Redbul Romaniacs 2016 – Thats a wrap!
That’s a wrap on my Red Bull Romainiacs campaign for 2016. What a week it has been! I pushed my body and mind past the point I thought I could ever go. I got myself and bike into situations I couldn’t see a way out of but somehow found a way. The organisers promised 2016 was going to be the toughest ever and they sure delivered – Jarvis confirming this last night in his prizegiving speech. There was times I thought my race was over and it did get close at times – maybe I just had a bit of luck my way. I’ve had much advice from others leading up to the race that helped me to prepare but nothing could really prepare me for what I’ve experienced in the last week. It’s been an emotional roller coaster, an exciting, exhausting, challenging yet rewarding week. I’ve learnt so much and had the most amazing experience. To finish is an amazing feeling but to end with 7th on the last day and 13th overall for the race is super cool.
Thank you to all my sponsors and to those who helped me to get over here this year. I couldn’t have done it without you, thank you!
The endless amount of support at home from all my friends and family made a huge difference and kept me going. I am really grateful for all your messages and I’m overwhelmed by the amount of people that got in behind me, thank you!
As you all know Jane has been amazing with keeping you all updated on how I’ve been getting on. Not only that but she’s been getting up everyday at 4am with me and packed and made sure everything has been ready so I could focus on recovering (eating and sleeping) to prepare for the next day. She’s cleaned my gear, driven from check point to service point, the list goes on and I definitely couldn’t have done it without her. Coming up 19 weeks pregnant she’s a machine in my eyes and feel like she’s worked just as hard as I have this week, thanks babe.
I have also had a bunch of kiwi supporters over her with me. Thank you for everything, it’s an amazing feeling riding into the service point and having a bunch of kiwis there to help. I really appreciate all your help! The team of 4 guys that helped me through the last gold section yesterday – Wayne, Dylan, Dougy and Phil… man was I happy to come across you boys in the middle of the bush waiting for me. Absolute legends, thank you (and sorry about the rock to the leg Dylan-oops).
Well done to all the kiwi boys that rode this week. Whether you finished or not, I have a huge amount of respect for all of you and you should all be very proud!
Time for some R&R and a bit of a holiday with my girl. See you all back in NZ in a few weeks!