6+6hr ACT

I headed down to Canberra over the Easter weekend to compete at the 24hr Australian solo championships, they hold a u18 and open age group 6+6 hr race where we ride 6hrs on Saturday then 6hrs on Sunday, runs along side the 24hr race. This year was the hottest contested 6+6 that I had ever seen. Over the last couple years I had gone down to support my grandfather Neil Dall in the 24hr race, and seen that usually the 6+6 is pretty tame with the competition. Last year saw Andy Blair and the guy from Europe tear around the course for 12hrs which was awesome to watch, in the U18 Mark, tip over Brendon in the last couple of laps to win. This year saw 5 riders in the men's field really go hard from the start. My race plan was to go out hard and minimise the amount of riders I would have to pass, with the 24hr riders and 12hr riders on the course there were alot of people to contend with on the track. I lead 3/4 of the first lap till Nick Wilson a local jr and Darren from TLC bike shop on Canberra took off and almost making a 20min gap on the next 3riders in the first 3laps. Darren(open) broke away from Nick(U18) and was not seen for the rest of the race. There was Me(u18), Jamie(open) and Frank(open) trying to case nick down. Jamie really open up some speed and was able to catch Nick back up, and stayed with him for awhile. Frank and I just road around for a while altering between 4th and 5th each attacking then catching each other up. I broke away from Frank and road around by my self trying to keep the same lap times for 6hrs. Nicks time stayed pretty consistent and the gap was about 15min all day. I put my lights on around 5pm and road till I was dark to use them, my last lap on Saturday started at 15min to 6 and It was starting to spit and get really dark. right on 6pm it was like someone turned off the lights and the rain set in. I had done little night riding so riding at night in the rain was a whole other challenge, the roots where slippery but the bike and I were able to get around safely. I finished Saturday at 6:16pm, which is my start time for Sunday morning. Over night my bike was left which the mechanic from bike culture and check over everything, seems I had really lose cranks and he was surprise I made it around with out them falling off. Sunday Morning was cold and at 6:16am I headed out to race for another 6hrs. Nick started right on 6am so I was 16min behind him. This gap stayed this way until I did everything I could to pull him back I was about to bring the time down to 8min in one lap but I could not maintain this speed and the gap dropped back again. I finished 17min behind him in 2second place in the U18 and 4th overall.

My support crew kept me going alot through the race so I would like to thank them alot, No cramps for 12hrs which is awesome I think we might I figured out a perfect formula for my longer races. Thanks Nick for the hardest race I have ever done, great competitor and you were to strong for me.