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Not a great day was feeling very flat for this race and had nothing in the legs not sure if it was hot but it felt bloody hot I pushed on for 3hrs and managed 7 laps running out of water (went through 3.5 litres) at transition was enough for me to finish the day so decided to pull the pin.

Scored a cheaky 3rd place out of 4 riders in SS solo category having only ridden for 75% of the race time but way down in the overall standings will have to do better at the next round.

35 Degree heat made this race HARD! I decided to do a warm up lap and I thought I wouldn't be able to do another half way through. At the last minute I decided to go for the race and I'm glad I did. Due to the heat it was decided to drop the lap count. I can't say I gave it everything I had but towards the end my water finished and I really started to over heat, the last pinch was crazy hot - couldn't even see through the sweat. I had finished almost 3 litres in less than 2 laps.

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7235090
http://www.insanecycles.com.au/movies/hwalls.wmv

I had a blast on the weekend with so many happy and appreciative riders doing the same, we got to the single track and split into 2 groups the XT's and the XTR's, I was fortunate to have Alex helping me and he led the XTR's out at a good pace both groups met up just before the Junkyard and we all had some fun there, we continued sending the XTR's off on the the longer and hillier routes which worked out very well with a large group. Lunchtime was a treat under the shadey trees at Lawson school and with such a large group it made sense to get a case of beer. To be continued after some sleep

I had so much fun riding this trail. It's amazing what difference a bit of pressure makes. There were sections I usually would have walked, but with 50+ riders behind me…

First race and I didn't come last!!!

Finally getting cleats next week. Can't wait!

where do I start?
It was a hard race for me, but this course is so much fun!
First lap was ok, a lot of traffic, but not to bad, I rode behind Anke for a while and she let a few riders through in the more challenging bits, thanks Anke.
then it was Buck's turn! He was much faster then me all day, but my goal was to at least to do 4 laps.
The second lap was gr8t real fun and a bit faster then the first one, rode behind Gazza for .... well maybe 5 min. or so... and he was gone!

Saturday:
Damien and his small car came to pick us up
Three bikes on the roof, biking gears and tent well packed..Gavin, Damien and I were on our way to the big race.When we arrived Damien and I registed and our race numbers were 4 and 500 respectively.

We had a pretty eventful day. The weather was changing from rain to shine with every lap. Nige broke his chain out on the trail which knocked our time back a bit and to top that he also won the Tomato Sauce Award. Nige slammed into a boulder on his fith and final lap and ended up gashing his arm pretty bad. 10 stitches req. Hardcore!

Surprisingly the track got better after the rain and was in excellent condition. Loved every minute of it and am still grinning from ear to ear.

With all that we still did really well placing 11th out of 42 teams in our category.

Go the Pony Club

A bit sore today but I am glad I signed up and did this one solo.

Having only ridden about 5 times since the Sott I wasn’t ready or able to go out very hard so my original plan was to just have a cruise around and a rest at half way and do a few more laps in the afternoon.

So I lined up right at the very back of the start pack and dawdled up the hill and into the back of multiple traffic jam’s on the first lap which really didn’t clear until about 3/4 of the way through the lap.

This race certainly lived up to the billing (from punters) as best race of the year. For Sydney siders of technical riding persuasion this is surely the case as it's only an hour up the road and while Can'bra tracks are smooth and flowing Ourimbah also has a nice dollop of technical stuff to keep everyone on their toes. The work done by the local club on the track is awesome - in the Graveyard especially which now has some nice berms.