Mont 24 hour race.

Leaving Mitchell at home with the grandparents we hit the road for the Mont 24 hour. We arrived just after lunch and settled into the Giant tent. Then it was time to check out the track.

Heading out with the Specialized boys i had to quickly adjust to the pace as Joel Reed led us through the trails. Feeling like i wanted a closer look at the course i headed out for another lap with the Kyneton school team. We had a chat about a few different lines and what to look for as new lines will appear as the race goes on. We did have one minor incident where my front brakes locked up sending me over the bars face down in the dirt. I am sure somebody knows what caused this. With a quick dust off, we were on our way again no harm done.

We arrived early on Saturday to soak up the atmosphere and do some trash talking. To my surprise their was a documentary being shot on the whole event and our team were going to be interviewed and followed during the race.

I had the job of starting. The start line was 50 riders wide and all were keen to rip the course apart. The start gun went and for the next 5min we were all riding by brail. I don't recall even seeing the track i was riding on until half way around the first lap. I was glad to get the first lap over as it just didn't feel like i was having fun any more.

With my lower back aching from the long drive and no sign of it improving i only had one choice, change my focus. Isn't it strange that when you change your focus and forget about what hurts or whats going wrong and focus on what brings you enjoyment you start to feel like you can do anything. From then on i just relaxed and let the bike (Anthem Advance) take me for a journey through the pine forest.

Night fell and we were in a ding dong battle with 3 other teams for the minor places as the Gu team seemed to be slowly extending their lead over everyone else. Clipping on my Nightlightning LED lights i was able to get through the night easily negotiating the pine forest.

After a short sleep the sun was up. We were now holding second place thanks to Murry and Dan who had done the hard yards before the sun came up. When you have great team mates who just get on with riding as hard as they can, it is inspiring. Kate turned up with a morning coffee and it was time to drop the hammer just in case anyone had thoughts about catching us.

With an hour and a half to go Willo was keen to finish on a double lap so he had me fired up to give him enough time to do this. Isn't it great to be riding with someone who after 22 hours just wants to make it in before cut off to do another lap. No wonder he is such a tough competitor. Not one to let a team mate down i punched out a couple of quick laps and Willo went through transition with 30 seconds to spare for another lap to finish on the same laps as the Gu team.

It was a great weekend. We made the GU team work hard for the win. We all rode as well as we could have and you can do no more, that is satisfying. With a little recovery I will be backing it up this coming weekend at the first round of the National XC series in Adelaide.