Another round of torture has come and gone with the Scott 24hr mountain bike race happening last weekend. This year's attempt was extra torturous due to my lack of battle-worthiness and a study-softened mentality. Not to worry, I arrived at the event with one goal in mind, and that was to qualify for the 24hr Solo World Championships to be held in the very same location next year. Luckily, despite my poor effort, I still achieved my aim.

At this point I usually start off on some witty tirade about how unique 24hr racing is, how many funny things I saw (or hallucinated about) or how much I really hate my slave driver, Langers. This year I  have nothing, so I'll just complain a little.

For some unknown reason they decided to change the course profile and run a single 19km lap format with an alternate lap laid out for night-time (instead of the usual red and blue alternating laps which helped to spread the riders out). This resulted in two things - extreme congestion and extreme boredom! Not wanting to doubt the decision of the fantastic CORC organisers, but I do recall riding lap after lap and questioning WHY OH WHY ARE THEY DOING THIS TO ME!

My second little gripe was the choice of trails covering Mt Stromlo. This year's course was definitely the rockiest course I have ever competed on. Unfortunately this resulted in my long suffering shoulders giving up the ghost some time around midnight (giving me a convenient excuse to go to sleep). I quite literally couldn't turn my head or guarantee brake application on some of the extended downhill sections. Untidy, and a sign of my lack of MTB fitness..........so I'll stop complaining now.

I did, however, have a great time catching up with a pile of great friends, even a few from the fixie bunch, and experiencing the usual friendliness of all the riders - especially when they see a lonely singlespeed soloist climbing the mountain for the umpteenth time.

My aim was to qualify for the Worlds, luckily by morning my shoulders had almost completely settled down and I was able to make over fifty percent of the winner's laps to guarantee my place on the start line in my age category. Not the greatest result but something I would have been kicking myself for if I didn't bother to qualify. I completed 12 laps, 8 less than last year!

Langers' absence this year had a huge effect on my performance with simple tasks ending up being quite difficult. Things that he would usually do, like calculate my battery usage and ensure a good variety of foods, were too difficult for me to do consistently. That, coupled with my lack of willpower, meant that the decision to stop at midnight was far easier to justify! With that said I must thank James and his crew for letting me situate myself with them and share their facilities, it made the weekend seem like a great little social ride, that went for 24hrs..........

In conclusion, I now know that a 24hr race isn't something you can just turn up and do. I originally thought it was just a matter of pacing yourself and persevering through the night. It's not. Those little muscles you don't even know exists, the support crew, the experience and the preparation for the months prior  all come in to play, enabling a mere mortal to ride into the night and out the other side. Not something I could do this year.

Note: The reason I have 30 or so photos of myself posted is not because I want you all to bask in my glory, it's also because I am constantly amazed at the quality of Sportograf's coverage of such an event. All the way from Germany they arrive every year with over 30 DSLRs and kit, then head back with over 85 000 photographs. I literally spent half an hour processing them in LightRoom to get the images you see above Fantastic work again guys!