National Series #2 & Wildside

It has been pretty hectic of late with plenty of racing going on. No sooner had i unpacked my bike from Adelaide Nationals, i was packing it up again for the trip to Shepparton for the 2nd round of the Jayco National Mtb Series.

The course was a little different, very rocky and exposed. It was quite fun though, and being rocky i felt at home. The race went well, i got the hole shot and opened up a small lead on the climb on the first lap. Norri was the only one to bridge across to me before the top and we descended the hill ahead of the chasers on the first lap. On the hill for lap 2 and I had to let Norri go, he was too strong and i didn't fancy blowing too early. I just tried to find a comfortable tempo, and to not take too many risks on the descent. I started to tire a little through the middle of the race, and lost a few places to Hendo, Aido and Sid, but i finished of strongly to hold of Carlso. I was quite pleased with the result.

Then off to Tasmania for the Wildside MTB stage race. I had always wanted to do this race so when i got the call up from the KOM Cyclery Team, i couldn't say no. The race was run over 4 days and a total of 7 race stages. The tour took us from Cradle mountain in the Tasmanian alpine region, down through the rain forest scenery and former mining areas of Tullah and Zeehan, then on to the coast at Trial Harbour and eventually the picturesque town of Strahan. There were plenty of fast riders there so the racing was very fast. I rode quite consistently and managed to avoid any flat tyres or mechanicals to eventually finish in 4th place overall, and the first "veteran". I am not too impressed but being 30 makes me a vet, at least i got a bottle of wine for each stage i won. Lucky i had the teammates to help me get through it so i didn't have any trouble with excess baggage on the flight home. Macca took out the event with Steele Von Hoff and Paul VDP close behind. My team mates Wazza, Zoe and Naomi took 3rd, 2nd and 3rd respectively in there categories. Wildside was a great experience and excellent training. The KOM crew and especially Sammy (our soigneur) looked after us so well. Thanks to DC and Wazza too for paying my way and sorting me out with an awesome bike to ride. I was skeptical at first but i am now definitely a fan of Cannondale's "Lefty" suspension.

National Championships - Adelaide

The happy CORC relay team: Baker, Rosie, Lewi and I (photo: Russ baker)

The Club Team Relay Podium: Adelaide, CORC, Dirtriders (photo: Russ baker)

There was a big pile-up invovling Cooper and Cal in the first corner of the mens XCO race. (photo: Russ baker)

Me starting to suffer (photo: Russ baker)

Some photos by Evan Jeffery on Cyclingnews

After a great training camp in Mt Beauty and a solid hit out at the Jayco Bay Crits over the Christmas & new years break, I was pretty keen for the National Mountain Bike Champs in Adelaide.

The event started with the Club Teams Relay on Thursday and our CORC team of Mike Baker, Rosie, Shaun Lewis and I probably went into the race as favourites, however the Adelaide MTB Club and Dirtriders also had very strong teams. Dirtriders took the early lead with Adrian Jackson gapping Mikey by 20 seconds on the first lap and Adelaide were close behind. AJ handed over to James Kennedy (their Veteran) while we sent Rosie out. James put in a great ride to increase their lead and by the time Rosie came around we were back in 4th place and about 4½ minutes down. It was turning into an exciting race, with different rider order strategies result in lead changes and making the race outcome somewhat unpredictable. I had some work to do on the 3rd lap to catch Mel Jackson (Dirtriders) and Teri “Stink” Rhodes and just managed to catch them before the end of my lap. I certainly had to dig deep though. Lewi took over and punched out a solid last lap to cement the win and Adelaide’s Evan James brought it home strong to claim the silver. As always the Club team relay was a really fun event and a good hit out on the track before the main event, I’m looking forward to next year already.

Come Saturday I was raring to go for the XC race. I felt that the course would suit me fairly well and I was hoping for a strong result. From the front row of the grid I had a great start and headed into the first single track in 4th wheel, exactly where I wanted to be. I lead group contained Dan McConnel, Sid Taberlay and Ben Henderson, and with Macca pushing hard on the front I soon lost touch and Lachy came around me to regain contact. After the first lap I was on my own 20sec down from the leaders and about 25sec up from the chase group. Unfortunately I had a slowly leaking front flat early in the 2nd lap which caused me to roll my tyre on a corner and go down. I managed to get going again before Paul VDP caught me, hoping I could then ride to the tech zone for a new wheel but when I hit the next descent it was obvious that I needed to pump it up. Stopping to gas the tyre didn’t cost me much time but in such a tight race, I lost many positions and was back in about 11th or 12th. From that point I had to concentrate very hard to get my rhythm back. I slowly passed a few riders back but I was starting to hurt. I came into the final descent with Lewi (my good mate) and was thinking of sneaky ways I might be able to get around him. There wasn’t really any passing opportunities so I used my imagination and chopped inside him on a tight hairpin. We came out neck and neck and sort of locked together, before we both burst out laughing, much to the approval of the spectators. I couldn’t go through with it, so I let him go, and he subsequently popped me in the sprint to the finish line. I finished 10th, 5 minutes behind the eventual winner Dan McConnell, but only 55sec behind Sid who was in 5th. Once again it wasn’t quite the result I was after, but the form is good. Special mention should go to the ride by Josh Carlson. The ranga from Wollongong seems to be getting better with every race and he had the ride of his life to score the third step on the box....well done mate.

