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๐Ž๐“๐–๐€๐˜ ๐Ž๐ƒ๐˜๐’๐’๐„๐˜ ๐„๐—๐“๐‘๐„๐Œ๐„-๐–๐„๐€๐“๐‡๐„๐‘ ๐‚๐‡๐€๐๐†๐„๐’:Howdy Riders, If you missed yesterday's post, there are extreme conditions forecas...
19/02/2025

๐Ž๐“๐–๐€๐˜ ๐Ž๐ƒ๐˜๐’๐’๐„๐˜ ๐„๐—๐“๐‘๐„๐Œ๐„-๐–๐„๐€๐“๐‡๐„๐‘ ๐‚๐‡๐€๐๐†๐„๐’:

Howdy Riders,

If you missed yesterday's post, there are extreme conditions forecasted for Otway Odyssey this Saturday:

- ๐‡๐จ๐ญ ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ก๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ข๐ ๐ฐ๐ž๐š๐ญ๐ก๐ž๐ซ (temperatures in Forrest forecast to reach 36deg in the late afternoon with high humidity).

- ๐„๐ฑ๐ญ๐ซ๐ž๐ฆ๐ž ๐Ÿ๐ข๐ซ๐ž ๐๐š๐ง๐ ๐ž๐ซ rating in the South West on Saturday (Sunday is forecast to be a more manageable 28deg and we are not proposing any changes to the GOGG).

We have had numerous discussions with Forest Fire Management, the local CFA and other stakeholders to ensure the safety of all riders.

All of these official bodies are happy for us to proceed with the events, however, they have strongly recommended some amendments (such as all riders being off the course by 12pm).

Based on their advice, ๐ฐ๐ž ๐ก๐š๐ฏ๐ž ๐ฆ๐š๐๐ž ๐ฌ๐ข๐ ๐ง๐ข๐Ÿ๐ข๐œ๐š๐ง๐ญ ๐œ๐ก๐š๐ง๐ ๐ž๐ฌ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฐ๐ž๐ž๐ค๐ž๐ง๐:

โ€“ ๐’๐š๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐๐š๐ฒ ๐Œ๐“๐ ๐ซ๐š๐œ๐ž๐ฌ ๐ฌ๐ญ๐š๐ซ๐ญ ~๐Ÿ‘๐ŸŽ๐ฆ๐ข๐ง๐ฌ ๐ž๐š๐ซ๐ฅ๐ข๐ž๐ซ
โ€“ ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐ŸŽ๐ค๐ฆ ๐Œ๐“๐ ๐ซ๐š๐œ๐ž ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ฌ๐ก๐จ๐ซ๐ญ๐ž๐ง๐ž๐ ๐ญ๐จ ๐Ÿ•๐Ÿ”๐ค๐ฆ (no Thompson's Track Loop)
โ€“ ๐Ÿ“๐ŸŽ๐ค๐ฆ ๐Œ๐“๐ ๐ซ๐š๐œ๐ž ๐ก๐š๐ฌ ๐ง๐ž๐ฐ ๐œ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐จ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฆ๐ž (11:30am at end of Red Carpet)
โ€“ ๐†๐ซ๐จ๐ฆ๐ฌ ๐ซ๐ข๐๐ž ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ฆ๐จ๐ฏ๐ž๐ ๐ญ๐จ ๐’๐ฎ๐ง๐๐š๐ฒ @ ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ:๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐ฉ๐ฆ
โ€“ ๐€๐๐๐ข๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐š๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐š๐ญ๐ž๐ซ ๐ฉ๐จ๐ข๐ง๐ญ๐ฌ, โ€˜๐œ๐จ๐จ๐ฅ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ฌ๐ญ๐š๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐งโ€™, ๐ฌ๐ก๐š๐๐ž ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ฆ๐จ๐ซ๐ž.

All of these changes are explained in detail in the updated event program (linked below).

We strongly encourage all event attendees to read the program and make sure you understand the new plans.

UPDATED EVENT PROGRAM HERE:
๐Ÿ‘‰https://issuu.com/rapidascent/docs/2025_otway_odyssey_and_gogg_program

If you have any questions or issues contact our office on (03) 5261 5511 or via [email protected]

Thanks for understanding. With these changes we expect it to be a fun & safe weekend of racing, avoiding the hottest part of the day!

"๐‘ฐ๐’• ๐’ƒ๐’“๐’Š๐’๐’ˆ๐’” ๐’–๐’” ๐’„๐’๐’๐’”๐’†๐’“ ๐’•๐’๐’ˆ๐’†๐’•๐’‰๐’†๐’“"The Odyssey weekend isn't all about skin-suits & winning-salutes... For riders like Derll...
06/02/2025

"๐‘ฐ๐’• ๐’ƒ๐’“๐’Š๐’๐’ˆ๐’” ๐’–๐’” ๐’„๐’๐’๐’”๐’†๐’“ ๐’•๐’๐’ˆ๐’†๐’•๐’‰๐’†๐’“"

The Odyssey weekend isn't all about skin-suits & winning-salutes...

For riders like Derlly, it's about the bonds she builds with her family along the way.

She says:
"๐ผ ๐‘™๐‘œ๐‘ฃ๐‘’ ๐‘š๐‘œ๐‘ข๐‘›๐‘ก๐‘Ž๐‘–๐‘› ๐‘๐‘–๐‘˜๐‘–๐‘›๐‘”, ๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘‘ ๐‘“๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ ๐‘š๐‘’, ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘‚๐‘ก๐‘ค๐‘Ž๐‘ฆ ๐‘‚๐‘‘๐‘ฆ๐‘ ๐‘ ๐‘’๐‘ฆ โ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘  ๐‘๐‘’๐‘๐‘œ๐‘š๐‘’ ๐‘Ž ๐‘“๐‘Ž๐‘š๐‘–๐‘™๐‘ฆ ๐‘ก๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ž๐‘‘๐‘–๐‘ก๐‘–๐‘œ๐‘›. ๐‘‡โ„Ž๐‘–๐‘  ๐‘–๐‘  ๐‘š๐‘ฆ ๐‘“๐‘œ๐‘ข๐‘Ÿ๐‘กโ„Ž ๐‘ฆ๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ, ๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘‘ ๐’†๐’—๐’†๐’“๐’š ๐’š๐’†๐’‚๐’“, ๐’Š๐’• ๐’ƒ๐’“๐’Š๐’๐’ˆ๐’” ๐’–๐’” ๐’„๐’๐’๐’”๐’†๐’“ ๐’•๐’๐’ˆ๐’†๐’•๐’‰๐’†๐’“. ๐ผ ๐‘”๐‘’๐‘ก ๐‘ก๐‘œ ๐‘Ÿ๐‘–๐‘‘๐‘’ ๐‘Ž๐‘™๐‘œ๐‘›๐‘”๐‘ ๐‘–๐‘‘๐‘’ ๐‘š๐‘ฆ ๐‘™๐‘œ๐‘ฃ๐‘’๐‘‘ ๐‘œ๐‘›๐‘’๐‘ , ๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘‘ ๐‘ค๐‘’ ๐‘โ„Ž๐‘’๐‘’๐‘Ÿ ๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘โ„Ž ๐‘œ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’๐‘Ÿ ๐‘œ๐‘› ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘Ÿ๐‘œ๐‘ข๐‘”โ„Ž ๐‘’๐‘ฃ๐‘’๐‘Ÿ๐‘ฆ ๐‘๐‘™๐‘–๐‘š๐‘ ๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘‘ ๐‘‘๐‘’๐‘ ๐‘๐‘’๐‘›๐‘ก. ๐ด๐‘‘๐‘’๐‘™๐‘’, ๐‘œ๐‘›๐‘’ ๐‘œ๐‘“ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘’๐‘ฃ๐‘’๐‘›๐‘ก ๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ๐‘”๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘–๐‘ ๐‘’๐‘Ÿ๐‘ , ๐‘–๐‘  ๐‘Ž๐‘› ๐‘–๐‘›๐‘ ๐‘๐‘–๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ž๐‘ก๐‘–๐‘œ๐‘›. ๐‘†โ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘š๐‘œ๐‘ก๐‘–๐‘ฃ๐‘Ž๐‘ก๐‘’๐‘  ๐‘’๐‘ฃ๐‘’๐‘Ÿ๐‘ฆ๐‘œ๐‘›๐‘’, ๐‘’๐‘ ๐‘๐‘’๐‘๐‘–๐‘Ž๐‘™๐‘™๐‘ฆ ๐‘ค๐‘œ๐‘š๐‘’๐‘›, ๐‘ก๐‘œ ๐‘”๐‘’๐‘ก ๐‘œ๐‘ข๐‘ก ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’๐‘Ÿ๐‘’ ๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘‘ ๐‘Ÿ๐‘–๐‘‘๐‘’. ๐ผ ๐‘™๐‘œ๐‘œ๐‘˜ ๐‘“๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ๐‘ค๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ๐‘‘ ๐‘ก๐‘œ ๐‘–๐‘ก ๐‘Ž๐‘™๐‘™ ๐‘ฆ๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ ๐‘™๐‘œ๐‘›๐‘”!"

