Blink And You'll Miss It!

Round #2 of the National Series was down ole' Hobart way and I couldn't help but have Marley's Redemption Song playing in my head in the days leading up to it after getting off to a slightly less than impressive start to the series at Yarramundi. Can't help but just laugh at the weekend that just went down as it was game on as soon as me and the Green touched down at the airport. After finally getting the hire car on the road we were flagged down just 5km lator to have some taxi bus driver rant and rave that our rear wheel was outta wack and if we kept going it could be tripod city and a whole lotta sparks to boot. Sure enough it was confirmed that said wheel was clearly on tha piss and dangerously so... it was back to airport to get down graded to some sort of another excuse for a car..I think there was a whole lotta truth in Eva's theory that the mainland sends their thrashbox hire cars to "retire" on the apple isle...its a rental, don't be gentle kids...

Okay so i had to post this pic of the most neatest, organised and smartest guy I know...well most days anyway! A rare Delacour moment...hopefully I still have a ride next year after this post!!!

So hire car debacle number two occurred when Pez and Co. Tarago refused to start. Eva's theory once again solidified....

Hobart's number one sports celeb and part time tradesman Taberlay kindly provided the accommodation for the stay and demonstrated what happens when the paparazzi get too close...an ass kickin' Olympian style..

There were plenty of airport hire seen cars out and about...

I'm sure you can guess what happens next....



....happy birthday Pezzadogg!!

Cannondale/Maxxis revealed a new international signing, a certain Manuel Luis Jose Hernandez III all the way from Mexico...pinned it for fourth place too the young shagger...

Oh yeah the racing...my 20th place at Rnd #1 meant I was well and truly in cattle class on the startline, some four rows back but with a wide open grassy start there was plenty of opportunity to get the old elbows out and I proceeded to get a little closer to the pointy end finding myself well in the top 10 as we hit the first singletrack climb. I gotta say it was strange to ride this course in the dry when the only memory your brain has is of a complete mud fest...kinda was hoping it to be the same again to be honest and was excited by some early morning rain but had no effect on the dry hardpack. One man with a point to prove was D Cooper (Scott/Ritchey) who absolutely smoked it off the start line and got the elusive holeshot. So I was pretty happy to be floating around 6th place for the first lap and still in touch to see the leaders on the brutal switchback climbs but was trying not to get too excited early cause if you blow late in the race on a course with this amount of solid climbing it would be pretty easy to lose a heap of places.

Photo ©: Mikkeli Godfree/Cyclingnews.com

It was clear however that I just didn't have that capacity to hold that speed for another 6 laps, so slowly but surely the drift began, not being able to stick to wheels of "Speedy Hernandez" (Cannondale/Maxxis) and then some late chargin from the much respected Flemmo (Trek) (above pic) and team mate Pez. So it was consolidation cricket for the last couple of laps, not being able to close the gaps down and snuck inside the top ten for 9th place with a hell of alot of upper body fatigue to boot... At the end of the day I wasn't super pumped with the result, but on the other hand wasnt dissappointed at all, giving me a good benchmark for where to aim at round three.... and as always giving me a whole bunch of things that need to be worked on in the meantime....better get too it..thanks for reading y'all....cw