The Otway 300 is a 2 day pairs mountain bike race run by We Ride Bikes in it’s second and final year as it was announced Norm and Jess Douglas would not be running any future events after this one. I had teamed up with local legend Patrick Coe who is almost the same age as me and on paper (Strava) we seemed to be very well matched as far as speed goes.Pat has a reputation for being the hard man on the front at Vets racing dragging everybody along. Pat was also on holidays in Victoria at the time of the race so I would fly over and he would pick me up and drop me off at the airport.

Pickup and travel to Forrest worked out ok on Friday afternoon and we got our early rego sorted at the Forrest Brewery and headed off to find our digs at the Top of the Otways before the mandatory race briefing back in Forrest. We were a bit late getting back to the briefing and once it was over we had a late-ish night after we got the bikes sorted and nutrition ready for the first day.

Out of bed very early for race day one we had 175km and 3000M of climbing ahead of us. Pat was coming to the realization of what he had got himself into but I had confidence he was up to the task. It was raining in the Otways and we had rain jackets on at the start but it eased quite quickly as the race got under way. We did go through a few more showers early on but it was Ok riding except for all the mud and spray on the first descent. I though Pat was dropping off but he was dropping back to get out of the mud spraying off my rear wheel. There were feed stations stocked with all sorts of goodies to refuel with around every 30km and when we hit the 3rd stop Pat was not feeling good at all. Pat had just not eaten enough early on which is critical in these endurance events. I had asked him if he was eating a few times before that but he was just not eating enough. You must eat for the back end of the race on such a long day. It’s so hard to catch up once you are in deficit.

Pat was in for a real pain cave ride from then on and he was suffering for the rest of the day. I didn’t realize how much he was suffering till that night when I looked at his Strava data! He is one tough cookie though and pushed on for the rest of the day. He was in a dark place at times but he came through and finished the day. The look on his face as we crossed the finish line of day 1 said it all.

Our meal experience at the Wonky Donkey that night was straight out of Faulty Towers. There was a sign on the door saying “bookings required over Easter” (2 weeks away) and approaching the bar we were asked if we had a booking which we didn’t and I quote “it’s Easter you need a booking”! I asked her if Easter was at a different time in Victoria to Tasmania as it was 2 weeks away and she responded with “School Holidays are 2 weeks either side of Easter”, guess you have to be a local to work signs out around here. We managed to get on the end of one of the vacant tables after much conversation and got a very nice meal. There was a huge long table for 10 free as well that she was “saving in case some large group came in”, with a booking? Two women came in and got the same treatment we did but I offered them the end of our 6 person table but the women behind the bar would not let them on our table because we had it, getting more bizarre by the minute. Some people left so she put them on that table and then not 5 minutes later went over to the door and put up the closed sign! I wonder how many people get turned away here they could have sold a meal to! Straight to bed after preparing the bikes and nutrition for day 2.

We were out of contention in our age group after day 1 so I told Pat we were going to have a fun day and enjoy the ride as much as possible as we had another 125km and 3000M of climbing to go on day 2. Another gloomy start in the Otways but no rain. Day 2 finishes with lots of Forrest single track and we saved ourselves for that. There was a long section of rail trail on Day 2 that was just so fast and flowy, we had a ball on that section. There was also a long bitumen section and I could see some riders a few KM in the distance and upped the pace for a while till we caught them at the next feed stop. We caught them again after the feed station on a long gravel section and there was some obvious competitive spirit between the two groups. Pat was up for it and we sat on for a bit then on a small rise I gave him the signal and we put the hammer down. We gaped them and as we hit the next bitumen section a few KM on they were at least a KM or 2 behind us and we never saw them again. It did feel good….

Not long after this we hit the single track but it was not easy with a sting in the tail climbing even more up hill but on twist single track this time. Once out of all the single track there was a few KM run on the rail trail back into Forrest to the finish line the same as day 1. Pat was sitting in my draft as we powered into Forrest and crossed the finish line much to the relief of Pat. Our first and only O300 was done and dusted and after a quick interview by the organizers and collecting our finisher medals we sat down to a huge burger and started to refuel. The rain started just before presentations and we had to pack up in the pouring rain getting my bike washed so I could get it in the bike bag for the flight back. An awesome couple of days riding.

The Wonkey Donkey meal was uneventful on Sunday night as most people had left Forrest. We stayed the night and cruised down the Great Ocean Road to Torquay for a quick visit with Adz on the way through. Pat dropped me at the airport during the afternoon and he headed off to catch the boat back to Tassie through all the Melbourne traffic congestion. Much discussion about the weekend was had but he was interested in doing HellFire Cup with me later in the year so I didn’t put him off at all. HellFire is a lot of short sprint stages so they will suite him much better and more like the racing he is used to. I did HellFire in a mixed pair with Liz last time it was held. So glad we did O300 as it was the last one and apart from anything it was a great tour of the Otways on the mountain bikes even if there was a bit of pain involved it was a good training run for my upcoming world 24HR.

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