At about the 2 hour mark I caught second place and I has then happy in my decision to hold back. I soldered, on catching the leader (Stuart Brown) at the half way mark. I was happy to roll around with him for half lap or so until Clackers come past and I decided to put some power down, hold his wheel for a few hundred meters and pulled away from Stuart.
From then on I just wanted to ride consistent laps without hurting myself too much. I rolled in ofter lap 11 with 5 minutes to go, I thought I had enough lead to not go out for another lap but decided it would be good training and rolled through for anther. Lucky I did, because Stuart gave everything he had in the final few laps to come in from lap 12 only about 20-30 seconds behind me. I had absolutly no idea he was there and was quiet glad I didn't bludge the final lap and make it a sprint finish.
This is my support table, it did a great job and never missed a beat. Preparation is the key to good consistent racing.
I don't think I ever looked like I was hurting for the entire eight and a half hours.
11.5 kg of fluid and gel consumed, climbed 3000m and not a drop to spare.
The bootie, two wins and third in series. Ash has done a great job on the trophies. The kids have loved them enough to take them to show and tell.
10 comments:
Bellie says "I don't think I ever looked like I was hurting for the entire eight and a half hours."
Me says "And you didn't look like you were having fun for the entire eight and a half hours either"
I suppose that photo proves you can smile for the nanosecond it takes for a photograph though :\
If being a winner means riding is such a chore then I'd much rather be a hack up the back having fun :)
Good job Bro!! Life can be hard on the top.. Im sure it was a fun race doing everything by yourself!
Ps have you seen the 2009 Hei hei Supreme, its one sweet looking machine if only I had a spare $7500 lying around.
Thanks Bro, but as for anonymous, I an not sure your comments are justified. It was a fun race, Lysterfield is a training area for me, so there are no "suprises" to keep it interesting. Having said that, I bet you didn't hear the "warhoo" I made every time I hammered the fast floating rock drop at the end of each lap.
I use races like these as stepping stones, training races if you like, so I can "perform" at bigger race like the Day night Thriller I will be doing in NZ next month. How much fun am I going to have racing and riding for three weeks over there. I wouldn't do it if I wasn't having fun...
Bellie I had heard of you before but didn't know who you were until they announced you finishing and at that point my first thought was "he's the guy in the Kona kit who didn't look like he was having fun". I'm glad to hear you thought it was a fun and sorry I didn't hear you "warhooing" over the rock drop but I bet it was a sight to behold
"I don't think I ever looked like I was hurting for the entire eight and a half hours."
You might not have felt like you were hurting, but I can tell you when I passed you on lap 11 you looked in a serious world of hurt (hence my comment "What's going on Andy!? Something's seriously wrong here [me passing you... ever]".
And having said that, when I broke my chain up that switchback I never saw you pass me, so given how you looked coming up Blair Witch I thought when seeing Stu go past that he had passed you and taken the lead - I'd been paying attention, as if you had fallen back to second, it would have switched 1st and 2nd in the series.
Either way, good job taking another win :)
Thanks Tim (zero for those not in the know). Maybe it was a bad comment to post on my behalf. But I only had a few pics to choose from and I looked so happy so I made a comment up.
I was back on your wheel when you snapped your chain, you were face down on the track and I was first person to pass you and made a comment I can not remember. I hope you pulled up ok, it looked like it hurt. For me the day was about consistant lap times at a 12+ hour race pace. I don't ride around thinking what others are thinking about my performance or how I am looking, maybe I need to change this, but seriously Lysterfield does get a bit boring after so many hours.
Give up bellie, you've obviously lost the passion for cycling. Every meter of the trail at Lysterfield has been hand crafted for maximum enjoyment with the Commonwealth Games Course as the "Jewel" in the crown. How could you possibly get bored.....
No, not a bad comment at all on your part. I think it goes to show how some people's perception differs from what's actually going on, and also shows that you have a little psychological tactic on your side - that you can have them thinking you're hurting, making them dig deep, when you're not :D
With me being down, hah, yeah, that was bloody painful at the time. But as you probably well know, when you land your knee on anything (in this case, hard rocks) it hurts like a bitch for a few minutes, then quickly goes away. But yeah, given I only did four laps personally to your 12, I can imagine it might have got a bit like that.
Hopefully this was a good training session for you anyway :)
who cares how it looks?
who do you race for?
doesn,t matter what the punters think as long as they get out of the way. your obviusly a bike nut with nuthin better to do! smile on the inside. fuckers!!
Arguing on the internet and even better, doing so anonymously.
That takes some balls...
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