SURFCOAST 6hr Mtb FESTIVAL Wrap up

Sometimes not even the power of the No. 1 plate can help!

Which I did earn from taking out the Inaugural event last year,

Yesterdays race was not to be my day, In a nutshell I had one goal for this race & that was to defend my No. 1 plate!

Off the gun I went out with the lead bunch feeling pretty good until the cloud lifted raising the temperature from the already pretty warm high 20s, to bloody hot mid 30s, about an hour & a half in the pace was pretty quick & with my average heart rate hovering around 5 beats off my max for that period of time in that sort of heat would rarely end well,

Causing some major overheating, even though I was keeping well hydrated, the effort I put in to stay with the leaders basically cooked me like a well done chook, even when I backed the pace off, my heart rate would not come done, this is definite cause for concern, apart from feeling like "total ass",(to use a quote from a film I'm sure most of you have seen, "24 Solo", If you haven't I highly recommend you do).

Therefore I had no other option than to abort mission! Thankfully I made it back to the Kaos tent for some shade, cold water sponge & a lie down, half an hour later, my core temperate had come down & with the sun lowering so was the air temp.

Just to add a bit of colour!

So I thought I'd head out for another lap to see how I felt, forgetting about the race & just cruised around enjoying the course still not feeling great, then by 8pm with 2hrs to go & the temp pretty nice I stated to feel a bit better & managed to cut a few decent laps to save a bit of face, coming back from stone motherless last,

To 6th place & managed to get a day & night lap on the top 20 overall fastest lap board.

Well done to Scotty Chancellor (Orbea) for putting me in the total hot/hurt box & taking out the win!

The Koas flag flew nice & high dispite my miss fortune,

With Jac picking up 3rd in the Womens Solo in her very first Mtb event "Excellent job",

Shane, Ben & Dave taking out the Male 3s, "Nice work boys."

Kaos Lees just getting pipped for a podium, placing 4th in the hotly contested Male pairs, well done to Grover & Sean for taking it out.

A special thanks goes out to Martin who took care of Jac & My Nutritional Needs especially helping me to cool down when I came in almost dead.

As always a Huge thanks to my Sponsors/Supporters who's links you will find on the side of this post especially to Andy from Kaos for the great race prep on the bike
& of course the Night Lightning Blast II performed nothing short of brilliantly, turning Night into day allowing me to be the only solo rider on the top 20 Fastest night lap board.

Finally a big Congratulations goes out to Mick & the Crew from Southern Exposure for putting on a Stella event with a super good vibe, great track, a swag of awesome prizes & managed to grow it 4 fold from last year, reaching the capped limit of 400 riders, well done guys.

Live to Ride, Ride to Live,

Troy