BigBlog

This year I was a little more prepared for this race. 15 months ago I was lying in a hospital bed with a neck brace and not being able to move I was wondering if I was able to ride again or race. Obviously God had other plans which I am thankful for!

Last year I suffered in the run and never got to race with the top riders. My plan this year was to try and stay with the fast guys for at least the first lap and then back off if the pace was too fast. There was a part of me that wanted to get into the single track first to try and see if I could put some time into the other riders.

We were called onto the start line 10 minutes before the race and the temperature was 36 degrees.

At the end of the run I was almost first on the bike. When I rolled out of pit lane I ended up right on the back wheel of Tony who was charging. He was smashing it, I kept telling myself to take it easy however at the top of the first climb when the chance came I snuck first into the single track. This single track must have been about 8km with no chance of passing so I really didn’t want to get stuck behind a slower rider.

During the first couple of laps I managed to make up little bits of time on the rough down hill sections so I could take it a little easier on the up hills. By doing this I knew Tony would be working a little harder as he wasn’t keen to be racing behind. In fact after a couple of laps I had to let him go as he was going way too hard for me. Cary, who was sitting in third place, caught up to me fairly quickly after a couple of laps and he too wasn’t keen to be chasing. By about four hours in I had decided I need to get a coach as I clearly was missing some fitness that these two riders had.

In the first eight hours I think we all had a chance to take the lead. The only way I went past these guys was during their pit transitions. I kept rolling through with a super organised and experienced team while the other riders seemed to be taking small breaks each lap. Around the eight hour mark the temperature also dropped significantly and I started to feel really good and put in some faster lap times and got ahead of the other riders. Cary then caught me back again and the race continued. Tony didn’t stay behind for long and quickly began putting time into us. By 1am I was down over 6 minutes. Tony must have retired shortly after this time and I once again managed to get ahead of Cary during pit transitions and developed a slight lead around 3 am.

By the early morning it was still a very close race, and I started to feel good again after possibly not hydrating sufficiently to combat the 36 degree heat during the first part of the race.

I was getting the lap splits so I knew how far behind second place was and I was looking for an opportunity to stop earlier than the 24hrs if I had a sufficient buffer. This was not because I was out of energy or didn’t feel good. It was more about not wanting to get bounced around on another lap of the quickly deteriorating track. At the start of the race the whole course was rideable. It severely lacked flow and smoothness but by the end of the race it developed quite amazing drops, bumps and lumps as any dirt between the pine roots was eroded. In the 24hrs I think I managed 360-370km which is significantly less than what is achievable on Australian tracks. I am really looking forward to next year’s world champs where we will quite likely see no granny gear climbs and some super sweet flowing trails.

I came through transition at 10.50am at the end of lap 21 meaning I had one more lap to complete in order to finish the race as a rider had to pass over the line after 11am in order to prevent a DNF. Coming across the line I couldn’t believe the media attention. It was crazy. I didn’t know where to look, where to go, what to say!

It was great that my support crew of Jen and Craig were clearly recognised as these guys worked so hard during the race to ensure I didn’t need to stop and the bikes were going fantastic.

This year I relied on some essential financial sponsors.

The CORC Club.

Dirt Works / BMC

JetBlack Products

Phoenix Gyms in Canberra

This year I also need to thank:

Lloyd and the boys from Gordon Street Cycles for organising my very cool race jerseys and keeping the bikes going when in AUS.

BMC bikes, the two Fourstroke 01 bikes meant I could swap bikes at any time and not be disadvantaged with a inferior back up bike as they are both awesome. The guys at DirtWorks have built them up with some really nice parts from Ritchey, DT Swiss, Stans, Race Face and Manitou.

Shotz nutrition have been very generous in their provision of product to meet my massive training and race needs.

JetBlack products also had me kitted out with enough gloves to suit the crazy weather in the mountains and amazing NiteRider products to scare away the grizzley’s. 

Adidas eyewear this year had me covered for all conditions.

With for weeks to go I'm now going to try and take the training a little more series. I will be trying to get back on the duallies. I havn't been on the duallies since the Dirt Works so it is time to get use to pedaling these bikes. I have a slightly different set up between the road bike and the duallies so it is good to get use to the position I'll be pedaling for 24hrs. I havn't had a moutain bike race for a couple of months so I'm not sure how my fitness is right now. I'm going to head to Melbourne for a 6hr next weekend to find out exactly how I am going. This is going will be a tough race with lots of serious riders making a show.

