Game on
The first race of the season is always a bit tricky to know were your form is compared to the rest of the campaigner's even more so due to the uncharacteristically flat nature of the course.
From the gun the hammer went down & stayed down, for those of you have been to the Full gas dirt crits underneath the west gate would understand, this was a full gas crit on steroids, with a 10k lap & 6 down in just 2hrs, that's crazy fast when you're ducking & weaving through trees in the loamy hard pack conditions.
4th wheel in the prologue keeping an eye on things with Rohin from the Total Rush team driving it early.
Five of us got away in an early break, two teams & two other solo riders being Phil Orr(Eventual winner) & Brad Davies(3rd) & myself, I had a feeling due to the nature of the course this could very well be a decisive break, so was eager to do my fair share of work to consolidate the break.
On the gas grabbing a bit of air time.
This would later prove to be the case with Rohin & Steve taking out the pairs & as mentioned Phil & Brad filling 1st & 3rd on the podium & big Joel Reid sneaking through in the later stages to take 2nd.
Still having fun in the bermed creek bed.
As for me around the two & a half hour mark I was starting to feel the effect of my earlier efforts & had to leave the boys in the break to it & settle into my own tempo & try to hang on to 3rd.
Stating to pay for the earlier efforts.......Ouch.
At around three & a half hours Joel had caught me & we did a lap or so together then my neck & back started to really stiffen up causing some major grief, I was left with no option if I was to finish the race other than to pit & seek treatment.
Fortunately for me Scott "scooter" Vercoe from IMPACT MASSAGE was set up with his table next door to the KAOS camp & hooked into my back & neck which enabled me to get out for a few more to finish the job off trouble free, however the half hour off the bike saw me end up down the list on the results page.
If you're in the need of a good massage I highly recommend heading down to see Scooter , he really knows his stuff & loves to ride himself so understands our ailments.
Definitely not all was lost, coming away from the race with some great intensity in the bank & the knowledge that the core definitely needs more work.
Well done Jac for taking out the women's.
A huge thanks must go out to Andy from KAOS for building an absolute weapon of a race bike, being the CLEANSKIN Titanium hard tail all XX'd up & some very blingy super light, super fast custom built wheels with DT Ceramic 190 hubs finished off beautifully with UNION Titanium spokes.
Also a big thanks to Stephen from Mtb Images for these great images.
Catch you on the bike, heading out for a roll with the KAOS crew down the beach, 6.30pm at the shop Tuesday's if you're keen & 7.00am Saturday's.
Enjoy,
Troy
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