We drove to Lithgow on the Saturday before the Sunday of the race to ride the track in preparation for the race. The weather could not decide weather it wanted to rain or shine, we hoped it would be crearing as we got furthure awway from the coast. That was not the case, it rained all the way to the track but to our surprise, not at the track. The track was still dusty dry!

    We got our gear on and plenty of it at that, it was very cost for being 1pm in the day, then I remembered we were in Lithgow! The track was great fun, possibly a bit to windy but other than that it flowed quite nicely. It has jumps, steep decents, berms, brigdes and even some 370m of altitude change. That meant there was alot of climbing.

    I had been off the bike for most of the previous week due to a knee injury from the weekend before so I only got a single lap in before I called it a day due to the pain coming back. We repacked the car and headed back to Lithgow to find out beds and grab a bite to eat. Thanks to a kind waitress at the only Italians restraunt in town we were able to eat a large plate of spaghetti bolognese at a table that we being used for a function held there fifteen minutes later. From there back to the motel to sleep, an early morning awaited.

    Sunday morning started at 5.30am with some breakfast while watching some guys and girls on snowboards droping off cliffs on TV. The Elite mens race started at 8am, even with jersey, knicks, jacket, leg and arm warmers, helmet, and coat it was coldish. Stu and his crew at Bright Orange Events had a decent fire going it was that cold. The race started at the foot of a small fire trail climb, with 9 Elite men on the start line I new the race was going to be tough. The started and I entered the first single track second, Joshua Carlson shot of the front from the start, he was pushing himself really hard. Brian Price and I caught him after a while and Price took the lead. After that the 3 of us we spaced a minute apart with Price leading, myself in second and Carlson third, then fourth place was another few minuted behind again. The race didnt shuffle from those positions for the other two 12km laps.

    At the end of the second lap I came to a narrow bridge in which I figured I could save some time by taking, I decided to take it but found myself flat on my back instead losing over half a minute trying to get what breath back that been knocked out of me. I fell on my back across the log after my back wheel had slipped of the wet log. My head was spinning, my back was aching and I couldn't help thinking if I had just given my place away. Thankfully I hadn't and I was able to get back on and keep going. Price had a significant lead on me after the crash and I was keen to make it back.

    The next laps was incident free and I was able to pull in the second fatest lap of the day just behind Price's first lap. I managed to come somewhat closer to Price but infortunately not close enough. Overall I placed second with Carlson somewhere behind me.

      I'd like to say a big thanks to John and Harry Herne for taking me and feeding me throughout the race, what would I do without them!