Awesome Day in the Southern Highlands

After beating last year’s result by nearly 40min in the Capital Punishment last weekend I was looking forward to similar today at the Willo. While I've only been back on the bike for 6 weeks after a 2 month layoff I was feeling positive.

I haven’t ridden since last weekend’s race as I was travelling for work but chose to get lots of sleep rather than do the hotel trainer thing. Last night I was in bed at 9 and punching great zzz until my son came in at 11 then a few hours later my daughter joined him and we had 3 of the 4 of us coughing and spluttering through the night. Grrrrr

I arrived later than planned this morning and parked near @gazza and managed to sneak in not too far behind @antsonline at the start. Within about half a km from the start I was in no man’s land. The large group ahead just smashed away and I seemed to be well ahead of those behind and that’s how it went for 75km! What a lonely race. Only about 2km in I passed @antsonline walking back towards the start. Poor bastard. Ant, what happened?

Riding along The Wall I was caught by the lead group of 6 from the 50km event as they started 4mins behind us. My mate Gordo looked like he was really struggling to stay on the back. We exchanged happy stuff but I could tell… I have been averaging double to triple his training time over the last 12 months and he only entered the event as Meg rang and asked him politely to be there. He hadn't ridden at all for a week and only built his new bike yesterday.

On the big climb I was passed by another good mate Adrian who was also in the 50km and was running about 12th all on his own. We had a chat and he mentioned he was with the lead group and took the lead for a while then they smashed him. I laughed my head off. “What else would you expect doing a dumb thing like that?”

I completed the first lap 15 min ahead of last year but felt I had gone too hard. Next lap I took it easy and was 2 mins slower than my 1st lap. WTF? First lap I was turning myself inside out with heart pumping out my mouth then next lap I felt I bludged and got almost the same time!

Last lap was a struggle as my back was crap from the last 6km of each lap in that section that is constant start/stop. I took it really easy and it was a lonely lap as I hardly saw anyone. This lap was 5min slower than my 2nd and I finished really excited that I was 54min faster than last year!

I was also really happy for my mates Adrian who finished strong in the 50 against a class field and Gordo who really isn't fit and did what only he can do and turned himself inside out to the point he was almost sick to get himself a strong finish.

I'm feeling motivated knowing I'm making strong gains over last year and really want a strong result this year at the Convict 100 especially as one of my mates has been training his arse off to beat me