No riding on the weekend just gone, however a bit of support work.
My mate Tim was doing his first serious solo attempt, and needed someone to hand out drink bottles, clean chains, dispense motivational words and actions, and when all else fails, cajole and abuse until he was back on the bike and doing another lap.
This guy is a cycling freak. I have never met someone so serious about bikes, yet still be down to earth and not completely obsessed. In fact this guy is probably 98% responsible for my love affair with bikes and cycling.
To cut a long story short, my man peeled off 9 laps (officially) and 9 1/2, if you take into account the balls up on the opening lap.
A normal start for the course is a short but challenging hill climb, prior to rolling through the transition area for the race proper to start. Unfortunately the message did not filter down to the poor marshall on said road (as the course crosses the road also). As the riders came up, they were directed onto the course, and had to complete about 4km of the course prior to the race commencing.
No doubt this caused some high level cuss words in race control, and a bit of confusion in the timing tent, so in the end race time was started as the first rider rolled through transition after completing half a lap.
A few minor nutritional issues for Tim, hitting the wall at lap 6. He was coaxed back out with a can of flat coke, a banana, half a roast spud and a few gels, but unfortunatelt the damage was done by that point. He'd tried to start the race on water and cans of V, but I think the lack of salt did him in.
But still, a top 20 finish in his first solo attempt, none too shabby. And managed to peel off lap times all day that I couldn't even do for a single lap sprint.
This guy is craaazy fit!
Photos here, and Farkin commentary here.
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