The Willo Enduro

In 2013 I raced the Willo Enduro in the juniors category which was 25km of some of the best single-track you can find. I found myself in the lead with 5km to go, but then I heard the worst sound possible. Air coming out of the side of my tyre after the side wall was torn by a rock. I put a tube in as fast as I could and to this day I think it was the fasted tube change I have ever done but it was not enough. I rode to the finish and only managed 4th place. After that day, 15 year old me swore to never do the race again.

6 years later, I found myself entered into the 66km elite race. I just could not resist going back to one of the best marathon races in Australia. Having an amazing new mountain bike also assisted in my decision to do this race.

It’s hard to resist riding this bike whenever possible. My first dual suspension mountain bike and it does not disappoint.

I left Canberra at 6am to get to the venue around 8am. This gives us plenty of time to register, change into kit and warm up before our 9:15am start. The course was 22km long with 50% being single-track and the other 50% being fire trail. Before beginning these 3 laps we had to do a small start loop all on fire trail to sort out the bunch before hitting the single-track. Not even 2km into the race and there was a crash right in front of me. Two people decided that fighting for a wheel to hold 15th or 16th position was the most important thing in this 66km race that they bumped shoulders the entire start loop until finally they collapsed under each other. I am still not sure how exactly I didn’t go down but I found myself jumping over the crash while my bike stayed behind the crash. I quickly grabbed my bike and jumped back on but the bunch was already long gone. I look back to see if there is anyone I can ride with but all I see is a dust cloud caused by the crash. This was going to be a long and lonely 66 kilometres. I went hard on the first lap thinking I might have a chance to catch the front guys, but quickly I realised that wasn’t going to happen so I settled down and got into my own rhythm.

David John Blucher capturing how hot and dry the day was

My first two laps were good and took close to the same time to complete but my third lap was very different. I was feeling good coming into the last lap but then only a few kilometres in that all changed. I am not one to usually suffer from cramps even during a race but today I got to feel what it was like to have some serious cramping. It got so bad that I could not physically turn the pedals so I had to stop completely and get off my bike to try and stop the cramping. Many times I tried to start riding again to soon and began cramping again. This was the story for the entire last lap but I finally made it across the line and finished. My last lap was 15 minutes slower than the first two.

Nearly at the finish but it seemed like forever with the cramping. Photo: David John Blucher

After the race I had to sit down for about 10 minutes just to recover. I had never felt so fatigued after a race before. Luckily for me, my mate Marc drove me to the race so I didn’t have to drive myself home which would have been a big ask considering how I was feeling.

A few days after the race and I was still feeling it. My form is not where it used to be and it was worrying for me but you can never be at the top all the time so for now, it is time to focus on some good training and just push through the bad form to get to the good.

Coming up next is one of my favourite road races of the year, the Blayney 2 Bathurst weekend. Last year I got a surprising 8th place but with how my form is at the moment, that was going to be hard to match.