Wildside starts at Cradle Mountain and over 4 days makes its way to the seaside town of Strahan. There are seven competition stages and a few cruise stages in between. The cruise stages are an opportunity to spin out the legs, absorb the amazing scenery and catch up with new racing buddies. There are two stages each day roughly an hour long, except for the last day which was just one stage followed by a barbie and beers. The hours quickly added up and went by too quickly.

I was only at the front of the race for a short time and if I wasn’t dealing with busted lungs I could have savoured the moment. Riders were divvied up from fastest to slowest based on previous results. Subsequently there was a lot of shuffling post stage 1 to achieve a more accurate seed. But until that happened I ate copious amounts of dust in group A.
Stage 1 started on a small rise which provided a short sharp descent. Riders flew everywhere! For the next 50 minutes we rode through creek crossings, negotiated bikes down rocky descents and climbed loose and rocky fire road climbs. It was a straight forward stage and a good prelude to more challenging stages ahead. I lost contact with Jenni and Jodi (Bush) in a matter of minutes, which set up the trend for days ahead.

I was happy to have the first stage out of the way.

After hitting up the cruise stage over the tarmac —a considerable effort in itself — it was time to load up on salad rolls and fruit before setting off for stage 2. The start of stage 2 was a stark contrast to the mornings brush with group A. I settled into a rhythm and felt comfortable enough. It was another great stage and in conclusion a very rewarding day on the bike.
Day 2 and stages 3 and 4 offer some incredible riding and world class scenery. After climbing through rainforest on single track, hopping over logs, dipping in creek crossings and nudging rocks, we eventually arrived at the summit and hit the descent simultaneously. The descent started with a fire road that was smattered with massive loose rocks, which demanded serious respect. Soon enough we then ducked into a very technical singe track – an amazing riding experience, is all I can say.

The temperature was nearing the 40’s –in Tassie this is almost unheard of. We had a long early lunch that extended into the early afternoon. We assembled in our groups and scrambled into the shade of the rain forest wherever possible —everyone was desperate to get on their bikes knowing that the course through Montezuma Falls would offer some respite.

The initial tarmac climb was steady enough and I managed to hold wheels to get a good sit. We were soon flying along the rail trail, bouncing from sleeper to sleeper but maintaining good momentum up the gentle climb to the suspension bridge. After a bit more gradual climbing the profile took on a negative rise, it was fast, gradual and long, very long, with plenty of sections requiring quick thinking and fast twitch reactions. The cruise after the stage took us to Zeehan, a sleepy town that was once nicknamed the ‘silver city of the west’. Once a sparkling town that use to be the centre of silver mining it now looked almost like a ghost town.

That night we rolled into Strahan, our last stop en route to the finish line. Not long after arriving the heavens opened and this meant that the following day we were to be covered in mud. After all, it wouldn’t be Wildside without being marinated from head to toe in mud.

Stages 5 and 6 were tougher mentally than physically. The rain seemed to be coming from every direction, above, below and from the sides as well. The Time Trial stage was largely insignificant but consisted of mud in varying degrees of consistency. Not many were standing around swapping war stories after this stage. Other than refilling my bidden for the cruise to Trail Harbour, I was out of there. A long the way I took an opportunity to wash off in a small creek that I spotted not far off the road. Soon enough others were doing the same thing. It was cold and wet but I was clean.

Stage 6 to Granville Harbour is labelled as one of the toughest of the race. It starts with a solid climb out of Trial Harbour and follows the coastline north. The surface is a mix of grainy sand and sandstone bedrocks. The trails were hairy with some super-steep and technical climbing matched with equally as steep and technical descents.
I started the stage without any pads on my front brake. I only noticed this on the start line and therefore had to play it as safe as possible. I had one potentially neck breaking moment: a rider that I was quickly approaching slammed on their brakes while negotiating a very steep and rocky descent——forcing me to apply full brakes (rear only).  My bike slid sideways and ricocheted almost out of control. I stayed on but spent the remainder of the stage pedalling with jelly legs and feeling incredibly fortunate to be doing so. Despite this Wildside again impressed me with its attention grabbing variety.

