I could hardly sleep Thursday night. There was some serious financial pressure to perform well during the last stage. I wasn't too concerned about how my legs were feeling but more about how my bike would cope. During day 1 I managed to destroy a carbon rim, during day 3 I managed a flat tyre because of a ghetto tubeless setup. During stage 6 I had dropped a light battery, I was just hoping for a day with no issues!
In the Mountains To Beach stage race, there was a much lower amount of money on offer for the overall win and cash prizes were given out each stage. This meant at the end of the week you could still go home with some cash even if you didn't make the placings. Going into the last stage, if I lost 10minutes I was out of the top 5...
The race started with a pace car around town before we hit a few kms of fireroad. I had no plan on setting the pace as I had a 3:30 lead and I was happy for other people to win the stage. About 10mintues in and Ben Randal had started to get away. I wasn't too concerned because of the buffer I had. I planned on catching back some time later on in the stage after riding with the chase group. About 20minutes into the race and I noticed my tyre was getting a little spongy. I rode the tyre for a few kms like this before stopping to give it some CO2. I couldn't get the tyre to seal so I threw in a tube. All I could think of was that I had lost my ten minutes here and my race was over! What seemed like an eternity later I had the tube in and was on a mission to minimize lost time. I knew I couldn't catch the leaders with their headstart but thought I could perhaps try and stay in the top 3-4 overall. Heading past the next marshall I asked for a time split and got told 10minutes. Doing my maths I knew this was 5th position for me. I kept smashing it along the fireroads and often surprising technical single tracks to see if I could catch down some of that time. At the half way point I was told I was a lest 5 mintues behind the group. I imagined that the group would include AJ, Ben Henderson and Andrew Fellows. Ben Randal was further again up the road. About 20minutes further down the road I could see AJ ahead. I was quite surprised to see him and he didn't seem to be enjoying the race. Riding past him I caught up to David who is a "local" who must have been sitting in 4th. I got past him and started following the final fence line that lead back to the Telegraph Station. I got to a river crossing and I couldn't see any tyre tracks so I looked back to the last check point and thought the trail could of led off over the fence along a more obvious path. I jumped the fence and rode a few hundred metres looking to pick up the trails but turned back resorting to the idea that I should be following the fence line. David caught up again and I eventually found another pink marker to keep me following the fence line. With about 3kms to go I could see Ben Randal up ahead. I suddenly became optimistic of a top 2-3 position overall. As I went past I handed him my last CO2 which I half used as he managed to get a flat also. Heading past the 2km to go sign I put the pace on and just hoped that Andrew Fellows didn't finish too far ahead. Coming over the line he was trying to convince me he had been in for around 4minutes meaning he would have won overall. The officials spoiled his fun and let me know it was only around 2-3 mins and I should have won overall!
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Friday, May 14, 2010
Stage 6 Red Centre Mountain Bike Enduro
Stage 6 was the same track as earlier in the day except it was starting in the dark. I was pretty keen for the night stage and I though I should be able to do pretty well with my crazy bright NiteRider lights. The race started at a silly fast pace and I was happy to sit back and let other people do the pace setting. I got into 3rd place by the single track behind Andrew Fellows and Ben Randall and I had the plan on just following them in to the finish. About a quarter of the way through the stage I tried to slide my battery pack up a little higher on my top tube and managed to eject the battery! I rode the rest of the stage with just my helmet light which was ok but not quite as fast. The boys on their duallies started to put a bit of time on me down the hills but when we got to the lower sandy sections I was having a shocker. I was sliding out, unclipping having to get back on etc. In the end, the two boys working together were smashing the pace. These guys are strong. I ended up finishing about a minute down on Andy Fellow and about a minute or two up on AJ extending my lead a little further.
Stage 5 Red Centre MTB Enduro
Stage 5 was a timetrial that started at the local golf course. I had done a pre ride around this course on Sunday so I knew what to expect. I was a minute down on AJ and I was happy to try and keep this at only 1 minute. We were started based on our overall general classification so I started second last, 30 seconds behind Ben Randall and 30 seconds in front of AJ. I was tossing up between riding easy until AJ caught up to try and save my legs a little for the last 2 stages or to put in all on the line.
From the count down I took off fast, there was about 2km of flat at the start and by the end I could see Randall up the road. It took me a long time to bridge the 30 second gap but I must have caught up to him by about half way. He had also caught up to Ben Henderson in front. Randall is a very talented rider and with his 5" dually I had to wait to the uphills to make time on him! As I went past both the Bens I started to hit a bit of traffic. This wasn't too bad because 2 of these riders were local and they knew how to ride the single track.
