National Champs Team Relay

22/2/13

Day 1 of the 2013 National MTB Champs saw the team relay event.  Each 4-person team consisted of a female, elite / U23 male, junior and senior rider.  At Target Trek, we have te numbers and were able to start the race with 4 quality teams.  This event provides a great chance to get a “hot lap” in before the main XC event on Saturday, and also gives a great opportunity to ‘have a laugh’ with team members while secretly trying to smash each other out on course!

I’m not quite sure who came up with our team name “I wish I had a motor”, but to be honest this thought has crossed my mind whilst racing of late!

So our team “I wish I had a motor’ consisted of Luke Fetch, Jack Lavis, Bryce Young and myself.  Luke took on the task of lap 1 and lined up alongside 10 or so other riders eager to get a taste of the Stromlo course.  Luke rode a great lap, not too far off the pace of Olympian Dan McConnell and a couple of the other young-guns.  It was then onto our Masters rider Bryce whom I also have pleasure of coaching.  It was awesome to see Bryce hold his own against some stiff competition and as he handed over to me we were sitting in 5th position, but not too far down on 3rd and 4th.  I put in what felt like a decent lap, and I did catch glimpses of 4th place not too far ahead towards the end. It was then time for young Jack Lavis to turn on some power. Well Jack certainly showed some awesome form, as he ripped past 2 of the teams ahead and stormed home to give us a spot on the podium and bronze medal.  It was even more impressive for Target-Trek to have taken out 1st and 2nd with 2 of our other teams, and so a clean sweep of the podium.

The relay was a great way to start off the National Champs weekend. It was a fun way to get some quality time on the course while riding along side teammates! Now it is time to relax and freshen up the legs in preparation for the main Cross Country race on Saturday.

Concentrating down the infamous “hammer head”

Target-Trek Podium