The race takes place in Stromlo Park, just outside of Canberra. The loop starts out with a short flat section and quickly turns into a series of singletrack switchbacks which lead you up a long 1000ft climb up to the top of Mount Stromlo. Once at the top the trail winds around a bit before heading back down, again all on single-track, a rocky twisty descent. The trail is pretty cool, very rocky (big rocks and baby head rocks) and the corners are bermed so you can 'ride the rails' onthe way down. It's very fun but because the corners are so sharp you can't really get up too much speed. About 3/4 of the way down Mount Stromlo the course starts winding back up again and takes you backup to the top of the mountain again, still on single-track. The course dumps you at the top, on the opposite side of the mountain, and because the course is so exposed (no trees, only bushes) you can see the other riders on the top as well. Kinda cool .... then down you go again, this time slightly more technical with a fun steep rocky descent. I plan to ride that section a few times today :) The course ends by taking you through a bmx type section where you can gain a lot of speed if you work your bike... a fun ending.
While the course does not play to my strengths (lots of climbing but none of it is steep, where i tend to excel ... and lots of descending but I'm not a strong cornerer), it should be a fun time and I am sure that my cornering skills will be killer by the end of the weekend! The course is about 95% singletrack - there are only a few sections that are double-track and none that are road ... this definately plays to my advantage but will make passing tricky. They have a totally seperate couse for the Solos which is good because even with the 400 solos on the course at once, it will be crowded.
It took me an hour and eleven minutes to finish a loop yesterday ... so i'm guessing my lap times will settle right around that ... might be a bit slower due to congestion on the course and lack of passing options ... but we'll see!
By the numbers it looks like this (this is from the course map, I'll confirm with the Garmin today!)
Distance: ~20Km
Climbing: ~2000 ft
Singletrack: 95%
Estimated lap goal: 18 to 20
So now more about my trip here ....
The first leg of my flight was delayed (into SFO) due to fog but luckily they got me on an earlier flight and it looked like I would make it for my connection. Once on the plane, it took forever to take off and then they had to circle a few times around SFO before they could land which meant that we landed 5 min before the connecting flight ... didn't look good. As soon as I got out of the plane i booked it (imagine a full on sprint) to the next gate and
