Race within a Race

It just had to be done.  After our epic battle at WEMBO, it seemed like a logical move to team up with Ian Bridgland as a pair for the 6+6 at the Rocky Trail JetBlack 24 hour.

In the lead up Ian quipped it would be a race within a race and I guessed he meant we'd conduct our own little personal challenge to try and beat each other's lap times.  Of course he might have been thinking something completely different, but it is amazing how close our lap times were and we were just enjoying the thrill of being able to put out a fast lap and then recover instead of the usual slugfest where survival is the name of the game.

It was also great to see my son Tommy riding so well and getting closer to my lap times and playing a big part in his team taking second in the Junior team of 6 for the 6+6

Tommy makes the Juniors 4 podium

As for us, shall we say. "more mature gentlemen", Ian and I were stoked to take out Masters Category and post a solid result overall.  The track, the weather and the general vibe on the track from other riders could not have been better.  It was a thrill to ride with living legends like Cory Wallace the Canadian who seems to have been made an honorary Aussie, Andrew Lloyd who was happy enough to sit on my wheel for the last 500m of a lap.  He was clearly taking a breather and sucking in a gel whilst I rode beyond my limits trying not to hold him up too much. And "The Jeebus"; what can I say, I think he did about 480 laps on a SS.  Good mates Phil and Pete were there as well, smiles all round, not to mention the newly formed JetBlack team who looked great in their new bright yellow kit and featured frequently in the top finishers.  Kudos to team manager Grahame Sonter

The event was chilled with great beats and lots of families all out for a fun weekend of camping and comradeship and for me it was the perfect end to a stellar season with 7 podiums from 7 starts including 4 1st places.  Certainly my leanest year for some time in terms of actual races entered, but 2013 is a year I will never forget with highlights including riding the Tour of California, taking the family to the Northern Territory and winning WEMBO.

Mike and Ian take 1st place

The rest of the year has been pretty relaxed over Christmas with a bit of road cycling and some service combined with a little recreation in beautiful Brunswick Heads cooking for the SUFM Mission team.  I was even persuaded to participate in the Brunz World Title Aquathon; a hotly contested local event where health nuts have been competing for bragging rights for more than 15 years!  No bike leg unfortunately but the 2.5km run was just enough for me to actually enjoy running :)  It's been around 20 years since Sarah and I were last involved in a mission of this type, but to see the respect this team had in town, the participation of so many kids there on holidays and trust from parents, and the passion this team had for sharing the Gospel has put a new perspective on everyday life.

The Master Chef team from Brunswick Heads SUFM

2014 is looking huge and I couldn't help but get excited at the state of Australian cycling after an amazing Road Nationals on the weekend just past.  In my mind this positive energy must flow across all levels of cycling and the number of cyclists enjoying the outdoors Last Sunday morning around West Head/Akuna Bay just goes to confirm this is a hugely popular sport.
My season plan will see a mix of new events including the Alpine 3 Peaks Challenge as well as a return to the Choc Foot STM series as my main staple of races and a few 100km marathons sprinkled in between.  I can hardly wait to get amongst it again

Keep Riding
Mike

Too many Carbs is never enough!

If you do any sort of endurance sport, you'll be well aware of just how critical nutrition and fuelling are when it comes to performance.  From bonking or hitting the wall, right through to getting that gel in just at the right time and seeing the body recover and go onto to record a stella result, it is probably something you've given a fair amount of head space to thinking about.  No doubt at some point or other you have stood staring at the nutrition section of your LBS wondering what the heck is the best thing for your body!  The main purpose of this post is to give you a little intel on some popular products out there but it might be worth starting with a few rules of thumb.  I'm no sports nutritionist but I've tried all the products mentioned here and  with over 7 years of racing hopefully this gives me a little license to share what I've learnt.

Golden rules:

1.) 1 gram of carbohydrate per hour per kg of body weight.  So if you weigh 75kg, eat/drink 75 grams of carbohydrate (CHO) per hour.  This could be as simple as one bottle of energy and 2 gels per hour.  Swap a gel for a banana or half a bar every now and then.

2.) Listen to your body.  If you are burping and gagging a bit, have some water and give your stomach 30 mins to settle.  If you are motoring and feeling great you are probably about to hit the wall so get some carbs in fast.

3.) Drinking is a great way to get the carbs in.  Stick to the same number of scoops of powder for any event, but use a large bottle in the heat and use small bottles when it's cool.  Keep it simple.