Jayco National Series #1 - Hobart TAS

Last weekend was the opening round of the Jayco MTBA Australian Mountain Bike Series in Hobart, Tasmania. As usual for Hobart the track was pretty fun, nothing very tricky or steep, but a solid hit out none the less. The later start to the series this year meant a much greater presence of international riders like Dan Mac, Lach Norris, and Cooper who have typically sat out the first couple of rounds in previous years.

Aiden Lefmann took an early lead when he took off solo on the first lap. I found my self in a chasing group with Macca, Hendo, Cooper, Vandy and Lach for the first couple of laps with Ben Mather eventually heading off to chase Aido. I felt fairly comfortable with the pace, which is a promising sign for me. On lap 3 Macca stepped it up and no one could go with him. I dug pretty deep to stay with him but in hindsight probably consumed a bit much, and started to fade. It wasn't long before I lost contact with Hendo and Cooper, and AJ came past me too. For the second half of the race I just tried to keep plugging away. I caught and past the blown Aido, but had Carlso in the rear view mirror on the last climb. With only a long descent to go, and a about a 5 second gap, normally i would be quite confident in my ability to defend the position...but this was Carlso (can ride a bike downhills). I won't say that I panicked, but I was certainly ready to. In the end Carlso made a mistake and I was fine, but as i came into the finishing straight I realised that I nearly caught Hendo.

Macca eventually took the win with AJ second and Mather 3rd. I was reasonably happy with my ride for 8th; the number is a little higher than I like but the time gaps were small so it is not the end of the world.

Signed Aussie Team Kit - fundraiser for Trekky

Own a piece of Australian mountain biking history and support Trekky’s cancer treatment. Up for auction on ebay (item 150397647262) is an official Australian national team jersey signed by members of the Australian mountain bike team that raced the world championships at Mt Stromlo in September 2009.

The shirt is a brand new medium sized Santini jersey with MTBA logo as worn by our national team. Most of the team has signed the jersey including Beijing Olympian Dan McConnell, national champions Rowena Fry and Lachlan Norris and many more including Katherine O’Shea and Paul Van Der Ploeg.

All proceeds from this auction will go to assist Brendan “Trekky” Johnston in his fight against cancer. Brendan was diagnosed with cancer just before the World Championships this year; he had urgent surgery to remove the cancer and amazingly was able to get back on the bike to race the championships and finish 50th. He is now at the start of a long road of chemotherapy. You can read more on Trekky’s website at http://www.keepingtrekkyontrack.com/.

So help us help Trekky, and score yourself some unique Aussie sporting memorabilia. Bid now at http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150397647262.

Tour of Bright

Me nearing the summit of the Mt Hotham ascent

The first weekend in December each year sees the running of the Tour of Bright stage race. It is a great tour taking in some terrific riding in the Victorian high country and is always good training for the upcoming mountain bike season.

The first stage was the "gaps loop", a 150km road stage over Rosewhite Gap, up to Bogong village and then over Tawonga Gap back to Bright....a solid day out. As predicted the early break got away in the first kilometres, and a couple of others snuck away on the other side of Rosewhite. I wasn't keen to do get away myself, as it was a long way from the finish and most of the guys that I thought were worth marking, were still in the peloton. Unfortunately it seemed that these guys must have all had teammates in the breaks because the atmosphere soon turned negative and no one was keen to do any work. It was so slow at one stage in fact, that when i decided to take a wee, i actually gapped to bunch while freewheeling down a hill with my willy out! Rather annoyed by this obvious indication that the peloton was creeping, I just decided to keep going on my own. I rode the 10kms into Mt Beauty solo and all the way up to the Cranky Charly hairpin (about 5km of climbing) before they caught me. The group then stayed more or less together until the bottom of Tawonga Gap when it all blew apart. I wasn't feeling great by this stage so I was happy to find my buddy, Adrian Jackson, to pace me over the top. We ended up finishing in a group of 8, a rather unimpressive 16 minutes off the pace.

The 16km time trial that afternoon was a pretty tall order. I didn't really give it a good crack and lost a bit more time, but my thoughts were already on Sunday's final stage up Mt Hotham.

