Oceania's & off to South Africa

This entry was started on 27th March:
The past week or so, including the oceania champs seems like a blur. I was flat out finishing off at work and getting everything ready for the big trip. It probably wasn’t the greatest preparation for Oceanias, but the race turned out ok. Thanks to Wazza from KOM cyclery, it was my first race on the new bike, a GT Zaskar carbon hardtail. He stayed up super late on Thursday night to build it up for me, legend. With so much climbing I tried to ride a sustainable tempo, which seemed to work for the first few laps, but I had a pretty decent crash on lap 3. I didn’t get injured, but I was a bit rattled and I had to go on with my handlebars twisted. From then it felt like it got a lot tougher, and I lost a few positions, eventually finishing 8th. Not the greatest result but some handy UCI points for the first world cup.

The trip over to South Africa went smoothly but it was definitely a long trip which started with a 5am wake up in Sydney and finished 24hrs later when we rolled into Pietermaritzburg. I did get to tick off something from my “to-do” list though; finally I got picked up at an airport by a guy with a little sign!

After building my bike the next morning, I headed down to the race track for the world cup. The course is pretty fun, but not very technical (in the dry) and there is a fair bit of climbing with a couple of steep pinches. There are about 3 rocks on the entire course, for the most part it is fairly wide single track that is super smooth and hard packed clay. The surface is so fast with a few very steep descents and it is very easy to go into the corners with bit too much hot sauce. Having said all that, this track will be hilarious if it rains. Some of the steep descents are so off camber and I have a suspicion that the surface will be so slick in the wet. I’m not actually sure that too much would be rideable, I wouldn’t mind if it did rain though because it would be an interesting challenge.

On day 2 I decided to venture a bit further and go for a few hours on the road. I started by rolling through town and I have to say it was a bit intimidating. Lots of people and I was definitely the odd one out, it is pretty hard to blend in to an African community while rolling around on a shiny red bike and wearing lycra. I remembered the advice I got from my South African friend to always lock you cars doors when pulling up at lights, as i rolled up to the first set of traffic lights i was trying to work out how i could do that on the bike...? Later in the ride, I saw about 50 monkeys! this country is pretty wild.

Continued 29th March:
Well my comments on the track getting slipery in the wet were spot on. Today i decided to race a small provincial event here in Pietermaritzburg, and it rained last night. i checked out a few sections before the race and it was crazy, heaps of fun though. Nevertheless i decided to duck home and change to some more appropriate tyres. It made a big difference, but the track was starting to dry out so it ended up not being a huge issue. if it rains for the world cup, i'll be very happy that i have ridden it in wet conditions. The race went ok. I lead for the first couple of laps, but ended up got pasted and ended up 2nd by maybe 30 seconds. I had 2 pretty mad crashes on the last lap as i started taking a few risks in an attempt to get back up to the lead - good to know where the limits are. overall not too bad, i am still lacking a bit of punch but i'm sure that will come. I also now have a good appreciation for how much climbing is in everylap - lots.

Glenorchy XCO#5 & Mtns to Beach

I'm tired! I have just finished the BMC Mountains to Beach stage race which took us from the top of Australia to the beach over 5 days and 6 stages of racing, a total of 380km. My preparation wasn't ideal as i raced the National Series Finals in Tasmania the day prior, but since "the BMC" passed through my town of Cooma i was determined the compete in both, despite the 12hr trip back from Hobart.

The Glenorchy national round went quite well. I had a solid race to finish in 7th position in what was a quite a close race. It is roughly where i want to be at this stage, but i still have some improvement required to increase my speed.

So after a big effort on the Saturday, we were up at 4:30AM on Sunday morning to start the punishing trip back home, and then up to Thredbo. We arrived there with 2 minutes to go before the close of registration for the mountains to beach....pheww.

Stage 1 was an ITT from the top of Thredbo to the village. It is about a 600m net descent, but the course was like a super-D and had a few climbs thrown in. I knew that this was the stage of the race that most suited me so i was super keen to win it, however having not preridden the course i was very scared of ending my week early. I rode conservatively through the loose dangerous sections and tried to open it up where it was more straight forward. I managed to grab the stage in 18min31sec by the narrow margin of 7 seconds over Dennis Van Mill .

Stage 2 was a 2 lap race around Lake Crackenback resort. Dennis Van Mill, well suited to the flat track, drove the pace for nearly the entire race and took the win with myself and Jason English on his wheel.

Stage 3 was the first big test, at 60km point to point from Perisher to Nimmo. The bunch stayed together for the first 20kms until Brett Anderson broke away before the main climb of the day. He had lost considerable time on the first day due to a flat tyre and so everyone was happy for him to slip off the front. As the pace lifted in anticipation of the big climb my brain exploded. I had dropped my chain which caused my rear mech to rotate upwards. This meant that i could not just pedal forwards to sort it out because the chain was hooked up on the deraileur. I decided that i didn't want to risk loosing contact with the bunch so i attempted to clear the mech with my right foot whilst smashing down a fire road at about 50kph. To my surprise a utter dismay, suddenly my foot was in the spokes and the rear wheel was locked up bringing me to a screeching halt. I quickly sorted it it and jumped back on the bike (with a slightly buckled wheel) and had to time trail to get back onto the group. Thankfully i regain contact just before the climb, no a moment too soon! the bunch split up on the hill and i was happy to ride the the finish with Dennis and Jason about 4 minutes behind Brett.

Stage 4 was a 26km pre-dawn race around Buckenderra Resort on the shores of Lake Eucumbene. Dennis smashed it off the gun and caught me napping...it was 5:15AM!! He and Jason built a small lead but i managed to drag myself back to them by the end of the first lap of two. Unfortunately i had to tow Jason's team mate, Brett, who of course was not obliged to work with me. As the for of us regrouped, the predictable move happened. Brett came around and attacked. I was quite tired from the chase and saw that Dennis was also suffering from the early move. This meant that he and i did not respond, opting instead to work together to limit our losses to Jason, who was around 3minutes down overall. Jason used up Brett before going to the line on his own, with Dennis and i about 1min30sec down. So i regained the lead and now had a gap of 5sec over Dennis and about 1min30sec over Jason.

Stage 5 was the big one, 87km from Cooma to Yowrie, including a climb up Numerella Mountain. The race all split up very early and i was on my own chasing Dennis, Jason and Brett. Fortunately for me they all had mechanical or navigation issues and i was able to slip into the lead to take out the stage and increase my overall lead to 3min27sec over Jason with Dennis a further 40sec back.

The final stage from Bermigui started with a couple of laps around the XC track followed by a punishing course up the coast to Narooma. I was able to control the pace quite easily on the Bermigui track, gapping Jason slightly on the descents. However when we hit the sand dunes i was soon under pressure. Jason eventually attacked at about the 20km mark and gradually built up a lead over Dennis and myself. I realised i was in trouble and thankfully Dennis came to my aid, helping me to set the pace. As the stage wore on the time gaps were getting bigger and bigger. I turned myself inside to save the race but the fatigue from a week of solid racing had taken its toll. I pushed it all the way to the line on Narooma surf beach and waited for the time gap to be confirmed. I sunk when i heard that the final time deficit was a mere 20seconds...after 10hours of racing. 2nd is not too bad though, and it had been some great training that should help me out when i head overseas.

Congrats to Jason and Dennis, and everyone who finished the race. And thanks to my support crew of Meredeth and Rosie.