Meet Gemma the Giant

She is very dirty after a day out at Stromlo.

A very exciting day today. Kendra has a new bike, a Giant Cypher with lots of pink stuff. It was great to see that there was a huge difference between her not so old Yukon dually. When we got the Yukon we had no idea that she would love mountain bike riding so much. So nearly only a year down the track she has a great new bike to have lots of fun on.
Gemma is a real girls bike, no not because it just has pink stuff, it is made for woman. Not only that it has some really good gear on it, like Shimano SLX and Deore components and Fox F120 forks (I'd like to put them on the Rocky if I had my way).
Straight from the shop we took her to Stromlo. We swapped out the rear tyre to a crossmark, setup the suspension to the right pressures, set the rebound and Kendra was right to go. I must admit she was pretty patient while I was fiddling and getting it all right for her to go.
She was off, I could not blame her I had been teasing her for a while. Now it was time for me to be patient, with my bad knee I had nowhere to go, so I waited patiently and being very jealous of every bike rider that rode past. Even Clayton was there teasing me and having a good time. Before I knew it she was back and her bike was dirtier that Claytons. She also got a little lost and rode a little further than expected, and down some unkown tracks where the 5 inches of travel came in very handy.
She loved it, it did feel different to her Yukon, but that is expected. Kendra found that she could ride over things she could not before. No doubt that after a few weeks of getting to know Gemma, she will be calling track next time your out at Stromlo.

Oh yeah we brought Gemma from ONYA at Belco, a long way from home but the are a great shop. They do lots for the MTB community and sponsor lots of riders. You just can't look past them, it also helps that they did a great deal for me.

Injurys suck

Well since the Scott I have had a little knee injury. I always thought that it was going to come good. Last week it was improving everyday. This week has not been so good, so I finally decided to go to the doctor's today. It seems there is a ligament problem, the one right in the middle between the upper and lower bones (yep my doctor talk is not very good). So with a MRI scan booked in for Tuesday, I will be out of the Fitz's challange and maybe the fling. So I am a bit grumpy, as I have been off the bike a few days now. The funny thing is, it never hurts to ride, but rest is always good and I have my eyes on bigger races and long term goals.

Scott 24 hour

It has come around again, but I always knew this one would be different for me, and it was. This was always going to be tough and I was not expecting it to be this tough but it was.

This was my 6th time to ride a 24 hour solo, I really wanted to get everything right but sometimes it is just never going to work. We got there a few days early on the Thursday to get a prime position on the crit track at Stromlo. This was great while half the spots were taken we had a full clear area to setup right next to the track. Friday we dropped most of our gear at the gazebo so all we had to do was our food and bikes on the Saturday.

Race day was here and you could feel the tension in the camp everyone was nervous, but the weather was great. Before we knew it, it was time to get the bike and go to the start line. I was lucky the solos had an onya bike start while the teams had a running start and a frantic grab you bike and ride. We were off, heading on a blue lap this was great not too much congestion just a steady pace as I knew there was a long way to go I was in no hurry. Half way around it started, I got a flat front tyre, quickly putting a tube in was good but I had a problem, using Co2 cartridges I only had 1 go at inflating and my cartridge head failed on me. So patiently I waited to a really great bloke stopped to lend me his pump. I finished off the lap and swapped out my bikes I wanted Kendra to check my pressure as it still felt a bit soft.

From here I went out on my Rocky Mountain, on the red lap. I was pushing a bit harder up the hill, and I noticed my H/R was not going down after I hit the top but I was not suffering so I just kept going. This was when I started to get a sick feeling in my tummy. It was something that was not unusual so I kept going trying to ride it through. Heading down the red lap was great, there were some pretty hard rocky sections on the way down that could hurt but lots of fun. I kept going but my tummy was not getting any better but continued, by my second red lap it got too much and I had to head to the bushes. My H/R was not dropping either with an average of 80% of my max, it really should not have been this high. With a bad taste in my mouth a quick drink and I was off again I was determined not to let this stop me and I knew I could just roll out laps hoping that it would get better.

6pm was here 25% done, I always like to break it down, riding 24 hours is easier if you break it down. This is where I had my first off the bike experience, I miss judged an rock garden and went over the bars (at a slow pace), this one hurt with my knee hitting on a rock. I got riding again and it was OK headed into transition to put my lights on for the night.

To be honest I do remember the night but it does seem to blend into the one. I rode my trusty Rocky as it really just felt right. My new Anthem is a twitchy race bike and I felt I needed something that could just ride over everything so I kept with the Rocky. With my H/R still high, tummy still bad I had lots of trips to the bushes and it was clear it was not going to get any easier. I rode it through stopping every second lap for a bit, and really could not eat I was just rolling out the laps. Sadly there were quite a few big accidents throughout the night it was a tough course and it was a real eye opener. It does not take much for it to go wrong and in some areas if it does, it will hurt.

Sunrise came it is a fantastic feeling, but plucking away at that lap I did start to see some signs of my eyes failing. I started to see some spots and then the start of some cloudiness. This cloudiness has made me pull out of quite a few solo races. I thought I would covered this time as I did quite a bit of research on the problem. I knew if I was to wear my prescription glasses at sun down and up and during the night with my sunnies during the day it would be a good start. But I was failing my other part of the plan the food. This is also a low sugar problem and I had not been eating due to my tummy bug, so they were failing. About 20 minutes after this I got into transition. Knowing I have been pushing Kendra to her emotional limits due to not eating, high H/R, and tummy problem, I just asked for coke, and some salty chips (all I could stomach). I told her my issue and she could not believe it. I told her that I will be heading out and that it will be OK. My eyes were not fully cloudy yet and I just needed to go and hope for the best.
I don't know how but I managed to catch Clayton as he stopped for a break after that same lap so he rode out after me and chased me down. We rode for a bit and I was starting to feel better, I picked up my pace finished off the climb of the red lap and headed down to transition.

Kendra had a red bull waiting for me so I had it, and ate what I could.My remaining laps I went out and had a bit of fun. I was not super quick but it was the best I had felt most of the race. It was really good to finish a race like that. I really battled through the hard yards and managed to get my head out at the end for a respectable result. I ended with 20 laps, in 12 position, a long way off the winner or where I could have been. Jason English the winner of the solo's did 28. Clayton finished in 5th position in his old mans category with 19 laps and a really sore bum (idiot riding a hard tail) he really did well and a very smooth run for his 2nd solo effort.

Kendra and I were really happy at the end to have made it. It really goes to show if you just stick out there you never know where you will end up. It was really hard mentally for us both we never knew if I could stick it out with what was happening, but we got there. Kendra did great as she always does, she knows exactly what I want when I want it, the best pit chick in the camp.

So solo next year? You bet, I will have a crack at the nats at Easter, and then fly off to the Worlds.

Please click on any image to enlarge.

Hi everybody

Well here you go I have started blogging. So when you are reading my blogs and your head starts going blog blog blog..... blog.... blog blog blog it just means I'm rambling to much ;).