IMANA WILD RIDE 2012

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Result: 2nd Overall

Racing and traveling had been a bit hectic before the Wild Ride so Sean and I decided that we again would not do a dry run of the 4 days and rather rely on our previous GPS routes and following other teams when we weren't sure. This was however a major mistake as just the week before the race we were informed that GPS devices were being banned for the event which left us fairly clueless as to where we were going. This lead to many hours of attempting to memorize Google Earth images.

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Day 1: Low tide was very early in the morning this year which lead to some extremely early starts and plenty of shivering. After dropping the bags off it was a short cycle in the dark over to the ferry crossing over the Kei River for the start. 

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This year had the same rule as last year which stated we had to go to the top of Sunrise Surprise climb and then straight to the beach. The inland route was no longer allowed. Sean and I decided to go out hard up the climb and try separate the field a bit before we reached the first beach and then from there decide who we were going to follow. However the one thing we didn't expect was to arrive at the first beach with tracks ahead. To our surprise Warren and Craig had gone backwards from the start and gone straight to the beach which were really hard compared to years past. This was exactly what we were hoping to avoid by being out front early. We tried to chase but as we got off the first beach section they were out of sight and we were left guessing where to go. That one sneak had changed our entire race. 

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We tried chasing on our own but with every mistake we would just lose more time. Eventually Nick and Iain had caught us and to make our day that little bit worse a pin had pulled loose on my rear shifter which left me with just the front 2 gears available and with the insanely powerful Sean as a team mate this meant I had to do some extreme cadence work on the fast beaches. 

Swimming across a river and watching an opposing team wade across just meters away is the WORST feeling EVER!!!

Sean pushed the pace hard on one of the beaches and we broke clear of Nick and Iain. This left us to focus on looking for tracks so as not to get lost and lose time. We managed to pull back some time towards the end of the stage and finished around 3m30 down on the stage winners. Definitely not what we had hoped for on Day 1. The awesome thing about the Imana Wild Ride that sets it apart from other stage races is that instead of spending every night in a tent you spend every evening in brilliant accommodation over the looking the sea. You just can't ask for more.

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Day 2: As with previous years the top 10 teams are started in condensed elapsed time of 2min. We went out hard on day 2 trying to get within sight of the leaders. We did a good job and only a few km's into the stage we had pulled back 45sec. 

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Sadly that was pretty much as good as stage 2 was going to get for us as the leaders took a new route we were not familiar with and we ended up losing heaps of time and Nick and Iain had caught up time on us. We kept riding on our own trying to hold off the chasers. We held on well despite our numerous small navigational errors. Day 2 brings with it the first of the "Mothers" which is basically an extremely steep mountain which you have to walk up while carrying your bike. This tends to bring on an extreme burn in your calves and achilles which makes jumping back on the bike and riding pretty difficult. At the top of the Mother Sean and I made a crucial error by going past the entrance to "Rhino Valley" which is one of the few compulsory sections. We quickly tried to back track and get onto the wheels of Nick and Iain. 

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It actually worked out well as we were left chasing Nick and Iain who were just in sight but pushing hard to stay ahead of us, this meant we would both be making up time on the leaders which we needed. We caught Nick and Iain just before the finish which meant we had lost 2mins to them and lost a further 1m30 to the leaders.

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Day 3: we were now starting Day 3 only 20sec ahead of Nick and Iain so after discussing it and looking at how hard we worked for no gain on day 2 due to navigational errors we decided to sit up and rather ride with Nick and Iain and see if we could rather work with them to make up time. Nick took off like a man possessed and we were taking large chunks out of their lead. We had caught up to just 45sec behind Warren and Craig when Nick made a crucial decision to take a different sneak and try jump around the leaders. Luck was not on our side however when we got smashed by a wave trying to sneak round the front of a rocky outcrop. 3 of us were left washed up against the rocks and Sean made sure we could hear his laughing as he managed to walk around the rocks safely on a sand bank. 

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After eventually getting back on track we took a time check and the leaders were back out to 3mins. Nicks earlier efforts were starting to show now but we stayed with them through to the finish. It was quite a sight riding past The Hole In The Wall and it sucked not being able to spend some time enjoying the sights of the day. Would love to go back next year and do a dry run to be able to fully appreciate the beauty of the wild coast.

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Another brilliant aspect of the Imana Wild Ride is that the focus of the race is on raising money to build classrooms for the underprivileged schools along the race route. This year enough money was raised to build 4 classrooms which is an amazing feat from a race of just 80 teams. The good that is being done for the communities is evident everyday as you are welcomed with open arms by everyone  along each stage as you literally ride past their front doors.

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Day 4: We were starting day four 7mins down on the leaders and tied for 2nd place with Nick and Iain. We had nothing to lose so Sean and I went out extremely hard from the start. I knew the first 8-10km pretty well so we were hoping to make the catch before we got into areas I wasn't sure about. This worked extremely well and by the first river crossing we had caught the leaders.