Jeep24hr

27/11 Headed down early to the start of the Jeep24hr. The weather was ominous with shower & some heavy rain for most of the 2hr drive. When I reached Foret it was just a light drizzle. Stan had set up out Marquees in a great spot the night before as him & Harry racing as a pair were going to share with me.

The Race started & I put myself in a good position in the top 30 & just worked hard enough to hold this position. I went out on the Race King 2.2 tyres as the track should still be in ok condition & to see how they rode in the soft stuff. They gripped better than they should have & were better than lots of other riders choices as I passed them walking on the slippery trails. Just tried to keep things together & rode this set-up for the first 4 laps. At the start of lap 4 the heavens opened up & the tracks were destroyed, so time to swap to the other bike with the Mountain King 2.2 on. These were great & just carved through the mud & rode this to the end except for 1 lap, when Stan cleaned this bike. The conditions made this so much harder than even last years race when it rained, because this year there was rain or drizzly for 23hrs of racing.

I sat in second for virtualy the whole race until Rod exploded & had to stop. I also wanted to stop at 9am, but with Jano hanging shit on my choice of socks, I had to keep going to prove that they were a good choice.

Over night I had the best Light set up from Alistair at Nightlightning Australia with 2 iBlaast II's to blast away the night & make the riding so much easier.

Best way to sum up the race is that i rode hard for 3 laps out of the 22. 1st lap to put myself in a good position & Lap 20 & 21 to show those who were still chasing that I could still go faster.

Thanks to all those who supported me & kept me going out there. My tent buddies & family for helping out & keeping an eye on me. Jano from Bicycles Inc for coming down & supporting us & to Giant for helping out with fantastic bikes, that just kept on going. Next time reminded me that doing some training on the bike & not just commuting is properly a good idea, because this hurt more than anything I've ever done before, because it's the hardest 24hr I've ever done.

For those who didn't show because they might get a bit muddy (Neil, Jim) you are no longer soft, but pink Candyfloss.