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With the cheap flights available, and holidays starting before Christmas, I thought I'd do a 4 day blast down the Great Ocean Rd.
It's going to be a lightweight tour, on the roadie with a minimum of gear to slow me down. I considered the single speed for this one - having done it twice before on the roadie's over the last 10 years, but there are a few pretty serious climbs along the way, and carrying my gear too would mean I'd have to add a tooth or two to the back, and that'd just slow me down too much on the flats.

Big thanks to all involved.

That was my first race as a solo rider in this sort of format and it was a pretty good race for me, although I was feeling a bit ill in the tummy. All the beers the night before wouldn't have helped that though! I'm looking forward to the next rounds with a bit better preparation.

Yellowmundee never ceases to surprise. I didn't even know some of those areas existed.

Today I changed the tyres on the Yeti.

Brand new Monorail (2.1) on the front, brand new Larsen TT (2.0) on the back. Both LUST Kevlar bead. Let's call this it's 'XC trim'... for the upcoming trip. Probably only drop 300g weight compared to the 2.35 Minion/Highroller but these should roll a lot easier and they have the LUST side walls which feel a lot tougher.

Will hopefully have a quick test ride tomorrow to check the Monorail feels as good as others claim they do.

Tough day on the bike last Saturday. My first 100 km race. The sickos who designed the course were sadists. Clearly they were 'hard core' lads who didn't share the same diet and exercise plan as me. I don't think they even knew what the phrase 'soft ripe brie' means. Perhaps I should have taken more note of the race name - The Alpine Assault. (I guess the word 'Alpine' should have been a giveaway for the geographic profile of the area). You were either climbing or descending. Make that grinding up or flat out down. And that was really the order of the day.

What a great afternoon and evening of riding and racing.

And a really nice change to ride in conditions that weren’t like a blast furnace. I went back to my tried and true strategy of just enjoying the ride and saving the racing if there was to be any for the last lap or two and it worked as I was able to finish the race with a quick lap and some solid uphill climbing to hold on for second place.

Lots of fun and a great short track that really was very enjoyable.

Round 2 - Sunday 17th Jan.

Well, another great day riding around canberra. I'd been suffering from a migraine Friday and Saturday so really took it easy on the day to try to keep the heartrate down.

We got a good start following a couple of locals who knew some great shortcuts.

i hate typing so i'll keep this short.
what can i say but HOT,HOT,HOT!!!
the air was so thick and hot at times it felt like someone was holding a massive hairdryer on full heat in front of you, my mouth was drying up with every breath i took, absolutely incredible!
had a great start to the race, i went first, about two rows back from Gordo. i was thinking "am i too far forward?" but off we went and i sprinted up the road and got a fantastic position into the singletrack, i never really lost any spots on the first lap staying in about the top 30 spots( at least i think?)

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.

The Pony Club had been training hard since last years event and we went with the aim to push for podium or at least top 5 after finishing 11th last year. However I always knew this race was going to be tough one with 39deg being forecasted. The weather certainly didn't disappoint. By lunchtime the mercury had risen to 43deg!!! and the organisers pulled the pin and shortened the event by 2hours. This decision was welcomed by all who were still around to compete.

Brutal is all I can say.

The previous week I cruised around and did 4 laps in 2hrs 50mins with 32x19 and felt really good.

On Wednesday I decided to chuck 32x21 on the bike so I could really ride and enjoy the whole 8 1/4 hours of the race without any dramas.

Ok race day was here and I was up way before sparrows fart and on the road arrived nice and early and was setting up for the day at 5.30am and all organised by 6.00am with plenty of time to sit back and relax before the race.