Gold Coast XCO#2

photo by Russ Baker

also, here is a link to a picture on cyclingnews:
http://www.cyclingnews.com.au/mtbphotos.php?id=/photos/2008/nov08/illinbah08/illinbah081/EMJ_7599

As expected, we were greeted at the Gold Coast by hot and humid weather. Fortunately our 1990’s model Toyota Tarago rent-a-wreck had air conditioning, although like the gearbox in the old spaceship, it didn’t work very well. Changing gears was like stirring a pudding; I think AJ got a bit nervous when he was following us home from the airport and he saw the reversing lights come on while doing 80kph. The accommodation made up for it though; a huge mansion with water frontage, private jetty, swimming pool, 3 TVs, games room….luxury.

Despite the recent rain, the track was relatively dry for practise on the Friday. It was fairly similar to last year, with a brutal climb and steep decent in the first half of the lap, then undulating for the second half. There were quite a few fun sections but nothing crazy, my biggest problem looked like it was going to be the heat.

The race started with a bit of excitement; I lead it out and had Neil vdP on my wheel when Dave “smack-down” Whitney came around on the right just before the first single track. His chain slipped and he did a huge superman to front flip. Whitney’s sideshow helped Neil and I to gap the field on the first descent so we emerged onto the first big climb with a small lead. It wasn’t long though before the pecking order was established with Aiden Lefmann taking control of the race leaving me on my own just in front of the chasing group of Lewi, Muzza, AJ. On the second lap I was caught by the boys and we rode around still losing time to Aido, with Frendo and Whitney close behind us.

I was starting to suffer a little bit and a small mistake on the 3rd lap meant that I was soon in 7th. Aido broke his chain which really opened the race up again as the lead group rode away from me. I started getting some chain suck problems that restricted me to the big ring by the 4th lap. This wasn’t ideal as I had to run up all the climbs and it was hard to maintain any sort of rhythm. On lap 5 it started to piss down with gusty wind and lightening. This was great news for me as it cooled down heaps and it would make riding up hills harder for everyone else, so running was less of a handicap. I was managing to hang on to 6th position but I could see Hendo catching me. Shortly after, the commissaries decided to shorten the race due to safety concerns so I was quite relieved at being able to stay in 6th.

AJ took out the win in an awesome demonstration of smart riding, and strength. He rode conservatively though the heat in the beginning and had enough to attack latter in the race. It is his first National Series win, a great effort, well done mate!

The result also puts Hendo in the lead of the national series, and if I’m not mistaken, lifts me up into 2nd.