Castlemaine Enduro - The Race

After some in depth team discussions it was decided Brett was to be the lead out guy for NJR (Roz was coming down later with Gus and Steve was busy keeping the Team Manager warm). Tony bravely offered to do the same for SMC after Phil appealled for a little more time to get reacquainted with his old bike. Tony's offer was accepted on the proviso that he promised to come back within an hour.

Despite a lack of serious kms in training, sleep and motivation NJR claimed third place in the mixed class for the second year in a row and this time it wasnt as a result of a mistake in the timing hut. The team combined well and despite being a lap down on second place at the end it had been a close tussle over the course of the 6 hours. Brett completed a consistent 4 lap effort and almost got back in time to let Steve get another lap in, Roz improved her first lap time by nearly  3 mins the second time around and Steve keep up a steady pace on his two laps as well.  The team was keen to impress with the Owner/Manager in attendance and no one left disappointed. All in all the future looks bright for NJR.

The boys at SMC finished up ninth overall but only missed out on 7th place by 90 seconds. That was the amount of time they missed the cutoff by to go out on an extra lap. Phil hit the wall on the final lap but blood tests later revealed he was in the early stages of a particularly nasty virus which had him off work sick for the next two days. Tony kept his promise and put in  a very respectable first lap which is  always going to include some delays when a large group of riders head out on a tight track. Unless you are in the elite group at the front of the pack you have to expect some traffic jams out on course. We all know Tony is a climbing machine and we could tell he was having a go based on the speed he carried up the hlll through the transistion area at the 6km  mark of each lap. Tony got faster each lap and saved his best till last setting  the fastest lap time of all the NJR/SMC riders with a very nice time of 41.14. He didnt quite break the 40 minute barrier but it was still a great effort. He was even too fast for the camera.

I wasnt far behind Tony with a 41.38 and a second lap under 42 as well. I was keen for a third lap despite breaking my riding glasses but it wasnt to be so there should be some more petrol in the tank for the final training ride before the Golden Triange Epic on Sept. 5th

Everyone is looking forward to this years epic as the event will be run on some familiar territory with one of our regular training rides making up part of the course. So the out of towners better watch out for the SMC.