8hrs @ Jacks

That pretty much sums it up:
race director Goef Hunt's media report:

"Portegys did battle throughout the race with Milan Brodina (Geraldine) who completed 18 laps before the finish siren sounded at 6pm. These top two individuals had ridden together for the first half of the event before, however Portegys made a decisive move during lap 10 and opened up a 30secs lead which he extended to 3 mins by lap 14. This was the telling move, he had broken the spirit and momentum of Brodina who rode on strongly for second place.

My support crew - all the way from Czech Republic - my sister Jitka, with Peter.

 

LE PETIT BREVET. Nov 2012

 

300km,  8000m of climbing.  20, 5 hrs of nonstop biking! And first one across the imaginary finishline :)
Thanks Tim for organizing such a great "allnighter" adventure!

Timaru 12hr MTB - solo

Three weeks after Wanaka race I have decided to enter the world of pain again and raced the Timaru 12hr mtb race solo. There were several keen bikers to keep me on my toes including Rotorua 24hr solo winner Ian Wright, 2012 Christchurch 12hr solo winner T.Kissel and Dunedin fittness coach and friend of mine Matty Graham. My race strategy was to go fast from the gun and hopefully I will have enough in the tank to keep me going at the end. I had a great support from the Cyclery team and thats what kept me going in good pace for the whole 12hr.  243km in one day - thats a good training ride, isnt't it?

2012 Wanaka 10hr MTB - solo

 

 

Our friends have recommended this race to me, so I thought I will check it out. And I am glad I did. The Wanaka MTB club has done an awesome job on the tracks. The course had it all - climbs, burms, fast downhills, jumps... you name it.

Half way through the race I have noticed that my rear wheel is badly buckeled and couple loose spokes are moving around. Not a good thing, especialy when I was sitting in second place. When I went through the transition area I slowed down little bit and told my support crew about this issue and carried on - hopefully I can make another lap till they get organized. So next time I went through we swapped numbers on to new bike a I carried on. I knew I lost valuable time but with confidence that my wheel is not going to buckle on the next corner I moved into 1.place and managed to hold it to the finish.





 

2012 PEAK TO PUB

Peak tom pub is usualy my first race after winter, so I am usualy little bit nervues how I go after few month of cold winter training. This year Mt. Hutt had a great season so the ski leg was all the way from top. And as Steve Gurney was designing the course we could expect some cool twists.
Just before the start gun Streve Gurney warn us that the ski giant slalom is very icy so
i decided to go easy and make it down safely. We were off. The first 200m run in the ski boots is allways a tough one. It's good to get that out of the way. My ski leg was mainly about navigating between people who were crashing in front of me. But I made it to the bike transition safely. I proud my self in fast transition so i was on the bike in no time chasing people down the hill. After 10 min and few hair raising corners I found myself leading the race. I was expecting TVNZ helicopter above my head, but probably cut their budget this year :)

Towards the end of the bike i decided to conserve my energy so another biker past me. I thought to myself thats not bad finishing second providing that I lost one of my contact lences on that fast downhill so had to bike with half of my vision.

 

2011 Otago 24 Hour Adventure Race
For this race I was lucky to be in a team with such good and experienced guys. Jim Cotter from Dunedin was team navigator and he has done an excelent job getting the team throught this challenging hilly course set up by Bill Godsall. Bas - team's power engine, from Qeenstown, former Peak to Peak winner, few Southern Traverses finisher... And of course Jess - an excelent runner and mountainbiker from Wanaka.

The race started with a fast run from Cromwell township to Lake Dunsten. Our team managed to keep up with some strong runners and we were second in kayaks on the way to the north side of the lake. One hour long paddle was just the perfect warm up for the next run leg. We exited the kayaks in third place, checked in at TA and started to run in to the hills. I was a steep scroll up Pisa Range. Half way through the climb I started to feel not good. Stamach cramps, dizzy.... you name it. But pulling out was not an option as we were leading the whole field now. But thanks to Bas we managed to keep our lead for the whole run leg - Bas was dragging me behind on a rope while Jess was pumping  "go-go-juice" in to me. Thanks again Bas and Jess. The fantastic scenery on top of Pisa Range was rewarding. After 10 hrs of running we were back in the kayaks on the way to Cromwell with a short absailing stop at Bendigo.

TBC