End of Season Ride

After the fling it took about half a day to move fully into holiday mode as I didn't have any more races scheduled for 2012. Then an email or two arrived containing the usual combination of Dicko and Ant's enthusiasm about one last race for the year.

Everything was still cool at that stage, I didn't have an entry and didn't really feel like getting one. Then Matt Russell piped up and reminded me he had asked about this race a few month ago and I hadn't got back to him. Shit!. A combination of guilt and the return of my trusty 26in Epic had me on the phone to Steve 01 and a few moments later we were a confirmed entry for Masters 3s. A couple of training days followed then I got sick in the week leading up to the race. Bummer.

I arrived at Awaba to see a row of about 5 "Jet" marquees with swarms of people and it seemed that everyone was in teams of 3. It was quite amusing to watch bike fitting sessions and general race preparation while I waited for Kyle Ward to have a couple of spare minutes to set up my suspension after it had just had its annual service. There had been some discussion prior to the event with Dicko about our Masters team possibly finishing in front of their Open team. I doubted it was going to happen but there was no downside for us so we kept reminding them they should finish in front of us old slow guys.

Thanks to Steve01 for taking the opening lap and Matt for the second. A few quick calculations and I was sure that I would only need to to 4 laps wich at the time seemed ok. Steve got a pretty good start and was in front of Dicko going into the singletrack. Jayden was starting for the mixed team and was back around 10th as he was busy mucking about pulling one handed wheelies for the film crew. Garry Milburn was already off the front and never looked back.

Garry and Jayden's teams were both doing double lap stints. Garry finished his first lap with a big lead and Jayden had moved up to about 5th. Garry extended his lead on the second lap and despite a few slower laps later in the day nobody got close to their team. Somewhere on the first lap Dicko had used his local knowledge to sneak past Steve and I don't think we ever got back in front again. Matt Russell did a really good lap for us. I wasn't sure how the much impact being sick would have on my laps and found out that I was OK as long as I took it relatively easy on the hills. We were leading masters by 1 second after the first set of laps but it was really tight across the top 5 or so teams. The second set of laps wasn't good for us. Steve had a front brake issue with his xtr's and went off-road at least once. Matt had a big crash on one of the faster sections and I think we dropped back as low as 4th. We put our heads down for a while during the middle of the race and did some consistent times. It was a pretty big effort from Matt as although he was struggling to walk was still lapping competitively.

After a race long tussle with a local Newcastle team we got down to Steve's last lap where we were safely in 2nd but still a couple of minutes behind the leaders and despite another good lap from Steve thats where we ended up.

I dont mind the heat that much but it was pretty warm up there and would come in at number 3 on my list of hot races. There wasn't that much breeze in the pit area so it actually feels hotter sitting around than when your out riding. Anyway I was glad I went. The 26in bike was fun to ride and despite starting out life as a 2009 model is still pretty competitive. Unsurprisingly Steve01 was quickest in our team but the rest of us were not that far behind.