The final stage is the flattest and fastest. About 12km of this stage is on the beach, which is hard packed, something that both bike and body are grateful for. The other bits of the course are made up of fast fire roads and undulating boggy sand dune trails. For the first time ever this stage was run in reverse. The race director is a nice guy and opted to run the stage in the same direction as the gusty winds. It was a call that didn’t go unappreciated nor unnoticed as riders eventually blasted their way over the finish line with smiles from ear to ear.

I felt particularly good on this last stage and gained a bit of time on Jodi Bush who sat in 2nd Open Women, but it was not enough to shuffle the overall placings. I stayed in 3rd place in Open Women and 5th overall. I didn’t go into the race with serious training under my belt so I was really happy to walk away with an iconic Wildside trophy.

Mountain biking often throws a few unknown variables at you, times when you’re not really sure how things might turn out. These moments, if nothing else remind us how vulnerable we are. If you’ve ridden Wildside and made it to the finish line on the final day I’m sure you’ve experienced this feeling for yourself. The terrain that Wildside travels is exceptional. Each stage is as varied and unique as the next, and it is a true mountain bikers’ stage race.

Thank you to my sponsors for making my days on the bike more enjoyable!
Giant | Shimano | Adidas

Last weekend was the very first James Williamson Junior Development Camp held in Canberra. The Southern Highlands Club and Canberra Off-road Cyclists selected 15 boys and 7 girls of their most promising young talents to attend. Shaun Lewis, Jenni King, Dylan Cooper and myself took care of the coaching while James’ family, Meg, John and Mark along with Leanne Henderson took care of the logistics, all of which had been carefully considered in the weeks and months leading up to the camp to ensure the weekend went as smoothly as possible.

Jen and I flew into Canberra late friday night, the rain was heavy and the forecast was grim for Saturday, however, things looked clearer for Sunday. When we woke Saturday morning it was still raining and the ground outside indicated that there had been no respite throughout the entire night. The kids didn’t care though, all they cared about was getting on their bikes as soon as possible. So we ate breakfast, then under the direction of Jen spent an hour working on our core. More than anything I think this session just highlighted how weak the other coaches are.

Luckily we didn’t have to pull the rain jackets out, as soon as we were done with core the weather had cleared up, and remained clear for the rest of the weekend.

We managed to pack a lot in over the 2 days; with skills sessions, talks about race preparation, recovery and nutrition, as well a couple of unstructured group rides. By Sunday afternoon we were all completely flogged.

In addition to the camp the kids all received a 2XU ‘Willo’ Jersey, which we all wore proudly on Sunday. From the James Williamson Fund the kids will also get assistance with their racing costs for upcoming National races, as well as free entry into the James Williamson Enduro Challenge.

It was fantastic to see so many enthusiastic kids so eager to learn and so excited about mountain biking. If I happen to question why I ride in the future, I’ll think about what these kids reminded me of over the weekend. Riding is just damn good fun.

It’s crazy how fast time passes by, hard to believe that it’s been a full year since the last time I was standing on the start line at the Cape to Cape.
The day started out with an amazing breakfast at a local cafe in Margaret River, my muesli arrived in a cocktail glass—I was so impressed I had to get a picture:

I didn’t feel great today, I struggled to stay with Jen in the first few kilometers and lost sight of her pretty quickly as the course kept going up and up. Before too long I was passed by Jen’s teammate, Becky Mates and not long after that New Zealand’s Nic Leary flew past. The course undulated over rugged 4WD trail and sand dunes before eventually arriving at the awful beach stretch. Up ahead I could see riders running with their bikes. Instead of being hard packed and tacky the beach is boggy, making it very difficult to keep the wheels atop the sand. So for the first few hundred meters I did what everyone else was doing until I eventually attempted getting on my bike and surprisingly I didn’t get buried. although I got extremely wet and I may have to completely overhaul my bike before the race is out but running sucks, so I reckon it was worth it. Additionally, I bridged the gap between myself and Nic and moved up one place into the 3rd female spot.
Looking forward to tomorrow, more singletrack and a bar at the finish line—wooohooo.

