Is the name of a bushwalk (which I have to complete one day too…) but more recently a popular mountain bike race in SW WA. I picked it as this years ‘hard’ challenge, and was not disappointed.
http://capetocapemtb.com/ Its a stage race of about 210km of single track, soft sand and gravel road over four days. The highlight for me was racing my friend Ewen over the magnificent single track close to Margaret River on day three. We spent two hours trying to lose each other, only the cross the line together! He was ahead of me on the other days by 2 to 10 minutes, so I was less motivated, and hence slower. I was really happy to finish in the top 1/4 of entries overall. I liked the way it was run, so that there was no real queuing for the good bits of trail. I’ll keep riding in WA, but am not sure that these long races are really for me as they are a big commitment of time and cash.
Lessons learned (I’m writing this down so I remember if I do something like this again). Day one: I probably went too fast, but did get my best result, and a good seeding for the starts on the other days. Day two: I should have started using chafe cream, and forgot the sunscreen. Day three, remembered those, but couldn’t find my GPS, which is good because you are not distracted, but bad because I didn’t get a track of the good trail! Day 4, forgot the ‘gas’ which I didn’t need (no flats all race!). Also: take a bandanna for the sun… One good thing I did was eat fruit while riding (tastes better than goo, less litter, and has water in it!).
Here are some photos I stole off the facebook page to give the feel.
Rob Wall's Blog 