Awesome stuff Derlly. This is the kinda story that gives us goosebumps!

Whether you plan on riding with your family, old mates, or new mates you make along the way, nothing forms connections like shared hardship.

Come join the suffering... errr we mean... fun:
๐Ÿ‘‰ https://bit.ly/ENTER_ODYSSEY_GOGG

First times at the Odyssey are always scaryโ€ฆ ๐–๐ก๐ž๐ญ๐ก๐ž๐ซ ๐ข๐ญโ€™๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐Ÿ๐ข๐ซ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฆ๐ž ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ฎ๐œ๐ค ๐ฎ๐ฉ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐œ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ๐š๐ ๐ž: โ€œ๐‘‡โ„Ž๐‘–๐‘  ๐‘–๐‘  ๐‘Ž ๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘’ ๐ผ โ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘ฃ...
06/02/2025

First times at the Odyssey are always scaryโ€ฆ

๐–๐ก๐ž๐ญ๐ก๐ž๐ซ ๐ข๐ญโ€™๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐Ÿ๐ข๐ซ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฆ๐ž ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ฎ๐œ๐ค ๐ฎ๐ฉ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐œ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ๐š๐ ๐ž:

โ€œ๐‘‡โ„Ž๐‘–๐‘  ๐‘–๐‘  ๐‘Ž ๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘’ ๐ผ โ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘ฃ๐‘’ ๐‘๐‘’๐‘’๐‘› ๐‘“๐‘œ๐‘™๐‘™๐‘œ๐‘ค๐‘–๐‘›๐‘” ๐‘“๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ ๐‘ฆ๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ๐‘  ๐‘๐‘ข๐‘ก ๐‘›๐‘’๐‘ฃ๐‘’๐‘Ÿ โ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘ฃ๐‘’ ๐‘๐‘’๐‘’๐‘› ๐‘๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ž๐‘ฃ๐‘’ ๐‘’๐‘›๐‘œ๐‘ข๐‘”โ„Ž ๐‘ก๐‘œ ๐‘‘๐‘œ ๐‘–๐‘ก. ๐‘€๐‘ฆ ๐‘™๐‘Ž๐‘ ๐‘ก ๐‘€๐‘‡๐ต ๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘’ ๐‘ค๐‘Ž๐‘  ๐‘–๐‘› โ„Ž๐‘–๐‘”โ„Ž ๐‘ ๐‘โ„Ž๐‘œ๐‘œ๐‘™ ๐‘ ๐‘œ ๐ผ'๐‘š ๐‘˜๐‘’๐‘’๐‘› ๐‘ก๐‘œ ๐‘โ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘™๐‘™๐‘’๐‘›๐‘”๐‘’ ๐‘š๐‘ฆ๐‘ ๐‘’๐‘™๐‘“ ๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘‘ ๐‘ ๐‘’๐‘’ โ„Ž๐‘œ๐‘ค ๐ผ ๐‘”๐‘œ. ๐ด๐‘  ๐‘Ž 41 ๐‘ฆ๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ ๐‘œ๐‘™๐‘‘ ๐‘‘๐‘Ž๐‘‘, ๐ผ'๐‘š โ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘๐‘ฆ ๐‘–๐‘“ ๐ผ ๐‘๐‘œ๐‘š๐‘๐‘™๐‘’๐‘ก๐‘’ ๐‘ค๐‘–๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘œ๐‘ข๐‘ก ๐‘Ž ๐ท๐‘๐น.โ€
โ€“ Mark, 50km MTB

๐…๐ข๐ซ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฆ๐ž ๐›๐š๐œ๐ค ๐š๐Ÿ๐ญ๐ž๐ซ ๐š ๐ฆ๐š๐ฃ๐จ๐ซ ๐ฅ๐ข๐Ÿ๐ž ๐ฌ๐ž๐ญ๐›๐š๐œ๐คโ€ฆ

โ€œ๐น๐‘–๐‘Ÿ๐‘ ๐‘ก ๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘’ ๐‘ ๐‘–๐‘›๐‘๐‘’ ๐‘๐‘’๐‘–๐‘›๐‘” ๐‘”๐‘–๐‘ฃ๐‘’๐‘› ๐‘๐‘™๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘๐‘’ ๐‘“๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ ๐‘ ๐‘ก๐‘Ÿ๐‘œ๐‘˜๐‘’ ๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘‘ ๐‘๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘๐‘’๐‘Ÿ. ๐บ๐‘Ÿ๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘ก ๐‘ก๐‘œ ๐‘๐‘’ ๐‘๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘˜.โ€
โ€“ Ian, 50km MTB

๐…๐ข๐ซ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฆ๐ž ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐ฏ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐‚๐€๐ ๐ญ๐ž๐š๐œ๐ก ๐š๐ง โ€œ๐จ๐ฅ๐โ€ ๐๐จ๐  ๐ง๐ž๐ฐ ๐ญ๐ซ๐ข๐œ๐ค๐ฌ...

โ€œ๐ผ'๐‘š 60 ๐‘ฆ๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ๐‘  ๐‘œ๐‘™๐‘‘, ๐ผ โ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘ฃ๐‘’ ๐‘›๐‘’๐‘ฃ๐‘’๐‘Ÿ ๐‘๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ๐‘ก๐‘–๐‘๐‘–๐‘๐‘Ž๐‘ก๐‘’๐‘‘ ๐‘–๐‘› ๐‘Ž ๐‘๐‘–๐‘˜๐‘’ ๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘’ ๐‘๐‘’๐‘“๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ๐‘’, ๐ผ ๐‘“๐‘–๐‘”๐‘ข๐‘Ÿ๐‘’๐‘‘ ๐‘–๐‘ก ๐‘ค๐‘Ž๐‘  ๐‘๐‘Ÿ๐‘œ๐‘๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘™๐‘ฆ ๐‘ก๐‘–๐‘š๐‘’, ๐ผ'๐‘ฃ๐‘’ ๐‘‘๐‘œ๐‘›๐‘’ ๐‘๐‘™๐‘’๐‘›๐‘ก๐‘ฆ ๐‘œ๐‘“ ๐‘œ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’๐‘Ÿ ๐‘ ๐‘๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ๐‘ก๐‘ , ๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘‘ ๐ผ ๐‘”๐‘ข๐‘’๐‘ ๐‘  ๐‘ฆ๐‘œ๐‘ข'๐‘Ÿ๐‘’ ๐‘›๐‘’๐‘ฃ๐‘’๐‘Ÿ ๐‘ก๐‘œ๐‘œ ๐‘œ๐‘™๐‘‘ ๐‘ก๐‘œ ๐‘ก๐‘Ÿ๐‘ฆ ๐‘ ๐‘œ๐‘š๐‘’๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘–๐‘›๐‘” ๐‘›๐‘’๐‘ค.โ€
โ€“ Jeffery, 30km MTB

๐…๐ข๐ซ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฆ๐ž ๐ซ๐ข๐๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ฌ๐จ ๐Ÿ๐š๐ซโ€ฆ

โ€œ๐ผ'๐‘š ๐‘‘๐‘œ๐‘–๐‘›๐‘” ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ 50๐‘˜๐‘š ๐‘“๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘“๐‘–๐‘Ÿ๐‘ ๐‘ก ๐‘ก๐‘–๐‘š๐‘’ ๐‘ค๐‘–๐‘กโ„Ž ๐‘š๐‘ฆ ๐ท๐‘Ž๐‘‘. ๐ผ'๐‘ฃ๐‘’ ๐‘›๐‘’๐‘ฃ๐‘’๐‘Ÿ ๐‘Ÿ๐‘–๐‘‘๐‘‘๐‘’๐‘› ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘ก ๐‘“๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ ๐‘œ๐‘› ๐‘Ž ๐‘๐‘–๐‘˜๐‘’ ๐‘’๐‘ฃ๐‘’๐‘Ÿ!โ€
โ€“ Elliot, 50km MTB (12 year old!)

