Originally hadn't planned to do his race, but when it got included as part of the XCM series and Brian had already sorted accommodation - I thought what the heck.

Great location for a MTB event, with a great combination of single track and fire road which made the course challenging and interesting. The Single track is awesome with a combination of some plantation pine forest and rugged Australian native bushland.

We arrived on Friday and caught up with some of the Jet Racing team for dinner with the usual MTB per race banter. Managed a good reccee ride on the Saturday to check out the start / finish of the course and get a sneek peek at some of the single track.

Race Day - given accommodation was 100m from the start line it was a very relaxed morning preparation. Rolled up to the start in the first group after the elites and had the usual pre-race nerves but was feeling confident.

Race started in the usually flurry, some fast fire roads, and I stayed with the first group until the first Singletrack. Was feeling good, but then things got difficult. Rain the night before had made the plantation pine forest very slippery with the combination of deep slippery ruts and tree roots I was not having a lot of fun. Pushing my personal limits I got through, but not without a few offs and a lot of sliding around. The first 50 had around 25km of single track which made for some hard going but I managed to keep the average above 18km/h through the single track which still kept me in a good position. I came in to the 50km at around 2:39 which had me feeling good.

I started the next 50km fast pushing up the first firetrail, before entering single track again. The second 50 took in the 'Wombat' single track loop which we had heard a little about but hadn't ridden. It also incorporated a 200m climb at around the 70km mark. My strategy was too consolidate my position until the hill and then push hard after that. The plan was working, but the single track was difficult. Even though the single track was predominantly downhill I was only averaging around 17kmh. The descents were steep and tight, but I kept calm and negotiated my way through. One sign indicating obstacle ahead resulted in a steep descent, a sharp left over a large tree root, dropping onto a 20m bridge across a 20ft deep gorge. I was happy to be still on my bike in one piece by the time I got to the other side.

The 70km hill finally arrived, and I pushed hard from here on out. The few 100km riders I had with me I left behind and I just kept pushing on solo after that. My training definitely showed as 200m didn't seem that bad and the last 30km (75% firetrail) went by quickly.

The new sworks epic 29er was outstanding throughout the day. For the mix of trails in this course, you would want no other bike ! Thanks Jet.

Coming in to the finish line I was pretty happy, looking at my final time of 5:21 which I was happy with for a hard course. I managed 44th overall and 6th in category which exceeded my goals for the first race of the season.

Thanks to the Jet crew, in particular Ant for all the advice and encouragement over the weekend.

Bring on Canberra in 5 days !!!