Buck's blog

The last race I did was way back in 2011. My friend Loz and I hadn't ridden much since so entering the Capital Punishment was an attempt at getting myself motivated to ride and train a bit more.

Well considering my total lack of training for various reasons this year this turned out OK. In the month leading up to today I had ridden to work twice, did a few laps at the Mont, 38km at Terrey Hills and two road rides which were both shorter than 70km! So the only goal today was to finish the race. Given the conditions leading up to the event I had thoughts of calling it quits after the canoe bridge even before we started

I started in the second group with Loz. I would catch him on the hills and then on the flat sections he would pull away. This went on for the first 15km or so. I lost him after one of the creek crossings though. So then I backed off the pace a little as my HR was quite high. The first stage was pretty uneventful. It was impressive seeing the Elite riders tear past though. Fortunately I was in an open paddock so it was no issue for them overtaking me.

Well this was my first complete bike build. I was looking for something to replace the VP Free as I didn't find myself riding DH anymore. I wanted something that could handle going downhill reasonably well but also pedal uphill. The Nomad seemed to fit the bill.

Putting it all together was a lot of fun. It wasn't all that hard as I've tinkered and replaced parts on my other bikes before. I just did it slowly over two nights.

On bathroom scales it came in at around 13.4kg which I was surprised at. I thought it would be more. I'll need to get a proper weigh in someday soon

Just putting it up as a record even though it's months after the event.

Total mudbath. Arrived and started late as really wasn't in the mood for a wet race! Rode slowly with Sam, Loz and Shano.

Didn't make the cutoff at Stromlo which I was glad for anyway!

Only adding now months after the event to keep a record.
Race shortened due to rain.

Probably the only time I'll win a race!

The week leading up to the event wasn't ideal. I caught a cold off a friend the weekend before the race. It wasn't too severe so I went ahead with the 100. I wanted to get close to the 6hr mark but didn't quite get there in the end. Still it was better than last year so all good

I was volunteered to do the first lap. By the time I got down to the start line the queue was already long. I just jumped on the rear rather than pushing in. I was about 2/3rds of the way back when we got the start gun. The run/jog was fine as there was no room for an all out sprint in my position anyway. It got a little more chaotic when we reached the first of the bikes. People were darting off to the side to find their bikes and bikes were trying to get onto the track. It was certainly an experience!

Loz and I did 8 laps in 6.5 hours. The race was cut short by two hours due to the extreme conditions.

Temps were up around 44. It was ridiculously hard...for me anyway.

Time to go lie down and die now.......will update later

The forecast was for 40+ temps and again I knew this would be bad for me given my previous performance at Mogo in the heat.

Rode to work on the new Specialized Toupe Gel that I purchased for my road bike. Most comfortable saddle I've ever been on! It only has minimal padding but it must be the shape of it. It was much better than the Fizik Pave that was on the bike previously.

I'll have to find a MTB version for my Trance. Highly recommended.