Castlemaine 6 Hour Enduro - Preparing for the start!

The riders from the Sunday Morning Crew and Naughty Jills Racing were coming off a limited preparation for the 2010 Castlemaine Enduro but were still confident of a good showing. However their confidence was dealt a bit of a blow after a series of mechanical issues arose in the 24 hours before the race. First of all Phil discovered a crack in the frame of his GT whilst doing his pre-race service,. This made his bike unrideable and he had to switch to his back up bike, a v-brake fitted Gary Fisher. Then Steve and Brett had brake issues (lucky for Roz her brake pads dont fit Brett's bike) then my ever reliable GT developed a creak that could be heard the whole way around the track. Luckily Paul from Bendigo Cycles had a special tool on hand to tighten up one of the linkages which reduced the problem. The only advantage to the creaking was that I didnt have to yell out track when I came up behind some one because they could hear me coming.

Tony had no problems with the Giant but he did have a little mishap on the track on Saturday. Tony and I ventured down the day before to register and do a sighting lap to see what changes had been made to the course. It seemed like a good idea at the time and we were enjoying a leisurely pedal around until we came upon the first A/B line junction. Tony had ridden the A lines last year so had no problem tackling the drop off. I decided that discretion was the better part of valour and took the B line. However less than 100 metres after riding the drop off without a care in the world Tony made a meal of a slight uphill rock garden and hit the ground hard with a very sore elbow and some gravel rash on his leg to show for his over confidence. It just so happens it was the exact same spot I caused a traffice jam on the opening lap of last years event when I went over the bars. So the moral to the story is that it doenst matter how small the hazard is, if your technique is wrong you can end up eating dirt.