Damien's blog

Great to be all sorted and back on the bike racing again took it real easy and enjoyed the ride.

Where was everyone I know the tour was on but my 3 hours sleep was more than enough to get through.

Wow 7th in C grade got to be happy with that after two weeks with the flu staying up to watch the tour before the race and no riding for the last few months.

Great fun in C grade 3 laps was perfect and all I wanted to do after spending the previous week moving house and business.

Ok now back to some regular riding to climb up the rankings and maybe move up a grade later in the year.

No plan to race very hard today just wanted to circulate at an easy pace and have a fun ride, which I generally did.

Started of nice and relaxed with very consistent lap times not pushing my limits at all and enjoying the ride. It was a great morning for it but it didn’t take long for the day to heat up which started to sap my energy levels and with no gels to stick in the tank it was going to be difficult to keep going.

Three hours sleep a belly full of shit food the day before and no warm up before a hard and fast start wont get you to the end of a 4hr no matter how much you try to HTFU.

But I had fun.

My lower back really played up today and I decided it really wasnt worth the pain to keep going (should of warmed up).

But I mangaed to clear some technical sections relatively easily today that I have had the ocasional problem with in the past so am happy with my effort if not the result.

Gazza's looking bloody strong top effort - well done.

What a great afternoon and evening of riding and racing.

And a really nice change to ride in conditions that weren’t like a blast furnace. I went back to my tried and true strategy of just enjoying the ride and saving the racing if there was to be any for the last lap or two and it worked as I was able to finish the race with a quick lap and some solid uphill climbing to hold on for second place.

Lots of fun and a great short track that really was very enjoyable.

Round 2 - Sunday 17th Jan.

One lap more than round two but couldnt ride for the four hours I think the christmas pudding has made me soft.

Not a great day was feeling very flat for this race and had nothing in the legs not sure if it was hot but it felt bloody hot I pushed on for 3hrs and managed 7 laps running out of water (went through 3.5 litres) at transition was enough for me to finish the day so decided to pull the pin.

Scored a cheaky 3rd place out of 4 riders in SS solo category having only ridden for 75% of the race time but way down in the overall standings will have to do better at the next round.