Oceania Championships - Shepparton

The start fo the Elite Mens Oceania Championships

Me riding the waterfall (and getting in Josh's way)

Passing AJ down the waterfall

Cam at the Waterfall

With its generally physical nature, treacherous "waterfall" section and some pretty fine and fast off camber corners, the Shepparton XC track was a far from ideal re-introduction to mountain biking after my dislocated shoulder. But after a good strapping job from my buddy Anne-Marie on Thursday morning, I gingerly headed out on the course with my Swell-Redshift team mates, Nick and Cam, for a few practice laps. I was pretty timid to say the least, but managed to get around the course without major incident.....that was, until we got to the "waterfall". I had been dreading this moment. This is a pretty scary section at the best of times, but with my constant fear of crashing and dislocating my shoulder again I was very nervous. We stopped to check it out and it looked tough; no really easy way to get down it, even walking it looked bloody hard! I took a couple of run-ins to it and balked at the top, not good for the confidence. I had another go and cleared it, then to prove to myself that it wasn't a fluke I tried again. This time I lost my front wheel at the top and had to leap over my bike, landing on my feet at the bottom. Quick check of the shoulder...ok, quick check of the knicks.......probably should change into a fresh pair for the next lap. :(

Despite the disrupted preparation, race day came and it felt like business as usual. Pre-roll, toast & coffee, drive to the track, transponder pick-up, warm up, staging, 15 seconds....bang. With a short start straight it was relatively easy to defend a good position from the front row. I hit the first single track in 4th wheel with only Blood, Macca and Aido ahead of me, exactly where I wanted to be. Being slightly concerned about the imminent technical sections of the course, I was reluctant to drive over the top of the climb and I was passed by Mike Northcott from NZ. On the lead-in to the waterfall, I was getting bounced around a bit and struggling to hit all the good lines. I had a close call on a tricky little rock section and nearly fell off the side of the little goat track. Arriving at the waterfall I had no idea what was going to happen, but fortunately my instinct took over and I rode it ok. Sid motored past me later in the lap, but I held on to 6^th place for a couple more loops while being shadowed by Carlso. I was trying to relax but still felt quite tense and felt like a bit of a passenger on my bike. Then coming in to the finish of lap three, a lapse of concentration and I crashed hard on a fast right hand grassy corner. Luckily it was my good side and I wasn’t hurt, it was also fortunate that Josh didn’t run me over, but I was now back to 7^th. The rest of the race was a bit of a blur. I was suffering on the climbs trying to hold of AJ and Carl Jones (NZ national champ) and fighting to steer my bike around the technical and rocky course. AJ got me with 2 laps to go but I past him again at the waterfall. He hit me again with one lap to go and I tried my best to limit my losses but it wasn’t enough and I finished up 8^th.

In the end Blood got a well deserved win followed by Sid (who incidentally also competed with a recently dislocated shoulder) and Mike Northcott of NZ. Nick continued his solid form with a 12^th place and Cameron showed more improvement from illness with 6^th in the U23s.

Thanks to all the sponsors, especially Jason from 2XU who made the trip up from Melbourne to watch. the race. Cheers for all the support! And a big thanks to my physio Robyn Armstrong for helping to get me to the start line and to Anne-Marie for the massage and strapping that got me to the finish in one piece.