Lach's blog

As others have noted, it was a mild to warm day in Wollombi for this race this year. The temperature had reached 28C by the time I crossed the finish line about 11.30am.
The format had reverted to the original one of either a 60km, a 30 km or a 15 km loop after a flirtation with longer distances last year for the XCM series.
I decided to do the full 60 (58) instead of the 30 (seemed hardly worth getting up at sparrows' and driving up there to do 30 km!), along with 215 others.

Decided to do both the night and day version this year and camp out at the event centre. Good to be in the thick of the circus event centre vibe, though I'm getting bit old for extended periods of techno beats....

Well I’d always wanted to do a 24 hr race and now I have. Part of a Brady Bunch team with Hawkeye, Hans and our three sons (sounds like I’m channelling old TV shows there….)

What we thought might have been a fairly social category was pretty hotly contested and our 16 laps were only good enough for 8th out of 8 teams!

Pleasant temps and a bit of misty drizzle for the start. Organisation at the new start was pretty good, with rider briefings in the car park followed by a short ride down to the start line. The initial fire trail hills in the Arboretum were a bit of a slog and left my legs feeling a bit dead. Should have warmed up properly eh?

Great opportunity to ride some sweet Sparrow Hill and Kowen single track, for a good cause (fundraising for Bec Henderson), in an interesting format (team pairs - ride with your buddy). Two x 25 km loops, passing through the event centre twice each lap.
Spoilt for me (and my team mate) by the imposition of a previously unannounced or even foreshadowed cut off time. There was a mention of it in an e mail sent out late Friday, well after I'd left for the ACT, but even that described the cut off as TBA.

Still not sure how solid the data is, given that my best category result was 6th in a small-ish field at Wollombi, but if it's real, it just proves "ya gotta be in it to win it". I'll take it, for the moment at least....

http://www.cyclenation.com.au/News/DisplayNewsIt...

Did about 18 minutes better than last year, despite a hard fall at the start of Sherwood Forest, trying to get around a rider who stopped in front of me.

Great day out in the picturesque Wollombi / Yengo Ck valleys. Glorious sunshine. Cool but not too cold. No mud! In fact it was a little dusty riding in traffic. I’d almost forgotten what that was like….

When I got out of the car at about 8:30 for the long walk back to rego, it was 7C. When I got back into the car at about 1:30 it was 7C. Only difference was that by that time I was wet, chilled to the bone and a bit disappointed about another slow time on another wet track.

I'm getting a bit over riding in the mud at Callala. Bring on El Nino! I thought from the weather reports that it mightn't have been too bad, but the puddles in the streets around Callala Beach were a bit of a giveaway. There had obviously been a bit of recent rain on top of a pretty wet year. Had been hoping for a time down near 2:30, but knowing what the track and the rider were like in the wet, that goal was modified to getting under 3:00.