Early start as I had to get to a lunch-time party. Went well for the first few controls, feeling strong. Lots of technical riding and some good sections of bike portaging, as I seem to loose my d/h riding ability after just a short time of no-racing. Some good route choices had to be made, but it was a bit hard to read due to the 'foot-o' symbol clutter on the map. Also some tough uphills on loose gravel. Had a map swap after 10 controls (approx. 42 mins).
Had a big problem at #16. Took wrong route choice, staying on sandy path next to the Croc river instead of climbing onto the hills. Concentration had been poor on a few legs. A map error saw me cycling too far along this past a turn-off away from the river. I then also made the 'make the map fit' mistake and proceeded to bundu-bash up a gully from hell. GPS shows 17 minutes lost!
Floored the final section of the course, hoping to claim back some lost positions. Went much better again, but I was a bit depleted now. In the end, I suprisingly still managed a win (?), so everyone else also had a bad day or found the riding tough.
Rolling stats: Av 14.4 Mx 41.4 Tm 1:30:17 (so 12 mins of hike-a-bike and punching)
Total stats: Av 12.8
TE 4.1, 182 Epoc, 1213 kcal.
Part 1:
1-2 : good route choice. North route was the fastest.
2-3 : first technical single track. A few portages here already.
3-4: knarly. Confusing when I hit the dense track network. I didn't take the fastest route in as I was too confused.
4-5 : I think my route was the best.
7-8 : Don't quite know, but I suspect that going back to the main roads was fastest. However, #8 was placed too far SE, thus S route approach would have been faster.
Part 2:
10-11 : Pretty much equal route choices. Maybe N was better surfaced.
11-12 : Exiting on the smaller track was more technical, but required less map reading.
13-14 : Best downhill of the day. Yehaa.
14-15 : Tax collection. The portage from hell. Managed to jog most of it and lovely singletrack downhill to #15.
15-16 : Upper track over the hill by far better. Fewer map inaccuracies.
16-17 : S route the best.
17-18 : Another good route choice. I went S, and was faster for me, but depends on the riders technical riding skills.
18-19 : Path network not exactly accurate into 19 (overgrown). Also a new track out of 19.