๐…๐ข๐ซ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฆ๐ž ๐ข๐ง ๐š ๐ง๐ž๐ฐ ๐๐ข๐ฌ๐œ๐ข๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ข๐ง๐žโ€ฆ

โ€œ๐ผ ๐‘ค๐‘œ๐‘ข๐‘™๐‘‘ ๐‘™๐‘–๐‘˜๐‘’ ๐‘ก๐‘œ ๐‘ก๐‘Ÿ๐‘ฆ ๐‘Ž ๐‘”๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ž๐‘ฃ๐‘’๐‘™ ๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘’ ๐‘“๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘“๐‘–๐‘Ÿ๐‘ ๐‘ก ๐‘ก๐‘–๐‘š๐‘’!โ€
โ€“ Sholto 97km GRAVEL
โ€‹โ€‹
๐…๐ข๐ซ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฆ๐ž ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ง๐ž๐ฑ๐ญ ๐ ๐ž๐ง๐ž๐ซ๐š๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐งโ€ฆ

โ€œ๐ด๐‘๐‘๐‘œ๐‘š๐‘๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘ฆ๐‘–๐‘›๐‘” ๐‘š๐‘ฆ 3 ๐‘˜๐‘–๐‘‘๐‘  ๐‘–๐‘› ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’๐‘–๐‘Ÿ ๐‘“๐‘–๐‘Ÿ๐‘ ๐‘ก ๐‘€๐‘‡๐ต ๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘’.โ€
โ€“ David 10km MTB

๐Ž๐ซ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐Ÿ๐ข๐ซ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฆ๐ž ๐ข๐ง ๐ฆ๐ž๐ฆ๐จ๐ซ๐ฒ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ ๐จ๐จ๐ ๐ฆ๐š๐ญ๐ž๐ฌโ€ฆ

โ€œ๐ผโ€™๐‘š ๐‘Ÿ๐‘–๐‘‘๐‘–๐‘›๐‘” ๐‘–๐‘› ๐‘š๐‘’๐‘š๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ๐‘ฆ ๐‘œ๐‘“ ๐‘Ž ๐‘”๐‘œ๐‘œ๐‘‘ ๐‘“๐‘Ÿ๐‘–๐‘’๐‘›๐‘‘. ๐ผโ€™๐‘š ๐‘›๐‘œ๐‘ก ๐‘ ๐‘ข๐‘Ÿ๐‘’ โ„Ž๐‘œ๐‘ค ๐ผโ€™๐‘™๐‘™ โ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘‘๐‘™๐‘’ ๐‘Ÿ๐‘œ๐‘™๐‘™๐‘–๐‘›๐‘” ๐‘–๐‘› ๐‘˜๐‘›๐‘œ๐‘ค๐‘–๐‘›๐‘” ๐ผโ€™๐‘™๐‘™ ๐‘›๐‘’๐‘ฃ๐‘’๐‘Ÿ ๐‘ ๐‘’๐‘’ โ„Ž๐‘–๐‘š, ๐‘๐‘ข๐‘ก ๐ผโ€™๐‘™๐‘™ ๐‘๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ÿ๐‘ฆ โ„Ž๐‘–๐‘š ๐‘Ž๐‘™๐‘œ๐‘›๐‘” ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘ค๐‘Ž๐‘ฆโ€
โ€“ Scotty, 49km GRAVEL

No matter what the situation, first times take courage.

So, please put your virtual hands together for the brave souls breaking personal frontiers at the 2025 Odyssey.

Weโ€™ll certainly be cheering extra hard when they cross the line.
The Rapid Ascent Team

ENTRIES HERE:
๐Ÿ‘‰ https://bit.ly/ENTER_ODYSSEY_GOGG

You donโ€™t have to dig very deep to find overlap between Otway Odyssey and the Life Time Grand Prix (the most elite, off-...
05/02/2025

You donโ€™t have to dig very deep to find overlap between Otway Odyssey and the Life Time Grand Prix (the most elite, off-road cycling series in the world).

Examplesโ€ฆ

๐‘๐ฒ๐š๐ง ๐’๐ญ๐š๐ง๐๐ข๐ฌ๐ก won the 2018 Otway Odyssey (ahead of Tour Down Under Winner Jay Vine). He then went on to race the 2023 Life Time Grand Prix, finishing in 25th position.

๐“๐š๐ฌ๐ฆ๐š๐ง ๐๐š๐ง๐ค๐ž๐ซ๐ฏ๐ข๐ฌ is a mainstay at the Otway Odyssey โ€“ winning the 100km in 2017. Heโ€™s arguably even stronger at the GOGG โ€“ winning the event 6 times in itโ€™s 9 year history!
Tasman also raced the Life Time Grand Prix in 2023, placing an impressive 17th.

Then thereโ€™s ๐๐ซ๐ž๐ง๐๐š๐ง ๐‰๐จ๐ก๐ง๐ฌ๐ญ๐จ๐งโ€ฆ He races Odyssey virtually every year (and has won the 100km twice in 2019, 2022). Trekky placed 7th in the 2023 Life Time Grand Prix and 4th in 2024. (He also came 2nd by the narrowest of margins in the prestigious Big Sugar Gravel Race in 2023).

In the womenโ€™s field, thereโ€™s ๐๐ž๐ญ๐š ๐Œ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ž๐ง๐ฌ โ€“ 6 time Odyssey champion and 3 time winner of the GOGG. Peta raced the Life Time Grand Prix last year and placed a very respectable 21st.

Thereโ€™s also ๐’๐š๐ฆ๐š๐ซ๐š ๐’๐ก๐ž๐ฉ๐ฉ๐š๐ซ๐โ€ฆ Sheโ€™s a force to be reckoned with in the Odyssey and GOGG each year (2025 to be no exception). Sheโ€™s won the GOGG twice (2019 & 2024) and has been a fixture at the pointy end of the 100km MTB in recent years. Samara raced the 2024 Life Time Grand Prix, placing an awesome 16th against the best in the business. Now sheโ€™s lining up for the 2025 series too!

Then thereโ€™s ๐„๐ฅ๐ฅ๐š ๐๐ฅ๐จ๐จ๐ซโ€ฆ Ella placed 5th in last yearโ€™s Odyssey (and won the Shimano Gravel Muster!) off the back of her 2023 Life Time Grand Prix circuit where she finished 22nd.

And, letโ€™s not forget, ๐‚๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ญ๐ง๐ž๐ฒ ๐’๐ก๐ž๐ซ๐ฐ๐ž๐ฅ๐ฅ โ€“ previous winner of the GOGG (2022) and second place getter in the 100km Odyssey. Coming off the back of some world-class results, Courtney is a confirmed starter in the 2025 Life Time Grand Prix.

But thatโ€™s not allโ€ฆ

๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ’ ๐‹๐ž๐š๐๐ฏ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ž ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐ŸŽ ๐ฐ๐ข๐ง๐ง๐ž๐ซ (๐š๐ง๐ ๐ฌ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฏ๐ž๐ซ ๐ฆ๐ž๐๐š๐ฅ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ข๐ง ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ’ ๐‹๐ข๐Ÿ๐ž ๐“๐ข๐ฆ๐ž ๐†๐ซ๐š๐ง๐ ๐๐ซ๐ข๐ฑ), ๐Œ๐„๐‹๐ˆ๐’๐€ ๐‘๐Ž๐‹๐‹๐ˆ๐๐’, ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ฃ๐จ๐ข๐ง๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐š๐œ๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐š๐ญ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ“ ๐Ž๐๐ฒ๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ž๐ฒ.

Join these legends on the start line here:
๐Ÿ‘‰ https://bit.ly/ENTER_ODYSSEY_GOGG

Act casualโ€ฆ thereโ€™s cycling royalty in our midst! ๐Ÿ‘‘๐Ÿšดโ€โ™€๏ธWeโ€™re stoked to announce that 2024 Leadville 100 winner, MELISA R...
05/02/2025

Act casualโ€ฆ thereโ€™s cycling royalty in our midst! ๐Ÿ‘‘๐Ÿšดโ€โ™€๏ธ

Weโ€™re stoked to announce that 2024 Leadville 100 winner, MELISA ROLLINS, is a confirmed starter for the 2025 Otway Odyssey!

She finished 2nd in the Life Time Grand Prix last year, so sheโ€™ll no doubt be in the mix for the win. Plus, calls her a โ€œgirl crushโ€ โ€“ so you know sheโ€™s a top notch human!

๐‡๐จ๐ฐ ๐๐จ๐ž๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐Ž๐๐ฒ๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ž๐ฒ ๐Ÿ๐ข๐ญ ๐ข๐ง๐ญ๐จ ๐ก๐ž๐ซ ๐ฌ๐ž๐š๐ฌ๐จ๐ง?
"๐ผ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘–๐‘›๐‘˜ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘ก๐‘–๐‘š๐‘–๐‘›๐‘” ๐‘œ๐‘“ ๐‘‚๐‘ก๐‘ค๐‘Ž๐‘ฆ ๐‘–๐‘  ๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘ก๐‘ข๐‘Ž๐‘™๐‘™๐‘ฆ ๐‘๐‘’๐‘Ÿ๐‘“๐‘’๐‘๐‘ก ๐‘“๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ ๐‘Ž๐‘› "๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ๐‘™๐‘ฆ ๐‘ ๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘ ๐‘œ๐‘›" ๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘’. ๐ต๐‘’๐‘๐‘Ž๐‘ข๐‘ ๐‘’ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘ˆ๐‘† ๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘–๐‘›๐‘” โ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘๐‘’๐‘›๐‘  ๐‘š๐‘œ๐‘ ๐‘ก๐‘™๐‘ฆ ๐‘‘๐‘ข๐‘Ÿ๐‘–๐‘›๐‘” ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘œ๐‘๐‘๐‘œ๐‘ ๐‘–๐‘ก๐‘’ ๐‘๐‘Ž๐‘™๐‘’๐‘›๐‘‘๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ ๐‘ก๐‘œ ๐ด๐‘ข๐‘ ๐‘ก๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ž๐‘™๐‘–๐‘Ž๐‘› ๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘–๐‘›๐‘”, ๐‘–๐‘ก'๐‘™๐‘™ ๐‘๐‘’ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘“๐‘–๐‘Ÿ๐‘ ๐‘ก ๐‘Ÿ๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘™ ๐‘ก๐‘’๐‘ ๐‘ก ๐‘œ๐‘“ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘™๐‘’๐‘”๐‘  ๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘‘ ๐‘ ๐‘œ๐‘š๐‘’ ๐‘”๐‘œ๐‘œ๐‘‘ ๐‘€๐‘‡๐ต ๐‘ก๐‘–๐‘š๐‘’. ๐ด๐‘› ๐‘Ž๐‘‘๐‘‘๐‘’๐‘‘ ๐‘๐‘œ๐‘›๐‘ข๐‘  ๐‘“๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ ๐‘š๐‘’ ๐‘Ž๐‘  ๐‘Ž๐‘› ๐ด๐‘š๐‘’๐‘Ÿ๐‘–๐‘๐‘Ž๐‘› ๐‘–๐‘  ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘ก ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘ค๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’๐‘Ÿ ๐‘ค๐‘–๐‘™๐‘™ ๐‘๐‘’ ๐‘Ÿ๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘™๐‘™๐‘ฆ ๐‘›๐‘–๐‘๐‘’!"

