Blogs

Best days racing I have had in years.

Vertigo has just completed a special charter with it's first repeat client's, Crommo from the Gold Coast and Garren from Mosman. After riding on Tasmania's west coast wild trails last year the lads were ready to take on the east coast.
Our first ride took place on the very challenging Blue Tier descent where Garren tested the breaking strain of his own limbs and that of his brand new carbon S works, on the gnarliest section of the trail. This man does have some serious grit as he was back on the bike after a few deep breaths trying to keep on the tail of formidable guide, Rob.

Finally broke 5 hours so very chuffed!

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.

Was a great ride, we did a few runs of the DH track and a few other less technical runs. All in all a great day out

Wet and about 8 degrees C, first ride on the new bike.....aim was not to cramp and to ride all the hills. This was achieved although I did stop at the changeover area for 5 mins to stretch. Time was 2:58 mins.

Rory had a good ride and the single track sections went well perhaps a bit too slow on my part. I walked the wall!!!

This race was the end of a 4 week block of racing. I had done OK in the race last year so had been looking forward to it. In the week leading up to the race I had been really tired so just concentrated on doing the minimum amount of training for a taper week.
I travelled down with Dicko and after registration and a quick chat with Steve 01 we did a short warmup and waited on the startline for the briefing. It was pretty cold and damp so I chose to leave my clear glasses behind. Later I would pay for that decision a few times.

This race was initially scheduled for Mt Annan however a bit of midweek rain had the promoter swapping the locations for Rd2 & 3. I like Awaba so stayed positive despite a few ml of rain in the days leading up the race.

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.