Yep, Nigel's certainly 'off-form'; woefully - NOT! However, he had told Ronnie, his wife, before the start that he was. He then went on to rip 8mins from his previous best time on the course. Similarly Matt Dec says he's had a bit of trouble recently with regaining his focus - no trouble today. He was quite a happy chappie when he jumped on the Brooks' bus to head off home. He was first man across the line, with a PB, and stayed on top of the board throughout. Jenny Sammons had also mapped out her strategy for today and it worked: she was the 'wabbit' for Peter Vaughan and made damn sure nobody was going to get their teeth into her neck. It actually worked well for both of them: a PB apiece. Fastest man up the long drag to the top of Big Gidge was Jon Gregg ahead of Matt Dec and, well, everybody else. Third on the virtual podium and the other rider with a 40+ average speed was speedy Sam Smith.

We had a somewhat depleted field this year for the 17th edition of the event. After last year's record turn-out we were back with a field in the more-familiar 50s. But we had managed to provide a helpful easterly and the temperature conveniently stayed in the range of warm for the event's duration. But we will probably not use 30sec starts again on this course. According to reports there was quite a bit of traffic congestion in some places.

Thanks again to Carolyn Equid for looking after the desk together with Lorraiine both in Gidge and Toodyay; Lorraine was your starter. Terri Usher was also keeping her experienced eye on things. Cam had organised the signage and marshalling and followed the field as the potential 'sag-wagon' Fortunately we didn't have any DNFs although Greg Swensen maybe contemplated a DNS when he hit the deck in the carpark even before the start; he was quickly patched up by Cam and sent on his way… Monitoring progress and collecting the data at the 39km mark was Bruce Rollerson. Thanks to you all and special thanks to the Brooks mob, Rick Churchill and Troy for providing extra bike transport.