After 4 1/2 months of chasing races around the world Canberra, Australia was my last stop for the 2008 season.
Canberra is hosting the World Championships in 2009 so I was really looking forward to this race so I could get an early look at the track and see what I will be up against for next year.
After hearing everyones views on the track over the season who had already ridden it I had fairly low expectations of seeing a quality track when I got to Mt Stromlo on Thursday morning for practice. The first thing I noticed was that who ever named it Mt Stromlo should of called it Stromlo Hill because its definately the smallest mountain/hill ive raced on. But once I made it onto the track I was pretty blown away by what they had laid out up there, the track was really good with a couple of decent rock gardens, plenty of jumps and some interesting little things like a whoop/roller/rythm section that was difficult to get through cleanly and also claimed Matti Lehikoinen braking both of his wrists after going over the bars. He should of had surgery by now back in Finland so hopefully he heals up quickly and is back on a bike soon.
Being so close to home we had a heap of New Zealanders come out which was good to see with Scolsy making his return to racing after breaking his ankle at the Oceania Champs in March. I think we had 15 men racing all up which was awesome.
The first 3 days of practice were perfect weather, although a little chilly it was nice and sunny so everyone was enjoying it and getting in plenty of runs then of course like nearly every race this season the rain showed up especially for race day! The first rain in 4 months according to a local.
The track is really hard packed and sandy so the rain didnt really affect it apart from the last 30 seconds of sprinting which turned into a bog! It was definately a huge fitness tester of who could push through the pain and keep sprinting the whole way, Minnaar showed everyone just how strong he was and pulled a 4.7 second winning margin!
My race run went pretty well, I hit all of my lines and had a good run except for bending a pedal in the whoops section which made it really awkward sprinting at the end but im still stoked with 30th place considering that.
The main thing about this race is that I found out exactly where I need to work on my fitness to be a contender for next years world champs.
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