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This was always going to be a competitive team, just look who is in it. From the start I thought we had a good chance at a podium finish, and finding out on Friday that I wasn't able to compete in the Mont 24 due to work commitments I was ready to give this race everything I had.

Hi fellow mud lovers.

What a race. Everything was running so smoothly until the GP finished. When planning the event we thought that it would be smooth sailing after that... oh how wrong we were

I didn't compete in the event this year, but somehow couldn't stay away... Gazza talked me into scumming out from Hornsby (107km return) to check out the race - initially wasn't keen but the few minutes there made it worthwhile. The scum wasn't all that bad either - but given the amount of flood debris on the road it was clear things at Del Rio were not going to be pretty.

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.

A few of my thoughts on the Sydney 24 race this weekend.

I turned up to the venue with the family in tow on the friday afternoon. By midnight, with the rain essentially torrential (at least thats how it sounded on the walls of my tent) it was pretty clear that the event would be wet. Wet tracks, mean one thing, the mud tyres come out. That alone for me made this race a success, I live my mud tyres.

After seeing Pivot Mach 5 resting heart rate I thought I should measure mine as I haven't measured it for over 12 months. I had stopped riding in March 09 due to work and didn't start up until about November 09 so I had no idea what to expect. I did a quick test on the lounge which had it at about 49bpm. I then wore the HRM while sleeping last night and below is the profile. It looks blank but the Heart Rate tab has the info. Also amazingly I gained 27m elevation, no wonder I wake up tired

driving up to the central coast this morning i kept looking at the clouds and worrying. a spit here and a shower there! i was more worried about the race being cancelled than anything else.
just as i turned off the freeway, the heavens opened and it was terrential rain! OH DEAR! i nearly turned round at this point and drove home but as i was nearly there i thought 'bugger it' its only a bit of rain!!!!!!
i arrived and was glad to see a good gathering of fellow mtb'ers/nutters had also said 'bugger it' too!

The downpour on the way up should have given me an indication of what was to come. It stopped long enough to fool me into racing, then on the start line the heavens opened again. Alongside me on the front of the pack was Gazza, who on hearing the news that this race was to decide our year long race numbers was like a bulldog off the leash when the hammer fell and led the pack to the first corner. I was about 5 back and quickly realised I required more sight than was being allowed me by the mud and rain and had to back off.

When I bought my Trance and it came with Michelin XCR AT folding 2.0". These only lasted 2 months before I blew the sidewall out. Since then I have mainly run Maxxis Crossmarks LUST 2.1 front and rear except for a short time when I had an Ignitor LUST 2.1 on the front. I run about 30-32 psi front and rear and it has always been a good combination but decided to go for a complete change to see how others perform.

Looks like I won't be doing any riding on the weekend.

A mate's crushing handshake when he picked me up to go see the 1-day cricket on Sunday has left me with bone fragments floating around the knuckle at the base of my pinkie. Looks like my broken hand wasn't as solidly healed from my pre-Christmas road rage crash as I thought.

So I'm off to get x-rays in the morning, and am very unlikely to be doing any riding for the next several weeks (again) on anything but a gym spin bike. And that's if they don't have to cut me open again.

!@#$%^&!