Kurth Kiln
Kurth what? Kurth Kiln is an abandoned WWII era charcoal kiln near Gembrook up in the hills east of Melbourne, it was also the location for the final round of the FTF winter XC series on Sunday morning.
The race for this round was planned as a mini marathon with one big climb on each predominantly fire road lap. A grade was sent off to do 2 laps of the roughly 30km long lap with lower grades taking in a combination of the long lap and a shorter loop. From the start it was straight into the climb, which seemed to go on and on and on. Early on the lead bunch was whittled down to only half a dozen riders, soon after an attack when off the front which saw 2 riders get clear and splintered the remaining riders for a few kms while we sorted our selves out. At the top of the climb on the first lap I was in the chase group with Specialized riders Rohin Ginger Adams and Fireman Sam Bach. Working well together we made sure no one was going to catch us but were unable to put much ground into the leaders, that was until there was an earth shattering explosion as one of the leaders, Luke Fetch, came back to us briefly. Rohin and I were able to drop Sam on the second half of the climb.
With the top almost in sight I decided to see what I had left and attacked Rohin, luckily for me it was more than he had as he was dealing with cramps just at that moment so the timing was perfect. From then on it was mostly down hill. The decent was still fire road, but less open and at speed was still a challenge to hold speed and the tight muddy corners kept us on our toes. I was able to stay clear of the Ginger and rolled though for a 2nd place behind Murray Spink.
Even with a dusty drive in to the race, there was still enough mud on parts of the course to get a little bit dirty.
The race for this round was planned as a mini marathon with one big climb on each predominantly fire road lap. A grade was sent off to do 2 laps of the roughly 30km long lap with lower grades taking in a combination of the long lap and a shorter loop. From the start it was straight into the climb, which seemed to go on and on and on. Early on the lead bunch was whittled down to only half a dozen riders, soon after an attack when off the front which saw 2 riders get clear and splintered the remaining riders for a few kms while we sorted our selves out. At the top of the climb on the first lap I was in the chase group with Specialized riders Rohin Ginger Adams and Fireman Sam Bach. Working well together we made sure no one was going to catch us but were unable to put much ground into the leaders, that was until there was an earth shattering explosion as one of the leaders, Luke Fetch, came back to us briefly. Rohin and I were able to drop Sam on the second half of the climb.
With the top almost in sight I decided to see what I had left and attacked Rohin, luckily for me it was more than he had as he was dealing with cramps just at that moment so the timing was perfect. From then on it was mostly down hill. The decent was still fire road, but less open and at speed was still a challenge to hold speed and the tight muddy corners kept us on our toes. I was able to stay clear of the Ginger and rolled though for a 2nd place behind Murray Spink.
Even with a dusty drive in to the race, there was still enough mud on parts of the course to get a little bit dirty.
posted by Jack Lamshed at 7:59 pm
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