8 pack

How do you carry 8 bottles at once with one hand?

Ron is stopable :(

Bad news (although I think he did manage to finish the lap <thumbs up !> ) :

“Hi guys I had a big crash on the creek run on Sunday at about 11.00 am which put me in hospital for the night with a fracture or the body of the scapula(broken shoulder blade),first I would like to thank the guys who help me to the first aid tent much appreciated as a result i`m out of action for 8 weeks no riding no work. Did any one witness this as I`m trying to claim on my mtba insurance so if you did can you pm me.I was riding a green Norco fluid an had a green and black Jersey on. Thanks Ron ”

Crab foot

Is the word used to describe the delicate aroma that has made its way into my car sometime over the weekend. A combination of old sweat soaked mountain bike clothes, hot weather and closed windows have combined to leave a smell something like an old gym sock on the shore line at low tide. With another race next weekend, things aren’t looking like smelling better any time soon 😦

Mont 24 wrap up

With limited mobile coverage rendering my trackside writings a ‘fail blog’, I wlll quickly wrap up all the things I should have said while trackside.

1. Dusty Mc Dust Dust. Sparrow hill was dry. There was forecast of a Sat evening shower that never eventuated leaving the track a crumbling, dusty mess. Dusty everywhere. I swear to god I saw someone open canned food only to find dust inside the tin!

2. Lachlan did our first lap. It turns out he is an excellent runner. He was in 42nd position outright coming off our first lap. There were approx 600 runners and our very own Ronnster aka Mclovin must have been in 400th position as he ran past and looked like he had a lot of work to do. The first on the bike and first into the single track was another HMBA rider Jarrod Hughes and he was 3rd outright at the end of the first lap…. Big effort!

3. My first lap was the best possibility to set a fast lap. Disappointingly, I coudn’t do better then 52 minutes, I really wanted to crack the 50 minute barrier but it wasn’t to be. There was  too much pussy footing around in the corners as it was pretty skatey and I had been using lady scented body wash.  The fastest guys were doing 46 minute laps. Then the track turned into powder and the lap times slowed a little.

4. Our running order went Lach, Rosco, Danbot, Gresho, Mick C, Mick J.

After last years drive home, I really wanted to get some more sleep to ensure we got home in one piece. At my 1:30 am lap, We changed the order and went Rosco, Danbot, Rosco, Danbot and then we had done our 4 laps and could sleep in. So I ended up doing a single day lap and 3 night laps.

It worked pretty well although I was starting to tire on the drive home after driving 4 hours into the sun in a subaru sauna….. Kangaroo seems to have reduced the AC performance.

5. Traffic on the night laps was insane. Passing 40 or 50 riders a lap was de rigeur. My nigh laps were 55 min, 56 min 59 min. The last lap saw a shocking run through traffic (that is my excuse and I am sticking to it). All the teams keep a time sheet with name, Time out, ETA, Time in columns. We noticed one team with an additional column for ‘excuse’. We liked it.

6. Gresho had some demons to slay at this event. Last year his back packed it in and he suffered his way around the course. It fired him up to train hard all year and he smashed it this year. 53 minute day laps and 55 min night laps, Amazing for a guy 16 years older than me, I had better find a few more minutes for next years race.

7. A couple of flat tyres saw us drop about 15 minutes on our opening round of laps. It sure was pinch flat territory out there, rocks EVERYWHERE.

8. There was a dirty big pine tree with my name on it on each lap. I slammed into it with my left shoulder on the fist lap and it took the wind from me. Despite knowing it was there every other lap and tip toeing through the section, I brushed it every other lap. God I hate that tree.

9. Gresho’s caravan was the comfiest home base in the world. comfy seats, TV, what more could we possibly want?

I will update with any other thoughts as they spring to mind

Home

The car, driver and passenger all made it home without running into any more native wildlife.

It looks like there haven’t been any results posted as yet, however the Cog-heads were running 8th (out of 100?) at hour 20 odd. Probably a top 10 finish for the team.

Will post more once I figure out what all the dust covered objects in the back of the car are and then put them away. One of them sorta looks like a bike but it is hard to tell at this point.

Night time

Night is getting close. Driving home with little sleep is on my mind.

Dan and I have hatched a plan to alternate laps at 2pm so I will do a lap at 2 and another at 4 and then my race is done. Plenty of beuty sleep before the drive home

Mic c had a flat and an off but everyone else is going well. Our last rider to do their first lap is on track now

3 lap update

Very patchy mobile reception has me riding all over the hill to try to get some kind of signal.

Our first 3 laps were all 52mins so we are going ok on the 19 k course. Very dusty and skatey. Looks like storm clouds on the horizon ….. Could get interesting

Race start delayed

Race is delayed until 1 pm with a memorial ride for willo planned

Not such a good start

A wrong turn at midnight saw us travel 10ks in the wrong direction. Google maps soon saved us but in retracing our steps, we had a coming together with a kangaroo and the Subaru is sporting a black eye as a result. Will post a photo when there is enough light to take one.

Mont 24 this weekend

This is a teams only event for those unfamiliar with the race so it should be a cruisy weekend.

If mobile phone reception permits, then I will blog trackside however I am not optimistic that the gods of reception will smile upon me.