Appin Twilight 3 lap club round 14th March 2009
Saturday, 14 March 2009 00:00 | 
WMBC member Ben Brand provides an insight into the night race held at Appin on the 14th March 2009.
It was 4:00pm and I didnt need to look out the window to tell it was raining, hard, here near Campbelltown. This was the second club round for the year and it looked like it too was going to be a wet race.
Dont get me wrong, I dont mind the rain, but if I have a choice a dry comfy couch will win most of the time.A quick check of BOM and it looks like the storm has just missed Appin so the decision is made and I load up the car.I have a team entered in the Mont in a few weeks time so this was the perfect chance to test my home-made light setup under race conditions.
I have ridden Appin enough to know if something will break, it will happen here... normally its me. The track is dry and conditions are perfect as around 20-30 riders roll down the firetrail to the start area. As is customary I place myself near the back of the pack and wait for the start. This ritual is based on 2 principles: 1) Im not fast and 2) I have more chance of passing people which is always better than being passed. Pretty soon we are off and head out on the first lap. I find myself on the tail of a group who are setting a pace I am comfortable with and we soon drop off the handful of riders who are behind me... perfect.
First lap is a good pace, I pass a few more riders then the group starts to draw out and its not long before I find myself on my own and feeling pretty good. I clear the technical sections and the climb after the bridge and latch on to the back of another rider. We have a good chat for the next few kms and he tells me he shouldnt have gone for a ride this morning...?!?We hit the firetrail that leads back into the downhill and another rider has latched on to my rear so I decide to take the lead and try to drop these 2 riders by the end of the downhill sections.
First lap down, lights are on and I have no one visible in front or behind... a slight drizzle starts and I hope my lights dont die.. I'm fairly confident. The drizzle quickly turns into decent rain and I become less confident, but the lights stay good and towards the end of the second lap I see a light up ahead so dig a little deeper to see if I can pull them in. It takes a few kms but eventually I get on to his back wheel and catch my breath for a few kms. We hit the firetrail again so I duck past and put in some big ones to get a gap, which works and I can here his sqeaky shock slowly dropping away behind me.
Into the final lap now and spend the remainder of this lap by myself.The rain has stopped, but the wet sand on rubber means grip ceased to exist halfway through lap two so I continue to take it easy, periodically checking over the shoulder to make sure I was not going to lose a place before the finish line. My bike computer had packed it in last week so I have no idea of lap times, or for that matter, finish position but that wasnt really important. As I rolled into the finish line, the timekeepers and a few others gave me a cheer and an applause... thanks guys ! (or was that because you could finally start packing up!)
I learnt a few things:- Appin is fun.. techy but fun- Appin at night is techy, fun and a little hairy in places- Appin at night in the wet is less fun, very techy and very hairy in places. Thanks to the club and organisers for putting this on I had a blast and look forward to the next round.
Ben Brand
