I've been a little slack lately. The 7 hour (which seems months ago now) I pulled the pin due to a bad sidewall tear and a long walk. Another puncture the last weeks 3 ring 50k but all was not lost this time (I was not going to let that happen).
The night performance:
I thought I'd line up for the night race (got to show those riders how good the radical lights are) a fast 20k circuit with 120 odd riders on the start line. It was a great atmosphere with fires going, clowns, and a good sized crowd. It was a great track swapping wheels on the fireroads and keeping on the pace was a must. It was nice to have a volunteer counting us through at one point, I heard 9th as I was sitting 2nd wheel in our little group. I was keen to keep this spot into the sniggle and it payed off, as gaps started to form the combination of single track and night usually splits riders. So my position was unchanged as I came into the finish line, but to my surprise I managed 1st in Vets, and a bigger bonus a Shimano Wheelset waiting for me on the podium, great stuff Thanks Shimano!
But I got to say the Radicals really helped, the singletrack was all new to me and the light really kept the confidence high, the tracks were in great condition so it was so much fun hitting them up with no limitations.
50K Matinee performance:
The race started like the night performance very quick, but with 600 odd riders on track it was a perfect way to start on a quick fireroad, my main goal was to keep in front of the cyclecross bike before we hit the ST. The 2nd ring and all was good till after I exited, the short cut of a fire road with a little hop over a water crossing got me, without the usual bounce of the dually my rear wheel hit hard on the other side and it was not long before it was down. So 7 minutes later with a new tube I was away again, yeah not the fastest fix but with 40k to go I needed to make sure it was a good one. The next long sections of ST I was stuck in traffic no one letting me past I rested up ready for the wall. The wall was great everyone was walking it which meant overtaking to me and made my way through. Before I knew it I was onto the 3rd ring, great all fire road :). This ring had some good hills in there which tested the legs trying to finish it off. It was not till the open farmland till I knew most of the steep one's were over and then it was just trying to finish it off.
I finished 30+min off the pace of the leaders but managed to get back to 2nd in Vets for the combined race.
The 4th ring:
Kendra had paired up with Robyn and I had managed to come in just in time to go back out with Kendra. We set off and before I knew it Garry James was joining us and enjoying the roll down to the plateau. On the start of the climb out Gaz and I pushed a little too hard and waited around a corner and little did we know Kendra with her head down missed the turn and it was a hard chase for us to catch up and it was all uphill. So unfortunately Kendra had to do some extra uphill once we came down and got on track. This was the tough section of hills that seemed to never end. Gaz had to go to meet his driver and Kendra's Asthma was getting on top of her. She pushed on through and a little check from the medic near the top and it gave just enough time to recover. It then opened up to the farm land and she was pushing strongly again on the rolling hills to the finish. She did an great job to keep pushing through. Plus well done to Kylie and Anne who did a great job in there pairs too taking it out.
I really enjoyed this type of racing and having 2 stages, it really added another dimension to the usual single race on the weekend. The entertainment was great and food fantastic, yep 3 serves of lasagna for me.
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