Paul Petch

I’m back from the 100km Otway Odyssey ride

Wow what a week! Aside from some family business in Australia the majority of my stay was taken up with the 100km Otway Odyssey ride. I’m not going to bore you with the exact details other than I completed it with no real stress at all- the hardest thing was riding 100km after just a few hours sleep the night before due to sleeping on a sofa and then having to keep up my interest during the event as I got quite bored! (Yes NZ trails with your technical goodness and mind bending views… you are to blame! hehe :)) All in all it was a great epic ride and awesome to be part of a 1200+ field of riders… but was it worth the time and costs?….. I’m not really sure :(

The event took me 9:42:07 (this is not a typo) which included massive muddy climbs off the bike, food stops, photo snaps, bike washing in a river or two and a pace that did not cause to much suffering! Now 150km would have really pushed the envelope! On a negative note, I was ashamed to see the amount of litter people left on the trails- gel wrappers everywhere- you bloody lycra wippets take your rubbish home with you and stop destroying the environment….when will you idiots learn? Trail karma will catch up with you all by the way! Ahem.

Looking back on the day was there anything that I would have done different? Only two :)…. I wish that I had put my mud tyres on instead of the Crossmarks or at least rode a few more PSI in the tyres…… as I forgot that I had a latex tube in the rear (which leaks over night) and rode 10psi below what I usually ride with! (OUCH). I was also excessively cautious for most of the descents, switchbacks and log crossings due to the wet conditions…. and would have liked to have ridden a little harder! But this is the fun of an event- shit happens and dealing with it is part of the ride…. any ride is better than no ride eh? :D

Officially this is also my last event I’ll ride down under. Why no more Australian rides? Well… NZ has the same sort of distances to offer on my doorstep and they are much more interesting and challenging to ride. Kiwi’s also have a healthier attitude to riding- it’s not all about winning- it’s about the challenge, the elements and the people you ride with. It’s that simple…. I just prefer riding here (oh and there are no Australians too ;))

p.s. thanks Hud for sharing some of the piccys :)

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Related posts:

1. Lowen Otway Odyssey 2008
2. Otway Odyssey 2008 photos
3. First night ride at Port Hills
4. Seven weeks in – Lake Sumner ride
5. Woodhill mountain biking. North Island trip. Ride one.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 26th, 2008 at 6:44 am and is filed under Bike Rides and tagged with australia, epic, Events, lynskey, otway, Trails & Rides. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.