In the wash up of the Solo 24, it sounds like it was one hell of a day...!!
Having only gotten 2nd hand info, there may be some irregularities, but chiefly it was hot as hell... 4 hours at over 40 degrees and it just didn't cool down like you would hope overnight. At 3 (not specified AM or PM, but lets assume AM, John said that he was flying. 3rd or 4th place, just 30min down on the leaders who were lapping together, and feeling like a million bucks. Legs going great, everything dialed and going to plan, and next thing he remembers is being picked out of the scrub by Carl Maroney and it was all over from there. Blown. Cactus. Going no place. He said it was as simple as that, blown. Everyone knows that John has an extremely aggressive race style, but this race was a careful gamble to be able to hold it all the way through, so as all athletes know, some days the wheels just fall off it. I would say that the heat played a major roll in many athletes decisions to either back off to a crawl for the finish, or to simply go to bed. Andrew Bell was also a possible victim of the heat, although I've not had that confirmed, but being on a drip earlier on in the night certainly points towards that. As far as I know, both boys ended up finishing their laps, and going to bed for a few hours during the later part of the night, and allowing themselves to at least get in a good finish.
Check out the other classes here for the rest of the Aussie results, but John Waddell killed it for 6th!! Coming back from splattering himself all over Mt Ste Anne and rendering himself comatose for a very long time, one could have firstly been forgiven for giving away the dream of riding his bike, but through amazing perserverence and tenacity, (what else could possibly do it??) he started back at the Mont/Scott a few years back, and has been chipping away ever since. So from all of us at Felt Racing, congrats John!!
To all the other riders, age groupers, SS riders and those I've forgotten or misplaced, well done on your efforts over in California. I've read a few reports around the net, and the Aussies were watched with a certain amount of fear and trepidation, so we must be doing something right.
For all other stories and reports, you'll have to surf around to find them, but posting links in the comments on here would be appreciated!
Having only gotten 2nd hand info, there may be some irregularities, but chiefly it was hot as hell... 4 hours at over 40 degrees and it just didn't cool down like you would hope overnight. At 3 (not specified AM or PM, but lets assume AM, John said that he was flying. 3rd or 4th place, just 30min down on the leaders who were lapping together, and feeling like a million bucks. Legs going great, everything dialed and going to plan, and next thing he remembers is being picked out of the scrub by Carl Maroney and it was all over from there. Blown. Cactus. Going no place. He said it was as simple as that, blown. Everyone knows that John has an extremely aggressive race style, but this race was a careful gamble to be able to hold it all the way through, so as all athletes know, some days the wheels just fall off it. I would say that the heat played a major roll in many athletes decisions to either back off to a crawl for the finish, or to simply go to bed. Andrew Bell was also a possible victim of the heat, although I've not had that confirmed, but being on a drip earlier on in the night certainly points towards that. As far as I know, both boys ended up finishing their laps, and going to bed for a few hours during the later part of the night, and allowing themselves to at least get in a good finish.
Check out the other classes here for the rest of the Aussie results, but John Waddell killed it for 6th!! Coming back from splattering himself all over Mt Ste Anne and rendering himself comatose for a very long time, one could have firstly been forgiven for giving away the dream of riding his bike, but through amazing perserverence and tenacity, (what else could possibly do it??) he started back at the Mont/Scott a few years back, and has been chipping away ever since. So from all of us at Felt Racing, congrats John!!
To all the other riders, age groupers, SS riders and those I've forgotten or misplaced, well done on your efforts over in California. I've read a few reports around the net, and the Aussies were watched with a certain amount of fear and trepidation, so we must be doing something right.
For all other stories and reports, you'll have to surf around to find them, but posting links in the comments on here would be appreciated!
posted by Ash Thomas at 7:25 am
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