Scott 24hr

What a weekend it was for the Scott 24hr; a few small showers over the weekend made the track super tacky and the mild temperatures overnight made it less intolerable getting out of bed for that 4am lap. Swell Design had the usual army out on course with a total of 24 riders in 4 teams. The Swell-Redshift mixed six consisted of Cameron Ivory (fresh back from XC worlds), Nathan Spencer, Nick Both, Peter “Pinky” Kreillis, Rosie Barnes & myself. I opened the account with a double lap and was happy to get the team off to a good start despite a very scary encounter with a massive Eastern Grey kangaroo that actually took a swing at me. Hendo (who was ahead of me) had managed to piss him off so much that he certainly wasn’t going to cop any shit from me and he stood his ground as I approached.  At the last moment I swerved off the track to go around him and he tried to kick me, definately a scary and sureal experience.  From there, the team took control and we soon overtook Anytime Fitness and built a small lead over Merida. During the night Anytime went to bed, but Merida closed the gap.  Just before dawn, Ryan Standish (Merida) passed Rosie on the red climb and got a gap over the top. Sensing that the situation wasn't good, Rosie desceded like a woman-posesed and caught Ryan, eventually following him into transition.  I was out next and managed to get a gap again, and as Merida threw everything they had at us, Cam, Nick, Pinky and Nath lifted and punched out some great laps to get the gap out to 6 minutes again. With two laps remaining Rosie and Standish had a rematch on the red lap. The tension in transition was crazy as AJ and I (and our respective entourages) waited for Rosie and Ryan before we could comence our "ride-off" for mixed-6 glory. 24 hours of racing and it came down to this......Rosie was first into view and the Swell crew cheered, seconds later Ryan appeared!  The gap was 9 seconds.  Pacing the lap was a bit tricky; I did not want to give AJ a chance to catch me so I had to start fairly hard, but I didn't want to go too hard and blow.  Luckily I had the aid of a head start, and Cam & Clarkey out on the track giving me splits so I could measure my effort fairly well.  In the end I was able to do my team proud and hold of the 'flying ginger' to finish the 2011 Scott 24hr with a big skid into the arms of my team mates. Wow, what a way to finish after 24 hours of hard racing! That is what these races are all about; everyone digging deep for the good of the team and the excitement of it all coming down to the wire.  The stoke from this race is sure to hang around for a while.

 

As usual the support from Swell Design was second to none. My Felt Edict LTD with Sram XX was amazing and I was having a ball on both laps. An especially big thanks to my awesome team mates!