๐“๐ก๐จ๐ฎ๐ ๐ก๐ญ๐ฌ ๐จ๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐œ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ฌ๐ž?
"๐ผ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘–๐‘›๐‘˜ ๐‘“๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ ๐‘™๐‘œ๐‘›๐‘”๐‘’๐‘Ÿ ๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘’๐‘  ๐‘–๐‘ก'๐‘  ๐‘Ž๐‘™๐‘ค๐‘Ž๐‘ฆ๐‘  ๐‘–๐‘š๐‘๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ๐‘ก๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘ก ๐‘ก๐‘œ ๐‘๐‘Ÿ๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘˜ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘๐‘œ๐‘ข๐‘Ÿ๐‘ ๐‘’ ๐‘‘๐‘œ๐‘ค๐‘› ๐‘–๐‘›๐‘ก๐‘œ ๐‘ ๐‘’๐‘”๐‘š๐‘’๐‘›๐‘ก๐‘  ๐‘ ๐‘œ ๐‘Ž๐‘  ๐‘›๐‘œ๐‘ก ๐‘ก๐‘œ ๐‘”๐‘’๐‘ก ๐‘ก๐‘œ๐‘œ ๐‘œ๐‘ฃ๐‘’๐‘Ÿ๐‘คโ„Ž๐‘’๐‘™๐‘š๐‘’๐‘‘ ๐‘๐‘ฆ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘‘๐‘–๐‘ ๐‘ก๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘๐‘’. ๐ผ๐‘ก ๐‘Ž๐‘™๐‘ ๐‘œ ๐‘๐‘Ž๐‘› โ„Ž๐‘’๐‘™๐‘ ๐‘’๐‘ ๐‘ก๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘™๐‘–๐‘ โ„Ž ๐‘Ž ๐‘๐‘’๐‘ก๐‘ก๐‘’๐‘Ÿ ๐‘๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘–๐‘›๐‘” ๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘‘ ๐‘›๐‘ข๐‘ก๐‘Ÿ๐‘–๐‘ก๐‘–๐‘œ๐‘› ๐‘ ๐‘ก๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ž๐‘ก๐‘’๐‘”๐‘ฆ ๐‘–๐‘“ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘๐‘œ๐‘ข๐‘Ÿ๐‘ ๐‘’ ๐‘–๐‘  ๐‘๐‘Ÿ๐‘œ๐‘˜๐‘’๐‘› ๐‘‘๐‘œ๐‘ค๐‘› ๐‘–๐‘›๐‘ก๐‘œ ๐‘ ๐‘’๐‘”๐‘š๐‘’๐‘›๐‘ก๐‘ ."

๐…๐ฎ๐ž๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ซ๐š๐ญ๐ž๐ ๐ฒ?
"๐ผ ๐‘™๐‘–๐‘˜๐‘’ ๐‘ก๐‘œ ๐‘‘๐‘œ 100 ๐‘” ๐‘๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ๐‘/โ„Ž๐‘Ÿ. ๐ผ'๐‘ฃ๐‘’ ๐‘’๐‘ฅ๐‘๐‘’๐‘Ÿ๐‘–๐‘š๐‘’๐‘›๐‘ก๐‘’๐‘‘ ๐‘ค๐‘–๐‘กโ„Ž ๐‘š๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ๐‘’ ๐‘๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ๐‘๐‘  ๐‘–๐‘› ๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘’๐‘  ๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘‘ ๐‘–๐‘ก ๐‘›๐‘’๐‘ฃ๐‘’๐‘Ÿ ๐‘’๐‘›๐‘‘๐‘  ๐‘ค๐‘’๐‘™๐‘™ ๐‘“๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ ๐‘š๐‘ฆ ๐‘ ๐‘ก๐‘œ๐‘š๐‘Ž๐‘โ„Ž. ๐‘๐‘œ ๐‘๐‘Ž๐‘“๐‘“๐‘’๐‘–๐‘›๐‘’ ๐‘œ๐‘› ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘๐‘–๐‘˜๐‘’, ๐‘—๐‘ข๐‘ ๐‘ก ๐‘๐‘œ๐‘“๐‘“๐‘’๐‘’ ๐‘–๐‘› ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘š๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ๐‘›๐‘–๐‘›๐‘”! ๐‘€๐‘ฆ ๐‘Ž๐‘‘๐‘ฃ๐‘–๐‘๐‘’ ๐‘–๐‘  ๐‘ก๐‘œ โ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘ฃ๐‘’ ๐‘Ž ๐‘›๐‘ข๐‘ก๐‘Ÿ๐‘–๐‘ก๐‘–๐‘œ๐‘› ๐‘๐‘™๐‘Ž๐‘› ๐‘™๐‘Ž๐‘–๐‘‘ ๐‘œ๐‘ข๐‘ก ๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘‘ ๐‘๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘ก๐‘–๐‘๐‘’๐‘‘! ๐ธ๐‘Ž๐‘ก ๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ๐‘™๐‘ฆ ๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘‘ ๐‘œ๐‘“๐‘ก๐‘’๐‘›. ๐ท๐‘œ๐‘›'๐‘ก ๐‘ก๐‘Ÿ๐‘ฆ ๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘ฆ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘–๐‘›๐‘” ๐‘›๐‘’๐‘ค ๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘‘ ๐‘‘๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ž๐‘ ๐‘ก๐‘–๐‘ ๐‘œ๐‘› ๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘’ ๐‘‘๐‘Ž๐‘ฆ."

๐๐ž๐ซ๐ฏ๐ž๐ฌ ๐›๐ž๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ๐ž ๐š ๐ซ๐š๐œ๐ž?
" ๐‘‚๐‘“ ๐‘๐‘œ๐‘ข๐‘Ÿ๐‘ ๐‘’ ๐ผ ๐‘”๐‘’๐‘ก ๐‘›๐‘’๐‘Ÿ๐‘ฃ๐‘œ๐‘ข๐‘ ! ๐ผ'๐‘š ๐‘Ž๐‘™๐‘ค๐‘Ž๐‘ฆ๐‘  ๐‘›๐‘’๐‘Ÿ๐‘ฃ๐‘œ๐‘ข๐‘  ๐‘œ๐‘› ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘ ๐‘ก๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ๐‘ก ๐‘™๐‘–๐‘›๐‘’. ๐ผ ๐‘™๐‘–๐‘˜๐‘’ ๐‘ก๐‘œ ๐‘ก๐‘’๐‘™๐‘™ ๐‘š๐‘ฆ๐‘ ๐‘’๐‘™๐‘“ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘ก ๐‘›๐‘’๐‘Ÿ๐‘ฃ๐‘’๐‘  ๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ๐‘’ ๐‘Ž ๐‘”๐‘œ๐‘œ๐‘‘ ๐‘ ๐‘–๐‘”๐‘› ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘œ๐‘ข๐‘”โ„Ž, ๐‘–๐‘ก ๐‘š๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘  ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘ก ๐‘ฆ๐‘œ๐‘ข ๐‘๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ๐‘’ ๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘œ๐‘ข๐‘ก ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘œ๐‘ข๐‘ก๐‘๐‘œ๐‘š๐‘’ ๐‘œ๐‘“ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘’, ๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘‘ ๐‘›๐‘’๐‘Ÿ๐‘ฃ๐‘’๐‘  ๐‘Ž๐‘™๐‘ค๐‘Ž๐‘ฆ๐‘  ๐‘”๐‘–๐‘ฃ๐‘’ ๐‘Ž๐‘› ๐‘œ๐‘๐‘๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ๐‘ก๐‘ข๐‘›๐‘–๐‘ก๐‘ฆ ๐‘ก๐‘œ ๐‘”๐‘’๐‘ก ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘š๐‘œ๐‘ ๐‘ก ๐‘œ๐‘ข๐‘ก ๐‘œ๐‘“ ๐‘ฆ๐‘œ๐‘ข๐‘Ÿ๐‘ ๐‘’๐‘™๐‘“."

