Saturday, May 24, 2014

Stage Racing = Hard!!

Coolest race ever! Hope to see y'all next year :)           Photo: Shane Mulcahy
At the end of a totally awesome week of racing I am happy to say that Alice Springs has not lost any of its magic! The trails and racing were absolutely unreal and coming into the last stage with a lot of work to do made for a very exciting day... Here's how the last three stages went:

Stage 5, Night Race:
   - Good start with fast section on the golf course
   - Little stack in the sand about 2km in
   - Panicked to get back on Ben's wheel
   - Second into singletrack but too adrenalined up to ride well, blowing through a turn
   - James, Chris and Paris came by and rode behind them for ~20mins
   - Calmed down
   - Got back on the front of the small group and started to chase down Ben
   - Dropped chain with ~5km to finish, many profanities yelled
   - The 3 guys came around again
   - Failed to get back into the racing groove for the rest of the race
   - Finished up 5th on the stage, ~3mins down on Ben, 2mins down on James, Chris and Paris
   - Dropped to 2nd overall
   - New derailleur fitted for stage 6 (Thank you Corey Gerdsen at Ultimate Ride!!!!)

Awesome singletrack in stage 6
Photo: Shane Mulcahy
Stage 6, Velodrome to BMX track:
   - Queen stage of the event
   - Pretty fast start along the hell line
   - Paris has mechanical early on - snapped his chain :(
   - Select group of 4 guys (Ben, James, Chris, and myself)
   - Ben punched it up the hard steep fireroad climbs keeping it tough
   - Rolling turns along bike path and bitumen
   - Other guys seem very strong, sitting on about 35km/h
   - Tried to eat as much as possible - could feel legs starting to go
   - At about 20km to the finish legs decided that they didn't want to be there anymore
   - Dropped off group at water stop #2
   - Rest of the stage spent trying to limit losses
   - No crashes on the ridgeline
   - Finished ~8mins down
   - Slipped to 4th place overall, ~10mins to Ben, ~2mins to James and Chris
   - Very impressive rides from these guys - super shredders!!




Stage 7, Chifley to Telegraph Station:
Racing just to be in the singletrack!
Photo: Kirrily Whitehead
   - Final stage
   - No troubles with police escort today!
   - Knew I had to go from the start to make up as much time as possible
   - Raced James to the first bit of singletrack
   - Couldn't shake anyone by Undoolya rd.
   - Into the next singletrack put the hammer down again
   - Got a bit of a gap with Ben, began to ride away from James and Chris
   - Kept the pressure on for the rest of the race
   - So much fun going very fast in the new singletrack!
   - Legs hurt so much, knew it would be close
Raby - The Man, The Myth, The Legend
Trail Gopher responsible for amazing singletrack in stage 7
Photo: Shane Mulcahy
   - Came through the finish line with absolutely nothing left in the tank
   - Had the ride of my life!
   - Climbed back into 2nd overall















Little brother Paul - looks hurting but probably having fun!
Photo: Rapid Ascent
Absolutely spent at the end of the week!
Photo: Rapid Ascent 

Myself, Ben Mather, and James Downing
Awesome to share the week with these champions!
Photo: Rapid Ascent
These wonderful ladies!
Imogen Smith, Jo Bennett, and Jess Douglas all smiles for the women's podium
Photo: Rapid Ascent

STOKED! It was such an awesome week getting to ride with guys so much more experienced than me and to meet so many amazing people. Great work to everyone this week and I hope to see you all in the near future, hopefully you're all as excited as I am to come back and race next year!

Cheers,
Ryan

My friends' back yard is cooler than your back yard ;)

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