After all the European preparation, i had 2 weeks back home to focus on the Stromlo World Cup. I didn't do to much hard training during that time, the focus was on recovering from the flight and tapering for the big race. My only real-hit out was the Working Week 8hr race the sunday before, which was also at Mt Stromlo. Shaun Lewis and I won the race outright and i posted the fastest lap by 2mins, so indications were good that i had the right form. It didnt stop me getting nervous though. I think that would be impossible not to be, having had this World cup as a focus for the past year of training.
The race went really well. The pace was quite fast on the first lap and i put it in the red to get the best possible position on the first single track. unfortunately i got caught behind some Euros that weren't very fast on the technical stuff. The only thing i am dissapointed about my race is that i got frustrated and wasted a lot of energy unsucessfully trying to get around them. It took until i had a small crash on the 3rd lap for me to settle into my own pace and start to enjoy the race, and it was hard not to. The track was so much fun and the crowd was awesome. All the support was amazing and it made we want to give it everything, thanks to everyone who was out there. The bike went really well too, thanks to Trent from Monza who serviced it the day before, and the Monorail tyres were hooking up really well. On the last lap i noticed that a Belgian rider was catching me, i estimated that i had about a minute with only a few kms to go so i would hold him off comfortably. Then suddenly, with about 1km to go, he had closed it down to about 10 seconds and i realised that it was Filip Merharger (former world champ, olympic medalist and convicted drug-fiend). I just managed to hold him off to take 25th to be the 6th Aussie.
Overall it was an awesome weekend. So good to see a big crowd out to support mountain biking, that can only be good for the sport. I'm glad there were plently of Aussies in the mix to give the crowd something to cheer about, with Chris J up there, and Macca and Lachy achieving personal best world cup results. It was also great to see Johnny from Spats getting the bikes out there with his expo tent, the titanium bikes were definately turning heads.
I'm off to Mogo this weekend for the angry doctor 100km marathon, then i'm on a small break. Hopefully the weather is warmer when i get back on the bike becasue this cold weather in Cooma is cracking me!