PanelPop is a gallery on Brunswick st in Fitzroy and as of last week I’m showing (and selling) some prints there. The work is printed on a porcelain-like liquid stone and framed with recycled wood. The result is pretty cool.

The gallery also sell works by other Melbourne artists like Acorn and Ghostpatrol, whom I’ve been a massive fan of since moving to Melbourne.

I raced the Yowie at the You Yangs yesterday. I lined up for the 33km distance opposed to the full 100km. The truncated option was a last minute attempt to get some intensity in before the Cape to Cape which starts this thursday.

A bit over an hour and a half in I took my first gel and less than 400 meters later I crossed the finish line. My mouth was still covered in the stuff when I rolled up to Jen (King), who had finished a couple of minutes before me. So yeah, the finish line took me by surprise and was an indication that I’ve finally adapted to longer race formats, just when I want to be getting ready for shorter formats.

Thanks to the GMBC for putting on a great event and for the bag of delicious treats.

Really looking forward to getting over to WA, other than the racing it’ll be great to see the local riders and event crew that make the event so awesome!

Will post updates here and at the Enduro blog throughout the event.

Over the weekend I raced the Scott 24hr in Canberra in the Liv/Giant team with Jess Douglas, Eliza Bassett and Jo Hall. We finished 2nd to the very deserving Gu Girls who rode consistently from start to finsih. As it always is, the race was seamlessly delivered. Thanks to the guys at CORC and well done to everyone who rode all through the night. Respect!

Conquering the Cape

Professional mountain bike rider Niki Fisher talks to Outer Edge about what it takes to overcome serious injury and the death of a loved one and to go on to complete one of the most arduous mountain bike races in world, the Cape Epic.

Words Virginia Millen Images by Karin Schermbrucker/Cape Epic/SPORTZPICS and sportograf

Niki Fisher, 31, has carved a name for herself in a sport that pushes the limits of the toughest competitors. And, over the past year and a half, she has faced some of the biggest challenges of her life and proved that, when it comes to mountain biking, she’s a force to be reckoned with.

When Niki first attempted mountain biking 10 years ago, she was drawn to the downhill trails.

“I bought a secondhand downhill mountain bike off a friend and started riding with a group. I was hopeless on the climbs because it was a very heavy bike, but I could hold my own on the descents,” she says.

After just three months of riding, she entered her first national downhill race in Thredbo. But, inexperience quickly caught up with her and she fell off her bike, breaking her back.

Unlike most people, who would react to an accident like that with a pathological fear of the contraption that landed them in hospital, Niki spent her recovery focusing on getting fit again so that she could, well, get back on her bike. And, she did.

“The doctors told me I was extremely lucky to be walking – the fracture was within millimetres of my spine. I was so keen to be a good rider. I wanted to be able to match the fast guys, but I didn’t have their experience. I had to recognise my limitations and build up to things.”

When Niki started out on mountain bikes she was one of the few females on the trails. And although all of the guys she rode with were really encouraging and supportive, it was her fellow female riders who taught her a thing or two.

“Being one of the only female riders was a little bit inhibiting,” she says. “It’s different riding with a bunch of guys because you see them do something and think, ‘I’m a girl. I could never do that’. And then you ride with girls and see them doing the same trick and it automatically becomes achievable.”

Softly spoken, pretty and polite, Niki’s determined spirit isn’t immediately obvious. But, you don’t come back from a broken back, win the National Series Championships in 2004/2005, The Wildside Mountain Bike Stage Race in Tasmania in 2005 and 2006 and Western Australia’s Cape to Cape Stage Race in 2008, 2009 and 2010 without serious mental toughness. It doesn’t take long to see the champion in Niki, even over lunch in a Collingwood café.

However, her spirit was put to the ultimate test when her partner of many years, much-loved endurance mountain biker, James Williamson, 26, died in his sleep from an undiagnosed heart condition during the Cape Epic in South Africa in March 2010.

