Point of View Racing at the Australian MTB Nationals with Joshua Sek

Good Afternoon Che,

I got back from the lovely city of Adelaide on Monday night after 6days of training, course familiarisation and racing.
It was hot, mid 30’s daily, the location was in eagle quarry which meant no shade and dust...lots of it!

We arrived on the Tuesday, late and on Wednesday I got to head out to the course for my first look. After completing a 2laps with my coach and her assistant it quickly came evident that this course suited me very well as it was full of short pinch climbs that demanded both a large amount of strength but also required constant technical attention through the endless rock gardens. The descents were long and highly technical, and as I quickly found out; few riders were able to navigate down at high speeds, I was a lucky one and after only a short time practicing I had the majority of the course nailed, so to speak.

Thursday brought my first race of the championships, the club team relay, invited only 12hours before by my good friend Mel, I was promptly signed to my clubs only representation team for National Championships. The team consisted of Myself, Melinda Jackson, James Kennedy and Adrian Jackson and being one of the strongest teams out there we were looking good for a podium. Adrian lead out our first lap returning back to transition in 1stplace approximately 2mins up on 2nd place, next out was James Kennedy, one of the older riders on course he sure showed the younger riders a thing or two about racing coming back in first place with the Adelaide team hot on our heels, Melinda Jackson was next out, with only seconds back to Terri ‘Stink’ Rhodes and only short minutes back to the charging Andrew Blair we were all sure we would lose our lead this lap. Standing in transition I looked back towards the final climb trying to make out the oncoming rider, sure enough it was Andrew Blair, however this was no surprise, what really surprised me was Melinda managing to keep Terri at bay (Terri is a part of the Merida National Team) for the whole lap. I was tagged and full of adrenaline I headed out on my first lap, about 1min down from the leader, who currently was Shaun Lewis (Mongoose National Team) and only 1min up from Adelaide’s rider I attacked the first climb in full view of the event village, I managed to gain time on Shaun but I could not shake the Adelaide rider off my wheel and the proceeded to pass me on the next section of fire-trail. I continued my lap seeming to get faster with every minute gone by I ripped through the descents making them feel like I was on rails, as I progressed up the final climb and sprinted through the finish with my team cheering I realised we had just placed 3rd in the National Club Relay Championships, we all were very pleased with this result. After a quick recovery it was down to the beach for some R & R!

Friday brought a relaxing day, headed out to the course for some final technical work to just run over some tricky sections before race day.

Saturday came and with my race scheduled for 2pm I welcomed the relaxing start to a day, outside it was looking to be quiet a hot day in the saddle with temperatures already in the mid 20’s only shortly after 10am. Heading out the course around 12pm to get a full hour on the wind trainer of warm up the anticipation was building and I was sure getting nervous. Come 1:45pm we (all the U/19s) were in the marshal chute awaiting call up. Riding with plate #226 I was placed roughly in the middle and I had to ensure a good start to make places early on. The gun went and the start was intense, elbows were out everywhere and it was one of the roughest starts I’ve ever experienced with elbows going everywhere!
On the first climb I lost places, merely because I knew from previous races that I wasn’t to go out to hard. I sat patiently at my own pace hoping that as the lap progressed I would quickly take wheel to a chase group of about 6riders that had formed about 1min behind the lead pack. Sure enough as I hit the decent and powered on knowing I would make up time I quickly regained a visual with the chase group and as I thought it was only a matter of minutes before I was a part of it. That was when disaster struck, mid way on the final decent after a difficult rock garden my chain snapped. When I went to sprint up a small rise I found myself chainless, without repairs both on me and back in the tech zone. A simple chain failure had ended my XCO race at nationals, after a year of intense training. Cursing my misfortune I begun the slow walk/roll back to finish. It was not what I hoped for. We quickly returned to our accommodation so I could strip the bike down and give it a full check in the hope I would make up for my bad luck in the following days short track.

An early start come Sunday morning for a 1030am short track start time I was already practicing the course by 830am in the hope I could get the track down pat and hope for a strong finish in spite of yesterdays performance. After circling the track for what felt like hours I finally needed to clear it as sport categories were about to begin racing. Watching and making note of passing lines while the sport race continued I was leaving no stone unturned. It was not long before I was standing in the chute awaiting my call up. A slightly smaller category of 30ish riders I was plated second row with #220. I knew I had fresh legs after my misfortune the previous days and had to make sure I got clear of the messy starts that short track were prone to. As the gun fired I quickly found myself clear out on the right and already up around 19th place. The laps ticked on and I was taking riders with a small personal challenge I had set myself; one rider per lap. The minutes ticked past and like the laps, so did the riders. I made my move around the 10min mark and found myself away from a small group who were quickly trying to ride me down. I managed to hang in for almost the whole race but in the dying minutes (13min mark of a 15min +3lap race) I was pulled by the marshal due to the lapping rule (if the leader is going to pass you in your next lap you get pulled from the race to allow a clear run for the leaders)
I was one of the last riders on course so I was happy with my result and ended up with 12th place, under19, for a first year and first time at nationals I was thrilled to say the least!

So after a year of training, a week in Adelaide I came away with a bronze medallion and a lesson learned about carrying a chain breaker on course. I know what I’ll be buying now!

Thank you for taking the time to read this, hope it was enjoyable.
Most importantly thank you for your continued support and help.

Yours Sincerely,
Josh Sek