The Rice Mountain Classic is a great race if you are
extremely masochistic and good at climbing hills. Unfortunately I only ticked
one of these boxes. Somehow I still managed to enjoy my day – and it’s not
because I gained helmet strap tan lines.
The course was tough- the first hill being 5km into it, and
the last 24km had like 14km of climbing. But hey it is a mountain classic and I
wouldn’t expect much less. The main reason I signed up for the 65km of pain was
so that there would be enough women for a separate race (you only needed 15 for
a separate race); luckily there were 21 other crazy ladies that signed up too.
Naturally it was a hilltop finish- but at the top of
Admirals. For those who don’t know Admirals hill is 9km of complete and utter
pain- with a small respite halfway through. And in all kindness it kicks up even more in
the last 20 metres- just in case you weren’t hurting enough.
Despite all the hills I really enjoyed it, and it was
amazingly well run by PNP – stoked that we could have a proper women’s race! Of
course I wouldn’t have been able to get around the course if it weren’t for my amazing
coach- Lisa from Cowbell Coaching. Super huge thanks to all the guys down at Mud
Cycles, for looking after my bike (getting round to swapping my brakes in 3
days with a packed workshops is pretty awesome!!). Naturally there are mum and
dad who support and encourage me endlessly- it’s not particularly fun being the
wheel wagon for a 65 km hilly race). Thanks to all the ladies who raced today
and everybody that made it possible
