Gravity 12hour - raced and WON!!!

Yep, that's right, the 'Emergency Merkin' team of Tim and I slogged it out in the heat to eventually win by 8mins in the male pairs category and possibly more impressively, 5th place overall against the more widely resourced teams of 3 and 4 riders (and much younger ones also).
A couple of laps pre-race roll around the 10.8k (by my GPS measurement) circuit revealed the same familiar course but sporting the effects of a bushfire some 8 months before. Burnt out bridges, black ash in the dust, more exposed to the sun through lack of foliage and quite a bit of loose gravel on the usual well packed surface. 'Sketchy', I thought, and it was but the track soon packed down.
I got a bad start in the run with the majority of riders in front of me, so I just sat in until I could overtake. Tim took over and showed that we were here to race! by belting out a quick first lap. We tagged each other for the next 12 hours with barely a "nice work", time gaps and "GO!!!" spoken between us for the period. About half way through the day I followed our category leader, the strong Brad Davies, for a lap and eventually we overtook his team and slowly extended the gap.
Tim rode like a pro, the best I've seen him and my times were pretty consistent all day.
We were glad to see the sun disappear for a couple of cooler laps at the end of the day.
Both shelled by the end, but elated at pulling the win.
I couldn't have done it without Torq products to fuel me all day, no cramps, no flat spots and no bonking.

Great race on a great course as usual.
Well done to all of the 600 or so competitors.
Well done to The Spin Room boys on winning their category.
Thanks Tim.

Mountain biking, as much as it takes out of me and hurts at times, I just fucking love it!!! (der...)