English
The final countdown to the 24hr World Solo Championships has begun and we are now in Australia ready for the race in under 2 weeks time. After a few final hard training sessions back home where some really positive numbers were showing on the Garmin Edge 500 from the Cyclops Powertap I know that I am in good shape ahead of the race.
We flew out last Wednesday morning, arriving in Sydney on Thursday afternoon local time. We were very fortunate to be upgraded to Business Class for the longer leg after a stop-off from Abu Dhabi to Sydney. It made all the difference as we were able to lie down and get some proper rest, not to mention enjoy some fantastic food and hospitality!
Arriving in Sydney feeling fairly fresh and not too tired we first went to pick up one of my Focus First Experts and some kit from someone who has very kindly been storing all my kit since it arrived. The 2 bikes and plenty of kit that had been sent over only took 5 days from the UK to Australia (including a weekend!) which is pretty incredible. It all survived the journey in perfect condition as well, thanks to the excellent way it was all packed up at Wiggle HQ. We then headed across to our accommodation in Manly, on the Northern side of Sydney Harbour which has been a fantastic place to stay.
I’ve managed to get out on the bike every day, doing a local loop called “Manly Dam” which is a great 10km loop in the middle of the suburbs. It has a bit of everything, including technical rocky climbs and descents. On Saturday a local rider, who is also entering the race in Canberra offered to show me some even better riding an hour or so drive away. The trail was great, very twisty on mega fast hardpack with a few technical challenges along the way. I also got to see my first taste of the “dangerous” Australian wildlife, almost running over a “Red Belly Black Snake”, a potentially deadly snake that was crossing the trail. Thankfully I was going too fast to do anything except avoid it and he seemed to be rather sluggish as it was still fairly early in the day. Apparently a snake sighting is rare, Cameron who guided me around only sees 1 or 2 a year, so I guess I was lucky… or should that be unlucky?
The wildlife here is certainly very different to the UK. Not only are there potentially deadly spiders and snakes around but other creatures like birds and insects are much different. The birds are extremely loud and the noise of them when riding through the bush is constant. On Sunday evening, I did another lap of Manly Dam at night to test out my brand new 2011 Exposure Lights. I was really impressed with them, as they are not only much brighter, which I expected but also the colour of the light and the quality of the spread are superb and will make racing during the night a breeze! I’m lucky to have plenty of lights for the race, having the choice of Joysticks or Diablo’s as headlights and Maxx-D’s for the bars. Given there will be 12hrs of darkness (much more than UK races!) the darkness hours will be very important, so having such great lights will make the difference.
We have now come to the end of our stay in Manly, which has been a great chance to recover and adjust to the new time zone and temperature here in Australia. We pick-up a motorhome later which will be our home for the next 2 weeks, giving us the freedom to travel and a chance to see some sights along the way. First is a visit to the Blue Mountains where I hope to get a few good rides in, then we head down the coast, slowly making our way to Canberra for Monday October 4th where the race is being held. I should be there in plenty of time to ride the course, which is apparently about 20km long and has 300-400m of climbing per lap. On paper it sounds good for me, but I wont know until we get there.
I do have a few concerns, one is about the heat which even during Early spring is hotter than anything we have had in Wales for a while. Canberra will hopefully be cooler, but if not it will be hard to keep on top of fluid replacement. My other worry is my sleeping pattern, which isn’t great at the moment. Having never flown long haul before I’m not sure if its jet-lag or not, but I am struggling to sleep straight through at night and getting less sleep than I would like. Hopefully that will sort itself out as time goes on.
