APPIN 400

On Sunday 15 August 2010, the Appin 400 was organised by the crew from Wannaride.
After a hard week of training, I was keen to see what the legs had and was looking forward to riding the Appin track for my first time.

On arrival at the event I grabbed a free coffee, helped Garry and Fiona set up our base camp and completed the over pre race rituals of signing in, prepping my bike and catching up with the usual suspects.

For this race I joined forces with Garry Milburn and we raced in the male pair's category. I opened our campaign with a shocking start, as I could not clip into my pedals for the first 150 metres and had to dodge a number of riders over shorting corners and sliding out. The remainder of the lap was a big learning curve in selecting the correct lines and earmarking the areas where I went over the handle bars.

By the third lap we had secured second position, with Craig Gordon & Josh Carlson in the lead and throwing down super quick lap times and in third place, also nipping at our heals Matt Reekie & James Lamb.

We soon settled into rhythm of completing low 30 minute laps managing to refuel and rest in the short breaks.

On my forth lap a westerly change whipped through with some light rain, which barely dampened the track. The rain was short lived and by the time I returned to transition and cooled down the sun was back with vengeance. The Merida Ninety Six performed perfectly in the techy, rough and rocky 10 kilometre course, I on the over hand struggled for most of the day and never really felt like I was on top of my game.

The win and outright victory was taken by Gordo & Carlso, with Garry & I coming second overall and in the pairs category.

I would like to thank the race organisers, Garry Milburn for his consistently strong efforts, and bike bug for their support.

Rocky Trail MTB Grand Prix 4Hr - Dargle Farm

The second round of the Rocky Trail Grand Prix Series was held about 1.5 hours North West of Sydney at Dargle farm on Sunday 9 August 2010.

Arriving at the event centre early Sunday morning I was greeted to crisp blue skies, with the camp event centre awakening from the 12 hour race that had been held the previous day. I was unable to make the 12 hour race as I had committed to undertaking a cycle coaching course on the Saturday.

I had given myself adequate time to register, set up my gear up and even do a warm up prior to making my way through to the start chute of the GP 4 hour.

My expectations of the track quality were moderate, I was pleasantly surprised to find a great mixture of pinch climbs, technical rocky descents, flat fast fire road sections and even a pump track.

My race plan was to go out fast and hold the tempo for as long as I could, making sure to keep hydrated and consuming fuel consistently.

The opening lap was fast and I found myself making numerous rookie errors of coming into tight corners and pitch climbs in stupidly large gears and taking ridiculous lines.

Still young gun Sebastian Jayne and I were flying round the course and knocked out a super quick sub 26 minute lap and placed a decent couple of minutes between the rest of the field.

I soon found myself settling into the race and lapping with consistent 26 to 27 minute laps and was enjoying the challenge of the tough technical pitch climbs.

By lap four I had opened up a gap descent gap on second place and was feeling strong. As I passed through the race event centre I over heard the race organisers offering a prize for any one who commences their 10th lap (100km lap) within the allowed time of 4 hours. This information took a little while to sink in and my initial thoughts were ‘like if anyone could do that’. On 5th lap, I soon realised that I was in striking distance of completing the magical 100km lap and set about upping the tempo.

I dug deep and managed to give myself a two minute buffer to start the final lap within the 4hr cut off time. This gap soon disappeared as I slowed on the eighth lap with a sore back and increasing traffic.

As I came through the event centre with huge support from the crowd, I was advised that I would have to punch out a sub 26 and half minute lap to make the cut off time for my tenth lap. The pressure was on and I knew if I attacked the track I could possibly do it.

I speed off up the climbs, grinded the big dog along the flats and was able to track past riders with out any dramas. That was until the bottom of the final climb, where I lost my line and slipped on an off camber rut. Hugely frustrated by my lack of concentration and the fact that I was loosing precious seconds. I jumped back on the bike and took off, taking as many risks as I could flying down the final decent and into view of the event centre.

As I sprinted towards the transition, I was greeted to a huge applause and new it would be close, I managed to complete the 9th lap in 26 minutes and 13 seconds and was under the cut off time by mere 14 seconds to commence my 10th and final lap.

I took my time on the final lap, enjoying the track and chatting to the young solo riders who were completing their final laps and showing the great depth of young talented endurance mtb coming through.

I would like to acknowledge the amazing event centre put together by race organisers and thank all of the riders and spectators that inspired me to complete ten laps and win overall the GP4 race.

A special thanks to Bike Bug for finely tuning my super quick Merida Ninety Six and to my wife for all of the support she gives me.