The 3rd and final stage would take us from Bright, up the valley road to Harrietville, and then up the formidable ascent of Mt Hotham to a mountain top finish. The stage is only 58km, but it is tough with the big climb lasting for about 30kms. The pace on the flat valley roads was fast and despite being worried that a split in the bunch could result in big time losses, I found myself sitting in the back of the bunch for most of the time. As soon as we hit the climb, Lachy Norris launched one off the front. I don't think anyone even thought about going with him because he was moving so fast that he had disappeared out of sight after only a couple of corners and wasn't caught until very late in the stage. For me, I just tried to settle into a rhythm. I didn't quite feel comfortable but I tried to position myself near the front for the first big test, "the Meg", a 400m section of 9% at 5km into the climb. The bunch often splits here so by moving up a little I gave my self a bit of a buffer to getting dropped. It worked pretty well because despite dropping back quite a lot and a gap forming in front of me, I was able to regain contact and stay with the main group all the way to the tree line....all be it somewhat a yo-yo dangling off the back. When I was unloaded with about 10kms to go I tried to keep pushing. By the summit I had lost about 4 minutes to the winner, but i was pretty happy with my sensations and my position of 28th on the stage.

Overall it was a nice weekend in the mountains with great weather and some solid racing. I am feeling good about where I am at for this time of year and I am certainly looking forward to the 1st round of the National Mountain Bike Series next weekend in Hobart.

The perfect tyre?

It is safe to say there is no perfect tyre that is ideally suited to all the conditions that you will ever ride, but I stumbled across a gem this year that I thought I should share. It is called the Maxxis Rendez and normally thought of as a tyre for dry conditions and perfect for the skatey decomposed granite surface of places like Mt Stromlo, but with a few modifications it becomes a very capable mud tyre.

I had a few in my kit bag for my trip to race the World Cups this year and mid way through they hadn't seen too much use as dry tracks are few and fair between over there. I spent a fair chunk of time at Montreal riding on the hard packed greasy mud and root of Mont Royal and the Rendez on the front, in a 2.1" with fairly low pressure (around 26psi), was working fairly well over the roots. I had noticed however that the thinly spaced ramped centre knobs were clearing the mud really well in the slick mud, but the side knobs clogged easily due to their tight spacing (most likely there for cornering stability in dry hard packed conditions) and turning corners was a bit scary. The specific mud tyres that i had were 1.9" Medusa, awesome pizza cutters for proper deep mud and off camber, but roots and rocks are pretty dogdy and the rolling resistance on the fire road sections really limits the applications for these sort of tyres. I had the idea of cutting off the inner row of side knobs. About 30mins of action with some large toenail clippers (plus a trip to the shop to buy a new set when those ones broke half way through) and a couple of blisters later i had myself a custom made tyre. And i was very impressed with the pile of rubber that had collected, because you know what that means.......grams!

I tested it out and as I expected the mud cleared a lot better from the sides. I ended up using this tyre at the Bromont Canada Cup and the Mont-Sainte-Anne world cup, both in very muddy conditions, and it went a treat. I got a bit more efficient at cutting off the knobs by using side cutters instead of the trusty toenail clippers. I have even used them back at home at Stromlo and Cooma with the knobs missing and they still handle dry conditions really well, but i used a fresh one with side knobs at the world champs.

So all in all i reckon that the Rendez 2.1 up front is a pretty good all round tyre that is versatile and could minimise the amount of tyres that you carry if you travel away to a race. It is certainly not ideal for all conditions, but it is right up there for a very broad range of conditions and a very capable all-rounder.

The Rendez with to knobs cut off

Early season training and the Highland Fling

Early season training is going well. Coach has got me doing some nice long k's and plently of gym sessions. I am loving the mountain bike at the moment, it is always at this time of year (without any big races or pressure) that I remember why I love riding. Trying to keep up with Warren Burgess around Manly dam (him on a Rize and me on a HT) has been a highlilght, along with going out to smash apart the Cooma trails but often coming off second best.

The Highland Fling has been a bit of an annual pilrmige for me and this year's event was as good as ever. It is always a great atmosphere at the camping and fun to chat with the neighbours and make new friends. My form was as expected, OK for speed, but lacking in endurance. I managed to get second in the "Bundanoon Dash" behind Pez with Dennis Van Mill 3rd. The main event, the 112km marathon, started well and I spent a brief period in an early solo break. It was all together again through the first transition and as expected the attacking started during the 2nd stage. I managed to hang on in the main bunch until about the halfway point where I blew apart. From there it was a less than impressive display of suffering just to get to the end for 9th position. Good training though, and just a fun event to be a part of - well done the all the Wild Horizons crew.