Bendigo 6hr Round 3 Vic. State series

Yesterday the Bendigo Mtb club set an awesome fast & flowing course,

Railing, (Thanks Russ Baker for this shot)


Which seemed to suite me, as it all came together, to take out a hard fought win!

I was especially stoked & surprised to have got up due to the quality of the field, there was half a dozen guys in the field of 50 odd solo's, all capable of victory.

From the gun, Evan Franzkie shot off, latching onto a couple of team riders, to gap the rest of us, dozen or so in the next bunch, he lost contact with them on the back fire road, about half way round on the first lap, deciding to sit up & wait for the bunch,

Just as we caught him it started to go up, so I threw in a bit of an attack just to stir things up a bit, as I was feeling pretty good,

Putting in, (Thanks Stephen Rowe for the images)


To my surprise, it worked & managed to put about a 30 second gap in, by the top of that climb,

That's pretty much how it stayed for the next few laps with Evan, Paul Randell & Phil Orr riding together, then Phil came across, breaking up the trio, as soon as he got close I attacked again, I was just thinking if I could maintain the buffer he would have to work to get back on,

Whilst Phil & I where going at it, we manged to open up a bit more of a gap on Evan & Paul, still only by a few switch backs, however.

Then Phil disappeared on the back descent, couldn't believe my luck, he must have binned it!
So I back it off a notch whilst keeping an eye on Evan & Paul
(Later finding out he had flatted),

Negotiating a rocky descent

However being the cunning XC racer that Phil is, he snuck back up using some other riders for cover, as soon as I saw him I attacked again, knowing the gap I had, he must have put an effort in, to get back on, it worked gaining another 30 secs - 1 min buffer,

It went on like that for the next 2 - 3 hrs, Phil would surge, then I would go, In the end I got up by just under 2 mins.

Thanks must go out to Phil especially, for a great race & pushing me all the way,

Big thanks to Andy at Kaos for giving the Fourstroke, the royal treatment, didn't miss a bit & handled the rocky conditions with ease.

Also must thank all my supporters & sponsors listed in the right column, your ongoing support is greatly appreciated.

Live to ride, ride to live,

Troy