Well, when I should have been out doing stupid long kms I decided to sleep in and do a lazy 100km and spend the rest of the day on www.jasonenglish.info and it is starting to look ok. I still have a lot of work to do and the picture files are massive as I'm still playing around with what works. Please email me with feedback before I put more work into it. 

I'll be heading down to Appin next weekend and I'm not sure what blogsite I will be using to throw up a race report as I really want to carry a consistent theme between the website and the blogsite. I might actually host one from my current internet providers free hosting area!

Well it looks like my Telstra Contract has come to an end. If this site goes down in the next couple of days I'll try and get the www.jasonenglish.info site working again. Not as convenient, but I'll hopefully be able to throw heaps of pics on. I'll use it as a bit of a demo site for my year 7 and 8 students....

Otherwise just google Jason Enlglish and I think the www.jasonenglish.info site will come up. Its not worth checking for a while yet!

Well it has been a while since the Awaba 10hr. 2 weeks I think. Since then I have been trying to work out if the Telstra Bigblog sponsorship will continue or if I will be moving to another blog hosting site. I have really enjoyed the convenience of the wireless internet which has meant the option to post updates from anywhere in Australia. It has been great to switch on the laptop and check what is happening on the mountain bike forums on the way to a race and comment on the race as soon as it finishes!

 So my aim this week is to determine where my blogs will continue. I would hope Telstra would like to renew the contract considering the site has been attracting over 1000 hits per week. Thanks guys!

 Anyway back to the Awaba race.

 I guess I went into this race a little nervous as I tried to figure out the rules. The advertising and rules of this race is nothing like I have done before. I was reading on the website that serious looking riders would be penalised laps, what could I do to make it look like I wasn’t serious. A race is a race? I took down my single speed fixed wheel bike just in case this was a way to make it look like I wasn’t too serious but when you have the comfort of a 4 inch travel bike that is almost 2kg light it hard to ride the single speed.

 The race started with a run which I suck, right now as I write this I am recovering from a 45min run yesterday. I think I will still be recovering from this run in a weeks time. Either way I was glad it was only a few 100m and I tried to take it easy as I know how high my heart rate goes running!

 Onto the bike and I think I managed to get into the single track first. After doing a practice lap on the fixe I notice there aren’t too many places to put the hammer down as the track is so windy. Any extra speed you put down in quickly taken off around the corner. It was a bit of an art to pick the correct speed for each corner. I would love to go back and fix up a few corner with berms or a wider approach and exit to help maintain a faster speed around the track.

 There were some excellent section of the track that I really looked forward to and by the 3^rd lap I put down a few faster laps to try and catch up to first place. By the 10^th lap I was thinking I should almost put lights on but it was only 2.5hrs into the race and 2.30 in the afternoon. It seemed like time was going fairly slowly. I think this had something to do with the 16min lap times and a little bit of repetition.

 I was keen for the night to come and with it out came the Niterider Trinewts and the opportunity to blind all the locals with some serious lumins.

 I was quite amazed with the awesome bridges and how well some of the sections linked together. This was actually the first enduro race run at the new Awaba track and I am expecting big things from this track now they have the basic route in place.

 The single speed crew were keen to see me take out the green single speed for a lap and with lap after lap of heckling I gave in a busted out a couple night laps. I gave these guys a chance to tinker with my bike and they did a great job, I was surprised how well the bike actually went. I think I did a 18min night lap on it!

 The whole time I was riding around I was looking out for something called treasure. Apparently for people who have done this race before treasure looks like a purple dinosaur and if you find one and take it back to transition you get extra laps awarded or a prize.

 Bribes were also another way to earn laps with one of the single speed riders Dreggsy being awarded heaps of laps for taking down a shot of tequila each lap….Prizes seemed a little alcohol focused with 1^st place in each category taking home a beer mug and 3^rd place a shot glass….

 A great track, a very lay back event and efficient use of resources. I actually like the whole number on the forearm. I’m actually hearing rumours of a single speed race at the same venue and I’m keen!