Thule Bright 24 Mountain Bike Race

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After Shane's TT win in Goulburn, we packed up the car, I had an energy drink and trucked back to Bright the same day. It was a lovely drive once we got off the freeway onto the back roads through Yackandandah and Myrtleford to Bright.

We found our Thule crew at the Bright Brewery eating pizza and hydrating for the hot days ahead. The other teams I helped setup were ready and revved up to start. Team Thule | SKCC were a men's team of 6, team Thule | Check out our Racks were a women's team of 6 doing the traditional 24 hr group rides. My team Thule | Kosdown was to arrive the next morning, doing the more casual Esprit de Corps race.

Shane helping to setup the gantry/banner
Thule had setup a base camp on the route from the starting house tent where we settled for the weekend. The BBQ, chairs, heaters, food, esky, and entertainment was setup by the time I arrived at about 9am on Saturday morning.

Part of the setup for the feasts!  Photo: Corinna Brown
We could all register separately to pickup our awesome goody bags and setup for the ride ahead. With the esprit de corps teams they could all head out together or ride solo. This suited a few of my teamies that had lives outside of bikes and could pop in and do a few laps, head off or go sleep through the night and then come back the next day and do a little bit more before enjoying their Sunday!

The SKCC team tent and part of the team getting ready for the next lap
I had a great time chatting to all the teams, letting them know when the food was on for dinner and snacks were out. Claire and I headed out for out first lap around lunch time. I was starving by the time we made it back to camp. The course had some good fire trail but overall was a little technical for me in places, with a few drop-off sections that made me nervous. We made it back in one piece and had a good lunch and hydrated before attacking another lap.

Stuffed after my first lap!

I was glad to finish the second lap and headed straight for the shower, covered in dust and bone dead tired from concentrating so much. Thule put on a BBQ dinner and we chatted away over the details of the course and how we were tracking overall. 

ENDURO Coffee van going 24hrs!

There was a slight miscalculation on the total number of laps online that I popped into the HQ to reconcile before heading to bed. When I woke up in the morning, it was all sorted and we had clocked up about 22hrs of riding with a massive lead on the number of laps over our rivals in the Women's Esprit de corps teams.

Chilling out before dinner. Photo: Corinna Brown

I went out for another lap, but had lost my mojo from the previous day. I'm not sure if it was just that I was a bit stiff and sore, but it was not flowing as well as yesterday. Jenny Enderby finished up her morning lap after I came home and our team finished the day in 1st place for our category!

Winners are GRINNERS!  Women's team of 6 Esprit de Corps.  Photo: Corinna Brown
Half of my team had already headed home by the time the presentations started at 2pm, but we were all so happy with the result! I've posted out mini prize packs to all the ladies to share the love!

All in all, it was a great event, that went pretty smoothly for me. I was well taken care of by my team mates who were happy to ride as much as they wanted. I was well taken care of by Thule with my custom Jersey, egg and bacon bagel for breakfast, trail munchies, and endless drinks to stay hydrated at team camp.

Part of the crazy fire trail you can see from town

I can't wait to see what happens with this event next year, it can only get bigger and better each time.

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