Scott 24hr

It have been over a week since the Scott 24hr and i am still feeling a little tired. 24hr races are always tough, but for us chasing the entire time, it was particularly strenuous. It became clear quite early on that it was between us and the Gu team, but unfortunately we let them go on Saturday evening when Willo double flatted on one lap and came in 9 minutes later than he was expected. I was waiting in transition and it is an aweful feeling, just watching the seconds and minutes tick by while the Gu team was riding away from us. By the time i got out on my lap, we were over 15 minutes down and the pressure was on us to chase. Through the night we gradually clawed back a little bit of time and got the gap back down under 10minutes, but we couldnt decrease it anymore as we started to tire. In the end we came in 9minutes down in second place, which isn't such a long time over 24 hours. It was a really good effort by our team, and quite pleasing to know that we pushed Gu all the way to the end, its been a while since any team has been able to do that. Despite Willo's little mishap, our "Swell" team was well oiled machine. Our lap strategy worked really well, no mechanicals, no crashes and thanks to Laura (our manager) we never missed a transition and our legs were always freshly rubbed with goanna oil through the night. It was also a really good team atmosphere, Lewi, Matty, Willo and I had a good morale the entire time and we had a good laugh, which is the best thing about this format of racing.

Special thanks to Swell Design Group for sponsoring our team, and of course to Laura, the world greatest 24hr manager. She had the least sleep out of the entire team, she was tough with us when she had to be, but nice to us when she could be. Hopefully next year we will go one better.

Off-season

I have had a bit of a break from the blog and the bike since the Angry Doctor 100km at Mogo. That race was a bit disappointing for me, I had some really good form and was exactly where I wanted to be after 65km (at the front with Lewi and Hamish), but I completely feel apart and ended up suffering to hang on the 6th place. Not sure what to put that one down to, everything seemed to be going well, never mind, at least it was good to see Lewi get the win to make up for last year debacle.

My 2 weeks off the bike went by in a flash, work happily stepped up to fill the void! So I’ve been back on the bike for a couple of weeks now and looking forward to the Scott 24hr this weekend. I will be part of the Swell Designs Pro Team of 4 along side James Williamson, Shaun Lewis and Matt Fleming. What a team, hey? I would like to think that we are a chance at the win, but with no less than 5 awesome teams the only thing for sure is that the racing will be tight.

World Cup - Mt Stromlo ACT

After all the European preparation, i had 2 weeks back home to focus on the Stromlo World Cup. I didn't do to much hard training during that time, the focus was on recovering from the flight and tapering for the big race. My only real-hit out was the Working Week 8hr race the sunday before, which was also at Mt Stromlo. Shaun Lewis and I won the race outright and i posted the fastest lap by 2mins, so indications were good that i had the right form. It didnt stop me getting nervous though. I think that would be impossible not to be, having had this World cup as a focus for the past year of training.

The race went really well. The pace was quite fast on the first lap and i put it in the red to get the best possible position on the first single track. unfortunately i got caught behind some Euros that weren't very fast on the technical stuff. The only thing i am dissapointed about my race is that i got frustrated and wasted a lot of energy unsucessfully trying to get around them. It took until i had a small crash on the 3rd lap for me to settle into my own pace and start to enjoy the race, and it was hard not to. The track was so much fun and the crowd was awesome. All the support was amazing and it made we want to give it everything, thanks to everyone who was out there. The bike went really well too, thanks to Trent from Monza who serviced it the day before, and the Monorail tyres were hooking up really well. On the last lap i noticed that a Belgian rider was catching me, i estimated that i had about a minute with only a few kms to go so i would hold him off comfortably. Then suddenly, with about 1km to go, he had closed it down to about 10 seconds and i realised that it was Filip Merharger (former world champ, olympic medalist and convicted drug-fiend). I just managed to hold him off to take 25th to be the 6th Aussie.

Overall it was an awesome weekend. So good to see a big crowd out to support mountain biking, that can only be good for the sport. I'm glad there were plently of Aussies in the mix to give the crowd something to cheer about, with Chris J up there, and Macca and Lachy achieving personal best world cup results. It was also great to see Johnny from Spats getting the bikes out there with his expo tent, the titanium bikes were definately turning heads.

I'm off to Mogo this weekend for the angry doctor 100km marathon, then i'm on a small break. Hopefully the weather is warmer when i get back on the bike becasue this cold weather in Cooma is cracking me!

L'Hexagonal - Stage #5 - Evry

These are actually photos of stage 4:

Im not sure who took this one.

The team before the start.

Dan and AJ loking good at the start.

Today was the final stage of the Hex, a 48km XC stage comprising of 2 start laps then 5 full laps. There were a few technical bits and it was fairly muddy but it was still a pretty quick track. The pace on the start laps was really quick and i was well positioned for most of it but stupidily slipped back a little before the first single track. I got caught in a bit of traffic, and lost the contact with the lead bunch. Nick and i found ourselves well back in the pack and had to work hard to make up time. With a decent amount of single trail, we were able to use it to make time each lap. By the start of the last lap we were inside the top 20, Nick went on to get 15th, but i was fading a little and held on for 19th. The good news of the day was that Dellys put heaps of time into Laurence Leboucher to steal the leaders jersey on the last day. That is a great result for Del and hopefully will give her some good confidence for Bejing. Good luck Del and Dan!

Overall, i am really happy with my first hexagonal. I definately feel like i improved thoughout the week. The highlight of the race was definately the Montmartre stage. It was really cool to launch down steep stair cases in front of a big frech crowd. Also there were plenty of Aussie tourists that felt obliged to cher us on.

