The contact epic was a perfect day of calm and clear conditions after a night of heavy rain prior to the race. I have only competed in the Epic once last year and it was an alternative course of out and back on just one side of the lake as opposed to the 'proper' course of the loop around the whole lake.
My goal for this ride was to manage my energy input carefully knowing that I was carrying a bit of fatigue from the previous weekends race in the Naseby 12 hour. So setting off for the day I ensured a good supply of nutrition was in my bag and at hand to put into the body at regular intervals. The other goal was to not really stop and become complacent with tiredness. In the end I have three stops - 1- to help a rider in the shorter classic event that started ahead of us that had a chain jam all munched up which needed a hand to un-jam from between her cassette and spokes - good help and all part of the "see you out there" spirit, 2. for a stop to refuel the drink bladder and one later on to empty the bladder! I managed to break a spoke on my rear wheel with a herd hit into a rock on a zippy little descent with about 40km to go so had my fingers crossed in a hope that it would make it to the end with out 'tacoing' itself which it didn't. The wheel is now in with Willem and his workshop team at Racers Edge getting fixed up for it's future hammerings!! All up the ride was fantastic and I came in with a time of 7hr20min which I was happy with.
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