As a tribute to him, she competed in the 2011 Cape Epic in March. The annual eight-stage mountain bike race runs over as many days and sees riders pedal across 800 km of the country’s Western Cape and climb approximately 17000m over the course of the race. Returning to South Africa to compete in one of the hardest mountain biking races in the world was never going to be easy, but it was something Niki had to do.

“It’s very hard for me to articulate why I decided to attempt the Cape Epic, but strangely it felt right,” says Niki. “Someone suggested it in South Africa just days after Jimi died. Obviously, I wasn’t thinking rationally. How could I possibly plan for something that was happening in a year’s time when everything I’d known and believed in had been pulled out from under me? I didn’t think I was going to be around in a year’s time, but I told people I was going to do it anyway.”

Taking on a demanding race like the Cape Epic isn’t something to be taken lightly and Niki knew this from the outset. She began training in July 2010, knowing that the only way she’d get through the race would be to be totally physically prepared. But, it soon became obvious that her grief was taking its toll.

“I found the training really hard. I was dealing with so much emotion and it took me a long time to realise the physical cost of that. All the way up to the Cape Epic I just wasn’t able to achieve the level of training that I wanted and knew that I could do,” she says. “I had to be really careful and find that balance.”

She spent months battling fatigue and illness, which left her frustrated. However, having the race on the horizon gave her focus during an extremely difficult time.

“There were plenty of times in the months leading up to the race when I seriously questioned what I was doing, but I had something to move towards and that helped me deal with an incomprehensible reality,” she says. “Suddenly physical pain didn’t seem that hard to deal with.”

When she landed in South Africa, she was surprised by her reaction to it.

“The first time I arrived in South Africa, when Jimi died, I just wanted to hate the country. But, when I got there for the race I felt the weight lift off my shoulders. I had done all of the work and I was definitely prepared for how hard it was going to be, but…there’s something about that country. Going back actually felt quite positive,” she says.

The Cape Epic is a two-person team event. Niki entered with training partner and friend, Jenni King, thanks to the help of Niki’s sponsor, Giant Bikes and a former employer – Swell Design Group. The two supported each other throughout difficult training sessions and of course, during the race.

“When Jen and I arrived at the race a lot of the hard work had already been done. It’s important to realise that because if I were to have gone into the race questioning if I could finish it, I would have had less control over my thoughts and been more likely to give up when the going got tough,” Niki says.

And, it got tough. Staring down the barrel of eight days of continuous pedalling on technical downhills, strenuous, rocky uphills and single tracks, as well as dealing with mechanical problems and searing heat was far from easy. There were times when Niki simply had to switch off.

“The first couple of days are really hard because you’re trying to get your head around a race of that magnitude and how your body is going to do it. Early on, the finish line is so far away, it just seems unobtainable. You have to switch off from so much and just focus on the task at hand,” she says. “Once you get through those first couple of days, you realise that your body just does what it has to do. It’s quite amazing to discover that.”

Once they reached the “hump day,” day four, Niki was able to relax a bit and the team settled into a rhythm and didn’t try to smash themselves on the course. “We were just making it to end of each day as quickly as possible with bikes, bodies and partner in check,” Niki says.

But, as the finish line drew ever closer, it wasn’t relief that Niki experienced.

“Everyone expects the finish line on the final day to be a high, but it was very confronting. There were so many emotions squeezed into this one moment, I found myself just wanting to avoid it. It was very overwhelming.”

The team finished an impressive seventh. So, how did it feel to complete a race like the Cape Epic?

“For some time I’d been building up in my head the idea that this was something I had to and I would feel different after completing it. Initially, I thought I was going to be a mess when I returned home, but I felt good. Something had shifted. I could feel hope again. I was proud of what I’d achieved and I knew that Jimi would be too,” Niki says.

She’s been home for many months now and, when she’s not out on the trails training, she makes a crust as a graphic designer. Striking a balance between riding and creating is not always easy, but the two pursuits often feed into each other.

“My creativity has always been innate and I really love the outdoors and being active. Often if I’ve been training a lot, I look forward to spending quiet time alone and creating. I do a lot of thinking when I’m riding and I’ll often come up with ideas about certain projects on the bike. I think being active energises those creative thoughts,” she says.

