Supagav's blog

So after a LONG wait my new bike that I have been lusting for since it was first released back in 2011 arrived on Thursday.
The bike in question is the Cannondale Scalpel 29er. Carbon frame , carbon lefty fork, mix of XT and XTR parts finished off with Cannondale's Hollowgram SI Cranks and a nice set of wheels!
I have been riding a hardtail exclusively for a good 6 years now and thought there was not really a great need for a dually for most of the riding I do, yeah sure they have more comfort but at the price of weight.

Hmmm SS and canberra are normally great fun......
Not so much today. Dont get me wrong I had a great day out on the bike, the tracks were awesome as always. My problem was I was on a SS set up to climb the big hills that the Otway 100km race had that I did a month earlier, I was too lazy to worry about changing the gear to suit this race and as such I found the going very tough on the flat parts of the course.

Now that has to be one of my most fun days out on a bike, With all of the talk of hills and rain/weather leading up to the race I really had no idea what to expect.

In the end I stopped worrying about what the conditions were going to be like and just decided to ride my bike in its current setup. Single speed and geax saguaro on the front and Racing Ralph out the back.

Well that Is the fastest 100km race I have ever done... While the course may seem flat and easy its not.... You need to pedal the whole damn way except for the parts where you carry your bike through the "puddles"
The course took in the 3 main single track areas of Nowra using fire road to link them together, the fire road used was mostly over grown so it was more like straight-ish singletrack really.
All in all a good day on the bike.

Well this was such a tough and fun race!!!

It reminders me of wet winter rides back home in Dunedin after a big snow storm has melting away to leave everything sodden wet.

The night before the race I was been hasled about riding SS especially since I had a nice new race bike as well.
As it turns out it rain most of the night which produced the wetest track I have ridden on for a very long time....

Well my new Bike arrived On thursday night and was put together at CBD that night.

A couple of rides on the roadd to bed in the brakes and all was good.

V and I didnt get ourselves organised with anyone else in terms of camping so pitched the tent in the paddock below the church. a perfect spot really. close enough but far enough away at the same time.....

I bit of a drama at rego but all was sorted soon enough.

Boy oh boy that was tough.
That race was by far the toughest this kiwi has ever done. All the talk over the pervious weeks leading up to this race was about who would win between myself and V. We had both decided that if it was going to be hot I might get myself in a spot of bother. Needless to say when the forecasted temps kept getting higher closer to the time I got more worried.

Well as im sitting at working typing this I am feeling a little used today.....

There had been a bit of banter about this race between a few of us and who was going to beat who and what times people expected....
Due to AR Junkie been sick i picked up his entry(cheers mate) just after the mont where he talked me up and said I was good for a 5hr race.

So after a couple of chats with Carlgroover about 24hr racing some months ago Vanina decided she would not mind having a crack at one of these. I, of course ended up being support crew.
I don’t think you really understand what is required by the riders when they undertake one of these "crazy" races. I really didn’t think about how much work was required from the support crew both leading up to, during and post race.

Basically the riders are only focused on riding their bike for 24hrs.

Well this was one full on 24hr race!!!!!

I had the joy of the mad dash to the bikes then the race was on. We managed to get a really clean start and i was in a good position for the first lap. everyone jockeyed for positions for the early part of the lap then it settled to a really nice rythmn for the rest of the lap. I must say the down hill run home was worth the climb. I was buzzing at the end of the lap.
The funny part about this race is I only once got a chance to come down from that busy always doing something state.