We made it to Canberra today for the start of our Scott 24HR journey. Jamming 3 bikes and all our gear into the Outlander was interesting but I managed to make it fit perfectly. We could not use the bike racks as there were no over 2.1M car spaces left when we booked the boat. The Spirit of TAS boat trip last night was the worst trip we have ever been on. The captain came on as we left Devonport to tell us the wind was already 45 knots and within the hour it would be 65 and it “would get a bit lumpy” to quote him exactly. Well he was on the money we smashed up and down on the waves most of the night finally getting some sleep only after we got through the heads. Hard to imagine that large ship crashing down onto the water and the noise and vibrations shuddering throughout the ship. Sometimes you thought you were on a roller coaster, sleeping was impossible even for me.

The drive from Melbourne to Canberra was little better with driving rain, wind, sunshine and then an intense storm that pulled trees out of the ground just down the road from our AirBnB in Canberra. We almost got caught in this massive downpour walking back from the shops, it bucketed down for about 20 minutes with plenty of thunder to go with it. Our AirBnB is nothing special but perfect for what we need this week and only a 10 minute from the Stromlo Mountain Bike Park.

Tomorrow it seems unlikely we will get to ride at Stromlo due to all the water from today but from tomorrow the weather is moderating and the event organisers have declared the event is ON. There are 4 of us in the mix for the 50-54 age group national champs. One of them came second last year in the 45-49 age group so I’ll have to keep my eye on him for sure. The course is the same as last year, around 12.5km with 250M of elevation gain per lap. The winner of 50-54 did 25 laps last year. You can follow the live timing from Saturday via this link.