A Race Report from physiotherapist Nicole Oh
Thanks to @readyaimmedia for all of these images.
There’s no doubt that the popularity of gravel riding is increasing, with more and more events appearing on the calendar.
Mary’s Mayhem, held on the roads around Mudgee, was Graveleur’s second event of the year. Unlike Thunderbolts held earlier in May (read my recap of the event here), the courses for Mary’s were far less difficult and much more conducive to fun times and good vibes!
Both Fred and I signed up for the weekend – the long course for me, celebrating some birthdays (not mine) with a group of friends, and Fred accompanying his sister on the medium course. Unfortunately that’s where Fred’s story ends, with a nasty bout of gastro hitting him as soon as he arrived in Mudgee. He reports that he saw nothing of Mudgee except for the roof of his AirBnb and bottom of the toilet bowl!
No such problems in my camp, arriving in Mudgee just before registration closed to collect our goodie bag (complete with event beer)… and timing chips. Now, it was the understanding of all that this event was NOT a race. The timing chips were (apparently) a trial for future events. But a timing chip and prize for the first female across the line sounds like a race to me. More on that later.
Saturday started a little on the chilly side, but once the sun had burnt through the morning fog, it was a beautiful day to ride a bike. There were about 250 starters for the event, most doing the long course, which was 97km with 1000m of climbing. The original plan was to do the whole weekend at “Party pace” although the distribution of timing chips put a spanner in the works. My friend Gina Ricardo, who rides for the UCI team BridgeLane, was definitely going to race the thing, and there was one other woman who seemed to want to participate in the “not race”.
I have zero chance of beating Gina in a gravel race anyway, and we let the front group go over the first rise in the road. However, the boys we were riding with seemed full of enthusiasm and it was a pretty solid pace from the outset. This was perhaps aided by fresh legs, champagne gravel and the fact the first part of the course was net downhill! By the time we got to the feed stop in Gulgong at 60km (in under 2 hours), some of these boys looked a bit cooked! We were greeted by a lovely spread of homemade cakes and slices, courtesy of the local Rotary club. I made sure I sampled a few.
The boys lingered at the feed stop whilst myself and the two birthday girls pushed on. As is often the case, a ride tends to be dictated by how you start it, and I found myself pushing on over the hills, which all seemed to be in the second part of the course. Surprisingly, despite the 10 min tea stop, we caught up to the second women on the road in the last few kilometres. My racing instincts then took over, as I found myself putting in a dig over the top of the last hill to get a gap (whilst the guy in front of me popped a wheelie! See photo), and a little sprint to the finish to ensure I was 2nd female over the line (and as I found out later, 15th overall). I figured since Gina worked for Graveleur, I might be able to convince them that she was ineligible for the prize!
The faster than expected ride meant we were all done by 12.30pm, leaving plenty of time to soak up the sun and enjoy the fine choice of food and refreshments on offer. We briefly flirted with the idea of visiting a gin distillery or winery (on bikes), but on arrival to our hotel room back in Mudgee, our comfy beds and watching the Olympics on TV, accompanied by some donuts and Negroni, won the day, followed by a trip to the pub for dinner.
The weather for Day 2 was almost a carbon copy of day 1 – a little fog and chill, but then glorious sunshine for the rest of the day. Today’s course started and finished in Rylstone, and was the same distance as yesterday but with a little bit more climbing (1200m). The consensus in our group (minus Gina) was definitely party pace, and we started right at the back to eliminate any temptation to go faster than planned.
The route today seemed a lot more scenic, although perhaps that was due to the fact we rode much less hard, and therefore had plenty more time to look around! It started and ended with tarmac, but with a whole load of champagne gravel in between with just a few corrugations. As opposed to yesterday, there was a good 45min of stopping for photos, food, regrouping, and even just sitting in the sun. A nice gentle downhill roll home on tarmac with a tailwind kept the vibes high all the way to the finish. The only downside of the day was the numerous “sleeping” wombats by the side of the road.
We didn’t linger too long at the apres-ride festival at the Globe Hotel, with a long drive back to Sydney awaiting us, just long enough to pick up some locally distilled gin, and a fabulous pie (or two) from the bakery across the road. My Trek Checkpoint will now have a bit of a rest until the next gravel weekend away.,. Gears & beers in October!
