Not at the Races
After gallivanting around the world in the last few months, racing at the Sudety MTB Challenge in Poland and the Czech Republic and the Mongolia Bike Challenge, it was time to return to racing in Australia. What better way than to team up with Mike Israel in the Masters Pairs Category at the magnificent sun-baked Kinross Forest track in Orange.
 Benny (Ben Edols) | This series had been incredibly competitive and often a few seconds, never mind minutes, would separate the top four or five teams at the end of seven hours of racing. After managing to secure second at Taree (Round 1) and, with Michael Brown filling in for an injured Mike, we held on to first at Mogo (Round 2) by a mere thirty-eight seconds. As I was racing overseas and Mike was still recovering from a broken collarbone, we missed Round 3 at Awaba but in Round 4 at Nowra, Mike and Michael Brown were able to attain second place by a couple of minutes from event leaders Benny and the Jet (Ben Edols and Mark Hardy) |  The Jet (Mark Hardy) |
 Fortyplusfrothers (Troy Roberts & Matthew Pandelus) | We came into the round at Kinross Forest, reasonably confident of securing a decent result. In fact, both Mike and I mistakenly believed we could win the overall series, neither of us realising that it is not possible to drop your worst result (our no show at Awaba), as is the case in the solo series. The opening lap saw Mark Hardy, Mike Israel and Matthew Pandelus come through timing separated by just thirty seconds. I took chase, but immediately knew when I hit the first climb that the legs simply weren't there. I saw my rivals power away into the distance but hoped that they would suffer for their early exuberance. Both Ben and Troy Roberts were a minute faster, putting in blistering laps of around twenty six and a half minutes. Surely, they would suffer later on as the day heated up, the legs wearied and the lungs imploded. Mike finished our third lap and we were now a minute and a half behind the fortyplusfrothers. The gap was widening and there appeared to be absolutely nothing we could do to rescue the situation. I continued in vain to try to close the gap. My mind was still willing but the body was refusing to cooperate. |
By the time I finished my fourth lap, my times had slipped from 27.30 to 28.09 and we were six minutes behind the leading two teams. Mike decided to do a double lap, in an attempt to eat into their lead and averaged an impressive 27.40 for the two laps. But a real titanic battle was unfolding ahead and on lap 9, the two leading teams were separated by a bike length and neither looked like cracking. For us, our day was done. For the next three laps, the two leading teams could not be separated and it took an almighty effort from Mark Hardy, fuelled up on several chocolate frogs, to finally put some daylight between them and open up a minute lead. This was enough and the final winning margin was just two minutes, with Mike and I ten minutes back and missing the cut-off for the final lap.
The Chocolate Foot series always seems to throw up close, competitive racing at wonderful venues around New South Wales. This has always been true in the solo category, as it was for our first venture into pairs racing. It really depends on who has the goods on the day, in a competition where any of the top four or five teams could win. With Paul and Jason Morgan (BBC-Shimano) and Darren Smith and Richard Peil (Trek Racing Australia) also involved in the Masters Pairs Category, this has certainly been an exciting series involving some quality athletes. I hope to be able to learn from this experience, and return next year a stronger and better rider.
7 hour Masters Pairs Overall Classification (Troy, Matthew, Ben, Mark, Mike and Phil)
RSS Feed
