Otway Odyssey & Great Otway Gravel Grind
In February I caught up with a buddy from the Gravel Muster and took on the the epic challenge of the Otway Odyssey and Great Otway Gravel Grind (GOGG) over a weekend. I love exploring a new part of Australia and had heard good things about this location close to the Great Ocean Road, west of Geelong.
It didn’t disappoint.
The concept of the weekend is an offroad festival where you can mix and match MTB and gravel riding with a choice of distances. When I asked my friend what distances he’d like to do, he said we might as well do the longest options both days, so we entered and got training for a 100km MTB ride on the Saturday and 106km gravel ride on the Sunda,y with over 2000m climbing each day.
Rapid Ascent put on good events and this was no exception. Having done many of their events now, including Xterra, Run Bibbulmum and Run Larapinta/Gravel Muster the event crew gave me a warm welcome and it was great to catchup with them again. Before the event they’d put out a couple good podcasts about the event interviewing local favourite James Kelly and debating whether Chat GPT could create a decent training plan for the GOGG compared to a real coach - see Adam Kelsall vs Chat GBT. These were fun to listen to on training rides in the Perth Hills and Dwellingup, where I spent most weekends in January getting as many km in offroad as possible, even in 35 degree heat!
The event was based in Forrest and we stayed in Mulroon about 20 mins drive away. It was good having a couple days before the event to do a bit of a MTB and gravel ride reccie and get a feel for the terrain and what the trails were like. The MTB trails were generally fast and flowy and it was nice having a change from the pea gravel of WA I’d been training on. The gravel we mostly ‘Champagne Gravel’ which is super fine and there weren’t many corrugations. The original plan was just to bring an MTB but we made a lost minute change to bring MTB and Gravel bikes to enjoy the gravel ride more. It was definitely worth it, if slightly comically fitting four bike bags in a hire car!
The weather over the weekend was brilliant for riding. It was slightly overcast both days so we didn’t get too hot, it was pleasant riding temps in the mid 20s. I was the only woman in the ‘vintage’ category to do the longest distance both days. The training paid off and I felt super strong all the way around the MTB course on the Saturday. I knew I had the endurance and strength for the Sunday and it was basically about fuelling right to complete it.
My nutrition strategy was toast with pb & jam and bananas for breakfast, stroop waffles and pure gels on the bike. The aid stations also had chews and watermelon which was great. This all worked super well. I was firing the whole way around.
On the gravel ride day the aid stations were next level including a coffee cart, fruit cake and quesadillas at the top of the final climb. The gravel day had neutral feed zones and including the town of Apollos in the middle, where I had a meat and cheese pie, which really hit the spot - this was inspired by listening to an NZ triathlon podcast I listened to over Christmas about Sam Shaw riding breaking the Auckland to Wellington cycling record - Sam Shaw Auckland to Wellies - and being revived by a meat pie in the middle.
I’ve never ridden over 4500m climbing over two consecutive days before so it was a whole new endurance experience and it was satisfying to pull it off.
This little highlights package from Jasper Leckkie really gets the blood pumping!
Have a watch and get inspired to get back on the training track for next year!
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