Convict 100km - My first Ever DNF :-(

I arrived at Minter's house at 5pm on Friday where a take-away dinner of spaghetti and meatballs was waiting for me. We loaded the car and headed off into the peak Sydney traffic, chatting and laughing away and sharing memories from both our younger years and friendship we have developed over the past 4 years.

Some mates had kept us a camping spot and had the fire going, and soon we were tucking into Dorito's, chocolate brownies, and caramel koala's.....and talking a whole heap of shite.

The race started off well and as others have said, the section before the first hill felt like a base ride and I was in my element....this was my kind of pace.....and I was keeping up there with the leaders

We hit the first hill and and some f-witt a few places in front of me didn't make the climb and caused a bit of a pile-up/traffic jam (I now know the f-witt was Tristan ). Mike (Blades_Utd) was a few bikes in front of me and managed to put some more distance on me before I managed to get going again....bugger....I had plans for him to tow me most the race (he is one of the nicest blokes you could ever meet and while not expressly agreed, this seamed reasonable too me).

I soldiered on with a few other guys but then at around 20km I got a puncture in my rear tire (sidewall). I resealed it, shouted out a number of expletives and headed off.... and about 5 minutes later, it was flat again. I used my 2nd air canister and tried again, but 5 or so minutes later it was down again. I then put in my tube and had to flag someone down and beg for a canister. Soon I was on my way again, but got another TWO punctures which required me to again shout out to people for a tube/pump/air canister. When I eventually punctured the 3rd tube half way down Shepherds gully, I didn't even try flag someone down, but just walked the rest of the way back to the road and got a lift back to St Albans in one of the fire vehicles. I decided 6 punctures was enough for me and pulled out

Lesson learned are use a heavier duty tire for a race like that, and carry a pump and one air canister rather than 2 canisters.

A very disappointing day as I was feeling and riding well, but that is life and that is racing and there is no point in crying over spilled milk. I did however take an axe and chop up the offending tire into lots of little pieces

The positive was to focus on the excellent achievements of my riding buddies and live vicariously through them

Minter’s result was incredible 1st in the non-elite’s with a sub-4 hours and 12 minutes behind the winning elite (Cory Wallace), and only about 5 minutes behind Jason English. You also need to factor in that the elites get a bottle drop at the water points where Minter had to stop, refill etc. I was very impressed/proud/etc.

Paris also had a great result coming in 3rd overall and first in category, despite having been off the bike for a while after a nasty fall at the Wombat.

Mike's result was fantastic coming in 10th of the non-elite's....it really shows the benefit of training with high caliber individuals like myself (and Minter I guess).

In the words of big Arny...."I'll be Back"