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.