Kaitangata Black Gold Trail 2009 November 15, 2009

Last weekend, my weekly womens MTBing group headed out to Kaitangata. Where is Kaitangata you say? Well, it’s a small town in South Otago about an hour from Dunedin, and is where my lovely husband is from (and is happy to admit!). But my family connection wasn’t why we were out there; we were actually checking out the trails that were being used for the following weekend’s Black Gold Trail MTB race.

Despite the clash with another MTB event (the Coastal Classic), we still had a dozen or so women show up for last Sunday’s “pre-ride”. And after a couple of hours of riding around the tracks, which consisted of a mixture of gravel roads, 4wd forestry roads, and singletrack, I had decided I was going to enter the MTB race this weekend.

A few of the women out on the ride..

Extreme self-portrait taken while riding along a gravel road.

With that decision made, we thought we’d make a weekend of it since Scotty’s parents own a crib (bach/beach-house – whatever you want to call it!) at Measly Beach, around 10-15 minutes from Kaitangata. A couple of friends also wanted to do the race, so we all headed over to the crib on Friday night, had a late tea, and “prepared” for the big race (i.e., drank cider and watched TV till late).

We arrived in Kaitangata on Saturday morning, picked up our registration packs, and sifted around until the start of the race. I headed out for a warm-up ride (which, as it turns out, wasn’t particularly effective), and pondered how I would go in my first MTB race of the season. Would my knee handle being pushed at “race pace”? How would I feel on the uphills with a winter of not much riding? Could I possibly beat X, Y, and Z? I was fairly happy with my decision to ride the shorter 21.5km course instead of the 45km course, where I foreseed a great amount of suffering to be had.

At 9:30, it was time for the race to start. The first section was around a km or so on a sealed road and I thought I had quite a good position towards the back of the bunch that had formed at the front. We were flying down that road at a great speed of knots until we had to make a right-hand corner onto a gravel road. Being at the back, by the time I turned the corner, the bunch had already surged off, my quads solidified into blocks of [insert something solid and blocky here], and I felt like I was moving backwards on the gravel road as people behind me began to pass. Yup, I guess I’d blown the start by going a bit too hard off the line!

The course climbed up a gravel road for a while until it turned to a 4wd forestry road. I was passed by three junior riders who often come along on the Monday night womens rides. It seemed that they were casually (but speedily) pedalling up with no effort required. Meanwhile, I was suffering on the uphills with no speed/intensity/hillclimbing training under my belt, until we hit the singletrack. Here, I joined a convoy of riders going through the track at a comfortable slightly-faster-than-walking pace and I got a chance to catch my breath while simultaneously riding carefully around people who got off/fell off in front of me.

After exiting the singletrack at around the 5km mark, the next 10km or so was all on gravel roads. I decided that instead of my usual approach of pushing a bigger gear up the hills, I would try spinning – it turns out that it was easier on the knee and I was actually travelling faster up the hills!  Ahead, I could see the three juniors riding together and I pretty much stayed in that position for the rest of the race – I wasn’t gaining on them, but I wasn’t losing too much ground either.

Trying to not look completely knackered on the uphill.
Photo: Richard Schofield Photography

Somewhere between the 15-20km mark (I’m not sure exactly because my speedo stopped working at the 8km mark and I pulled the display off my bike in frustration because a reading of 0 km/h on the uphills wasn’t particularly motivating), the gravel turned to 4wd road again, and we crossed a tarseal road to head over to the tracks on the other side. Here, it was an undulating climb to the final pieces of singletrack. I had ridden the singletrack twice the previous weekend so was looking forward to its fast flowiness (and the fact that the end of the singletrack signalled almost the end of the race!). I suddenly found my legs again and the rest of the course was a fast, fun ride swooping through a 1.5km flattish piece of singletrack, then a fun descent towards the road. Onto the road and into the biggest gear possible for a hard and fast pedal to the finish in 1 hour 28 minutes.

What I find most impressive about small-town events is the effort that the community goes to to make the event run smoothly. The start/finish line was at the local rugby clubrooms. Included in our entry fee was a free lunch (sandwich, piece of fruit, and a slice of cake) which you could see the people in the kitchen working away making as the race went on. The bar in the clubrooms was also open (with $7 jugs – and yes, I did have a couple of beers while waiting around for prizegiving). There was both a coffee cart and an ice-cream truck (with the cutest chocolate cats!), a raffle to win a bike or dinner for two at the local pub, and a muffin-baking competition! Not to mention all the people who marshalled, timed, and built the tracks. What a great community effort!

There was a wee bit of a wait for prize-giving because in addition to the 21.5km MTB race, there was a 45km MTB race, a half-marathon, and a duathlon (21.5km run + 45km MTB!) on at the same time. Kudos to those who did the longer-course options! At prizegiving, I was very surprised to learn that I won the Open Women category, and was only a minute or two behind the juniors I was chasing – sweet! Massive congrats to Anja who won the 45km MTB race on a cyclocross bike!

Between the end of the race and prize-giving, I had a bit of time for reflection. In hindsight, it was probably unrealistic of me to think that I could ride at the speed and intensity as I was last season. I was really struggling to breathe on the uphills but the next race I’m planning on doing isn’t until January so I’ve got a couple of months to try and get some fitness back. On the upside, my knee didn’t give me any trouble during the race, so the gym rehab stuff must be working – yay!

All in all, it was a pretty fun weekend. After the race, we headed back to the crib, cooked up a BBQ for an early tea, and went for a wander down the beach. Today, we headed back to Kai and rode the last few pieces of singletrack again then headed back home. It was good to head away from Dunedin for a weekend but it’s also nice being home. It’s not too long until our next trip however – we’re off to the 10th anniversary Vorb Queen Charlotte Walkway MTBing trip in a fortnight. It will be our first time on the QCW and I’m really looking forward to our road-trip north to such a beautiful part of the country.