Niki’s race calendar for the rest of the year is quickly filling up. She’ll be competing in the Kona Mawson Marathon in South Australia with fellow Giant-sponsored champion, Jess Douglas, (see her “mountain biking how to” on page 72), the Cape to Cape stage race in WA and the National Series in October. In the meantime, Niki will be doing what she loves – creating and riding.

“When I have a good race and feel awesome, there’s nothing quite like it,” she says. “It’s that feeling that motivates me to train, but if it’s been ages since I’ve felt that, training can become very tiresome. I feel stale and I start to question what it’s all about. That’s when I know it’s time to ride for the fun of it, not because I need to get fit for a race. After all, I didn’t start riding because I wanted to win races, I just want to ride my bike and enjoy the trails.”

This is a logo I recently created for my coach, Jenni King. Over the last couple of years Jen has been focusing more and more of her time on other athletes, while still managing to be one of the fastest female mountain bikers in the country. Jen has combined her experience and passion for getting the absolute most out of your body with the right accreditation to become the best cycling coach around. Her super cool and informative website is coming soon.

Last week I had fun pretending to be model while trying out the new ladies specific Liv/Giant kit and bikes. Here are some of the pics from the morning at Lysterfield.

The last few weeks have been all about training and strangely enough I’m really enjoying the routine of it. However, with so much training, when race day rolled around I was feeling completely buggered. But I wasn’t lining up with the soloists, like I did at this same event last year. The course is fun, but it’s very rough and 6hrs of thrashing your bike and body around does take its toll. When you struggle for ages to feel healthy again you have to wonder if it’s really worth it.

So pairing up with Jenni (King) was the sensible thing to do.

Jen headed out for our first lap while Ed, our team mechanic, soigneur and race commentator, did some last minute tuning to my new and (potentially) fast hardtail. His efforts are appreciated but it’s unfortunate that a perfectly tuned bike does not compensate for a tired and broken body. Jen come in and I headed out for my first lap.

Things got off to a good start and I was feeling fast, but the course was heading downhill and going fast didn’t really require pedaling, or any concerted effort. It wasn’t long before the course turned up hill and I was given an honest dose of reality. With tired legs I focused on trying to ride smoothly and efficiently.

The lap was a figure of 8, with the start and finish being inbetween the two loops. Having kilometer markers dotted over the 10 kilometer course somehow helped the lap go by quickly, this and many fun sections to look forward to. Including a rocky ‘A line’ section with a precariously pointy rock which my front wheel insisted on making contact with—I felt like a kid on a pogo stick as I bounced and ricocheted from rock to rock, displaying enviable amounts of finesse, that is if you have incredibly bad judgement.

Anyway, luckily for me the day wasn’t about showing finesse, it was about making it to 4pm in a reasonable and upright position. So I handed over to Jen so that she could go out and do what she does very well—ride fast. We were now into our double laps. Jen came through after a solid lap and headed out for her second. Ed and I were waiting track side for Jen to come through for the second half of the course when Ed’s phone rang, it was Jen telling us that she’d double flatted. Thanks to Jen’s preparedness for misfortune (carrying a phone) we were able to supply her with what she needed to get going again. We were now quite a few minutes in the rears, but we were only half way through the day.

Over the next few laps we pulled back the minutes we’d lost and when 4pm finally arrived, we’d gained quite a few more.

6 Hours on the bike doesn’t feel like a very long time, but riding for a total of 3 hours and waiting for a total 3 hours does seem like a very long time. It’s the time off the bike that makes these days feel so epic. In a bit over a months time I’ll be racing the Scott 24hr with fellow Giant ladies, Jess Douglas, Jo Hall and Eliza Eldridge. which means I’ll be riding for 6 hours and waiting for a total of 18 hours—Now that’s going to feel EPIC!

Thanks Ed for being a super do-it-all KingFisher team manager and thanks Jen for riding fast!

Happy to be standing at the finish line (Photo: Ed Holinger)