For various reasons I haven't ridden for a month, and in all that time swimming a few laps on one occasion is the only exercise I've put in. Oh dear, oh dear.

Well, it's a nice day so just went for a gentle trundle around the streets I usually commute on and managed 23km, 500-ish vertical in about 75 mins. OMG, what a disgrace! In summer I was doing over 30km and twice the vertical on the commute home in maybe 15 mins more. That said, I was taking it very easy today.

Now all the trails have to do is dry out and can do some real riding

Geeze... we were lucky with the rain (missing it) this morning.

Today's ride was absolutely tops. It was highly amusing on a number of occasions.

Firstly following Alex down to the creek and seeing him almost loose it (left foot unclipped drifting waaaay right) on the sandy left hand corner (the one before right hand down steep smooth rock). I was riding the inside line almost next to him and slowed somewhat to view the carnage that never came - another lucky break for the young 'un

As others have already said this race completely rocked!

Gazza, Martine & I arrived to talcum powder dust on the roads and drove around in circles for a while before locating camp NoBMoB. It was a nice evening at this point and setup camp quickly. Annoyed to have left a cool bag at home (downstairs in the carpark - a bit stinky upon return on Sunday) sat down to other snacks for dinner and placed a shopping order with the incoming Buck & Gary (thanks for obliging guys).

The Rush got that long awaited (well - 3 weeks it's waited anyhow) work yesterday. As well as sorting the brakes (now feel tops, but have left the lever reach a bit too far out) and a few other little jobs we (my mechanic and I) put on some new Jetblack Enduro grips.

I'd had a slight issue with binding of bolts on the ODI lock ons and we had to take a Dremel cutting disc to one of them to remove it!

Ah, Tien... what a sadistic b@st@rd he is for suggesting this!

A surprising number of suckers willing riders showed up 7am this morning though and off we went. Soon though, the hills ticked by, as did the laps and one by one they fell away until just Tien, myself and another mystery rider (oops... I forget your name, how embarrassing) were left.

Below is a list of excuses for finishing last (of, did I mention, only 3?) pick which one you like the best...

Getting up at 5am is always hard, but a nice race day makes it worthwhile.

The track this year had a small change from last, with a nice section of technical climbing added that I'm happy to say I cleaned on every lap. Later on though didn't quiet have the strength left to clear the original section later in the course and had to dab on the last two laps. Still - I didn't get up that once last year due to being forced onto the right line so happy with how this went.

I wrote a while back about doing a bit of training on the commute so am following with an update. I've discovered that going over to Cremorne and Mosman is a nice little detour and now the route looks a bit like a tour of the lower north shore. Check it out:

Post Jetblack Sydney 24 the Yeti needed a bit of TLC.

It got new brake pads front and rear (obviously!) and just hope the front rotor doesn't eat the new set as despite being only 2 laps old had clearly been metal on metal for quiet a lot of that second lap.

BB as removed, cleaned and replaced. Ditto for seatpost clamb. Ditto for skewers (if you can call the front axle a skewer). Everything else just got a good clean.

While we're mentioning these things - the rear brake on the Rush got a bleed and what came out was nasty black fluid. Yerch!

What can be said about this race that cannot be gathered from the pictures? It was top fun despite being a little wet and muddy. Sadly it was a bit of a bike killer but c'est la vie.

The course was short and 30 minute times were expected so we elected to do double laps in daylight, triples at night and play by ear on Sunday. Not being present at the previous night's 'democratic' vote I was sent out for laps 1 & 2 but given the staggered start (solo, 2s & 3s + 1 minute, 4s + 2 minutes, rest + 3 minutes) didn't expect much traffic. Little did we know riding first would work very much to my advantage as things played out but more of that later.

Interesting race this one, but have to say am very happy with how it went to be honest. Well - for me - for poor old Cupcake it sucked quiet badly.

Having hastily moved from a trio with Junkie, Cupcake and I begrudgingly formed a pairs team at Lisdale. It would seem no-one wanted to ride with a 'pest' and both of us were too soft to ride alone so worked for me.