4.) I very rarely cramp, but in my experience cramping is a result of pushing beyond your limits and not drinking enough.  If you cramp, be happy you've given it everything you've got and get some fluids in.  

The table below shows a comparison of the main drink products I've come across and used for an extended period.  They are all great products and do the job.  Some of them are recovery based and some and energy based, but for endurance events I find any of these products will do the job.  Over the course of 4 hours, I would drink 3 serves of energy and 1 serve recovery.  The key factor here is to find a couple of flavours you like, ones that you can still stomach after 4 hours of exercise and alternate between those flavours.  This is particularly important if you are going for longer than 8 hours.  The table ranks the products based on price.  I have calculated the price on the dollars you pay for 100 grams of CHO, so you can see very quickly which are the best value.

Here are a few notes on each product.

1.) Gatorade: Here just as a baseline for what you can get at the supermarket.  Not a favourite amongst cyclists because of the sugar content, but better than nothing.  Staminade has some magnesium so may be a better option than Gatorade.

2.) NutriScience Extend: An energy product that I really love.  Good value and I love the Peach Iced tea flavour.  This powered me to a World 24 hr MTB age group win.

3.) Endura: An energy product and used widely in all sorts of sports.  I find the magnesium content too strong for events more than 3 hours long, but it is good value.

4.) NutriScience Refuel: A recovery product but great for a slug of carbs in a long race.  Again I love this product for the great flavour and good value.

5.) Hammer Heed (Energy) and Perpetuem (Recovery): Hammer Nutrition are a big player in the US and are gaining a prominent position here in Oz.  Their products work and they are priced well, not to mention you can buy jugs of the gel at very good prices.  I love using the flasks to hold 5 gels, no messy wrappers.  Just take a gulp from the flask and pop it back into your jersey pocket.  My only complaint is their drink flavours are not all that great, but for me, if it works, I'll swallow it.  That is until I get to 3am in a 24 and I just cant swallow it anymore.

6.) TORQ Energy and Recovery: TORQ are what I would call a premium product and as you can see you pay for it.  Good flavours, full range of products and all the science and support to back it up.  If money is no object, give it a go, but it's too rich for me.

7.) Optimiser (Recovery): A good product and available everywhere. It has been my staple recovery for many years (until I found NutriScience). Banana is my favourite flavour, chocolate is OK, stay away from the vanilla (urgh)

So there you go.  It's NutriScience for me, with Hammer in close second.  As an aside, NutriScience also have a terrific beetroot based product that is full of nitrates.  I have found taking a serve of this 3 hours pre-race to have a benefit to my performance.  It could just be a placebo effect as I have no empirical data to backup my claim, but it seems to have a positive impact on my results.  I hate giving away my trade secret, but if you havent heard about nitrates before now, you soon will.  Having written this post I just realised I have left out one of the biggest of them all which is Gu.  My LBS has never stocked the drinks so I never raced on them.  We've all benefitted from a few free gels they throw in at big events and they taste OK, but they are often very thick and they are messy to open.  I prefer the Clif gels that have the little keeper that keeps the top of the wrapper connected to the main body of the package.

I hope this has been some help, there's probably lots more I could say, but you'd probably stop reading after a while and some things just take time to work out for yourself!

Keep riding

Mike

Disclosure: Hammer, Nutriscience and TORQ have in the past provided sample products to me for trial at a discounted rate or for free.  I have then purchased these products at full rate for long term use.

WEMBO 24hr

As I approached the finish of this race, my throat tightened and my eyes began to water, not just from the dry dusty swirls.  This would probably go down as the best thing that has ever happened to me after my wife and kids.  Putting aside the slight setback of breaking my collarbone 12 weeks ago, I’d had a perfect lead up to this race in terms of training, racing and mental preparation.  You could even argue the accident was a blessing in disguise, forcing me to rest and then adapt my training as my body healed.  This is the story of how I went on to win a World Championship title and the place where I collect all my thoughts on the race and acknowledge those who made it possible.  It is a long one and will probably take you 24 hours just to read it, but I hope some of this is good reading for you.

Pit boss Andrew and I pre race

True to form I had little sleep the night before thanks to nerves, call it a little sleep deprivation training but wow it felt good to be finally on the start line.  The event centre and course had a great vibe of a true international event complete with “Crazies on the mountain” #popamono, the hippies with drums and trumpets and the volunteers at checkpoints calling out numbers and cheering on riders all night long.

