The course was set out in Canugra were they held the Dusk til Dawn earlier in the year, the race was going to start at 2pm instead of the normal 12pm start this meant that if the racing was close by day break Sunday it was going to be a case of how can survive that heat temps Saturday and Sunday were about 34 deg.
The solo field was about 50-60 approx and with Andy bell, Matt and Hubcap around I was always going to have my work cut out for me not to mention a unknown field which always seems to produce some dark horses. At 2pm the start gun went and we were off my plan for the race was to try and hang on to Andys wheel for as long as I could. First lap found myself, Andy and Matt within a couple of seconds of each other. I kept pace with Andy for afew laps but with Matt putting in little attacks along the way I decided with the heat I would drop my pace I ended up letting Andy and Matt go around lap 4 approx. and started riding my own race.
The track was 7.5 km but for such a little course it was alot of hard work as you can see by the race results, there was alot of fresh made track which smashed your legs as the race wore on. Matt took some time of the bike which ment I had a fare gap back to him and Andy kept opening the gap to me. For the rest of the race I battle my own demons that wanted me to throw the towel in buti kept trying to open the gap to third so I could get off the bike early before the heat kicked in. As the morning rocked around my lack of consistent training after the world was showing, my plan was to hold second place and not try and chase Mr Bell. 6am I stopped and had a shower put some fresh kit on and went on to hold 2nd place.
The race was good it has got me keen to start training and prepare for next year.
On a different note there were 12 people that were convinced by a mad man solo rider[ me] to get themselves sorted into two 6 man teams and take on a 24hr race when they had limited MTB experience. These guys were great not once did either team stop in the whole 24hr, I think each of them found out what endurance racing is all about. A big congrats goes out to you guys you kicked arse.
3 comments:
Thanks for the chat on the track. Good to see you back blogging:-)
I can see why you were saying to trust in your base training as by the sounds of it, it was all that you had yourself.
See you out on the track another time.
Cheers mate. Good to meet you I think by the end of a 24hr all you have is your base.
Later
Good work Bozz, take it easy till the new year, build on that base. Did some interesting reading today about ultra endurance riding like Race Across America. Catch ya soon,
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