Both Ross and Will are normally alseep on the couch with a cup of tea by 8:30pm on a Friday night so just finishing the race could have been a challenge for the two, Will fell alseep on drive down and both rolled up to the start line with minutes to spare looking half awake. As akways Aleisha was organized and ready to go before Ross and Will had arrived.
As always GMBC are well organized with the race starting bang on at 7pm despite the fact 150 riders had rolled up and registered in just an hour or so. The start was furious with riders bustling for position in the early stages of the race.
For the first hour Will was sitting with the top 8 and at times was working together with others on the fireroad sections. Will's plan was to ride his own race at a pace he could sustain for 3 hours. At the halfway mark he found himself sitting in 5th and working with the winner of round 1 Tim Corbett. As night fell he realized he hadn't charged his light properly and as a result he had to stay behind Tim in the single track and could only lead on the fireroad. An agreement was made that if they came to the line together Will would let Tim have the win due to having to suck as wheel for the last hour. As it would happen Will and Tim rode a final hour of the race catching the leaders then putting a few minutes into them. Will showed that he has a heart and isn't just an attractive man with a 40" python and stuck to his word and was happy with 2nd place.
Good friend of iRide Bikes Cam Day has written the below reports on how thier races went.
Ross
Race 2 of the Gazebo series kicked off with a twilight/night race at the You Yangs.
My Friday nights usually consist of a table at one of the fine establishments in King Street, followed by several hours of Formula 1 on the PS3, so the chance to race under lights was a welcome change.
I took a chance and got my beautiful girl CFS to come along for her first ever MTB race which she was very hesitant at first, but when I said that Cam Day was racing, I couldn’t stop her from talking about this race, and how she was confident of beating the shit out of him both on and off the track.
We rolled in, got our gear together and we were ready to race. After a quick kiss to wish CFS all the best, we were off.
Tonight I was on board my new Rocky Mountain Vertex 990 RSL. I had ridden this puppy previously but not under race conditions. I knew with a pretty tough field, it would be a bit like a blind man at an orgy, I would have to feel my way through.
3 hours later and 80kms down, I felt like the Energizer Bunny thanks to the awesome ride of the 990, I could have kept going and going and going.
With race 2 of the Gazebo series now upon us, I chauffeured the Bike Buller poster boy down to the You Yangs while he signed trail maps to hand out at the iRide Bikes tent for all the fans.
In the lead up to the race, I became the target of repeated threats and abuse from none other than CFS, and so ‘The Showdown’ was announced. The winner would have to drink a box of UDL cans and then complete an obstacle course which consisted of parked cars, chairs and trees over a 1km course. I thought about ‘tanking’ this race, as I would be happy to see CFS complete this challenge again after her exploits at Mt Beauty a few years back, but decided on a fair race.
After Will had given out all his Bike Buller trail maps and signed a few young ladies chests, we were off and racing. The next 3 hours is still a bit of a blur, very fast track and pretty dusty but got 6 laps in and felt good aboard the Rocky Mountain
The trip home, I had to comfort Will after he had some issues with his lights which forced him to follow the winner into the finish line, but still a great effort jagging 2nd. I remember him saying that he did his best work with the lights out, sad to say it didn’t eventuate this time. I was a little worried in the car, as he had the Dawson's Creek theme tune on repeat for an hour, but I’m sure he will tough it out and be back bigger and stronger for the last race of the series.
