewhat nervous to see what I considered excessive breeze at the ferry terminal. Thankfully this didn't translate to unpleasant ocean conditions and I was able to enjoy an uneventful trip over.

 

Almost glass like

Penneshaw

Landing at Penneshaw, we wandered up the hill to the camp ground and discovered what would soon become the bane of our existence - flies! The warm weather had brought them out in droves and inspired fast tent construction to escape.



Tent construction and lunch completed, we set about investigating the local area and making sure our bikes were still working. Lunch had included a suggestion to check out Dudley wines, a suggestion the four of us decided to take to heart. 

Mr Carl and Spiky Bob make it to the top!

We had a couple of maps to follow, but unfortunately the maps didn't exactly agree where the winery was, so a few enquires later and we had not only rough directions, but also the closing time, 5pm. Given that it was 12km away and it was 3:30 when we made the decision to head out there, we thought we had plenty of time. What we didn't know is that there were a couple of significant hills between us and the wine. As it turns out these were the same hills that Mr Carl and I would have to face first thing the next day, so we quickly understood just how much pain we were likely to be in.

Mr Carl at the top

Nutella Bob catching his breath

 

Sheep everywhere!

Once we crested the hills, we had a pleasant ride along a country road, complete with an encounter with a friendly farmer and sheepdog! We also bumped into a car full of tourists who wanted to take our picture! This became far less confusing when I recognised Hazeline, the masseuse from Outback Odyssey! Our trusty massage troupe had taken advantage of their one free day to do some wine tasting and sight seeing.

After tasting a few wines . . .

 



After a few scenery stops along the way, we eventually made it to the winery with 10 minutes to spare. Thankfully the lovely lady running the winery was happy for us to come in and have a quick taste. I must say, the winery is worth visiting if only for the view from the balcony - it's amazing! The wine was pretty good as well, and we ended up with a couple of bottles in our pockets for the trip back. 

Best view from a winery

 

The downhill view

Mr Carl and I had chosen to bring our CX bikes on this trip, with the notion that they offered the best of both worlds in regards to riding on paved or unpaved roads. What we hadn't counted on was some steep downhills which made both of us somewhat nervous as the CX bikes don't necessarily have the best brakes. Cresting the last hill before Penneshaw I was treated to an uninterrupted view straight down to the ocean. With this unwanted endpoint in mind I very carefully began my descent, attempting to wash off speed where it was safe to do so. Meanwhile, Spiky Bob on her road bike shot straight past me, flying down the hill and achieving the fastest speed out of all of us for the day.

Bob's on holiday (and Mr Carl)

We made it back to camp just in time for dinner, which was delicious as long as you managed to avoid the extra seasoning of flies. The jovial atmosphere of the camp made it hard to head off to bed, but the knowledge that we would be facing some pretty tough hills the next day inspired a good nights rest.





 

More winery views

The view from the road

The CX Chateau and the State Champs

Port Adelaide Cycling Club joined forces with Chateau Tanunda to host the inaugural CX State Championships on the 22nd of September 2013. This meant of course, that short of a broken limb I was going to race CX in the wonderful town of Tanunda with a historic winery as the backdrop for the course.

The Backdrop

Admittedly I didn't have the best preparation, as I had barely been in the state 24 hours after the Fondo before I left to go to Perth for a work trip, only returning late on the Friday night. Plane trips and conferences don't allow for a lot of post ride recovery and I was feeling a little flat when I made it back to Adelaide late Friday night. Still, a weekend in the Barossa was too good to miss, especially as Mr Carl and I had splurged and booked a room in Tanunda Saturday night so we didn't have to cope with an early Sunday morning.

PACC - Master CX Organisers

 
Saturday afternoon we cruised down to Tanunda, enjoying the beautiful weather and the relaxing drive through the hills. After finding our hotel we decided to investigate how far we were from the course and do a bit of sneaky reconnaissance. As it turned out, the team hadn't quite finished setting up and we ended up lending a hand as well as a few opinions.

Enough to give me nightmares!

 
Slightly traumatised after seeing the course set up we headed off to drown our worries with the rest of CX crew. Pizza and cider was forth coming in enough quantities to fill our stomachs and ease our worries as we all sat around and discussed our strategies. Mine was pretty simple, try not to crash and hope the others would run out of gas out before me!

A beautiful morning to race

 

Sunday morning dawned bright and clear and I took a short walk to escort both bikes across to the winery. After sorting out our numbers we headed out for a warm up lap. It was here that I quickly learnt a few things, most important of which was that my brain was still traumatised by the conference and had gone on extended leave. This didn't bode well for a very technical course.

Cobbles . . .

 

While the course itself was only 2 km long, it managed to feel like 20! There was not a single recovery section to be found, if for a brief moment I didn't need to concentrate on staying upright, then I was needing to put the power down to slog up a hill or through soggy grass. It was incredibly well designed to make it tough for even the best CX rider, so it was going to be a little on the difficult side for me.

 

. . . and vines!

It's probably worth describing the course, as it felt like it was essentially made up of three sections, connected with deceptively easy looking trails. After starting on cobbles and slogging up a bitumen hill we hit the "vines" section. This consisted of a bone shattering ride up a cobbled drive followed by a left turn onto the soggy grass/mud between the vines. After struggling to hold a good line through the wet grass between the vines (technically down hill I think, but it didn't feel like it) we headed out behind a big building to do some tight turns in a weedy patch. These always caught me out as they were tighter than they looked and the ground was very loose.

