Another year and another 24 hour nats has come and gone and what a race it was. 4 weeks ago I hadn’t done any riding for about 4 months due to working on FTP Training, a home building project and slipping some discs. The back was feeling better and so the chance to race Terra Australis came up with Jo Wall and it was all go. I came out of Terra feeling quite good and so decided to do a few weeks of volume and as Dean from Torq was sponsoring the event I decided to give it another go. I had also planted the seed of doing the 24 nats to Jo so it would be good having a team doing the event. Leading into the nats was again not ideal and I hurt my back for a second time just a few days before lifting some 12mm glass panels. On the bike it felt ok, so, decided to still go for it and see how it would hold up. The underlying form was good as some tests up a local road and mtb climb after Terra had shown with some PB times and watts.  

The course this year was st Stromlo and the first ride showed a fast and flowing track that had everything you would need in a 24 course. It was quite rocky and would need the full suss for sure, it was also a little short for my liking, but, it was fun. A couple of practice laps at race pace showed about 32 – 38 min laps were going to be the go at around high endurance low tempo range with care needed to not over cook it on the small climbs.

The Torq crew this year for the 24 had Jo Wall completing her first event and also Scott Chancellor a seasoned top-level player who finished 4th at the Worlds last year, I was going to see how I fared and had no illusions of getting a result, I just wanted to be there and have a ride doing my best to support my riders and my team mates.

The race was a cracker in both fields with the mens race wide open really apart from the current World and National Champ Jas it could be anyones race with about 10 potential podium place finishers. The initial pace was good and I slotted in with a couple of 32 minute laps, I felt ok, in terms of my legs and cardio and was well within my target heart rate range of 140 – 150 bpm. The back, however, was a different story and was hurting from the get go. By lap 4 I had to take some pain killers and that was it really, I simply couldn’t push hard enough with the pain in my lumbar region to elevate my heart rate and backed right off to 39 – 41 minute laps. I hoped that by doing so I would be able to come strong later in the race, but, as the law of sod would have it that wasn’t the case. By 10 o’clock I was lifted off my rig and I called it. Bugger another sob story 24 hour for me, oh well. Scott had been lapping well and was up to 5th before gut issues forced a break and ruined any chances of a podium. Other FTP riders were in the mix, Andrew Hall was holding 3rd for the first 4 – 6 hours and came in a great 6th place overall and 3rd in the tough 30 – 34 cat. Jason McAvoy gritted out another top 10 overall with 8th place and a win in the 40 – 44 cat. Torq/Anytime Fitness team mate Garry James came in 12th overall and smashed out the win in the 50 – 54 category. Great work guys awesome efforts on a brutal course. 

This ment after a little rest and some grub that I could concentrate on helping the team and FTP Training riders that had little or no support crew.

In the women’s race Jess had gone out hard from the start and as we had discussed in the game plan Jo had let her go and just maintained a manageable distance doing super consistent laps in the 38 – 41 minute range. By just after midnight Jo began the push and just lifted her pace a little while Jess was starting to struggle. The early efforts had left Jess tired and her laps started to slow and drift out to the mid to high 40′s. Jo continued to lap at 41 minutes and the gap started to fall. By 2′ish Jo had taken the lead and started to open up a gap first 2 then 10 minutes and very quickly out to 20+ minutes. It was all going totally to plan and Jo looked super controlled and very comfortable. Having done so many races and been on the other side of the relationship between pit and rider I tried to remember all the little things that helped and made small, but, significant differences to me as a rider. The mental game is so important and having established a solid lead it is easy to back off and start to feel the pain and realise how much longer there is to go. It wasn’t long before Jess pulled the pin after a savage lap with some near misses crashing, I wanted to give Jess a big cuddle as I knew the torment and pain in her decision to call it. Jess you rode like the Champion you are love, out there on the attack taking the race to Jo and putting the pressure on early. As I am well aware and have lamented on before in this blog, there comes a time when we simply cannot punish ourselves any more. I realise I reached it after the bronze medal in the Worlds in 2008 and have been like an old boxer ever since trying to relive the moments and dizzy heights of our ultimate performances, time to move on and rekindle the fire and motivation with new challenges mate. One thing is for sure Jess you are a Champion in every sense of the word.

At the 4am mark we hit the caffeine and Jo hit the turbo boost feeling great on the bike and having a ball of a time smashing it out. We had a daylight stop strategy for a gear change if she had a good gap and we used it for a freshen up as by this stage Jo had 3 laps on 2nd place. It was all about keeping going from here on in, motivation, massage, maintaining food and hydration with different options and choices.

Jo just continued to crank it out and brought in home like the new National Champion should in style and looked fresh as a daisy riding on the euphoria of winning her first National title. In the overall FTP’s Claire Stevens came in 5th and took out a win in her 35 -39 category and Meryl King came in 15th and took out a win in the 40 – 44 cat. A special mention to old FTP crew riders Diane Perry and Mel Behrens for outstanding results with 4th overall to Diane and a win in the 45 – 49 cat and 6th to Mel overall and 2nd in her cat.

Cheers

Fenz