Heading back to Australia to defend my 7 year, 5 title reign at the 24HR World Solo Champs was something I had been focusing on since resigning with The Kona Bike Company back in June. It had been a hectic September cleaning up in Jasper after the savage wildfires, then travelling half way around the World to tackle a race course I had previously lost on 3 times in a row in Australias Capital. The mind was pretty set on #6 and the leadup in Australia had bean going great in Canberra besides being dive bombed by angry Magpies on every ride.
Race day started off waking up from a 9 hour sleep raring to go. The only hiccup was trying to drain a 4 litre pot of cowboy coffee into the thermoses for the race. Using a fork, I missed a few grinds but figured the extra grit would just mean more caffeine. Pretty soon I’d ride up to meet my pit crew, long time coach/bike fitter/ tester Luke Way, my old Aussie mate James Lamb, and Radical Lights. They had the pit dialled and soon the race kicked off at high noon on a great 11 km course around Mt Stromlo.
A lead group of 7 formed on lap 2, which would soon dwindle to 4 as two of Australias strong marathon riders, Jonny Odams and Mick Sherwood set a solid pace. Jason English and I’d lap a few minutes behind, before I put in effort to bridge up. Mick was putting in some solid 400 watt efforts up the main climb which dropped Jon. I’d stick with Mick, making sure we kept the pressure on. A lap later I’d put some pressure on Mick heading into the singletrack with a small gap forming on one of the A lines. He would have a big crash on the following decent while trying to chase back up which stretched the gap out.
The 3 Australians (Jon, Jason, Mick), chased 4/5 minutes back for a few hours. I’d keep on the diesel, eventually stretching this out to around 20 minutes over Mick, Jon pulling out and Jason dropping a lap back.
The Australian night was amazing racing 11 hours through the dark with Kangaroos all over the place, 1 wallaby, and no snakes. As the morning dawn broke, the birds were chirping a nice tune as I had maintained the 20 minute lead, but this had stabilized as Mick was riding strong.
Early morning I told the crew I better put in a couple hot laps to try and finish off lapping Mick, which would allow for a bit of a mellower morning. The tactic worked, and soon I just had 4 hours to diesel around to cap off the defence and title # 6!
24 hrs, 40 laps, zero mechanicals.
Over and out from Down Under!