Heading down Luge near the end of the race

1ST QUARTER

I like to break 24hr into 4 quarters.  The first quarter is where you settle into a sustainable pace and start building up the km’s, whilst topping up the carbs and sussing out the competition.  For the first 3 laps Michael Redman was pushing pretty hard and I was in two minds whether to push and keep him in sight or to let him go.  I concentrated hard to save as much energy as possible and still the avg heart rate was above where it should be for this race, and in the heat, that spelt danger.  Just as I backed it off, Michael flatted and I breathed easy again, thankful for a bit of race luck and a small buffer.

Putting in the big ones

2ND QUARTER

Going into the night, I had a nice gap of 10 mins and I worked on maintaining my pace in the hope of building my lead. About that time Ed came through to lap me and he was flying. It seemed like an eternity before the rest of the chasing elite group came by in dribs and drabs. What’s going on I wondered?  I never saw Ed again, but Jason English continued to lap me in what seemed to be ever shortening intervals.  Jason was exerting his stranglehold on the race and I was slowing.

Sarah passing out the energy

3RD QUARTER

After 12am, it is still pitch black and pretty cold.  The body is now taking an immense battering.  Hands, butt, lower back and triceps are all starting to give out and the stomach cramps are coming in waves.  I think I ate too much real food.  As we get close to sunrise I am ready to give up.  I can no longer corner the bike and I am hating sections of track like Luge and Breakout, normally the ones I love the most.  The only segment I look forward to is the gentle steady straight incline of Willo Link, and just then #572 goes past looking strong as an Ox.  I don’t know who it is yet, but I know he is in my age category and I basically wave bye bye to the championship.

 Getting back to the pits at around 5am, I am spent, it’s time to sit down and take a 5 min breather and break the emergency glass to reach for the Red Bull.  I was now seriously wondering if I would make it to the finish, let alone podium.

FINAL QUARTER

By 8am, the sun was finally revealing it's glory from behind a strategically placed bank of cloud.  I on the other hand was really struggling again.  The quick fix of the Red Bull had come and gone.  Coming into the pits, Andrew said "what do you need?" and I said "everything!".  I said to Sarah this is as tough as my first full 24solo in 2010 and I am so much fitter and better prepared this time round.  Five minutes later I had new knicks, chammois cream, nurofen, a toilet stop and a pocket full of gels,  I was ready to roll and the lights came back on.  I was moving again at more than a snails pace, I regained the ability to corner a mountain bike and now knew I could finish.  At this time Sarah asked Andrew "I don't understand why he doesn't just stop".

Apparently, Andrew, himself an Ironman veteran, just nodded knowingly and said

"I do"

Old Duffys

Two more good laps got me to 10:30am and I now had 2nd place secured.  I figured 1 more easy lap and I could call it quits, but my crew had other ideas.

"That was really fast Mike!" called Sarah and Andrew was in the zone, he wanted two more laps and what's more he told me I was putting time back into the leader.  Could I bridge a 15 min gap? Rolling back in at 11:50, my crew were going ballistic.

"He's just 4 minutes up the track!" "C'mon Mike, you can do this!" were the last words from Andrew as I pulled away.

Like a match to tinder dry bush, my energy levels ignited and I stamped on the pedals.  The red mist had entirely descended and I was on the chase.  My heart rate soared back to race pace, and Dean rock hopped all over the mountain meeting me at junctions with timing splits and cries of motivation.

Cockatoo 3 mins, as I charged up the climb the final time, and stomped over the jagged A line at the top to save precious seconds.  I had visions of making the catch on old Duffy's, holding Ian's wheel back onto the tarmac and sprinting for the finish line. Down Skyline, I felt like a heat seeking missile locked onto a target and when I pulled up behind a train of three slower riders, I asked them as gently as possible to make way for someone chasing 1st place and they promptly yielded the track.

Slant 6 just 2 mins Dean screamed, I spurred the legs again, and I still couldnt catch a glimpse of Ian, until I got to the picnic tables at the start of Willo link.  There he was, a blue jersey still some way off, but a rider who looked like he was being chased.  This was no slower rider about to be lapped.  By this stage the wind was howling and the sun was beating down and it felt like we were the last two riders on course.  As I came up behind Ian it was such a bittersweet moment.  It was clear there would be no sprint finish, Ian was running on fumes.  I gently said "Hi Ian, track please" he returned with "Well done Mike, I'm done" and tears welled in my stinging eyes as I felt his pain.  I held my pace back to the finish being careful just to bring it home in one piece and all 5 of us, my crew of 4 and I, danced, laughed and cried in disbelief and celebration over what had happened after saving my 4th fastest lap for last.