 

The first weedy patch

We left the vines section to travel to the forest through what was one of the nicest section of the course, though surprisingly it was this section that had the only serious accident of the day. This was a fairly easy run through a mown paddock and out onto the bitumen to cross the train tracks. The train tracks themselves weren't very nice, being decidedly not flush with the ground and had prompted both Mr Carl and myself to put a bit more air in our tyres to prevent pinch flats.

 

More weeding!

Once we were safely over the train tracks we entered the "forest". I don't quite think the sun had dried much of anything out underneath the canopy and as such it was a wet, soggy mess. But fun, especially from a gardening point of view, why pull up the weeds when you can shred them with your bike! Hmmm, I'm seeing a way to fix the front yard!

The forest comprised of a series of twists and turns as well as a rather steep section that you'd probably never know it was there unless you had to ride up it. This was by far the most difficult section for me as my technical skills are pretty much non-existent and my brain was off in the Caribbean somewhere. Still it was fun, and I only fell off once in warm up.

Dam Chicane

From here there was actually a nice slightly down hill run to the next section, though you couldn't enjoy it to much otherwise you'd find yourself heading towards a dam. "Dam chicane" (might be spelt different depending who you asked) as it was christened, was a really nasty piece of course, designed to make even the most skillful A grader get off their bike. Not one person got through this section without getting off the entire day, that's how difficult it was. 

Experts tackling the barriers!

It was set on the side of a steep slope that started in a soggy oval and ended in a dam, hence the name. The course first ran us along the mid-line of the slope before making us jump over a barrier (heading up the hill) run back along the sloe, jump another barrier then run along the top of the hill. The problem with this was that the rest of the course was down the bottom of the steep slope, so we headed down the hill through a couple of twists and turns (mostly designed to prevent me from ending up in the dam I'm sure) before turning right and slogging back up the hill, over the train lines to the finish. 

Mr Carl running Dam Chicane

Suffice to say, after seeing Dam Chicane Saturday evening I had decided that I had a marginally better chance of not ending up in the dam if I ran the whole thing. I did have a sneaky plan to coast to the bottom of the first barrier, however after attempting this in warm up I learnt that the slope was so steep that unclipping at the bottom of the barrier would likely make me tumble down the hill and into the fence, so I was running the whole thing.

 

Safety first Leanne!

My legs felt useless in warm up and I was beginning to wonder how worn out I really was. However what I didn't realise was that I had been riding the course a couple of gears higher than I would normally would ride, so perhaps it wasn't going to go quite as bad as I thought.
  
The race day started with the little crossers who always seem to enjoy themselves. Leanne carefully guided them around a modified course and I got to witness first hand just what an awesome teacher she is. With just a couple of pointers she helped one little girl really get a good start in the race and you could really see the kids listen to her.


 

Under 19 State Champ

 
With the little crossers out the way it was time for the juniors, with the under 13's 15's and 17's all in the same race, just doing a different number of laps. The race officials and compare did an amazing job keeping track of every one and the juniors had a really good race. I've raced against a few of those juniors before and been soundly beaten by them, so it was good to see them line up against each other.
 


With that out the way it was time for my race, which included all the masters women and the Masters 5 to 9 men. Thankfully though, as State championships, we were racing for our masters category and I only had two competitors, Michelle and Kara. Both of these ladies had beaten me previously, though I think I've managed to beat Kara from time to time, mostly when she has an off day.

 

On the starting line

Anyway, they lined me up on the front row (I really have to stop registering so early, I much prefer to be at the back) and we were off. I actually stayed in front of Kara until I hit the forest which I was fairly impressed by, however being the good sport that I am (and not being inclined to crash due to trying to block) I gave her room to pass and she shot off like a rocket.
  


From that point I struggled through the forest, probably being a bit more cautious then was really necessary but I didn't want to fall again. A kind gentleman rode behind me for a while giving me tips, although I thought he was in the race and tried to encourage him to pass me. It turned out he wasn't but was just offering advice, which was actually very appreciated at the time.

Most falls of the day

One of the best things about CX is the spectators, and being the last one in the race (which I think I was by this point in time) really seems to bring out the best in them. Or for the people who know me, the seriously heckling. But once you're at the back of the race there's not a lot of point in not having fun so I often heckled the hecklers and I think I offered my bike to someone at one point in time, though they weren't that keen on taking over from me!

 

Racing!

 



I made it through three laps of the race, thankfully getting lapped by the leaders on the last lap so I didn't have to do 4 laps. Chateau Tanunda has lots of grass so I was able to collapse on a conveniently soft surface. Being lapped also meant I had a bit of time to recover before Mr Carl's race, so I could capture his CX brilliance on camera!
  

A favourite picture

 


Actually, that's pretty much how the rest of the day panned out for me, running around the course with the camera. CX offers some of the best photographic opportunities out of all the cycling disciplines (I think) and having a historic winery only made things better. 


 

Masters 2 Champ and super hard worker

I was invited to ride in the handicap (as the limit rider no less) but I knew my legs and brain just didn't have it in them, so I kindly volunteered to take photos of all the people I had missed since they were in the same race as me earlier. This also gave me an opportunity to try some different locations and I got some gorgeous shots of people riding through the vines.

Tough as nails

 


With the handicap completed in just 2 laps (I'm pretty sure it felt like a lot more to those who were racing), we headed to the finish to catch the presentation. My pick for most awesome racer of the day was Kara (who came second in my masters category) as she competed in three races throughout the day. I'm surprised she could stand up to receive her medal! While I'm mentioning medals, apparently turning up earned me bronze in my category!

An absolutely beautiful day at a spectacular location and I can only hope we can do it again next year!