๐๐ข๐ค๐ž ๐ฌ๐ž๐ญ๐ฎ๐ฉ?
"๐‘€๐‘ฆ ๐‘ ๐‘’๐‘ก๐‘ข๐‘ ๐‘ค๐‘–๐‘™๐‘™ ๐‘š๐‘œ๐‘ ๐‘ก๐‘™๐‘ฆ ๐‘๐‘’ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘ ๐‘Ž๐‘š๐‘’ ๐‘Ž๐‘  ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘š๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ž๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘œ๐‘› ๐‘‹๐ถ ๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘’๐‘  ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘ก ๐ผ ๐‘‘๐‘œ ๐‘–๐‘› ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘ ๐‘ก๐‘Ž๐‘ก๐‘’๐‘ . ๐ผ'๐‘™๐‘™ ๐‘Ÿ๐‘ข๐‘› ๐‘ ๐‘œ๐‘š๐‘’ ๐‘“๐‘Ž๐‘ ๐‘ก ๐‘Ÿ๐‘œ๐‘™๐‘™๐‘–๐‘›๐‘” ๐พ๐‘’๐‘›๐‘‘๐‘Ž ๐‘…๐‘ข๐‘ โ„Ž ๐‘ƒ๐‘Ÿ๐‘œ ๐‘ก๐‘–๐‘Ÿ๐‘’๐‘ --๐‘š๐‘ฆ ๐‘ ๐‘ก๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘™๐‘’ ๐‘Ž๐‘ก ๐‘‹๐ถ ๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘’๐‘ . ๐ผ ๐‘ค๐‘–๐‘™๐‘™ โ„Ž๐‘œ๐‘ค๐‘’๐‘ฃ๐‘’๐‘Ÿ ๐‘๐‘’ ๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘–๐‘›๐‘” ๐‘œ๐‘› ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐ฟ๐‘–๐‘ฃ ๐‘ƒ๐‘–๐‘ž๐‘ข๐‘’, ๐‘คโ„Ž๐‘–๐‘โ„Ž ๐‘–๐‘  ๐‘Ž ๐‘›๐‘’๐‘ค ๐‘๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ๐‘ก๐‘›๐‘’๐‘Ÿ ๐‘œ๐‘“ ๐‘š๐‘–๐‘›๐‘’ ๐‘“๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘–๐‘  ๐‘ฆ๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ."

๐€๐๐ฏ๐ข๐œ๐ž ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ ๐Ÿ๐ข๐ซ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฆ๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ?
"๐ผ'๐‘š ๐‘›๐‘œ๐‘ก ๐‘ ๐‘ข๐‘Ÿ๐‘’ ๐‘–๐‘“ ๐ผ ๐‘๐‘Ž๐‘› ๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘ ๐‘ค๐‘’๐‘Ÿ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘–๐‘  ๐‘œ๐‘›๐‘’, โ„Ž๐‘œ๐‘๐‘’๐‘“๐‘ข๐‘™๐‘™๐‘ฆ ๐‘ ๐‘œ๐‘š๐‘’๐‘œ๐‘›๐‘’ ๐‘๐‘Ž๐‘› ๐‘™๐‘’๐‘ก ๐‘š๐‘’ ๐‘˜๐‘›๐‘œ๐‘ค ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘ ๐‘ค๐‘’๐‘Ÿ ๐Ÿ™‚"

So good to have you Melisa.

Canโ€™t wait to see you take on the Odyssey! ๐Ÿ”ฅ

To join Melisa on the start line, get your entry in here before prices go up next Monday:
๐Ÿ‘‰ https://bit.ly/ENTER_ODYSSEY_GOGG

[๐Ž๐“๐–๐€๐˜ ๐Ž๐ƒ๐˜๐’๐’๐„๐˜ ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐ŸŽ๐Š๐Œ | ๐‚๐Ž๐”๐‘๐’๐„ ๐๐Ž๐“๐„๐’ | ๐๐€๐‘๐“ ๐Ÿ• | โ€œ๐€ ๐‹๐ˆ๐“๐“๐‹๐„ ๐’๐„๐๐ƒ๐˜โ€]Gravity, oh sweet gravity...And after a brute of a climb...
05/02/2025

[๐Ž๐“๐–๐€๐˜ ๐Ž๐ƒ๐˜๐’๐’๐„๐˜ ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐ŸŽ๐Š๐Œ | ๐‚๐Ž๐”๐‘๐’๐„ ๐๐Ž๐“๐„๐’ | ๐๐€๐‘๐“ ๐Ÿ• | โ€œ๐€ ๐‹๐ˆ๐“๐“๐‹๐„ ๐’๐„๐๐ƒ๐˜โ€]

Gravity, oh sweet gravity...

And after a brute of a climb up Thompsons Track (the 90km point of the race), you take a left hand turn on Hayden Track and begin the mostly downhill approach to the finish.

After 3km of relatively smooth sailing, you take a left onto Newcombe Spur Track, and things get a little rugged.

This undulating, stunning and sometimes rutty section of fire-road is surrounded towering Mountain Ash and covered with the associated debris. (If you Google โ€œNewcombe Spur Trackโ€ youโ€™ll see dozens of images of Land Cruisers up to their axles in ruts!).

Pick your line carefully, let gravity do the talking and when you hit the steep climbs, use momentum to your advantage.

The fastest known time down this ~8km section was set by Adrian Jackson during last yearโ€™s Odyssey. He completed the โ€œdescentโ€ in a time of ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ” ๐ฆ๐ข๐ง๐ฎ๐ญ๐ž๐ฌ ๐š๐ง๐ ๐Ÿ’๐Ÿ” ๐ฌ๐ž๐œ๐จ๐ง๐๐ฌ โ€“ ๐š๐ง ๐š๐ฏ๐ž๐ซ๐š๐ ๐ž ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐š๐›๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ– ๐ค๐ฆ๐ก.

In the womenโ€™s, Samara Sheppard took the QOM in 2023โ€™s race. She completed this Segment in ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ง๐ฎ๐ญ๐ž๐ฌ ๐Ÿ“๐Ÿ ๐ฌ๐ž๐œ๐จ๐ง๐๐ฌ ๐š๐ญ ๐š๐ง ๐š๐ฏ๐ž๐ซ๐š๐ ๐ž ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ‘ ๐ค๐ฆ/๐ก.

Let those average speeds be a clueโ€ฆ

This โ€œdescentโ€ is not to be underestimated!

For Strava stalking, go here:
๐Ÿ‘‰ https://www.strava.com/segments/31063567?filter=overall

And to enter the Odyssey nd/or GOGG, go here:
๐Ÿ‘‰ https://bit.ly/ENTER_ODYSSEY_GOGG

Getting close nowโ€ฆ

The (very excited) Rapid Ascent Team

[๐Ž๐“๐–๐€๐˜ ๐Ž๐ƒ๐˜๐’๐’๐„๐˜ ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐ŸŽ๐Š๐Œ | ๐‚๐Ž๐”๐‘๐’๐„ ๐๐Ž๐“๐„๐’ | ๐๐€๐‘๐“ ๐Ÿ” | ๐“๐‡๐Ž๐Œ๐๐’๐Ž๐๐’ ๐“๐‘๐€๐‚๐Š] Whenever we think of Thompson Track, we immediately thin...
05/02/2025

[๐Ž๐“๐–๐€๐˜ ๐Ž๐ƒ๐˜๐’๐’๐„๐˜ ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐ŸŽ๐Š๐Œ | ๐‚๐Ž๐”๐‘๐’๐„ ๐๐Ž๐“๐„๐’ | ๐๐€๐‘๐“ ๐Ÿ” | ๐“๐‡๐Ž๐Œ๐๐’๐Ž๐๐’ ๐“๐‘๐€๐‚๐Š]

Whenever we think of Thompson Track, we immediately think of the Thompson Submachine Gunโ€ฆ

And thatโ€™s because when you hit this ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ.๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ๐ค๐ฆ ๐œ๐ฅ๐ข๐ฆ๐›, ๐š๐ญ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐Ÿ•๐Ÿ•.๐Ÿ“๐ค๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐จ๐ข๐ง๐ญ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ซ๐š๐œ๐ž, it feels like having your legs torn apart by one thousand bullets.

Itโ€™s longโ€ฆ

Itโ€™s steep (getting up to 15% in places)...

And itโ€™s brutally late in the race.

Good news is, you can mentally break the climb into 2 partsโ€ฆ
1) ๐…๐ข๐ซ๐ฌ๐ญ, ๐ญ๐ก๐ž๐ซ๐ž ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐Ÿ”๐ค๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฐ๐ž๐ซ ๐ฌ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฉ๐ž ๐Ÿฅตโ€“ with an average of 4.4% (with plenty of leg-sappingly steep sections).
2) ๐“๐ก๐ž๐ง, ๐š ๐ฌ๐ก๐จ๐ซ๐ญ ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ฌ๐ก๐š๐ซ๐ฉ, ~๐Ÿ๐ค๐ฆ ๐๐ž๐ฌ๐œ๐ž๐ง๐ญ ๐Ÿ˜…โ€ฆ
3) And, ๐Ÿ๐ข๐ง๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฒ, ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฅ๐š๐ฌ๐ญ ๐›๐ซ๐ฎ๐ญ๐š๐ฅ ๐ฉ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ก ๐ญ๐จ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ญ๐จ๐ฉ ๐Ÿ˜ตโ€๐Ÿ’ซ(~620m above sea level).

