Sunshine Series Round 4

Well we turned up for Round 4 of the Sunshine Series... Weather was awesome, atmosphere was great (just being around nature) all pumped and ready to go.






This is one of the locals checking out the MTB scene.

13 Riders had turned up to compete in the 'B' Grade' class and with the series rapidly drawing to a close everybody is looking to grasp those extra points for their overall standings.

As usual the horn sounded we took off and Brendon (BOB) hits the front. This guy would be a Short Track Cross Country legend (Mountain Bike Short Track: A mountain bike race similar to a criterium where riders do as many laps as possible laps of a short 3-5 min course over roughly a 20 - 30 minute duration.)....

I decided to sit the start out a little on this one and dropped back to about 4th of 5th. We headed up the first fire road incline and into the start of the single track. About 3 corners into the single I manage to shoulder barge a tree, run into a bunch on stick and cut off the poor guy behind me re-entering the track - oops. Steering back on track and sitting in 4th with 5th right on my hammer.

I could see the lead 2 guys slowly slipping away up ahead and became concerned that I was going to lose touch. Having a fair bit of single track on this course I knew there wasn't much I could do until the next fire road. We hit the fire road and I moved up to third.... Hello, out a no where a new face appeared on the scene and over took me. We headed up the dusty old fire road - I guess its about 800mm. I sat in forth for the next lap and a half. In the mean time the rider in third had caught up to the lead two.

By the end of the second lap the rider in third had dropped back again and on the start of the third lap I felt it was time to start making a move. Up the last climb of the second lap and onto the start of the fire road I grabbed a bottle from my feed box and chased down the lead two. I managed to pass them just as I hit the single track. I though 'awesome, hopefully I can make a gap'. I head down the single track like a cut snake up the next couple of short climbs and into the switch backs , trying to push big gears and create a bit of gap. On the switch backs I noticed the rider that was in second was now in hot pursuit. I hit the long fire road, hammered down a gel and tried to keep on the gas. In the next section I could see the track switch back on itself, I figured I had about a 15 second gap. Coming into the last climb of the lap I though 'S#*t hang on a minute they upped the laps before the race, its a 5 lap race not 4 as usual, dame' Realizing this and pretty sure I wasn't going to be able to keep up the pace for the last 2 laps I decided to back off a little and let the rider behind catch me.......

As suspected he took the bait hammered the last two climbs and took the lead. I grab a new bottle from my bottle bucket and headed down the trail after him. He was on a mission, I could see him mashing the pedals through the trees and standing at every chance he got. Battling to try to keep him in close range I did what I could. Heading down the last technical section before the last climbs of the lap I could see I was making ground. Into the last climbs - I had bought the gap down to about 10 metres. We headed up the hill to complete the lap and......

The rider in fronts chain came off. With a drastic effort to get it on as quick as he could, I jumped out of the saddle and started the final lap. I headed down the first fire road incline and into single track knowing I have a few seconds up my sleeve, big gears all the way. I though 'this is where all those early morning rides are gonna pay off'. As I rode as fast as I could I realised........

This is bad........

My rear tyre is going.... down......

Mr light weight here, had been listening to all the B.S and decided to NOT use sealant in his tubeless tyres. Rotating mass, light weight, more speed, blah, blah, blah, and now I am gonna have to pay the price. I though 'maybe I can go the distance' Within another couple of corners I realised that was not an option. Going up the last climb before the long fire trail (about half the course to go) I decided to get an air canister out of my saddle bag and pump up my tyre. I pulled over at the top of the climb and frantically refilled my tyre with air. I just nipped up the presta value I looked up to see the rider in second appear over the rise. Wasting no time I jumped on the bike gasped a mouth full of water, thinking it was probably gonna be my last chance and accelerated away as fast as I could. Head down non stop pedaling down the fire road.....

Tyre was still hard, like a rock actually bouncing me all over the place, but I was just happy it was still up. On a couple of the switch backs (about 2 kms to get) I thought I could here someone coming but decided not to look and just KEEP PEDALING.

I headed into the last bit of technical trail before the final climb and finally took a quick look, it seemed safe. With blazing barrels I headed up the climb, scaring the life out of of my mate Wags who was just about to start his final lap in his class. Wags decided he would have a drag race with me up the last climb. I could hear him there and thought,'What who's coming , where did they come from'. With great relief I crossed the line in 1st and to win my first MTB Jersey. ....

Tyre was still up. Awesome feeling, just to look back and see some improvement.

Bob finished Third, awesome effort Bob.

Thanks to Wags for car pooling and giving me a lift to the Meeting and thanks for all my buddies for the supportive text messages etc.

I had the pleasure of meeting Matt Christmas (usually wins Vets) on Saturday, what a top guy. Raced Elite at this events and went awesome finished 3. And thanks to Dave "the man" Whitney for his occasional pointers and positive feed back.

Oh and yeah, this was definitely a 'Moment of Glory'!