Sitting in the luxury of a bed, blankets on, pillow propped up on my back, mineral water by my side and freshly showered...todays race is already a blur – as I knew it would become.

I am at Bike Buller MTB Festival 2014.
Day 1, Stage 1.  50km Marathon

http://www.rapidascent.com.au/BikeBuller/ 

I have been doing this event since 2009 and no matter what happens on a given day during this event, I still love it year after year.
It seems I have a good year, then a not so good year, and so on...
This year I will admit my greatest fear is my

Sitting in the luxury of a bed, blankets on, pillow propped up on my back, mineral water by my side and freshly showered...todays race is already a blur – as I knew it would become.

I am at Bike Buller MTB Festival 2014.
Day 1, Stage 1.  50km Marathon

http://www.rapidascent.com.au/BikeBuller/ 

I have been doing this event since 2009 and no matter what happens on a given day during this event, I still love it year after year.
It seems I have a good year, then a not so good year, and so on...
This year I will admit my greatest fear is my

Last week I found myself looking at “what did I have planned for the weekend?” only to get an email reminding me I had the Gazebo 3hr at the You Yangs on.
Mild trepidation, mild excitement mixed with the thought of knowing I was travelling to the You Yangs from Forrest (200km round trip x 2) twice this weekend.

Oh and the loop marked for the 3hr multi lap enduro was a fun one, even if the knowledge that my climbing is suboptimal at the moment.
Leaving the event centre, climbing up the friendly gradients means that you go harder and expect

Its been a pleasure to be back on 200 mts above sea level, home in Forrest.
Spending the last 3 and a bit weeks on Mt Buller, well...lets just say a recovery ride means riding down the hill and getting a shuttle back up.

Last weekend thanks to Nth East Tourism, The Climbing Cyclist and Hells500 crew and Mt Buller Resort management a very amazing event was held at the base of the mountain.
A full road closure from Mirimbah Ticket box all the way to Mt Buller – a heavenly climb of around 15km.

What was more amazing was that this

Who is Jess Douglas?
A life of learning.

Chapter 1

When I was young, I recall the thrill of my first bike that was given to me when we lived in Bellerine Street in Geelong. It was at the beginning of my 5^th year, and there were no training wheels, just a bike with my dad telling me to pedal as he hold the back of my seat.
And so I pedaled and carried momentum and rode a bike from that day forward.
I won't tell you untruths about my ability to jump gutters and do other daring stunts, rather I will admit

Two weekends ago I raced one of the MTBA National rounds in the discipline of XCO.
Short 5km course at Mt Buller. I love Mt Buller, the tracks are always fun yet to race them its a tough hit out.
The XCO course included leaving the village area up a road climb, and into single track with a lot of descending for about 5 minutes. Then the rest of the course was up, up and some very steep up.

Whist the ratio or up to down did not suit my curent fitness level, I faced up to the event with the