Hmmm good testing ground for a anew bike? HELL YEAH

Well my new Bike arrived On thursday night and was put together at CBD that night.

A couple of rides on the roadd to bed in the brakes and all was good.

V and I didnt get ourselves organised with anyone else in terms of camping so pitched the tent in the paddock below the church. a perfect spot really. close enough but far enough away at the same time.....

I bit of a drama at rego but all was sorted soon enough.

It was a very mild start to the day both in temp and the pace from the start. Lasty year I started in the first group behind the elites and it was race on from the start. This year starting with the elites was a very different affair. we sort of cruised along untill 300m form the start of the climb. thats when the top boy sprinted away and i was to never see them for the rest of the ride. Was riding at a great tempo across the top until i got a flat on on of the loose descents around 20km mark. afte ra bit of mucking to change tubes I was back going again. ( Mental note, RR 29er takes 2 CO2 canisters to fill Emm up) At this time I struggled to get a good rythym going for a while. I rode with Jenny fay for a while before starting to feel good again.
Rolled through to the 50km and picked up another tube and 2 more canisters. I went to get my bottles to find someone had taken one of mine, Bastards!!! I had to talk water instead of HEED.
I Was feeling good and loving the new bike. It felt very fast and responsive although I was wishing it was tubeless. When you pedal it leaps forwards and at the same time didnt feel like it was beating me up to much.
THrough the next part of the course i made pretty good time. I was still careful through the bigger stuff as I was not completely familar with the bike yet. Rode the bridge and then powered along the flat. Man it was nice to have gears for this, find the gear and spin along nicely.
Up and over the top of the range was uneventful as always. On to the finla stretch home and there were a few 50km riders for me catch and pass so it ensured that I was kept honest all the way home.

My final time was the same as last year and did not hurt anything like last year either. I guess training along with food and drink been sorted helps alot. I was bummed to get the flat but that is racing!!!

I will be back to do it next year, but tubeless for sure.

Well done to everyone that raced. A few people out there had a tough day, Carlgroover had to ride 40km odd with only 3 gears (broken cable) and he was on target to get a sub 5hr time as well.
Also well done to V who after training throughout the week (9hrs) still came in 3rd in elite woman in 5.05.

What did I of think of the bike?
I LOVED it. It is fast and responsive, the lefty steers, well like a lefty!!! and the SAVE rear end seems to work I dont feel anymore beat up than I would of had I been on my steel SS. all is good. BTW 10.7kg for an XL 29er!!!