New Bike

I've been laying low after getting the flu and having a very ordinary race at the Highland Fling. The training is starting to build up again though , and i'm starting to feel good again. It's just as well because it is getting close to the 2nd national round and the Tour of Bright, so the 5 hours planned each day this weekend it should do me good. The timing for a big weekend could have been better though with the forecast for snow and blizzards down to 1000m. I had heat stroke a couple of weeks ago! My body isn't going to know what hit it when i go to the Goldy for XC round#2 next weekend.

Luckily i just built up my new roady, so was still looking forward to riding despite the weather. My only reservation was getting it dirty. It is a new Spats Javelin Titanium Frame, with SRAM Red groupset and i am super happy with how it rides. I haven't got it on the scales yet, but it is light. It also felt really stiff and the new Red groupset works awesome. It didnt take long to get used to the "double tap" shifting, although i have to attmit, i did try to push the brake lever a few times early on. The only thing that took my mind off the new bike was riding into a hail storm. That turned out to be the first of 4 brief hail sessions. 5.5hrs later i rolled back into town pretty blown but chuffed with the new rig. I was too far gone that even my new bike couldnt make me feel any less fatigued anymore. There was only one thing that could save me....a big tray of nachos. yeah....

National Series XCO #1 - Adelaide

photo: Adam MacLeod


I travelled down to Adelaide for the National series opener on the weekend and before the race I was uncertain as to how my form would be. The Scott 24hr was pretty much the only intensity that I had done since having a break and it had left me tired for 2 weeks. The plus side of this is that I didn’t feel any pressure so I went to the line very relaxed and with a race plan of taking it a bit easy in the first 5 laps, then finish strong in last couple of laps of the 7 lap race.

After the first 200m metres it was a race for 2nd place as Chris Jongeward unloaded the chasing group of Hendo, Lewis, Aiden, Haas and me. Sensing that it would have been suicide, none of us were happy to go with Chris’ pace and he put a minute into us on the first lap. For the chasers, there wasn’t ever much time between us but Hendo the pressure on and we split up a bit. Lewi unfortunately flatted and then crashed out of contention on lap 5, and I was starting to feel the hot weather but was hanging onto 4th ahead of Haas with Hendo and Aiden still ahead. On lap 6, Haas bridged back to me with ease and put me under a lot of pressure on the hills. The descent on lap 6 was the highlight of the race as we amped each other up and tried hard to get back to Hendo. It was so much fun, but then on the last lap, I found myself unable to stay with him as I started to suffer in the sun.

So Chris got the win by 3.5mins, followed by Hendo, Aiden, Haas (1st U23), then me. The 4 of us separated by only 2.5mins. I was lucky that the race finished when it did because soon after the end i realised that i was not doing so well. I guess the snow in cooma last week wasn't great for aclimitisation because it turned out i had a bit of heat stroke and needed some medical assistance. Thankfully Carolyn McKinlay was there to look after me and get me back in order - thanks a lot Carolyn! Still, I am really happy with the start of the National Series and I’m looking forward to round #2 at the Gold Coast.