I got pretty lucky with the lower sandy sections of the track and took most of the corners a little faster than what would be comfortable. The last 2 km of flat I wound up the speed but I couldn't quite catch Andrew Fellows who had stayed about the same gap up the road for the last half.
Finishing this stage I was the fastest by about 30 seconds which moved me back up to first position with a minute lead.
From the count down I took off fast, there was about 2km of flat at the start and by the end I could see Randall up the road. It took me a long time to bridge the 30 second gap but I must have caught up to him by about half way. He had also caught up to Ben Henderson in front. Randall is a very talented rider and with his 5" dually I had to wait to the uphills to make time on him! As I went past both the Bens I started to hit a bit of traffic. This wasn't too bad because 2 of these riders were local and they knew how to ride the single track.
I got pretty lucky with the lower sandy sections of the track and took most of the corners a little faster than what would be comfortable. The last 2 km of flat I wound up the speed but I couldn't quite catch Andrew Fellows who had stayed about the same gap up the road for the last half.
Finishing this stage I was the fastest by about 30 seconds which moved me back up to first position with a minute lead.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Stage 4 Red Centre MTB Enduro
Stage 4 was the big race. 98km of mostly fireroad with little climbing. I went into the stage with the yellow jeresey and a comfortable 3 minute lead. All I had to do is stay with the top boys which shouldn't have been to hard as it was mostly fireroad.
At about the 15km mark I noticed my tyre was slowly going down. I had borrow a wheel and I didn't want to try putting my tyre on there without a compressor so I used what was on it. There was heaps of stans sealant in the tyre so I just put some more air in it and caught back up to the boys again. About 1km later it was flat again so I put the rest of my CO2 in it. It lasted for about another 500m and so I stopped to put a tube in. I couldn't work out where the hole in the tyre was located. There was no stans spewing out and when I opened the tyre there was still heaps of stans in there. I put the tube in and relied on Chris Herron for another CO2 to get me going. I was surprised how many people had got past me and I tried to put the hammer down to catch up to the faster riders ahead.
About 50km into the race I caught up to Ben Henderson and rode with him to the end of the race to finish 4 minutes behind the winners which dropped me back to 1 min down on GC. 3 stages to go and Im pretty happy with a second overall!
At about the 15km mark I noticed my tyre was slowly going down. I had borrow a wheel and I didn't want to try putting my tyre on there without a compressor so I used what was on it. There was heaps of stans sealant in the tyre so I just put some more air in it and caught back up to the boys again. About 1km later it was flat again so I put the rest of my CO2 in it. It lasted for about another 500m and so I stopped to put a tube in. I couldn't work out where the hole in the tyre was located. There was no stans spewing out and when I opened the tyre there was still heaps of stans in there. I put the tube in and relied on Chris Herron for another CO2 to get me going. I was surprised how many people had got past me and I tried to put the hammer down to catch up to the faster riders ahead.
About 50km into the race I caught up to Ben Henderson and rode with him to the end of the race to finish 4 minutes behind the winners which dropped me back to 1 min down on GC. 3 stages to go and Im pretty happy with a second overall!
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Stage 3 Red Centre MTB Enduro
Heading into stage 3 I was 55 seconds down on AJ and around 30 seconds ahead of Ben Henderson who was sitting in third. Stage 3 was a 50km race and started out with mostly 4wd track. This changed as the race went on to include some pretty sweet single track.
For some reason getting ready for a race seems to take a little bit longer when you also need to think about a couple of school students and so we managed to arrive at the race start with less than 5 minutes to go!
From the start the pace was a little more controlled when compared to stage 1 and so we had a bigger group of riders together for longer. There was a lot less getting off the bike during this stage and the average speed was much higher. At the half point drink station there must have been around 6 or 7 of us still together and one of the local NT riders took the charge as other riders slowed to grab bottles. I manged to sneak past after a couple of kms while the NT local forced a little gap to form before Ben Randal got past and started to chase. I was torn between riding with Ben and working with him on the fireroads or the idea of trying to stay ahead. I decided to go alone and started doing the maths to work out how long to the finish. I started to enjoy the second part of this stage, it was fun to ride fast on it and most corners I was hitting a little to fast meaning I often ended up unclipping as the bike drifted out too far. When we got closer to civilization I thought the end must be near and started to put the power down, I was really unimpressed when I got to the 2km to go sign when I was sure the race finish should be approaching! Coming across the line I was keen to check the time split to see if I managed to grab the yellow jeresy for stage 4. AJ came in about 4 minutes behind me giving me a handy 3 minutes for the 98km stage tomorrow. Did I go to hard today? Only time will tell! My goal heading into this race was to secure 3rd place, Im stoked to have a yellow souvenir to take home.
