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.