The scoreboard will never tell the drama of the final lap. Ian never finished the lap; after I caught him, he simply turned for home, his last lap turned to dust and was blown across the almost lunar landscape along with his dreams of victory on the hot, gusty winds now lashing Mt Stromlo.

FRIENDS AND HEROS

As I mentioned in my speech at the dinner, I love this sport and have made many many good friends through it.  Ian Brigland is a new friendship that has been forged in the heat of battle and there will be many rides together down the track.

There are so many characters I love and admire, but here are just a few,

Andy Hall dropped in for a chat sometime Sunday morning and took me for a guided tour of Party Line.  He completely stepped it up a notch beating some heavy hitters on the global stage to take 3rd overall.  Read about it here

Ed McDonald scared everyone with his show stopper attack on Saturday.  Is he about to re-build the diesel to be some kind of turbo-charged F1 racing machine set for XCO?  I'm sure we'll read about it here.

Jason McAvoy is probably the first elite mountain biker who caught my interest and the first of many mates in our nations capital.  He won again! If this guy has taught me anything it is the power of the human mind to make the body do things that should be impossible. He popped in for a chat when my engine had ceased to even splutter and it was all I could do to get back to the pits and curl up into a ball.  He said "The sun's about to come up and you'll not only come good but you'll win this race".  Thanks mate.  Read about his race here

Jason English, world class, set apart, cycling royalty completely at home having a chat with lil' ol' me in the shower queue #priceless

Peter Selkrig and Phil Welch, my 300 club buddies whose races didnt quite go to plan and still with smiles on their faces heading off to the Croc Trophy.  We salute you!

WHY?

All year I have been asking myself why WEMBO.  I knew I wanted to do it but couldnt put my finger on the "why".  As a Christian (*) there is a constant conflict between this resource hungry, time consuming, sometimes selfish sport.  It is not always compatible with family and or belonging to a church family.  My minister Tom Henderson Brooks put his finger on it one day as we chatted.  Mike you are good at this, and God gave you this ability.  So enjoy it, use it and ride amongst those who may be looking for some answers to life.  I dont have all the answers, and sometimes I am my own worst enemy, but given the choice of riding with mates who accept me or sitting in church with those who already believe what I believe, I think I now know what the right option is.  

(*) I meet with a bunch of blokes on Tuesday night.  There’s a teacher or two, an architect, a project manager who loves the Hawks and a good country pub, an arborist, a builder who is also a rugby tragic, an accountant who loves to sail and a minister with a pony tail and a cross on the collar of his leather jacket.  Ordinary blokes who share the things they struggle with in life, see what the bible has to say about it and then pray God forgive us when we stumble, help us to live up to those words and thank him for all the good things he's given us. That’s being a Christian.

THANKYOUS

Andy Blair was recently quoted by Flow as saying that "Solo 24 is a contradiction".  I thought that was a little presumptuous given he hasn’t done one, but given the guy "can ride" I gave it some introspection and well, yeah, he's dead right.  This is why.

Four of my nearest and dearest give up their weekend (two of them give up a night’s sleep and dedicate all their energies so I can ride my bike as far as humanly possible and beyond in 24 hours.

Thankyou to my pit crew Andrew Mackenzie, Dean Israel, Sarah Israel (nee Deane) and Fiona Mackenzie (nee Deane) and to both our Mum’s for taking the kids for the weekend. Without your commitment I would not have finished, much less won the race.  I love you guys so much.

CORC do a fabulous job every time we make the trip to Canberra and I’ve been there 3 of the last 4 weekends!  Congratulation Russ Baker and Sarah O'Callaghan

To the volunteers who stayed up all night at Western Wedgetail and Party Line to call out numbers.  That takes commitment, not only to do the job and suffer through a near freezing night, but to cheer every rider as they go past on every lap.  You rock!

Turramurra Cyclery and all my friends from Peloton Sports, need I say more.  This is where it all began for me 7 years ago and no matter what’s happening you always have time to deal with my tiny questions and my special needs.  You guys are like my second family. Mark, Brad and Simey set me up perfectly on two bomb proof Giant Anthem 29ers.

