TDH - Stage 2

Stage 2, the first to have more than 1 rider, was held on Saturday Afternoon. The race was a 3 hour mountain bike race held at Sparrow Hill and a pretty average track.

I started in the second row behind the likes of Shaun Lewis, Nathan Haas and Jeremy Ross, and shortly after the start gun went off, some keen guy on his fully rigid steel bike with a bag of bottles on his bar crashed causing a bit of a split in the field, but I managed to get around. It was a cracker of a start, harder than any XC race that I have done in a long time, but it got pretty easy once we hit the single track. Someone up front had a good start and held about 10 of us up in the first half of the first lap, opening a big gap between us and the lead group. Eventually I got past them all and was cruising on my own. I was lapping mostly on my own and managed to catch a few guys. At about the 2 hour mark I was blasting around, nailing every corner passing riders not feeling any pain and enjoying myself, but what goes up must come down. Half way through my second last lap I'd had it and wasn't racing anymore. I had a small crash and lost the legs were getting a bit tired, I could have done one more lap as I came in 30 seconds before 3 hours, but I couldn't be bothered. I finished in 13th place overall and 2nd in under 19s. Michael Baker who got 2nd overall blitzed it, I never knew he could ride well for any long races, but he showed us all there's more to him than the sprint machine we see at Nationals. It was a good race, I didn't expect to do very well, and its the first time I've raced that hard for 3 hours and my lap times were pretty good I thought.

There hasn't been as much riding as I'd like, I worked a lot last week and smashed it at the gym so didn't feel like riding much. Was going to ride to Burra and back this morning a nice 80km ride, but pretty tired from work, a big weekend and it was windy outside as well. In the long run its probably best I rest today I smash it tomorow rather then train while really tired for the next 3 weeks. So Ill get back to you in a few days after some more work at the gym, the ride to Burra and a bunch ride or two.