Whisperer's blog

Great to get back with Steve01, Gazza and Martine - the 'Original' Mixed Nuts.
Had a great spot in one of the 'premium camping areas' beside the track, and our own Dunny!
Gaz and Steve were in great form, and Martine despite not feeling well all weekend did a 'Xena' impersonation and did amazingly.
I was well trained (the Adelaide Hills rule!), but not quite at the same race pace as Gaz and Steve (who is, those guys are legends!). Still, I did consistent laps circulating in the low 60s. Must admit though, 15hrs driving (from Adelaide) had taken a bit of gloss off my condition.

All the gear is hanging up in the garage and nearly dry after a very wet Sunday & packup. today I'm starting to feel normal again, after a couple of nights sleep, and the flu is passing at last.

First up, what a fitting event for the memory of 'Willo'. Back when I was getting into mtb, his editorials and race stories in Enduro mag, and others before that were really inspiring, particularly considering his humble approach and writing style. A great guy who deserves to be remembered for all the right reasons. Now, onto the race....

The fling this year was billed as the best thing since slice bread.
Lots of new single track, some virgin for the event. Relentless hills, and really hot.

I was aiming for a 6 hr finish, but had a horrendous night's sleep. Sleeping in my car, it had filled up with about 23,000 bugs, and I was devoured through the night, finally getting to broken sleep around 2am. Up at 5:45 for breakfast, and I knew I wasn't going to be in prime condition.

Short Version blog update, more to come later.

I was down there as pit crew and mechanic for Carlgroover
He had amazing race, consistent laps all the way saw him rise up to third through the night and build a lead over 4th place of 20 mins. We were ecstatic, until the guy in 4th got a new lease of energy and closed it down ~8 min a lap for the last 3 laps. As the results show CarlGroover got a very commendable 4th.
Gazza did it tough, he was next to us, and worked really hard in one of the most competitive age groups. (40-44).

This race nearly didn’t happen.... A couple of weeks ago Gazza got a job out in Central Australia, and had to pull out of our regular Mixed Nuts team. Martine wasn’t happy to come along on her own with us (I’m still not sure how that reflects on the rest of us.... ), so it was down to Ladytoast and me, as Steve01 wasn't available either.

I'd been training pretty well for the 100, and had a bad setback last weekend, with a bad cold that put me in bed for about half the long weekend. I spent the week recovering, and had my first tentative ride on Friday - 30min each way to work and back. So, the 100 was not really an option. I downgraded to the 50km and knew my past training would give me enough to get through it ok.

The start line had some serious talent, with ex olympian Paul Rowney, and a bunch of other well ranked elite, vets and masters contenders.

It was an early start on Friday, leaving Sydney at 6.30am, but the reward was getting to the Mont before 10am, and getting a perfect spot at the entrance to the campground, no more than 100m from where we’d planned to do our transitions. I taped off a decent area for the teams that would be joining us, and set up the ‘mega-tarp’ pits area for our team, the Mixed Nuts.

A perfect morning for an endurance race. Got up in the dark at 5:30 and set off by 6 for a 7am rego and 8am start.
The sun rose as a giant orange ball in the sky behind me as I drove out there, and there was mist on the paddocks giving it a crispy feeling. Perfect for riding! Met up with Gav, V and Onegear in the usual spot, and after the usual rush to get everything organised the race began.

I set out with a clear objective to do well, finish strongly and see how I'm measuring up in a solo 'race of truth'....

This will be a short initial post - pretty tired now.....

Crazy weather once again with torrential rain through the night, and fairly constant drizzle through the day. The Salty Nuts (Me, Steve01, Ladytoast and CarlGroover) went at it hard, used tenacity & technical skills to keep momentum up through the wet and slippery technical bits and didn't backoff for a single lap. It paid dividends, because we not only won our class, we beat the open mixed fours & threes for an overall position of 5th overall in the event.