I have seen myself get stronger over the year & after completing my last FTP test (functional Threshold Power = The maximum average power output you can generate over an hour) where I seen a huge improvement of thirty Watts, I was feeling confident that I would have a better result than worlds where I placed 4th in my age. I had competed in a hot 12 hour race only a few weeks back & had all my hydration problems sorted for the 24 hours. I knew my race diet worked at the world champs & I was confident that the same eating plan would work for me this time around. I had new tyres fitted to the bike & I had spare wheels so I knew if there was a problem I could swap them out. I had more than enough batteries to light me up through the night & I had a new Garmin Edge 1000 GPS with a charging battery to get me through the entire 24 hours monitoring my lap times, average speed, heart rate, cadence & time of day. I had my wife Cindy helping me in the feed zone with my six year old son Kaiden because she knows what I am like & did a great job in the worlds last year.
So you could say I was very well prepared. We even had Cindy's foster brother Chris Lonergan, that lives 10 min from the track at Campbeltown give up his comfortable bed the night before so I had a great sleep before the race.
We traveled straight to the race venue at Mount Annan Botanic Gardens after Cindy finished work on the day before race start to get a good spot in pit lane, set up our camp & pick up race numbers before the gates shut at 8pm. The past few days I had felt a little sick for what ever reason, but in saying this I had just wanted to eat & eat, which helped me with loading carbohydrates before the race where I normally struggle to make the 700 grams the day before racing. So this time around I was well fueled up before going to sleep the night before racing started.
Race prep
Race Day
The race also had team riders riding for the 24 hours as well as 6 hours plus 6 hours solo riders on the track at the same time as the solo 24 hour riders making the total of riders reaching over 400 going around a 9.8 km loop track & I knew it was going to be crowded & a bit of a pain in the butt moving off the track to let the faster team riders past as I started to tire from hours of riding but we are all here because we love mountain biking.
The Temperature for Saturday was expected to reach 29 deg C with a low of 12 deg C during the night followed by a top temp of 32 deg C on Sunday & with no rain predicted & not much rain beforehand it was going to be one dusty ride hot ride.
I got my first update on my position at around three hours in telling me that I was positioned 4th in my age category with other riders riding within seconds around me including the leading riders Bellchambers, Spearing & Timp all riding single speed bikes & with awesome reputations as the best riders in the country/world.
My legs were feeling good & my energy levels felt OK besides the heat that had now registered 34 deg C on my Garmin knocking me around a bit, but not as much as the riders I was passing on the side of the track suffering from cramps so early in the race. I was concentrating on drinking 610ml every 40min lap swapping water & electrolytes lap for lap as well as getting as much food down as I could. I found eating a hard task in the heat & there were only some foods that seemed to go down OK. Banana in a wrap with Nutella not being a good choice in the heat as the Nutella meted & let the banana slide out of the wrap dripping chocolate all over the bike & myself. A better choice became more sustainable foods such as chicken noodle soup, but this meant stopping every now & then loosing a bit of time each lap while I had the food by the pit tent.
As it became cooler into the night I was pleased the make it through the day without cramping like most other riders I had seen on the side of the track during the day but it had seemed that the sun had still caused a little damage to my energy levels & I still did not feel like eating but forcing food down each time I completed a lap.
After witnessing this ordeal I thought about how fresh I felt & decided to go out & finish the last 6 hours of racing with the hope that all other riders in front of me would retire & at least slow to a unrealistic pace. I smashed down some weetbix & got back on the bike feeling good & had to keep reminding myself to take it easy because I still had six hours or so to race. Although it was just after 6am when I was back riding laps you could feel the heat of the day starting to climb already. during the last six hours on the bike I felt good & kept a great lap pace overtaking solo riders one after the other till I climbed back up to 6th spot in my age group & 25th overall & I knew there was no way I was catching the other riders in front of me now a few laps ahead, so I just maintained my position through till the end where I was awarded with a nice cold beer that sat well with me in the heat of the day that had now reached a top temperature of 37deg C on the Garmin.
There were a lot of surprises that came from this race including former Commonwealth Games mountain biker Tory Thomas that won the overall female finishing 5th overall behind the boys.
I had a tough field of riders to compete against in my age with David Speering finishing 1st & 3rd overall ahead of Michael Timp in 2nd & 4th overall & Brett Bellchambers in 3rd & 7th overall, all riding single speed. I really don't know how they do so well without gears ???
Thank you's
Thanks to Chris Lonergan for letting me stay the night before the race so I could get a decent rest.
Thanks to all that cheered me on during the race & squirted water over me to cool me down, you know who you are. You are all becoming my family away from home & make these races a very memorable experience for years to come :-)
Thanks to both my sponsors, Graham Seers Cyclery & Enriched Health Care who both make it possible to race at my best.
And a massive thank you to Rocky Trail & all the crew for hosting such great races throughout the year. You guys are awesome & make it all worth while :-)