Finke vids

[wence]

Here is a link to my youtube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/wenceracing

There will be about ten 20 min vids of Finke Desert race 2014 shot from my chest cam.
Not the fastest rider ....
This was my first attempt at this race:
I started 307th out of 423 starters after prologue, 215th after day 1 and 182nd at the end of day 2 and the end of the race.
I was stoked with my result and ended up 11th in my class.
Enjoy,
Mark

[tonyraft]

good shit !!!! how was your airfilter at the end of the day ???

[wence]

Pretty much the same colour and texture of the ground everywhere around me
Very , very dirty.

[n_green]

Good work mate and congrats on the effort. So how were the boingers in the end?

[wence]

Good mate, although I stuffed up a little as I added 1/4 turn on the pfp just before the start of the race down to Finke as I thought it may help hold the bike up just a tad more in the stroke???

Wrong move- was like a jackhammer and I lost 20 places about ten k's in whilst changing it back
All good though, awesome experience and one I reckon I will definitely do again

[liv2day]

That's a long time to be going so fast! Do you have to worry about any animals making their way across the road as you fly down it, or do they mostly stay away? Being in AUS, I can just see some kangaroo hopping across the road...woof.

Nothing like racing into the sun - how was visibility for you?

Good on you for knocking that out, looks to be miles and miles of arse beating terrain.

[wence]

Animals were not really a problem for me as I finished 182nd out of 423 starters , so there were a few in front to scare them away. I did see a dead snake on the track though.
It was hard to see when riding into the sun as it reflects on the dust on the lens of your goggles and makes it near impossible. Also, the quads and other bikes put up so much dust(especially the quads), so you really need to pick your times to pass carefully.
By the end of the race I was not physically worn out like you would be riding deep sand all day but mentally I was pretty spent as you have to be concentrating non stop as the terrain changes so quick . My lower back was real bad as you are in the crouched over position pulling back on the steg pegs nearly all the time( 3 hours for me).
All the above said , the race was awesome and run in a really professional way and I reckon I will be back to try and beat the first try that was this time.
Cheers Mark

[Simmo737]

Awesome wence!