craked's blog

top day on the bike, went out in the 3rd wave and took it easy at the start then got into a good rhythm, rode all the climbs and didn't stop. pleased with my result.

what an incredible place to have a race, for those who made the effort to venture out to Coolah they were rewarded with spectacular scenery great atmosphere and perfect weather.

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.

fantastic event, the sun was shining great atmosphere,and the track was awesome, fast and flowing with plenty of features . We had a 4 man team entry ,my nephew Adam ,brother Gary his mate Tony and myself, Adam started the race and got a great start in the top 10,when he came around at the end of lap 1 he was 1st into transition !but the energy burned to achieve this proved to be detrimental later!.We circulated consistently lap for lap into the evening ,then did double laps into the night ,trying to get some sleep in between was difficult as was trying to eat.

Headed north on boxing day with my bike for a week of intense riding (and visit family) I was based at Bonny hills at my Parents place so lots of home cooked meals ( and my gear washed everyday Thanks Mum)

After a bit of fast talking I managed to get my brother keen on the idea of a road trip to Parkes to compete in his first 50 km event with his new trek 29er.Another of my Brothers heard we were doing the big foot and wanted in on the fun so he and his wife also entered .

arrived at the track in a blanket of fog ,I suspected we were to have a sunny day ahead and I was not dissapointed. We were entered in team 4 masters but as we were the only team in this cat we had to run in mens open team 4.

had a great day ,all went well for me however Steve lost his front brake before the start and rode all his laps without any front brake at all, to his credit he still managed good consistant times even after hitting a tree on his first lap! was a well run event and the track was good, the xtra bits of fireroad were also good and added a few more passing opportunitys. we were pleased with our result in 4 hr masters pair and also
happy to get 7th in all mens 4 hr pairs .

I arrived at the forest camp on sat arvo after driving through rain and found lots of water and mud around,met up with Steve (CROMERBOY) who was setting up camp,we were going to have a ride but pulled the pin on that prefering to keep the bikes clean and functioning for tomorrow. We drove up to the event centre and got rego out of the way then relaxed over a cold beer at our campspot enjoyed some good food that was for sale and got a good nights sleep.

great day at yellomundee ,started out midfield was getting held up then I got passed by a guy who was making up some ground so I tagged on with him started picking up a few places and feeling good,on the back section past shaws farm a new section of track had been made cutting about 3.5km out of the main loop to create a 6.5 k loop for the race ,however someone had crashed through the bunting across the old section of track and I blindly following the guy in front of me went staight ahead instead of turning left resulting in a 31 min time for my first lap!we were now somewhere up the back of t