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The goal going into this race was to simply finish on the bike, still peddling.
Once at the race I secretly had the goal to beat Vinno and his mate in the pairs.

Every week I head out to Rydal, set up the track and tell myself "I'm not going to sprint off the start this week. I haven't got that fitness."

Every week I line up at the start (no warm up), give the speech, say "Every one ready, set, Go!"

Every week we take off the red mist descends and I bust my gut to get a good spot into the single track, send my heart rate through the roof and then blow up trying to keep my spot.

every week I die in the arse in the second or third lap, get heart rate back under control then come home strongish but suffering

It's a funny thing this racing caper. There's a whole bunch of stuff you have to get right for it to come together and the mind ply funny trick on you.

I went into last years 8hr at Rydal feeling reasonably fit. Lots of casual riding under my belt backed by a good lead in of regular Tuesday night races had me in good stead. Got a good start and went steadily down hill, cramping bad by the end of the day.

This was the 2nd year of the Kanangra Classic and my 2nd attempt at the 50km.
My goal was to stick with Stephen for his 1st lap which I was hoping would be around the 2:20 mark.
About 1-2km in I found Steve's wheel in the 2nd group (maybe 3rd?) and stuck in his group for maybe another 6-7km but just didn't have the legs to stay with them. I dropped off the back and was in no-mans land by myself until almost the 1st turn off (11km mark). Just before the turn a chain caught me but they quickly fell apart on the 1st double track climb.

Woke up early on saturday morning after a freezing cold night ,weather was fine and I was looking forward to a recce lap of the course and also to become more familiar with my new specialized 29 HT. after a big breakfast and a bit of socializing a group of us headed out on the course . with a few windy days prior to the event there were a lot sticks on the trail, unfortunatley a large stick found its way into my rear wheel and smashed my X9 rear mech bent the hanger and spokes . so I taped the bits to my seatpost shortened the chain and rode back to the campsite.

This berm was filling up with water during rain. The sandy soil drained quickly but it still needed a bit of help

First step was to make sure the inside right was the low point and dig cross drain

Next lay in some ag pipe

Then add a grate and cover with rocks

Getting ready to start I looked around and thought something was odd, it then occured to me there was a lot less riders than the Past 2 years. Looking at the results I see there was 300 less competitors than the last 2 events. 25 male riders from my catergory are DNS. The Race down at Kowen must of been something special or there was alot of people sick with the flu.

I had 2 goals at this event and 1 game plan.

Goal 1 - new PB
Goal 2 - Ride all hills
Game Plan - Team up with a fast rider after the bottom gate. I've never done this intentionally before and wanted to give it ago.

What a fun fast race, well organised, friendly volunteers and over and done with in less than an hour. I had been sick with a chest infection for the weeks leading up to this so didn't do any training, but was happy to finish under the hour.

Would love to do it again next year.

Cold start. Pretty good crowd. A big gap between the start times for the 40-49 group and the 50-59 group, so a clear road ahead. Lost time on the leaders on the first hill at the station because they ride like maniacs... The view at the start of the fire trail down onto the plains right though to the CBD was the clearest I can recall for years. I nearly stopped to take it in. Nearly...

I finally got around to uploading the rest of the pics

Here's a few pics i took last night at the track

more to come as i get time to edit... also have some great GoPro footage...

if you would like Hi-Res pics, send me an email paul@ikou.com.au

ENJOY

http://youtu.be/i9Dh7gCDXOg