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OK

Recent chat about the Mega has motivated me to cobble some footage together.

First for release is the qualifyer footage.

Did this earlier while my son was having his lunchtime nap so limited time so excuse the lack of slick editing or soundtrack. However the footage came out very well so gives a very good idea about what to expect. As usual the camera hides the speed and the steep and the drops pretty well - thats my excuse.

The Qualifying race - waves of 200 at the start - your number dictates your place in the line up. I started at the back as I only got the the start 2 mins before the race started (lift queus!) - I was meant to be 179th any way so no great shakes. I did it in 28 mins which was a pretty respectable time although the guys at the front were more like 22 mins! I ended up from starting at about 190ish to finishing 53rd which put me in the group below elite so I was pretty chuffed. This for me was the best time on a bike out of the whole week (and top 3 of all time).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOrXjyEE ... tube_gdata

Enjoy

Race run footage and a montage of crashes will appear at some point.

Most

Awesome footage....mental!

That gotta be the best footage of a race I've seen.. And the dust.... You must have been coughing for weeks after...

Gotta love the bikers that just STOP in front of you.......

Thats some impressive amount of effort!

Mate - worth the wait.. superb vid. Seems you had the skills on most of those infront of you! That top section looked like a bike breaker.

Good to see you charging hard and looking forward to the second instalment. When are you u back on your bike ?

You are right Jon my Nomad has a fanstastic dent on the chain stay from one of the loose rocks in the 1st section. The section with the board walk was the most technical and the bit after that the most enjoyable a good 8-10 mins of solid pinning it through rock and single track with fast drops and jumps and berms. The quali course is much more technical and downhilly compared to the main race - and I loved it for that reason.

I felt pretty good and held my own in the tech stuff - a bit more fitness I think I could have taken another couple off minutes off - fitness is really where to make the difference if you are happy railing berms and jumps already. Some other guys who had never raced beffore were as near as number 50 to the start line so I am not sure if it is becasue I booked really late or just luck of the draw.

You are right about the effort - After you drop off the slab of rock onto the fireroad - you realise you havent really been breathing and are gapsing for air. There is a lot of peddling and by the time we got to the town section (just over half way) I couldn't feel my legs. The final dusty bermy section I was holding on thinking "just dont fall off". The dust is incredible the berms are deep in it - you are picking your line in a berm give or take a few inches to avoid all the loose stufff - and you are correct I had a cough for 2 weeks after.

i really enjoyed the quali - and pushed harder than I ever pushed before and it ruined me. As I was in the challenger class we had to race on Sat - but I really hadn't recovered from the quali the day before!

Sounds ace.
I like the sound of it i'm just not knarly enough to do it! maybe if you could do it the weekend after without all the other racers

I'm nackered just watching!

Awesome video and great riding,

look forward to more

Awesome... Looks absolutely Mental!!!