For some reason getting ready for a race seems to take a little bit longer when you also need to think about a couple of school students and so we managed to arrive at the race start with less than 5 minutes to go!
From the start the pace was a little more controlled when compared to stage 1 and so we had a bigger group of riders together for longer. There was a lot less getting off the bike during this stage and the average speed was much higher. At the half point drink station there must have been around 6 or 7 of us still together and one of the local NT riders took the charge as other riders slowed to grab bottles. I manged to sneak past after a couple of kms while the NT local forced a little gap to form before Ben Randal got past and started to chase. I was torn between riding with Ben and working with him on the fireroads or the idea of trying to stay ahead. I decided to go alone and started doing the maths to work out how long to the finish. I started to enjoy the second part of this stage, it was fun to ride fast on it and most corners I was hitting a little to fast meaning I often ended up unclipping as the bike drifted out too far. When we got closer to civilization I thought the end must be near and started to put the power down, I was really unimpressed when I got to the 2km to go sign when I was sure the race finish should be approaching! Coming across the line I was keen to check the time split to see if I managed to grab the yellow jeresy for stage 4. AJ came in about 4 minutes behind me giving me a handy 3 minutes for the 98km stage tomorrow. Did I go to hard today? Only time will tell! My goal heading into this race was to secure 3rd place, Im stoked to have a yellow souvenir to take home.
Stage 2 Red Centre MTB Enduro
At the end of stage 1 was making phone calls back to JetBlack to try and workout how to replace my rear wheel which had decided to crack in one place and pull a spoke in another. I would have though Dt Carbon wheels would have been strong enough.. In the end a local gun rider Paul had a spare wheel for me which will see me through to the end of the week.
Stage 2 on Monday afternoon was purely a hill climb. I looked at the times from last year and though if Ben Mather could do the climb in 42 seconds I should be ok for a 50 second run. Starting out my legs were feeling great. About 6 seconds in I was sitting down spinning as my legs were busted from the earlier stage. Over the line I was just under the 50 seconds and retired to the pool to soak the legs up for tomorrow.
Stage 2 on Monday afternoon was purely a hill climb. I looked at the times from last year and though if Ben Mather could do the climb in 42 seconds I should be ok for a 50 second run. Starting out my legs were feeling great. About 6 seconds in I was sitting down spinning as my legs were busted from the earlier stage. Over the line I was just under the 50 seconds and retired to the pool to soak the legs up for tomorrow.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Stage 1 Red Centre MTB Enduro
Stage one was always going to be a tough day. 40km was in the brochure but 49.8km was the distance on the Garmin. I was tossing up between taking a camel back or 2 drink bottles and I'm glad I went for the camelback option.
The race started with a 6km mass ride with a police car setting the pace. After the police car turned off the pace picked up amazingly. I was pretty keen on letting the fast boys go as the pace was a lot faster than what I wanted to go.
The second part of the race was fireroad that followed the railway line before crossing over and following a trail called "hells trail" or something like that. And as Hell would be, the track was punishing. The punishment was so severe I'm borrowing a rear wheel for the rest of the week. I didn't just break a spoke but managed to crack the DT Swiss carbon rim that I was using. This didn't affect my performance at all and I just thought I had a small buckle in the rim.
In the last 16km after the feed zone I was riding with Ben Henderson. We had AJ out the from and we could see him each hill climb. The track was so twisty and windy it was pretty hard to make up and ground and we ended up finishing about a minute back. I was pretty happy for a second, but a 1 minute gap is quite significant on one of the smaller stages!
The race started with a 6km mass ride with a police car setting the pace. After the police car turned off the pace picked up amazingly. I was pretty keen on letting the fast boys go as the pace was a lot faster than what I wanted to go.
The second part of the race was fireroad that followed the railway line before crossing over and following a trail called "hells trail" or something like that. And as Hell would be, the track was punishing. The punishment was so severe I'm borrowing a rear wheel for the rest of the week. I didn't just break a spoke but managed to crack the DT Swiss carbon rim that I was using. This didn't affect my performance at all and I just thought I had a small buckle in the rim.
In the last 16km after the feed zone I was riding with Ben Henderson. We had AJ out the from and we could see him each hill climb. The track was so twisty and windy it was pretty hard to make up and ground and we ended up finishing about a minute back. I was pretty happy for a second, but a 1 minute gap is quite significant on one of the smaller stages!
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