Rough in the Highlands

Last saturday was a miserably cold winday and wet day and i was on my way to the highland fling. Bundanoon was no better than Canberra. It didnt help that ive lost my sleeping bag and i had to use an old one that only went up to the bottom of my chest so I had a very cold and unsettled sleep. Sunday morning, I woke up to the sounds of bikes riding past my tent at about 6 in the morning. After taking a piss i cooked some oats for breakfast and got ready for the race. I managed to jump into the fron row at the start as i was only racing with open and 100milers. I got a good start and cruised at the front of the front bunch for a few kms. The race started with a few hills and I tryed to make a gap, but all of a sudden we were on fast flat fire roads and then on farm padocks (sp?). After about 15km on flat bumpy grass i had almost had it and got to transition well behind the other riders and feeling like shit. The 2nd stage of the race was pretty hilly and i felt good and waqs making up time. There was along section of single track where i caught a guy and in an attempt to loose him I cracked. As i slowly made my way up halfway hill, Craig Gordan came flying past which pissed me of that he could do this half an hour faster than me. I started to push my self harder as two other guys and shaun lewis passed me. From here I started to come up again and relay picked up my pase. Unfortunantly I was too far behind. I ended up in 5th oin open, pretty disapointing. But mabey its just cause ive been training for nationals.

On sunday night my brother Peter got home from Europe where he road his bike from Paris to Madrid through the alps and pyranees. This is realy good because i have someone to train with. Petes just a bit better than me, I good enough to train with him but he will always finish a race infront of me. So we went for a ride on tuesday morning and punished eachother for about 2 hours and I felt relay good. so things are looking good for nationals.

So Im now about to go and race one of the club crits at stromlo. Ill be putting a big effort of training and homework this weekend and next week is my last week of hard training before Illinbah. Im realy looking forward to it as I feel strong like i can win, stronger than I ever have before.

Catchya