After months of hard work, Andrew Hall, Garry James and I have put together a new mountain bike endurance racing team under the banner of one of my long term sponsors; Radical Factory Racing.

The team website has all the details, as well as feeds from twitter, facebook and garmin connect, so you can see where we are training and racing and what we are up to.

We've been lucky to be backed by some amazing sponsors, including Cannondale, so you'll be seeing us rolling around at the next endurance race on the awesome Cannondale Flash 29ers and Scapels, which are proving to be awesome bikes on our training rides; we cannot wait to get them to the first race!

Over the years I have had my share of punctures, and plenty of experience dealing with pumps and C02 systems in training and at races. When you get a flat the most annoying (and time consuming) thing about it is pumping the tyre back up.

These days with everyone on 29ers, the humble C02 just doesn't cut it when it comes to getting a tyre back up to pressure, you need two of them to get a 29er tyre pumped up.

So this last year I have be using the Big Air, which packs around 3 times as much inflation as a standard C02 refill (ie: these are good to pump up two tyres from one canister). Over the last year I have had to use these in anger in both training and racing several times.

Did the Bakery ride today, a 100 strong bunch ride that cruises at around 35km/hr through Canberra before turning into "the gallop"; a 30min road crit at over 40km/hr with sprints and other craziness. It's a great ride and good way to get in 100kms in under 3hrs on a Saturday morning.

I usually ride mid pack, and it's a pleasant cruise. When it comes time for the gallop, I play along and have my fun, then ride home. Today was a little different though...

The first traffic light stayed red for a little too long for my track standing ability, then I could not clip back in, this meant that I was quickly relegated to the back. I hadn't ridden at the back for at least a year, and it's a nightmare!

Normally : 62min 232W 35.6km/hr 61TSS 0.779IF
At the back: 62min 256W 34.9km/hr 79TSS 0.882IF

Having never been to a triathlon before my head was full of misconceptions about prima donnas and $4 million dollar carbon fibre race bikes being ridden by guys that spent more time man scaping than training, so I was relieved to roll up to find a crowd of super laid back and relaxed people having a laugh before the start.

Being a triple triathlon, there are 3 swims, 3 rides and 3 runs to do as a solo, a team of 3 or a team of 9. Given that I only run if something larger than me is chasing me, and when I swim I go around and around in circles, I thought it would be best if I went on a team and just stuck to what I can do, ride the bike ;)

I had originally entered the 100 mile race, a race I have done every year for the last 5 years, but I still haven't got the form back that I needed to be competitive, so I made the call to drop the 107km Full Fling and have some fun with Garry James, a race within the race just for fun. It's the end of the season now and I figured it would be wise to end it with a smile, instead of a pain grimace :)

I am gearing up for the local Triple Triathlon (I'm the cyclist on a team of three, so thankfully don't have to run or swim, as I can do neither ;)). It's an event I've not done before and I'm told the courses for the mountain bike legs will not be well marked out on race day. They merely paint white arrows on the ground at the turns. These are course markings I am sure to miss and ride off into oblivion knowing me!

I raced the Scott 24hr on the weekend. I hadn't had the best lead up this time, getting sick earlier in the year, then watching my form decline over the next few months, it just got worse and worse until ended up being taken off the bike for a long rest due to getting pretty ill.

It didn't stop me trying to train up and then fight my best against the boys I usually race for overall placings, but in the end trying to do that led to me discovering what it's like to go out way too hard in a solo 24, then blow up later. It's not a lesson I want to learn twice, it was awful :)

The last time I did a Rocky Trail Grand Prix was in 2009. I ended up duking it out with Garry James for 2nd place over all in some gnarly conditions. Fast forward two years and the format of this event had changed from a 4hr race to an 8hr one and this time mighty Gazza was asking me to pair with him instead of soling; joining forces with the enemy... an interesting idea and not something we had done before.

The course was the same as it was in 2009, Stromlo Red laps with Skyline, Berms and Luge. This is also part of the course they are proposing for the Scott 24hr in two weeks which I have entered solo. So I couldn't pass up the chance to race on my favourite course and get some practice in for the big race that is coming up.

What happens when four Solo 24 racers decide to invade a 100km race? Chaos of course!

The invading party of 24 soloists was myself, Ed, Andy and Jeebus; all packed very tightly into the battle Astra for long haul North to Parkes, with mandatory carbo loading on the way in Cowra. The trip was filled with plenty of smack talk, laughs and bets about who could take JD's crown (as he had won the race last year). Personally I thought we were all dreaming a little too big there; we are not 100km racers and there would be 450 other people there with plans of their own.

Twas the night before race day and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, except for the four of us, huddled in our hotel room as the week long rain continued to pour down all night long...

We were well past hoping the rain would stop; we were just hoping they would postpone the race so we could drive somewhere dry for a social ride the next day instead of destroying our bikes in a mud fest. Yesterday’s reconnaissance lap hadn't filled me with confidence it would be a fun race at all. It was so muddy we wondered if two wheel drive cars would even be able to drive in to the event centre, let alone there be any viable race track left.