The Kowalski classic is my comeback race, last year it was
my first race back after getting hit by the car. This year it was my first race
back after 7 months off the bike and two surgeries… for this reason I’ve done
the 50km option both years rather than the full 100km.
We headed down with a posse of Newy Cycos in the Cycobus and
bike trailer. This made for a stress free trip down, no driving required (a
good thing after a week of night shift). Lunch at the Greengrocer Café in
Goulburn was enjoyed and highly recommended before we checked into our tourist
cabin next the Bruce Ridge Trails.
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| The Newy Cycos at Bruce Ridge |
Saturday afternoon spinning around Bruce Ridge would have
been more enjoyable if I’d had any legs, unfortunately coming off night shift
seems to render my legs useless for a day and I could only hope that they would
come good for the next morning. I tried to help them out by eating so much I
was uncomfortable sleeping on my stomach – probably not the best idea.
Despite forecasts of sub-zero morning, Canberra pulled out a
mild one for race morning. We were ready to go on time and reached race start
in time for those who have pre-race routines to tick off. I keep thinking I
should try this warm-up business, but I never get around to it.
As a result when the gun sounded for our wave start, Tim and
Gresho were off like frogs in a sock and I was near the back of the wave. The
first hill let me know why other people warm up, but at the same time it got
the blood pumping.
The course was completely different to the previous year
thanks to logging in East Kowan and fantastic trail building efforts. This year
the first 50km was almost all in Sparrow Hill so off we trotted under the
highway for some flowy trails.
The thing about the Kowalski is that it’s nearly all
singletrack which is awesome and tough! It suits me, I’m comparatively strong
in single track. But I was still surprised to see Tim and Gresh up ahead at one
point on the trail before realised it was a section that snaked back on itself
and that I still didn’t know how far ahead they were.
Then I reached the same point less than a minute later and
realised I was riding pretty well to be not far off those boys. I found my flow
in that single track, I felt smooth… I was finally enjoying riding again after
the year from hell.
Riding with a single bottle I didn’t bother with the
feedstation and used firetrail to pass slower riders before getting back into
yet more singletrack. The next rider I came up behind was Tim, well this was
awkward, time to call track on your partner.
I knew that I didn’t stand a chance of staying ahead of Tim
if we got on firetrail but due to the plethora of single track I stayed ahead
of him for a good 10km – a first in a race. Then we headed back towards Kowan
and the trails headed upwards on firetrail, sure enough the Tim “the metrognome”
Nelson powered past me and I didn’t see him again.
The last 10km hurt, the lack of base mileage in my legs was
starting to show but I pushed it home down the altered Kowalski Beer Garden
descent and finished in just over 2.5 hours. What I didn’t realise it I was
less than a minute behind Gresh and less than 2 minutes behind Tim’s split for
the 50km (he did the 100km).
I also won my category and was 2nd overall female
by less than 3 minutes. Yet again the Kowalski was a fantastic race which puts
the love back into mountain biking and restores my mojo after time off the
bike.
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