24 Hour fun in Canberra

This go's down as one of the best yet and one i personally will never forget. We only decided to go to this race 4 weeks ago. Jeff was a bit shocked but up for a challenge. so i entered us into the 2 man category as we had not tackled this category before. All did not go to plan and we nearly had to pull the pin when my dad had a minor heart attack just before dinner Thursday night. After a long night and been reassured by the doctors that everything was well under control and they just had to monitor his condition for the next couple of days we hit the road Friday lunchtime.



Thanks to fellow Nighlighting rider Troy Bailey we were saved a great spot 50m from transition backing onto the food vendors. Always good to be close to the coffee and food. As you can see Giant supplied us with a great new tent with full back and sides, it was just perfect.

Just for some fun i was up for the prologue dash for cash. Unfortunately about 20mins in one of the sharp rocks stabbed my rear tyre and put an end to my chances.

As you can see it was a rather large hole about 10mm long. I was looking for a little more speed and ran a Geax Baro race on the rear, this however was not wise as the course was far to rocky. Jeff and i switched straight back to the ever reliable Geax Sagauro and didn't have any more of these frustrating problems.

I started the run and first lap getting us off to a good start. Jeff followed it up with more consistent laps. Night time came so out came the Nightlighning lights, one on the bars and one on the head. Having this much light we were able to keep lapping out good times and stay on schedule. With the temperature dropping i put on the long Skins bib knicks and my night laps picked up.

By morning we were noticing the affects of using the Ascend protein bars as our legs felt great and neather of us had had a cramp. Also Andrew Bell using the Ascend products had fort his way back up into 2nd place in the solo men's category.

The rest of the race went great. Our Giant Anthems just ate the bumps and rocks making it easy. Jeff and i just went about riding as fast as we could and managed to finish 2nd pushing the Specialized team hard for their well deserved win. Also finishing 3rd was BMC who were also using the Nightlighning lights.

Congrats also to Jess Douglas who took the female Solo win on her 2009 Giant Anthem

A big thank you to all our sponsors and our wonderfull wives for granting us a leave pass for a long weekend.

Hawks win, 6 hour win. Anthem sale.

Well it has been a while since the Hawks have been on top but now we are here to stay. Mithchell backed the right team going with the mighty Hawks instead of following mum and the Cat's. He was rather happy when they won.

Ending on ebay shortly is the Giant Anthem Advance at a bargin price. You will be dissapointed if you don't pick it up.

The next day I was to be a bit weathered. Packing my bags while under the influence for the 6 hour at Bendigo, i had forgotten to put a jersey in. So raced in a Skins top. With the rocky conditions and twisty trails this was beneficial anyway. As it turned out the race went well establishing an early lead and riding pretty consistently for the 6 hours. It just proves you don't have to do mega Km or long hours to race well over 6 hours. It was great to see the Yeti tribe take the win.

Wednesday night on the fatties ride was a cracker. One section of trail at Westerfolds, Ben Randell worked his way to the front and let us have it. He held 45+km/h along the Yarra river single track. In all my years of riding the trail i cannot remember going that fast. It has me wondering just how fast he is going to go when it is not dark. So if you are up for the challenge and would like to experience speeds like this on the MTB come along and find out just how it is done. We leave at 6:30pm Wednesday nights from Eaglemont scout camp in Ivonhoe.

Thursday we rode the Tour of the Burb's with 100 other riders. The pace was fast up front with a strong pace set up the hills. My legs felt a little flat so will have a couple of easy days.

Next week i will be preparing to contest the 2 man category at the Scott 24. Jeff and i will be racing our Giant Anthem's at full speed for the 24 hours. So we stay stuck to the trail we will be running Geax Saugaro rubber the proven 24 hour tire performer. We will be taking Ascend's new protein bars and electrolyte drinks to give us a huge advantage over our competition and will have some available if you would like to give them ago. Also i am sure you will see us at night as we will be running our Nightlighning Blasst light system's that will have the trail lit up like it was day time.