This was my fifth time racing the Cloudride Prologue. I previously raced every year from 2019 to 2022.

During this 4 year gap (with no bikepacking races aside from Tassie Gift in 2024) I continued learning about different kinds of ultras, having crewed an FKT, a couple of 24hr races and taken part in a 27hr rogaine.

In the past I’ve had a lot of self worth tied up in race performance, but I think bikepacking has avoided the worst of it. When I think back to my early Prologue experiences, my main motivations were “to see if I could” and “to feel things you don’t often feel”.

Going in I was fully accepting of my situation. I hadn’t done any deliberate training, but instead of feeling angst, I installed easier gears on the bike. I packed early, and accepted that it would be a big faff - rather than trying to do it quickly at the last minute. I tapered not just my training but general life activities to reduce stress.

My goal was simple, to get in before the pub shut on Sunday night. I wasn’t racing anyone else. This goal would also be a PB, but I knew it was physically possible with my current fitness levels, and a couple of good days.

Highlights

The view from the top of Tolbar road was amazing, and also a reminder of a turn-off that I took on a previous adventure in the high country. I was feeling low at this point because I had been going below my required average speed. I pulled up to RovinMax and he reminded me that the numbers aren’t important, and that it was a beautiful weekend for a ride.

There are certain traditions in ultras, and one of them is having a ritual to start “the night shift”. I planned to do this in Berridale and just as I pulled I saw my friends Peter, Kate and RovinMax sitting outside the pub. They even had some spare garlic bread for me. After completing my transition to the night shift, I got to ride with Kate for a few hours, until she pulled away and I napped.

When I got into the finish, I was very happy to be done. But I know not every finish line moment is the same - this one was made special by the presence of my friends: Anna, Eamon, Freddy, Matt, Michelle and Seb.

Low-Lights

There weren’t too many low-lights on this trip to be honest. I did think about work more than I thought I would.

Even though I thought I was flexible about my performance and time, the Sunday pub hours finish was actually a strict goal of mine. I did feel sad anytime I thought I was going to slow. Unfortunately I had also overestimated the average speed required, which meant I thought I was behind time even when I wasn’t.

Learnings

Napping

A well timed nap can fix many of your problems. Even after my 3 hour sleep and mega carb/caffiene dose in Cooma Maccas, I was extremely tired all Sunday morning. I had to stomp hard on the pedals to stop myself from going to sleep, and every stop I felt an intense urge to lie down. Eventually I gave into it and lay down on the side of the road, setting a 20 minute timer. I fell instantly into an intense dream state, and then stirred. I went back into another intense dream state before finally waking up - I felt fresh but had only been asleep for 10 minutes.

I assume this nap is the kind of thing the “no sleep” crew rely on, but I’ll take sleeping and napping any day of the week.

Mental Approach

Previously I used the story that I was a big diesel tractor, just chugging along. Another story that I used was “the reaper” - catching up to those who went out too fast and mowing them down. While I’m still a bit of a tractor, nowadays the people ahead of me are serious weapons so less reaping gets done than I’d like.

I do a lot of calculating average speeds, how long it will take me to get somewhere, checking how far I’ve gone, if the average speed is going up, etc. However, I think this mostly counts as wishing the ride was over, and doesn’t enhance the experience too much, even if it does help you get to the end.

This ride I tried two new strategies. The first was just “watching”. Focusing my mind on watching the world go past, noticing all the details as things move from the center of your vision and then whip past your peripheral vision. I guess this is a form of mindfulness - and enhanced the experience.

The other strategy was inadvertent but since I have gotten into birding, trying to ID the birds I saw was another great way to stay present. Unfortunately, I don’t know many birds yet but I did see a lot of Crimson Rosellas, even some juvenile ones (which are green), and lots of Willy Wagtails. Every time you notice a bird you are brought back into the present external world and are rescued from the inner world.

Benefit of Experience

During this race I finally felt like I was making the most of my prior bikepacking experience. I think a lot of this gain is from a few key pieces of knowledge:

• You can do this and have done it before
• No matter how bad it gets, it always comes around
• What kind of pain to ignore. On Saturday I felt like absolute shit, but I knew this was just because my core temperature was elevated. Later I had pain in my knees and back, but I knew this was just due to muscle tightness - which has resolved quickly after the race.

Food

I brought enough food to complete the race without resupply if required, even though warm food is always good for the soul.

• 900g of milk powder / milo
• 300g of Skratch ultra high carb mix
• 500g snakes
• 500g chilli and lime soy crisps
• 700g oreos

The high proportion of liquid calories worked great, although next time I would bring more sugar water and only drink the choccy milk when I was really behind on calories - by Saturday night my stomach was starting to turn and my stools were losing structure.

Soy crisps were good although a little too sharp, and the chilli flavour also built up in a bad way in my… digestive system.

Really, I was pretty happy with this and got through all the oreos, snakes, and Skratch and only left 700g of choccy milk and soy crisps. Next time I’d bring some peanut butter and jam sandwiches or some other kind of bready food.

Sleep system

Based on a forecast 16c I brought the sol escape bivvy bag, 3mm eva foam sheet (50cm x 200cm) and a sea to summit reactor extreme sleeping bag liner. System weight was 600g. Even though it was only 11c and spitting slightly, setting up under a tree I was warm - warm enough to sleep twice as long as planned - a nice 3 hour sleep. I was happy with this system and would definitely run it again. I did wonder about going for the 0g “just lie on the ground” system but I think that only works if you sleep a lot less.

I already knew that I don’t enjoy sleep deprivation and this trip confirmed that, though I am continuing to get better at managing low sleep (by bringing the right gear to sleep in and having naps).

What next?

Despite preparing stress free, executing my race almost perfectly and finishing during pub hours (a 90 minute PB), I didn’t feel as extreme a high at the end of this race. I may have completed my share of bikepacking races - I don’t need to prove anything anymore. I think I’ll stick to bikepacking adventures or other non race formats for the next little while… until the next race catches my eye.

Photos provided by David White, David Turner, Eamon, and Matt S.