First of all a massive congrats to Jason who always seems pull it off! Always! Also a big thanks to Troy who I teamed up with for the week. It was a great week of racing!
Day 1: Morning Downhill Run + Afternoon XC Race
Stage 1 was an XC’ed version of the Thredbo Down Hill Track which was a lot of fun to get the week under way. Troy showed his motor cross background/ skills finishing 4th with me 20 seconds behind in 8th place.
Stage 2 was an awesome little track (predominantly single track) around the Lake Crackenback Resort. The first day was a lot of fun and between us Troy and I managed to put almost an hour into the next team over the 2 stages.
Day 2: Perisher- Buckenderra Resort
With a cold start to the day, everyone was shivering on the start line just hoping the rain would hold off. Unfortunately it didn’t! After some solid climbing to start we moved on through those alpine grassy plains and into the drizzling rain. Troy and I tapped way at this stage and still finished the stage almost a half hour in front of our rivals. After a cold wet lunch break we were happy to roll on another 20 odd kms to Buckenderra Resort to a nice hot shower.
Day 3: ‘Stupidly Early’ XC race
Once we got started I actually did enjoy this little hit out at 4:30 in the morning! My Retrolight Lighting proved it reliability and strength yet again as I smacked it (and myself!) into the ground at close to 40kmh on the 2nd lap of the race! L
We finished the day with a 40km cruise into cooma and a big slab of lasagne at the local Italian joint.
Day 4: Cooma- Burmagui
This was the longest stage on the race and started with a lap of the extremely corrugated Cooma Race Course. Fellow BMC Rider Andrew Lumley took out the sprint around the track (with a little assistance from Troy!) and won himself a set of lights while the rest of us saved a bit for the climbs and the rest of the stage! We tapped out this stage at a reasonable pace and took another stage win in the pairs. To finish the day, we cruised 40km on down to Burmagui for some beach side fish and chips.
Day 5: Burmagui- Narooma
The start of this stage was fantastic with the first few k’s winding through the Burmagui Mounatin Bike Park and then out and along the sanding trails backing onto the beach. With a few runs on and off the sand and some quick sprints along the sand, I did start to feel it towards the end of this stage.
All up this was a fantastic week of racing and a lot of fun hanging out with everyone. A massive thank you to Rick, Pat and Milly from Dirtworks. They all did a great job at the MUC OFF stands and getting the bikes sorted. A big thankyou also to Mark at Dirtworks who not only rode in the event himself (and did very well!), but also cooked up some mighty tasty dishes every evening! Thanks to sponsors – BMC Bikes, Dirtworks, Hayes Brakes, Manitou Forks, Stan’s, DT Swiss, Kenda Tyres, Time Pedals & Shoes, Dueter packs, Serfas & ONYA Bike Belco. JD