The whole thing (including descent) is a smidgen over 10km and, believe it or not, the KOM does NOT belong to Tali Lane-Welshโ€ฆ

Rather, Brendan โ€œTrekkyโ€ Johnston has the record from 2023. He rode the entire climb in 30 mins 45 seconds at an average power of 372 watts ๐Ÿคฏ (he went on to finish 2nd to Dan McConnell by just 2 seconds!).

The womenโ€™s QOM is also a bit surprisingโ€ฆ

Itโ€™s not Bec Hendersonโ€ฆ

Not Peta Mullensโ€ฆ

But Samara Sheppard, in 2023, when she polished off the climb in a rapid 36 mins 32 seconds to claim 3rd place overall (power data not available ๐Ÿ˜”).

Elites asideโ€ฆ

This climb is a brute and should be respected.

When you go through the footy ground for the 3rd and final time, eat plenty, have a caffeine gel and get ready for a loooong push to the high point.

Having said that, you can afford to *somewhat* empty the tank towards the top โ€“ itโ€™s all down hill from the top (except for the uphills).

For Strava sluths, the segment is here: https://www.strava.com/segments/31122405?filter=overall

For entries, go here:
๐Ÿ‘‰ https://bit.ly/41mTj1o

P.S. If you donโ€™t like the sound of Thompson Track, fear not. There are plenty of shorter race options that miss this section altogether!

[๐Ž๐“๐–๐€๐˜ ๐Ž๐ƒ๐˜๐’๐’๐„๐˜ ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐ŸŽ๐Š๐Œ | ๐‚๐Ž๐”๐‘๐’๐„ ๐๐Ž๐“๐„๐’ | ๐๐€๐‘๐“ ๐Ÿ“ | ๐“๐‡๐„ ๐˜๐€๐”๐†๐‡๐„๐‘ ๐‡๐˜๐๐๐Ž๐“๐ˆ๐’๐„๐‘] Welcome to โ€œThe Hypnotiserโ€!After coming through ...
05/02/2025

[๐Ž๐“๐–๐€๐˜ ๐Ž๐ƒ๐˜๐’๐’๐„๐˜ ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐ŸŽ๐Š๐Œ | ๐‚๐Ž๐”๐‘๐’๐„ ๐๐Ž๐“๐„๐’ | ๐๐€๐‘๐“ ๐Ÿ“ | ๐“๐‡๐„ ๐˜๐€๐”๐†๐‡๐„๐‘ ๐‡๐˜๐๐๐Ž๐“๐ˆ๐’๐„๐‘]

Welcome to โ€œThe Hypnotiserโ€!

After coming through the footy ground expo for the first time โ€“ and hopefully stuffing your face with a metric sh*tload of sugar (youโ€™ll need it) โ€“ youโ€™ll climb a steep bit of fire track (Boundary Rd) before entering the Yaugher single-track zone.

And, in the Odyssey, thereโ€™s not much of Yaugher your tyres wonโ€™t traverse!

Youโ€™ll ride all the famous tracks like Grasstrees, Mariners, The Yaugher Super Loop, and J2โ€ฆ

And, at the 68km mark โ€“ WHACK โ€“ youโ€™ll meet the infamous โ€œSandy Pinchโ€ โ€“ a 260m long, steep, loose climb that only the most elite riders can get up on two wheels. (Our advice is to save plenty of energy for the top third of this pinch).

All told, The Yaugher Hypnotiser is an undulating 34km that will have you changing directions more times than a ping-pong ball in a washing machine.

SAVE PLENTY OF BICCIES FOR YAUGHER!

If youโ€™re riding this section with heavy legs/eyelids, you can lose a lot of flow (and speed).

For Strava stalking, go here:
https://www.strava.com/segments/33827622

And for more info about the event, check out the website here:
https://bit.ly/41mTj1o

As always, if youโ€™ve got any stories/advice/warnings about this sectionโ€ฆ

Please unleash in the comments below!

[๐Ž๐“๐–๐€๐˜ ๐Ž๐ƒ๐˜๐’๐’๐„๐˜ ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐ŸŽ๐Š๐Œ | ๐‚๐Ž๐”๐‘๐’๐„ ๐๐Ž๐“๐„๐’ | ๐๐€๐‘๐“ ๐Ÿ’ | ๐…๐Ž๐‹๐‹๐Ž๐– ๐“๐‡๐„ ๐ƒ๐Ž๐† (๐„๐“ ๐€๐‹)]Okโ€ฆ Youโ€™ve got through the first big fire track cl...
05/02/2025

[๐Ž๐“๐–๐€๐˜ ๐Ž๐ƒ๐˜๐’๐’๐„๐˜ ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐ŸŽ๐Š๐Œ | ๐‚๐Ž๐”๐‘๐’๐„ ๐๐Ž๐“๐„๐’ | ๐๐€๐‘๐“ ๐Ÿ’ | ๐…๐Ž๐‹๐‹๐Ž๐– ๐“๐‡๐„ ๐ƒ๐Ž๐† (๐„๐“ ๐€๐‹)]

Okโ€ฆ

Youโ€™ve got through the first big fire track climb or Kaanglang Rd (https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BBXH2ihwQ/)โ€ฆ

Survived the undulating descent (and the Noonday climb! https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=558410659993919)โ€ฆ

And displayed some flare on the Red Carpet timed descent (https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EqaXDhVQA/).

Now itโ€™s time for the single track to kick off in earnest at Forrestโ€™s newly refurbished Southern Trail Network (at the 27km point of the race).

First, youโ€™ll climb for approximately 2km on โ€œStomp Wallabyโ€, before joining โ€œThird Time Luckyโ€ and โ€œFollow the Dogโ€ for a fun rollercoaster of trails.

This is a magnificent, weaving and flowy section of track through the rich-green ferns โ€“ complete with rollable jumps, sweeping berms and enjoyable climbs (just watch out for loose sections of gravel).

You can watch the Flow MTB crew shredding this section:
https://youtu.be/7tiiqgXEMPA?t=218

After 12km of leg pumping action, it's back onto the Yaugher Rd for a cruise/TT back to the Footy Oval (Race HQ) for your first re-fuelling (and cheers from the crowd).

Now, for the Strava stalkers and KOM huntersโ€ฆ

The Segment to chase in this section is โ€œForrest 6 Follow the dogโ€.
(https://www.strava.com/segments/767928).

No surprises that Tali Lane-Welsh holds the menโ€™s KOM (13:42) and Peta Mullens holds the womenโ€™s (16:38)... or at least they do until 22nd February (?).

For more info about the Odysseyโ€ฆ

GO HERE:
https://bit.ly/4dZm4Vf

[๐Ž๐“๐–๐€๐˜ ๐Ž๐ƒ๐˜๐’๐’๐„๐˜ ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐ŸŽ๐Š๐Œ | ๐‚๐Ž๐”๐‘๐’๐„ ๐๐Ž๐“๐„๐’ | ๐๐€๐‘๐“ ๐Ÿ‘ | ๐‘๐„๐ƒ ๐‚๐€๐‘๐๐„๐“ ๐ƒ๐„๐’๐‚๐„๐๐“]What goes up, must come downโ€ฆ And in the case of the O...
05/02/2025

[๐Ž๐“๐–๐€๐˜ ๐Ž๐ƒ๐˜๐’๐’๐„๐˜ ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐ŸŽ๐Š๐Œ | ๐‚๐Ž๐”๐‘๐’๐„ ๐๐Ž๐“๐„๐’ | ๐๐€๐‘๐“ ๐Ÿ‘ | ๐‘๐„๐ƒ ๐‚๐€๐‘๐๐„๐“ ๐ƒ๐„๐’๐‚๐„๐๐“]

What goes up, must come downโ€ฆ

And in the case of the Otway Odyssey 100km, you go up and come down more times than you probably care to think about.

Having said that, the most famous descent is the Red Carpet.

Itโ€™s iconicโ€ฆ
Itโ€™s timedโ€ฆ

And itโ€™s โ€œthe descent everyone comes here to doโ€ (according to Flow MTB).

At 3.83km with an average gradient of -3.5% โ€“ this descent can be separated into 3 core parts:

1) ๐“๐ก๐ž ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ž๐ž๐ฉ, ๐›๐ž๐ซ๐ฆ๐ฒ ๐ฌ๐ž๐œ๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง above Kaanglang Rd.