Another cool thing that i will remember was on the first XC stage, the track went past some back yards and each lap there was an old couple out in their yard cheering us on from the back fence. When i arrived there on the last lap after it had started to pour with rain, i didnt see them. Then when i got closer i heard a banging noise and "allez allez allez". The old lady had gone inside and got a big pot and was banging on it with a wooden spoon from under her verandah. It so cool to see that sort of passion for cycling.

I am really keen now for the world cup in Canberra. Im looking forward to riding rocks again.

L'Hexagonal - Stage #4 - La Ferte Gaucher

Today was a super fast & quite flat 60km stage at La Ferte Gaucher, East of Paris. It was non technical except for a 5min wood section on each of the 3 laps. This looked like being a traditional Hex stage; a very fast start to blow the field appart, then bunches would form and the pace would ease slightly until the attacks start coming on the last lap. Neil (the team coach) told me to try and go with the lead bunch on the first lap, even though the pace would a bit quicker than i am able to ride, in other words i had to put in in the red and hope that i could recover enough to hang in (it the very least it would be good training).

The start of the race was exactly as expected, i positioned my self as far forward as possible but gaps started to form in the bunch as people started to drop wheels. When we hit the technical section for the first time the field was split into a few bunches with small gaps between. Realising that i might have missed my chance, i got to the front of the second bunch and smashed it through the woods as hard as i could, knowing that the tail of the lead bunch might stretch back a bit. I bridged across to the back of the lead bunch which was my team mate Dan, but i was starting to hurt. I knew i had to stay on his wheel, but i couldn't. I joined up with a swiss rider and we swapped off turns for about 30km until we eventually got caught by the chasing bunch of about 10 riders, including Nick and AJ. Before we arived in the technical section for the last time, everyone was getting twitchy. It would be very important to be near the front because the bunch would almost certainly split in the woods. In the middle of the woods i was about half way in the bunch and on a steep climb i broke my chain...bugger. i had a spare link and fumbled around for a while fixing it but the group was long gone. A couple of french guys picked me up and we rode together to the line but they rolled me in the sprint. I ended up 34th dropping one place to 28th on GC.

Overall it was a hard day. I was pretty smashed at the finish. A good result for Dan Mac as well as he finished 10th, hopefully his form is starting to come on for the olympics. One day to go.

L'Hexagonal - Stage #3 - Montmartre Urban Time Trial, Paris

Sacre Coeur church


Jakey (our masseur) going to town on me before the time trial


Dan Mac waiting in the rain for the start of his time trial


Me about to hit the course.


The last climb, believe me that is definatily a grimace, not a smile

Today was the 3rd stage of the tour, a 5km individual time trial around Montmartre in Paris. If you have ever been to Paris you probably know what it is like. A big hill, cobble stone streets, heaps of stairs, tourists everywhere, and the Sacre Coeur church in the middle.

The course was crazy. It went up and down heaps of stairs and twisted around cobbled streets. And it is not like dirt, a lot of these steep stairs, would really hurt if you fell. During practice (and even in the race) there were tourists everywhere. On some of the long stair sections it was impossible to wait for them to be clear so you just had to start and hope that all the people scattered in time. Appart from running up all the stairs, i felt relatively comfortable with the course. Being quite technical probably suits me, but i was worried by the looming clouds because cobbles get very slippery when they get wet, especially steep stairs!

The riders were realised at 1 minute intervals in reverse order of GC (fast guys last). Since most of us Aussie are quite close on GC, we were all off at about 40mins in. Right on que the rain started about 5min before i had to go...bugger. I was really scared. I had know idea whether the lines i rode during practice were even possible anymore. I decided to take it easy in the start and hopefully build confidence as i went. That was a good strategy becasue i was super careful in the first few corners and i still nearly slid out. The climbing sections were so hard, it is tough to run up stairs when you only ever ride. Running is something you do if you are late for a bus! Overall my run went well, i passed the three guys that started in front of me so that is a good sign. i made a few mistakes but considering the rain i think i rode well. Then after my rdie the rain stopped and the roads dried out for the probably the top 20 riders, very frustrating.

I just checked the results and it turns out i got 17th and was the first Aussie. That is an awesome result! i was 58sec down from the winner but all the quick guys had a dry track, so i'm realy happy.

L'Hexagonal - Stage #2 - Vittel 50km

through the feedzone


Today was the 50km second stage of the Hexagonal. We went for a lap to familiarise ourselves with the 12.5km course and it was a complete mud fest. the rain from the previous night had soaked the ground making it the very worst kind of claggy type mud. The kind that sticks to your bike and clogs up everthing. The track was pretty fun though, i was pleaseed that there were a few really fast and slick downhill sections. I cut the lap short to get back to the car and put one the Maxxis Medusa mud tyres, perfect for this kind of stuff.

The race start through Vittel was super fast. I started from the 5th row of the grid so i had to work hard to move forward. I hit the first single track climb way too far back and got caught up in the grid lock. I rode most of the first lap on my limit, trying to stay in touch, but eventually i had to drop back to a sustainable tempo because i was affraid i would blow. The course was so much fun, we were sliding around eveywhere. I had some trouble with mud clogging up the bike but i was very careful to take and extra bottle of water each lap in order to hose the drivetrain regularly, and my bike semed to be working better that others.

After 3 laps i was still feeling pretty good and it started to pour down. This was actually a good thing becasue i makes the mud a lot wetter, and it doesn't stick to the bike so much and it is easier to ride. The last lap was awesome, i lifted up my pace and managed to reel in 5 places. The downhills, were still slick but so much fun. I was super happy to be able to finish strongly, i just have to work on my speed at the start. I ended up in 33rd. AJ was the quickest Aussie in 25th.