The stage was split in two sections, 15km with Bermagui Dirt Surfer's club XC track, which is some of the best flowing single track out there, then a short cruise, and a 30km race to the finish. The sun was shining and this was set to be a top day...

At the start the field pinned it for the single track and we flew around the course, loving the flowing trails and awesome berms. This course is just all good fun with no hard climbs, it's fast fast fast! I tacked on with the crew I had worked most other days with, Aaron, Steve and Grantley with Ian only a short gap ahead as we came into the nuetral cruise stage where timing would be paused. This was perfect for me, I was with the crew I wanted to work with and we would be launched into the final stage together, and smash it to the finish of the 5 day event as a team, until...

A quick race around the Cooma horse racing track, then out into the mountains for 90kms of madness, including a 700vm descent down the Great Dividing Range, this was going to be an awesome day.

And it was!

The plan was to work with Richard and Ian from Anytime Fitness and smash it the whole way, off the line it went perfectly to plan, we took turns on the front at V02max, furiously mashing the pedals and breaking away from the field. The Elite group were just ahead of us and we were gaining on them, the boys were hungry to catch them and ride with the fast bunch for as long as possible to gap the field in a big way. Richard and Ian effortlessly cruised across and bridged the gap, but I did not have the power to make it, and was left stuck in no mans land, solo, between the elite bunch and main field.

After not sleeping for days, I managed about 5 hours of sleep last night and it was so good! I woke up groggy so some repair had been going on, and when the pre dawn stage started at 5am this morning, I could hammer it again.

With my heart rate back in the 150's this little 26km XCO style stage was a blast, smashing around and feeling good again was soooo nice :)

Then came the 40km cruise through lush farming country to Cooma, I was in a good sized bunch and we just floated along, soaking it all up chatting away, it was just heavenly on this fine Autumn day.

Happy days.

PS: The photo is of Nicko being interviewed for an upcoming cycling show on Foxtel, amazingly he resisted the urge to demonstrate the Dutch Rudder on film ;)

After war was declared yesterday in a friendly grudge match, I committed to racing today's stage and beating a certain someone... sadly though, it was not going to happen.

I could not sleep at all night, stressing out about the expectations people (including myself :)) had of me. I woke up with a resting heart rate higher than I have ever had before, 64bpm. Then at breaky I could not stomach a thing. These were not good signs.

At the start I felt OK, but by the top of the first climb it was evident something was very wrong, I could not get my heart rate above 135bpm, no matter how hard I tried. All I wanted to do was smash up that hill like I know I usually can, but it was never going to happen. Something (fatigue?) put a rev limiter on the old ticker and it was set in concrete. It was frustrating as hell.

After a very sleepless night wondering if I would be able to ride down Cannonball Run without crashing and breaking something (3 months off the mountain bike from a broken wrist had me wondering!), I was stoked to make it to the bottom in one piece. I took it nice and easy and soaked up the trails and views, riding the first half with Adam who was having an awesome time, in his element here in Thredbo.

It's Day 0 here in Thredbo, with our race starting tomorrow, we've arrived, built the bikes and had a bit of a ride. There's state rounds of Downhill, 4X and dual slalom on here this weekend too, so the place is packed with mountain bikers and plenty to do and see... it's nirvana :)

I've switched my Stalk Jase app to live mode, so you can see the race stages in real time. It's down the bottom left of the blog, or click here for a full screen view.

I'll also shoot up the usual twits and facebook banter; There should be some good racing in the days ahead with Blair, English, Fellows, Van Mill, Both, Menager and Morto tearing up the pointy end to entertain us punters.

A mate of mine and local Canberra boy, Dan Spasojevic, is currently doing the Tour d'Afrique and his blog makes awesome reading, so check it out.

Go Dan go!

Dans quest to join the EFI club

With no races for the last couple of months I must have been getting a little bored...

With Kylie often curious if I am safe when I am out on a ride (do I really crash that much? OK, shut up!), I decided a live feed of where I am might put her mind at ease, so viola, the "Stalk Jase" panel is now added to my blog (at the bottom left). Just click "enlarge" to see it full screen.

When I am out training my phone sends a live feed of my position to my blog and you can see where I am in real time. When I am not training is will just show where my last ride was.

Anyway, I doubt anyone other than Kylie will be interested, but just in case you saw it there, that's what that little live map is all about ;)

It's been a few weeks now, so where is this "going green" thing going, exactly...

The first thing I did was purchase on of these suckers, a cent-a-meter. It has a sensor that you clip onto the mains wire in your switch board which wirelessly transmits back to an LCD disply in the house. The display can tell you how many cents per hour your current electricity use is costing you in real time, which is cute, but it has two other display modes, kilograms of carbon produced per hour (for that super guilty feeling), or the one I leave it on, kilowatts/hr.