2) ๐“๐ก๐ž ๐œ๐ฅ๐ข๐ฆ๐›๐ฒ/๐๐ซ๐š๐ ๐ ๐ฒ/๐ก๐š๐ซ๐ ๐ฌ๐ž๐œ๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง for ~1km past Kaanglang Rd crossing + the Gorge with some technical and tight sections.

3) ๐“๐ก๐ž ๐Ÿ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฐ๐ฒ, ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ฒ ๐ฌ๐ž๐œ๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง to the river.

DO NOT MAKE THE MISTAKE OF THINKING THIS WILL BE AN EASY SECTION JUST BECAUSE ITโ€™S DOWNHILL.

Youโ€™ll need concentration for the first sectionโ€ฆ

Climbing power and technical skills for the secondโ€ฆ

And flow for the third.

So โ€“ make sure you save some biccies for this one (and maybe eat some sugar/caffeine before cresting the hill coming out of Lake Elizabeth).

Here are 3 steps to prepare for Red Carpet (without leaving your chair):

1) ๐–๐š๐ญ๐œ๐ก ๐’๐š๐ฆ ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐›๐จ๐ฒ๐ฌ ๐ซ๐ž๐œ๐œ๐ฒ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐‘๐ž๐ ๐‚๐š๐ซ๐ฉ๐ž๐ญ ๐ก๐ž๐ซ๐ž: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qItockHxLUY...

2) ๐’๐ญ๐š๐ฅ๐ค ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐œ๐จ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ž๐ญ๐ข๐ญ๐จ๐ซ๐ฌ ๐จ๐ง ๐’๐ญ๐ซ๐š๐ฏ๐š ๐ก๐ž๐ซ๐ž (the legendary Peta Mullens has the female record in 9 mins 47 secs and Ben Mather has the best time in the menโ€™s with 8 mins 30 secs):
https://www.strava.com/segments/1009914

And, when you're ready...
3) ๐„๐ง๐ญ๐ž๐ซ ๐Ž๐ญ๐ฐ๐š๐ฒ ๐Ž๐๐ฒ๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ž๐ฒ ๐ก๐ž๐ซ๐ž:
๐Ÿ‘‰ https://bit.ly/3CaIe8S

Prices go up Monday 10th Feb so don't do too much research before pulling the trigger!

See you soon for Course Notes Part 4.
The Rapid Ascent Team

[๐Ž๐“๐–๐€๐˜ ๐Ž๐ƒ๐˜๐’๐’๐„๐˜ ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐ŸŽ๐Š๐Œ | ๐‚๐Ž๐”๐‘๐’๐„ ๐๐Ž๐“๐„๐’ | ๐๐€๐‘๐“ ๐Ÿ | ๐Š๐€๐€๐๐†๐‹๐€๐๐† ๐‘๐Ž๐€๐ƒ ๐‚๐‹๐ˆ๐Œ๐]Picture thisโ€ฆ You're on the start line of the 100km ...
05/02/2025

[๐Ž๐“๐–๐€๐˜ ๐Ž๐ƒ๐˜๐’๐’๐„๐˜ ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐ŸŽ๐Š๐Œ | ๐‚๐Ž๐”๐‘๐’๐„ ๐๐Ž๐“๐„๐’ | ๐๐€๐‘๐“ ๐Ÿ | ๐Š๐€๐€๐๐†๐‹๐€๐๐† ๐‘๐Ž๐€๐ƒ ๐‚๐‹๐ˆ๐Œ๐]

Picture thisโ€ฆ

You're on the start line of the 100km Otway Odysseyโ€ฆ

Youโ€™re standing next to ~400 other ridersโ€ฆ

Heart racingโ€ฆ adrenaline pumping through your veinsโ€ฆ

Then, BAM!

The start horn sounds and youโ€™re off in an eruption of whirring tyres.

After a short and twitchy start loop around the โ€œflatโ€ streets of Forrest, your first real challenge is the Kaanglang road climb (AKA โ€œThe Leg Softenerโ€).

The official segment is a 6.45km dirt-road climb with an average of 3.7% (in reality youโ€™re probably climbing gradually for ~11km).

It starts where Hennigan Cr intersects Yaugher Rd/Kaanglang Rd and takes you all the way to a high point on Kaanglang road.

If you're feeling brave โ€“ attack early (and hope you can hang on for the next 90km).

Otherwise, find a comfortable rhythm and conserve your energy โ€“ there's still a LONG way to go.

The Strava KOM up this climb is 00:16:00 (Domonic Paolilli in 2020) for the men, and 00:20:54 (Chez) for the women.

For mere mortals itโ€™s likely a 30+ minute climb.

TIP: Make sure you get the fuel in early and PACE YOUR EFFORTโ€ฆ

After this climb the tracks get more technical and if you've gone too hard up Kaanglang, you'll be bleeding out of your eyeballs by the time you get to Yaugher.

Check out the Strava segment here:
https://strava.com/segments/6377454?filter=overall

Learn more about the 2025 Otway Odyssey here:
https://bit.ly/3CaIe8S

P.S. In the 50KM Otway Odyssey, the Kaanglang Rd climb comes in the second half (although you donโ€™t climb as high). In any case, you want to keep some gas in the tank for a solid 20 min effort towards the end of the 50.

RIDERS: What were you doing at the start of 2020? Feels like yesterday don't you reckon?Well...For Otway Odyssey record ...
10/10/2024

RIDERS: What were you doing at the start of 2020?

Feels like yesterday don't you reckon?

Well...

For Otway Odyssey record holder, Tali Lane-Welsh, thatโ€™s when he was just FIRST getting into XC riding.

Fast forward 5 years and, not only has he taken out the prestigious Otway Odyssey in best-ever time, but heโ€™s also making waves on the national road racing scene.

(Just last week he came equal first in the the individual TT in the Tour of Gippsland โ€“ averaging 47.2km/h for 9km ON A ROAD BIKE ๐Ÿคฏ).

So, how did Tali achieve this โ€œovernightโ€ success?

I caught up with him on the phone yesterday and quizzed him about his progression so far.

Hereโ€™s what he told me (broken down into short chapters if you want to skim!):

๐‚๐‡๐€๐๐“๐„๐‘ ๐Ÿ: ๐’๐ญ๐š๐ซ๐ญ๐ž๐ ๐š๐ฌ ๐š ๐๐จ๐ฐ๐ง๐ก๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐Ÿ๐ซ๐จ๐ญ๐ก๐ž๐ซโ€ฆ

โ€œI was originally a downhill mountain biker for quite a while. I started downhill maybe when I was in year seven and I just did downhill and enduro and it was all about big jumps and going down the hills, not up. Broke lots of bones obviously.โ€

๐‚๐‡๐€๐๐“๐„๐‘ ๐Ÿ: ๐€ ๐œ๐ซ๐š๐ฌ๐ก ๐ข๐ง ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ— ๐ฅ๐ž๐ ๐ก๐ข๐ฆ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ง๐ง๐ข๐ง๐ โ€ฆ

โ€œI left school at the end of 2018, and I was actually living down in Meydena (Tas) working and doing some downhill stuff down there, which was great fun. Obviously the bike park down there and stuff. And then, yeah, I ended up having quite a big injury down there, which meant it was five months off the bike I think. And I started doing a bit just running and stuff like that. This was through the end of 2019.โ€

๐‚๐‡๐€๐๐“๐„๐‘ ๐Ÿ‘: ๐‘๐ฎ๐ง๐ง๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ฅ๐ž๐ ๐ก๐ข๐ฆ ๐ญ๐จ ๐—๐‚...

โ€œI got myself a cross country bike at the start of 2020. It was like I was riding my Enduro bike, but going on Strava and trying to do segments up hills and stuff like that. And yeah, did my first cross country race in January, 2020 โ€“ one of the Vic Champs series. I Just entered open men, but I e๐ง๐๐ž๐ ๐ฎ๐ฉ ๐ฐ๐ข๐ง๐ง๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ญ๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐œ๐š๐ญ๐ž๐ ๐จ๐ซ๐ฒ ๐›๐ฒ ๐ฌ๐ข๐ฑ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ง๐ฎ๐ญ๐ž๐ฌ. Then the second day I went into Elite and I think I might've gotten an eighth or something like that. It wasn't too far off the pace.

