Dusk 2 Dawn

After months of not racing and minimal training, at Boz's farewell from work drink he suggested we attempt the D2D as a mixed pair.. It seemed like a good idea at the time.. I have since realised racing pairs is as hard if not harder than going it alone.. but it was a privilege to race with one of my best mates.
The decision was made for Borris to go out on the starting lap as he could get us out the front and out of the traffic..
22 mins and in he rolls, we are in for a quick laps. This course was a lot more climbing than I was used to it such a short lap.. but there was plenty to keep you entertained.. first lap out and about 3/4 way through my rear hanger snaps.. SHITE.. time to run... arrive into transition and Boz was off.. with the help of (self titled)"bitch" aka Nathan King we swapped out the hanger for another one but the damage was done, gears were running like... well like not running at all leaving me with about 4 left come the last few laps..

About 3am the weatherman decided that if it was not silly enough for us to be riding around for 12hrs in the dark, that he would throw some rain in to top it off.  With the rain came the emergence of Snakes, Spiders, Massive Cane Toads and a couple of Foxes to just keep you on your toes. We switched to a couple of Doubles but they were just hard work... singles the rest of the way.. The course was definitely taking its toll and having limited gears didn't help me punch out super quick laps.. we had an awesome cat & mouse/leap frog race with Emma and Paul..

Due to the inaccurate timing we didnt know whether we were 1st or second so we called it with10 mins to go and let Em & Paul know too, so it was actually going to be a surprise when they read out the results.. 2nd Mixed Pair - we were both more than happy with this result..

Thanks to Kiri & Georgie, "Bitch"aka Nath, and of course my team mate and best mate Sean "Borris" Bekkers

3 Ring Circus

Well I am aware how overdue this post is considering the circus was at the end of July.. but I just didn't get round to it.

So the story goes, Ricardo, Mikey and I set off on our road trip to Bundanoon Friday morning.. only 1077kms to go.. Other than a speeding ticket for one of our possie it was an uneventful trip. We stayed Friday night in Sydney and rolled into the circus grounds mid morning Saturday, meeting up with the rest of the QLD contingent Boz, Fellows, Andrew (Mr AyUp), Mark & Ethan.

The schedule for the weekend was a 20km Night race and a 50km day race both races consisting of 3 "Rings".  Night riding has always been my preference so needless to say I was really looking forward to this stage.

As dusk approached we were dressed to brave to cold crisp evening of racing.. BANG... and we are off and racing.. being such a short race the only plan was to go out as hard and fast as I could and hold it for as long as I could.. with numbers around 150 there wasn't too much congestion only a little when we first dropped into the first section of single track.. And what sweet single track it was, so fast, flowy and fun.. having no concept on where I was in relation to the other ladies I just started picking of the boys..That's always more fun anyway..

Coming over the line at 1:09 only a few minutes behind the boys I was stoked.. turns out I was 1st in my category (but there was only 2 of us) and 3rd overall female. Time to focus on tomorrow's race.

Early rise due to such a cold night..

So we line up again for stage 2.. unlike last night the numbers swelled to around 800 (of which about 627 finished), This posed a massive bottle neck at the entrance for the first lot of single track.. I only had to wait a couple of minutes but heard that some people had to wait 15-20 mins..
Back into the single track.."Schweet" there was a heap of single track in the first two "rings" but the last one was one long fire road ride.. not how I expected it to end but none the less it was a great course.
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Result for Matinee stage was 4th in  Open women's. Combining that with my night stage result I ended up 2nd Overall Woman.

Definitely a must do for everyone's racing calendar.. Definitely will be on mine again next year.
Biggest thanks go out to Esanda who's continuous support is so appreciated.. and to AYUP for your support and awesome lights that make night riding all the better.

Allio