NutriScience, I’ll review these products separately, but thanks to Wes Hurrell for your support.  The NS products Extend and Refuel taste great and kept me going when I could stomach nothing else.

Peter Melville.  Peter is a great mate and coach.  This year we took a different approach, train on feel and keep an eye on the numbers.  No structured programs, just listen to your body and enjoy the ride. It works, thanks for you regular little messages of encouragement and follow up and thanks for keeping the faith when I did something a little stupid and crashed my road bike.

Lindsay Gorrell.  I call her the chick with nuclear warheads built into her thumbs.  Two weeks before the race, my body was smashed.  She kneaded the concrete-like knots out of my muscles and got me ready.  Thanks Lindsay, you are an amazing practitioner and an even better friend.

One last thought: As I exited Party Line for the last time and rode up the fireroad, I noticed all the gel wrappers had been collected off the ground.  MTBer's are normally very sensitive to the environment and at any race they carry their rubbish to the finish, but allowances are made for 24 solos.  Whoever you are, who picked up all those wrappers, you are one very special generous person.

So how about it Andy Blair, are you ready to find out just how far you can go?

Keep Riding

Mike

24 hours 46 minutes, 390km, 9000+ vm, 10000+ Calories, 1000+ TSS

I STILL love 24 hour racing

It's a love hate relationship really.  At 10pm I was thinking, "What am I doing?" All I wanted to do was fall off the bike and curl up in a ball.  It was actually about that time that I ran into a small unsuspecting tree and then 5 minutes later binned it on a loose off camber corner.  Having only competed in two 24hoursolo's before (one of which was rained out during the night), I was coming into this race a relative beginner.  On the start line, it was a who's who in endurance racing, the only notable absentee being Jason McAvoy who took on the role of course designer and marshall, happy to keep his powder dry for October.

Off and racing, finally I can relax, we are on our way!

If you know Jase, then you know they dont come much harder than this bloke, so that should give you some idea of the course.  BRUTAL, was the word of the day! But that is Stomlo.  Host to many a World Cup level events, this place was made to test all riders, and test us it did.  For the most part I really enjoyed the course, it was the right length with plenty of climbing and fun descents, and a few rock gardens thrown in.  I took the approach early in the race to conserve my energy (and my back!) on the big climb.  Advice from two of my wisest MTB friends were
1) take it easy for the first 12 hours
2) keep it smooth stay out of the red.
Little Seymour I've ridden a few times and I love the mix of sketchy downhill switchbacks and rollovers.  Also the new entry into Luge is awesome.  The exit from the first big downhill berm (after the bridge) is flat and smooth so you can now actually carry some speed knowing there is another berm at the end the size of a safety ramp to pull you up.

Off the start the pace was manageable except somebody forgot to tell John Henderson (Trek Target) it was a 24 hour race and after a sleazy shortcut sent a burst of nitrous through the bunch and the pace lifted.  I was happy to see them go and meanwhile settled in for a sustainable pace with good mates Peter Selkrig, Dave Rae and Phil Welch.  The 4 of us (across for different age categories) stuck together for a good few hours and I was happy to be setting the pace on the front for most of it.  Phil quipped after the race that he was sorry (not!) to suck my wheel for so long, but that's where I like to be, setting the pace and riding my own race and it was great to have some company.  Eventually Dave dropped off and then Pete spun out in a big way, so Phil and I were left to duke it out for the rest of the race.  It was so good having four similar riders in a bunch keeping each other company and making sure the pace never let up.

Air time

With only 70 or so riders on course, it could get lonely and the time seemed to go in slow motion.  I remembering looking at the time at about 3pm and thinking 21 hours to go, oh no!
Hitting midnight, I really wondered if my race was over, barely able to stomach another gel, and thinking I am only half way, the Garmin showing some ridiculous tally of kilometres, Steve pulled out the life saver, a can of Red Bull and a cup of noodles.  "ZING ZING" The brain came to life, I stopped falling off and cut something like 6 minutes off my previous lap time.  Now I had the witching hour (3am) firmly in my sights.  It was a long and dark night, but eventually a wisp of light began to appear in the sky and strangely it started to get colder.  I rode the whole night with just a winter jersey over the top, but as a cloudy dawn took hold, I needed my leggings to keep the cold breeze from freezing my legs

Meanwhile my nearest rival Tony Rowley, was keeping it consistent and whilst I had a nice buffer of 50 minutes, I couldnt seem to crack him.  Every lap the gap was the same and I knew I would have to fight to the end to keep my grasp on the gold medal.  Finally at around sunrise, the news came the gap had lengthened to 1 lap 15 mins.  OK I can relax a little, just keep it smooth and bring it home.