I started training for the cross country stuff and did my first nationals in March that year, and I think I got ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐ญ๐ก ๐ข๐ง ๐ฎ๐ง๐๐ž๐ซ ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ‘, which I was really happy with just because everyone was basically like, โ€œyouโ€™re gonna to come lastโ€ sort of thing.โ€

๐‚๐‡๐€๐๐“๐„๐‘ ๐Ÿ’: ๐“๐ก๐ž๐ง ๐ก๐ž ๐š๐œ๐ญ๐ฎ๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐ฌ๐ญ๐š๐ซ๐ญ๐ž๐ ๐ญ๐ซ๐š๐ข๐ง๐ข๐ง๐ โ€ฆ

โ€œA few days after nationals, I got hit by a car, which was unfortunate. But it forced me to do lots of strength work on the trainer and I'd never really done intervals before, so I ended up coming out from that injury 10 times better than I was going into it. So I was like, โ€œoh, this is pretty coolโ€

I was getting coached by Todd Cuthbert at the time. So yeah, he was a big, big help just getting me into all of the racing. I ended up signing a few more races in 2020, then I signed with the Duke Flanders team, which obviously Todd manages, so I did a bunch of stuff with them through 2021.โ€

๐‚๐‡๐€๐๐“๐„๐‘ ๐Ÿ“: ๐†๐จ๐ญ ๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐Ÿ๐ข๐ซ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ญ๐š๐ฌ๐ญ๐ž ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐Ž๐๐ฒ๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ž๐ฒ ๐ข๐ง ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐Ÿ๐Ÿโ€ฆ

โ€œ I did the Otway Odyssey for the first time in 2021 โ€“ Because, obviously, ๐“๐ก๐ž ๐Ž๐๐ฒ๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ž๐ฒ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐›๐ข๐ ๐ ๐ž๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ซ๐š๐œ๐ž ๐ข๐ง ๐€๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ซ๐š๐ฅ๐ข๐š ๐ฉ๐ซ๐ž๐ญ๐ญ๐ฒ ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐œ๐ก. You've got McConnell and Bec Hendersonโ€ฆ all those guys are back when they are pro and they're all doing it and if you're racing, ๐ข๐ญ'๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐›๐ข๐  ๐จ๐ง๐ž, ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ'๐ซ๐ž ๐ฐ๐š๐ง๐ญ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ฐ๐ข๐ง. And if you're just riding, it's like the big challenge is like go do the Otway Odyssey.
The race started in Apollo Bay this year and it climbed up to Forrest. I was so bad. I'd never ridden longer than 50km on the mountain bike, and Iโ€™d never come close to riding five hours. I was just so out of my depth with the nutrition and stuff. But yeah, I remember I started hard. I think ๐ˆ ๐ ๐จ๐ญ ๐ฌ๐ž๐œ๐จ๐ง๐ ๐จ๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐Š๐Ž๐Œ ๐š๐ญ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฏ๐ž๐ซ๐ฒ ๐ฌ๐ญ๐š๐ซ๐ญ ๐ฎ๐ฉ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐–๐ข๐ฅ๐ ๐ƒ๐จ๐  ๐œ๐ฅ๐ข๐ฆ๐›. I think I might've gotten the top 20 overallโ€ฆ. But after the race I was like, โ€˜Jesus, this is too hard. Five hours of just pure, just torture!โ€™. โ€œ

๐‚๐‡๐€๐๐“๐„๐‘ ๐Ÿ”: ๐–๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐ฉ๐จ๐ฐ๐ž๐ซ (๐Ÿ’๐Ÿ‘๐ŸŽ ๐ฐ๐š๐ญ๐ญ๐ฌ!) ๐œ๐จ๐ฆ๐ž๐ฌ ๐ ๐ซ๐ž๐š๐ญ ๐ซ๐ž๐ฌ๐ฉ๐จ๐ง๐ฌ๐ข๐›๐ข๐ฅ๐ข๐ญ๐ฒโ€ฆ

โ€œAfter Odyssey 2021, I did my first road race, just local club road race and was pretty happy with how it went. And I'd gotten a power metre at that point as well on my road bike. So that changed a few things for me as well. I was able to compare numbers with other riders. There was an uphill TT in the road race and I did, ๐ˆ ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ง๐ค ๐ข๐ญ ๐ฐ๐š๐ฌ ๐Ÿ’๐Ÿ‘๐ŸŽ ๐ฐ๐š๐ญ๐ญ๐ฌ ๐จ๐ซ ๐ฌ๐จ๐ฆ๐ž๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ง๐  ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ ๐Ÿ– ๐ฆ๐ข๐ง๐ฎ๐ญ๐ž๐ฌ. And then people were sort of like, oh, that's pretty good numbers. You should think about doing road.โ€

๐‚๐‡๐€๐๐“๐„๐‘ ๐Ÿ•: โ€œ๐’๐ญ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ ๐ ๐ฅ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ญ๐ก๐ซ๐จ๐ฎ๐ ๐ก ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ฅ๐ž๐š๐ซ๐ง๐ข๐ง๐ โ€ ๐ข๐ง ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ/๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ‘โ€ฆ

โ€œSo I started transitioning the road a little bit, but not leaving mountain bike. I signed with the NRS team in 2022. And I had a pretty s**t year, all 2022. Again, just started dealing with this little chronic injury. Then I also got Glandular fever, Shingles and Covid and all this sort of stuff. That was sort of a year of just struggling through and learning the road side of things.โ€

๐‚๐‡๐€๐๐“๐„๐‘ ๐Ÿ–: ๐‘๐š๐œ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐๐ฅ๐š๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฒ ๐š๐ง๐ ๐”๐‚๐ˆ ๐ฉ๐จ๐๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฌ โ€“ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฉ๐ž๐ซ๐Ÿ๐ž๐œ๐ญ ๐ฅ๐ž๐š๐ ๐ฎ๐ฉ ๐ญ๐จ ๐Ž๐ƒ๐˜๐’๐’๐„๐˜ ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ’!...

โ€œYou can sort of see on Strava, around the Cape to Cape sort of time (October) last year I was a bit crook again, and I basically started my block there. I got fully healthy, zoned in and trained full-time for and TT Nationals.

The TT went pretty good for me. I was my first proper TT, and I think I was eighth, about 15 seconds off fifth or something like that. I can't really remember.

And then the road race was less good. It was good. I was in the early break and I was definitely part of the raceโ€ฆ But Plappy had just torn us apartโ€ฆ Normally the winning time at road nats, they sort of average around 39 km/h because there's quite a lot of climbing. But, I remember looking down, I think it was like 90 km in and I was averaging like 41 kph. And it was like a headwind up the climb and super wet, and I was like, โ€œJesusโ€.

After nationals, I went across to New Zealand for some UCI road racing with my team. I did ๐๐ž๐ฐ ๐™๐ž๐š๐ฅ๐š๐ง๐ ๐‚๐ฒ๐œ๐ฅ๐ž ๐‚๐ฅ๐š๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ข๐œ โ€“ that was my first proper UCI tour, which was again, huge learning curve racing against some really strong riders, and teams coming across from Europe. So that was good. I mixed it in the break one of the days and sort of just rode for the team. And I think our GC rider for that race, CJ got fourth on GC, which we were pretty happy with.

And then, I had a really cool race actually after that in New Zealand again, the week after. It was ๐†๐ซ๐š๐ฏ๐ž๐ฅ ๐š๐ง๐ ๐“๐š๐ซ, which is a UCI 1.2 event โ€“ so a one day race โ€“ and it's like a Strada Bianchi, one day classic where it's got gravel sectors and road sections. I got to be the protected rider on the team for the first time which was exciting. I ended up testing positive Covid the night before the race. I then raced the next day with Covid and I got third, which I was pretty happy โ€“ first UCI podium.

Thatโ€™s when I was like, all right, ๐ˆโ€™๐ฆ ๐œ๐จ๐ฆ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ข๐ง๐ญ๐จ ๐š ๐ ๐ซ๐š๐ฏ๐ž๐ฅ ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ ๐ซ๐š๐ฏ๐ž๐ฅ ๐ฆ๐จ๐ฎ๐ง๐ญ๐š๐ข๐ง ๐›๐ข๐ค๐ž ๐›๐ฅ๐จ๐œ๐ค ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐‚๐จ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ž๐ฅ ๐€๐‘๐€ ๐›๐จ๐ฒ๐ฌ. ๐€๐ง๐ ๐ฐ๐ž'๐ฏ๐ž ๐ ๐จ๐ญ ๐Ž๐๐ฒ๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ž๐ฒ.

I knew that I was pretty fit from road nationals numbers wise. ๐ˆ ๐ฐ๐š๐ฌ ๐ฉ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ก๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐›๐ž๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ฌ๐จ๐ซ๐ญ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ง๐ฎ๐ฆ๐›๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ ๐ˆ'๐ฏ๐ž ๐ž๐ฏ๐ž๐ซ ๐ฉ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ก๐ž๐, ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ญ๐ž๐œ๐ก๐ง๐ข๐œ๐š๐ฅ ๐ฌ๐ข๐๐ž ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ฌ ๐ก๐š๐ฌ ๐š๐ฅ๐ฐ๐š๐ฒ๐ฌ ๐œ๐จ๐ฆ๐ž ๐š ๐›๐ข๐ญ ๐ž๐š๐ฌ๐ข๐ž๐ซ ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ ๐ฆ๐ž, ๐ฅ๐ฎ๐œ๐ค๐ข๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐Ÿ๐ซ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐๐จ๐ฐ๐ง๐ก๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ. So yeah, I just sort of came up with a bit of a planโ€ฆโ€

TBCโ€ฆ.

So, whaddaya reckon?

If Tali can go from downhiller to Odyssey record holder in just 4 years (with heap of injury and illness), reckon you can get Odyssey ready between now and February??

Stay tuned to hear what Tali said about his 2024 Odyssey race and how he chunked it down mentally.

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