Hard day at the office in 43deg!!!!!

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.

I was volunteered to be first out of the traps this year after Nige had his starting privileges revoked after last years stuff up at first transition. The climb up the hill was fun/busy, bar end to bar end stuff. I managed to get a good leap past a lot of riders entering into the transition in the first 3rd. Traffic didn't seem too bad, not as bad as last year I think, and got a fairly decent run all the way to The Drop. The traffic did build up here however and I decided to go the chicken run and leap frogged the pack ahead of me who were negotiating the drop. Good call!

I was extremely consistent with 3 of my 4 laps all within 3 seconds of each other! (1) 36:45, (2) 36:46 and (4) 36:47. I punctured halfway on my 3rd lap and this was probably when the track was at it's hottest. Trying not to be sick with the heat and shivering with cold sweats I was horrified to find my air canister was empty, luckily I was carry my pump in my jersey pocket and was able to begin putting air in. Some really kind woman stopped and gave me an air canister and I was able to get back on track. Whoever you are and you're reading this, thank you!! But this was after I had lost 13mins.

We were placing 3rd after 7 laps but there was some timing voodoo going on and on the last printout of results they had us placed in 27th!!! Apparently they had me down on a 1:34h lap. Clearly this was bullshit. The timing guys did a bit of fiddling and gave us a NET result of 17th. I'm still not convinced this is correct. Will cross-check their results with our Garmin times. OK so they got it right, damn, kinda, well actually they place us 36secs quicker than what our Garmins has to say. Speaking of which Garmin thingy here:

I was last out on track and came home about 10mins after the track was closed. Cursing that flat tyre, we could have put in a 11th lap for sure! I swear it was actually cooler on my 4th lap. I really enjoyed it out there and was racing hard with two other guys right through the final 3rd. It was all push push push! Top stuff! Heart rate maxing out at 188!

The competition was tough this year. I think all riders deserved the Tough Man Award. We completed 10 laps in 6hrs compared with last year where we only manage 12 in 8hrs. So it's fair to say that we're still very happy with our output.

The beer at the end didn't touch the sides!

Thank you Chris and the team at Wannaride. Another awesome event!