I decided to enter another winter race - mtbiking around Lake Tekapo. It has been raining over night so I was not surprised that the original course had to be changed. The rivers were too high so we were going to cycle there and back on the west side of the lake instead of crossing to the other side. I was glad to take some layers of clothing off in the last minute bacause it stopped raining just minutes before the gun went off so .
A small group of about 13 of us got quickly away.The 4wd track has been very wet and muddy with countless puddles. There has been lots of water splashing around. At that time riding in the pack turned to constant spitting mouth fulls of dirt and trying to see through glasses completely covered in mud. But as soon as I took glasses off the constant flow of dirt was hitting the eyes.
After 30km we hit few rough climbs and our bunch slowly spred. I found myself riding with Jim Cotter, keeping pressure on and trying to getaway from him. When I was crossing flooded side creeks I was riding by myself keeping Jim behind. After about 10km I passed another rider. That motivated me to keep pushing myself, constantly washing off mud from my Polar monitor with water from CamelBak to monitor my heart rate.
It was tough 80km and definitely the muddiest race this season.
