Werribee 12 Hour - run and won!!!
The initial bunch of pictures, more to come.
(GV RaceTech working the Virtue 3 Equilink, a true hit on race day, everyone loved it who rode it- you had a ride didn't you?!!)
Virtue 3 in its glory- couldn't be have killed for an Equilink at that course!!
The Nightlightning Endurez Blaast, an amazing light that scored the fastest night lap- doens't that tell you something!!
Paul Van Der Ploeg- when you are this fast, you can look any way you like!!
The fastest man of the darkness, and possiubly the fastest man on the team? (still to be confirmed via results)
Heading into transition to change over for another blast around the Werribee 4x4 Training and Proving grounds.
(GV RaceTech working the Virtue 3 Equilink, a true hit on race day, everyone loved it who rode it- you had a ride didn't you?!!)
Virtue 3 in its glory- couldn't be have killed for an Equilink at that course!!
The Nightlightning Endurez Blaast, an amazing light that scored the fastest night lap- doens't that tell you something!!
Paul Van Der Ploeg- when you are this fast, you can look any way you like!!
The fastest man of the darkness, and possiubly the fastest man on the team? (still to be confirmed via results)
Heading into transition to change over for another blast around the Werribee 4x4 Training and Proving grounds.Geez, its good when you can put that as your heading, 'run and won'!The Felt Racing team had a great day out there at the Subaru Interactive @ Docklands Werribee 12 hour- presented by Full Gas Promotions. The event was helped no end by the crowds (not every day you can say there is a crowd at an MTB race!) and the amazing weather! But it wasn't without its difficulties for Felt Racing, which as we all know is part of bike racing!
With a 10am kickoff, Felt Racing decided to do a little bit of sneakyness on the start line. For the past 18 months or more, I have been the runner for the team, and completed the first lap. Today however, in a effort to distract our arch rivals at Specialized/Total Rush, we lined up on the start line for the Le Man start with all appearances that I was ready to race. A few minutes before the start, I simply and obviously walked off the start line and sat down. As the clock ticked down to the 10am start, other riders became more confused as to what I was doing. Specialized's JD was quite perplexed as to what was going on, and as the gun went off, I think he was still unsure what we were playing at. Turns out that Paul Van Der Ploeg was hiding in the back of the pack, and as the gun went off, surged foward and we were away. With $100 on offer for the winner of the prologue, it was on!! Pairs rider and solo nutter John Claxton got the cash by mere metres from Paul, and away they charged to the first lap.
Paul came into transition for the first time with a healthy lead, and with Jason and Jack bashing out flying first laps, we snuck out a lead and worked to maintain it. And then then they let me on course.. At the first river crossing, I hit a rock at the wrong angle and nicked my tyre. With a slow leak, I persevered until I hit the hills, then stopped for a quick change. Away again, the tyre would have been lucky to have 20PSI in it, and was a nightmare to keep on the rim! At one hairpin, it all went wrong and rolled mostly off the rim filling the bead with mud and grass. Over the bars and a corked thigh later, I managed to get back to transition to send Paul to fix my errors. He blasted around and clawed us back to even terms, and the trend continued. The team chases, I chase, break something, get past, trasition, chase. I must stress that the things that I broke were all unavoidable things that no preparation could avoid, with GV RAceTech doing an amazing job maintaining all our bikes, making sure they were beautifully clean and well lubed.
The trend continued until the 3rd rotation when I got a finally got clean run, and after spending the fisrt half of the lap chasing Joel (the windscreen guy) I caught him on a climb and decided to blast past and keep on trucking. That was the beginning of the end for the Specialized team, and Felt Racing keeping the pressure applied for the rest of the race, at one point being over 12 minutes up. The final blow came when Paul managed to get back to transition with no more than 10 seconds to spare to send Jason out on a final lap, putting one more lap on the entire field to the cheers of the tent city!!
A top effort for the day, proving that patience and persistance pays off, and we are in good shape for the Scott 24 hour in 3 weeks! Felt Racing would like to thank, in no particular order, Felt Bicycles, Hutchinson Pirahnas (which hooked up amazingly all day, being super fast also), Nightlightning Blaast Lights (with which Jason Jackson took home the fastest night lap prize!!) GV RaceTech for his tireless work spinning spanners for us, and others, all day and night- what a star!!) Girlfriends, partners, parents and other visitors for making the effort to come and see what we do, and the FGP and the race crew for a great race. And also to the Specialized team, who had a fairly tough day with injury, but we'll take our first win over them when we can get it!
Thank linesmen, thank you ball boys.
Results will be available soon here
With a 10am kickoff, Felt Racing decided to do a little bit of sneakyness on the start line. For the past 18 months or more, I have been the runner for the team, and completed the first lap. Today however, in a effort to distract our arch rivals at Specialized/Total Rush, we lined up on the start line for the Le Man start with all appearances that I was ready to race. A few minutes before the start, I simply and obviously walked off the start line and sat down. As the clock ticked down to the 10am start, other riders became more confused as to what I was doing. Specialized's JD was quite perplexed as to what was going on, and as the gun went off, I think he was still unsure what we were playing at. Turns out that Paul Van Der Ploeg was hiding in the back of the pack, and as the gun went off, surged foward and we were away. With $100 on offer for the winner of the prologue, it was on!! Pairs rider and solo nutter John Claxton got the cash by mere metres from Paul, and away they charged to the first lap.
Paul came into transition for the first time with a healthy lead, and with Jason and Jack bashing out flying first laps, we snuck out a lead and worked to maintain it. And then then they let me on course.. At the first river crossing, I hit a rock at the wrong angle and nicked my tyre. With a slow leak, I persevered until I hit the hills, then stopped for a quick change. Away again, the tyre would have been lucky to have 20PSI in it, and was a nightmare to keep on the rim! At one hairpin, it all went wrong and rolled mostly off the rim filling the bead with mud and grass. Over the bars and a corked thigh later, I managed to get back to transition to send Paul to fix my errors. He blasted around and clawed us back to even terms, and the trend continued. The team chases, I chase, break something, get past, trasition, chase. I must stress that the things that I broke were all unavoidable things that no preparation could avoid, with GV RAceTech doing an amazing job maintaining all our bikes, making sure they were beautifully clean and well lubed.
The trend continued until the 3rd rotation when I got a finally got clean run, and after spending the fisrt half of the lap chasing Joel (the windscreen guy) I caught him on a climb and decided to blast past and keep on trucking. That was the beginning of the end for the Specialized team, and Felt Racing keeping the pressure applied for the rest of the race, at one point being over 12 minutes up. The final blow came when Paul managed to get back to transition with no more than 10 seconds to spare to send Jason out on a final lap, putting one more lap on the entire field to the cheers of the tent city!!
A top effort for the day, proving that patience and persistance pays off, and we are in good shape for the Scott 24 hour in 3 weeks! Felt Racing would like to thank, in no particular order, Felt Bicycles, Hutchinson Pirahnas (which hooked up amazingly all day, being super fast also), Nightlightning Blaast Lights (with which Jason Jackson took home the fastest night lap prize!!) GV RaceTech for his tireless work spinning spanners for us, and others, all day and night- what a star!!) Girlfriends, partners, parents and other visitors for making the effort to come and see what we do, and the FGP and the race crew for a great race. And also to the Specialized team, who had a fairly tough day with injury, but we'll take our first win over them when we can get it!
Thank linesmen, thank you ball boys.
Results will be available soon here
posted by Ash Thomas at 9:43 am
1 Comments:
Hmm, "different ways to make money".
What are you boys in to??
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