Ian_A's blog

3 of us from BMORC formed a team for this years final Chocolate Foot round at Awaba. Awaba seems to draw out all the big guns and I was keen to seem them go around and ride the fun track.
We had a mixed bag in terms of experience. Stephen is the seasoned racer, I'm the apprentice racking up a few by now and Paul was the newcomer with his first mtb race only the week before.
Stephen started us off and put in a solid 38min first extended lap.
I was next up and raced away to a 35:34, passing Brian from Jet opens (he probably didn't even recognise me).

The goal going into this race was to simply finish on the bike, still peddling.
Once at the race I secretly had the goal to beat Vinno and his mate in the pairs.

This was my first 12hr and rode it in a pair.
We came in knowing we would struggle but wanted to finish on the bikes and not sitting on the sideline.
We managed 22 laps and fairly consistent pace up until lap 10 and 11 for me. We ended 12th place in male pairs (9th in category).
I managed to take fastest 3 laps over my team mate and fastest overall by over 15 minutes which was surprising.
I had a nice stack on lap 10 when I was off with the fairies and hit a tree so I stopped for a minute to get my composure before continuing.

We decided to camp out the night before and I wish I rode the 20km night ride - looked like heaps of fun.
Come race morning it started drizzling and continued to for the whole race.
I was initially thinking that somewhere around 2hr30min was possible after 2hr32min at the Husky. I had a good few weeks training and was feeling good. After looking up some past results from others on here, I changed that to 2hr45min and ended up with exactly that.

Last minute decisions by friends I was supposed to be helping move to Mackay meant I was free to ride the Husky. I only look at the 50km races at this stage as I could not race for 100km and wouldn't enjoy myself.
I read how the weather had been perfect and the track was in good condition - so I was looking forward to starting my 4 day riding trip with the Husky followed by some riding around Tathra and Bermagui.
The aim was under 2hrs30min and I knew I could do this comfortably with a good run.

Racing male pairs again for this round, but I prefer three's because I'm lazy but couldn't wrangle a 3rd.
Team Remedy has been through a couple of name changes but myself and the other 2 core riders all ride Remedy's so the name is apt.
Turned up Sat arv for a cruisy scope out lap and thought this would be fairly easy racing - but the track was much harder on race day with the gradual climbs really taking their tolls.

With a really poor lead up after a back injury 3 months ago and being off the bike for most of that time I wasn't expecting much. Losing my bike 3 days before the ride with a leaking front brake lever also relegated me to the low speced hardtail that weighs in around 15kgs.

A few extra's turned up this afternoon, which was good. 5 of us set out with a nice run through the sniggle. A quick chat with the Vicar of WInmalee, then down the Grotto for some brake burning action. A nice flowy run through the swamp, then the challenge. Up Bee's Nest. Jason makes it look easy, but noone else cleared it in one hit. A quick breather at the top, on to the lookout for another breather, then an easy cruise back along S/wood ridge. Another run through the sniggle, then it was all over. Beat the storm by about 10 minutes.
Nice way to finish the week. Thanks guys.
Ian

Nice ride around Mt York area this morning. Started the day arriving pretty spot on 8:30 to find Todd sleeping in his car.
Had a quick chat, then Jim comes rolling down the hill having parked further up. We ride up the road for a bit then jump on to the track.
It was mostly fairly easy going, technical in places but still fairly flowy, until the 'shute'. Jim just powered down, Todd had a look first then did the same. I was a bit more reluctant, but the boys talked me in to it and I made it fine.