The Unknown National 24 hour Solo's

Leading into this race I had allot of unknowns, I had trained completely different, I had a slightly different nutrition plan that I wanted to try, and it was basically a chance to try out some areas that I did not want to test at Worlds. Well a week out I had another unknown with a sore throat and a head cold. It was nothing that never seemed that bad it was just there and race day came it was only just there and thought it should be OK.

I started off the first lap I settled into a good position dropping riders off my wheel and being dropped off the back of a few others, it was only about 30 sec gap both way's. It was strange to have that 6k's in and for the next 27k's I seemed alone, getting into my own rhythm. By the 4th lap I started to feel something was not quite right, I was on the wrong lines, trying to stay focused and looking ahead. During the 5th lap I knew something was bad I could not ride some of the rocks and my head could only take in what was happening 2 meters in front of me I could not process the track in front and nearly had a huge off. I went off line, off the track and before I knew it my seat was hitting me in the back and riding the front wheel, I somehow managed to hold it together. This was after I slowed the pace down, and dropped 8 minutes from my start lap over the 11k's. With 21 hours to go, 5 laps done, I was done my head just could not focus on a thing, usually what I'm like a 3am not pm.

But like all Easter 24 races there was allot of top efforts out there and the character of the race lives on. Great to see the Mal Adjusted girls having so much fun and even having a little sprint with me made me chuckle. Roz Edmunds 61 years young, out there for the whole race top effort, Dianne Perry worked consistently through with a strong finish. It was great to see the riders having a good go, some just having fun and others at their limits. It was a tough course for the long haul but one worthy for a nationals. Well done all who pushed it through and did it, and great to see Ed up in the top 3 overall freaks with his SS. Kendra was awesome as usual, always keen for the fast transitions. The volunteers were awesome as usual Sarah and Russ quietly behind it all doing a great job. I always love the photographers too getting out amongst it for the fun and posting pictures up.

Photo's by Jason Heddle nice work, so next Jase is riding 6+6 nice one ;).