Crossing the finish line

In my 3rd last lap I was enjoying an easy lap when I checked my frame and saw the existing crack had opened up big time.  During the week we noticed a little crack on the seat tube of my Anthem.  Unfortunately Giant didnt have a replacement frame available so they did the next best thing and gave me an identical demo bike.  How good is that! So rather than going in with a duallie and a hard tail, I'd have two comfy duallies at my disposal.  Interestingly the two bikes, mine with Rock Shox and the demo with Fox suspension behaved quick differently.  My Anthem is built for speed, the suspension is hard, the bike feels light and responsive and just a little sketchy, the handlebars are cut down, it is an XC racer.  The demo on the other hand was my roller.  Slightly bigger bag tyres, a soft ride and wider handle bars, this bike was built for 24 hours in the saddle.  I loved having both these bikes to ride and they both handled the punishing course with ease.

The Giant Anthem 29er demo with Fox Shox.  Nothing short of brilliant!

A big shout out my two new mates from JesusMTB; Ian Bridgland and Ben Eidel.  To Ian for a solid ride to pick up 3rd in Category and Ben for supporting and cheering us on all weekend.  These guys are regulars at St Matt's Manly if you are ever in the area.  You might have seen JesusMTB out and about, you might not, but we are just a bunch of MTB'ers who reckon Jesus is a bloke to be taken seriously, and yes he might just have ridden a rigid single speed had bicycles been around in His day.

I'd always been curious to experience the family vibe at Easter nationals and I can say it is alive and well.  Everyone there get's into cheering on all the riders.  We had Harry and Libby from Melbourne with there three kids on one side and Phil and Judy on the other side.  Another highlight for me were the 4 gentlemen who in the act of lapping me had the time for a chat and a word of encouragement, Brett Bellchambers, Jason English, Ed McDonald and Andy Hall (6+6) thanks guys, you make getting lapped something to look forward to!

4 of the best

Thanks to CORC.  These guys put on an amazing event with loads of enthusiastic volunteers, this is the biggest and oldest MTB club in Australia and the breeding ground of some awesome riders.

Thanks to the many friends who followed with interest, wished me good luck and gave a hearty congrats when it is was all over.  It is humbling to have so many genuine friends spurring me on, so thankyou for reading, I'm sorry this has been a rather long post!

To my pit crew, Steve, Tom, Liam and Sarah.  Steve, you were awesome, in the early hours of the morning when I almost refused to eat or drink anything, you concocted something I could swallow to keep the motor running smooth.  Not only that, but going into the night I realised that after losing a bit of weight over the last few months, my knicks were a size too big and if I kept going like this, pretty soon I'd end up with a......well you know.  Steve to the rescue loans me his road knicks, now that is taking suport to a new level!.  And son Tom the mechanic; I guess I changed bikes atleast 5 times and every time it was like getting on a new bike with gears and a chain that ran smooth as silk.  Not to mention keeping my lights charged and ready to go.  I love you buddy you are awesome!

To the crew at Turramurra Cyclery, Mark, Dan, Brad and Simey, as well as Pete Melville (coach) and the Giant rep.  It's a huge ask to get a rider ready for a 24 solo, let alone when you throw a cracked frame into the mix.  And I turned up with two awesome bikes from Giant, the 29er Anthem, I could not fault them, perfect, thanks guys.  Just look at the smile on my face at the finish, you need good bikes to finish 24 hours looking so comfortable.

Finally to my wife Sarah. It is a big ask for our partners to give up a weekend so we can run this race.  Thankyou doesnt quite do it justice.

National MTB 24 hour solo 45-49 male podium

As a believer, doing something like this at Easter might seem a little irreverent to some.  And even I had to think twice if this was the right thing to do.  I guess if you want to consider how Jesus suffered for humanity, then you could do worse than go ride a mountain bike for 24 hours.  Not that I am comparing a mountain bike race to the son of God being crucified, taking on the sin of the world and being cut off from his heavenly Father!  But for me, Easter is about how Jesus set us free from rules and ritualistic religion so that we might have life to the full.

Keep Riding
Mike