National champs - Mt Stromlo

photo by Adam MacLeod:

photos by Russ Baker:

XCC

Riding the hammerhead A-line

The podium of the Club Team Relay

Well, it was a big weekend at Mt Stromlo. It started off really well with a convincing win for the CORC team (Michael Baker, Rosie Barnes, Nathan Haas, and I) in the club team relay. We lead from start to finish from Perth MTB club and Tablelands Cycle Club and even managed to clock the 3 fastest laps of the race.

Sunday’s XCO was not such a success. I had spent a lot of time thinking about this race over the past 2 months and it hadn’t occurred to me how crucial the start could be. When I pulled my foot on the start and got swamped by the 60-strong field, it was clear that I had my work cut out for me. I had to use a lot of energy to move up to about 25th by the start of the single track climb, from then it was a matter of being patient through the narrow sections and wait for the fire roads to open it up and make places. By the middle of lap 3 I had made it up to 8th position, but the effort was starting to take its toll and the temperature was rising. The last 2 laps were a bit of a struggle but I hung on to 11th (7th Elite). I’m not super happy with the result, but a few good things came out of it. Working back up after a bad start is probably a good skill to have as I’m not expecting to be off the front when I go overseas to race the World Cups this year! i'm also glad i didnt panic, i nearly did it well, but just misjudged slightly how hard i could go.

XCC was very fast and very hot. My start was ok but I missed the split to the main bunch early on. I lapped around consistently on my limit with Paul Vandy for most of the race (thanks for dragging me Paul), and ended up finishing in 11th.

It’s off to Mt Buller now. Not too much down time at this time of year.

Welcome aboard to Jet Black Products

There has been not a lot to write about regarding racing over the Christmas period, just a lot of big solo k's battling the holiday traffic. However, the big news is the welcoming of Jet Black as a wheel sponsor. The wheels are Jet Black branded and are a really good all-round wheel. They are stiff enough for everyday use and light enough to race XC, and at less than $700rrp, they are really good value too. The claimed weight is 1660g, but the set the i weighed came in at 1615g (without skewers), which is respectable for such a stiff feeling wheel. And so far they have survived the abuse of riding on the rough trails around Cooma without needing any truing. They are also very easy to set up tubeless, which is a must these days.

Hendo, Clarkey (coach) and myslef are off the Stromlo this weekend for some training on the Nationals/Worlds course. As well as having a good hit out on the course, we are planning to gather some powertap/minimax/HR data to analyse. Hopefully something interesting will come out of it that will make me ride faster at nationals, if so i'll be sure to write about it in my next blog (without giving too much away of course!).

See you all at the National Champs!

Gold Coast XCO#2

photo by Russ Baker

also, here is a link to a picture on cyclingnews:
http://www.cyclingnews.com.au/mtbphotos.php?id=/photos/2008/nov08/illinbah08/illinbah081/EMJ_7599

As expected, we were greeted at the Gold Coast by hot and humid weather. Fortunately our 1990’s model Toyota Tarago rent-a-wreck had air conditioning, although like the gearbox in the old spaceship, it didn’t work very well. Changing gears was like stirring a pudding; I think AJ got a bit nervous when he was following us home from the airport and he saw the reversing lights come on while doing 80kph. The accommodation made up for it though; a huge mansion with water frontage, private jetty, swimming pool, 3 TVs, games room….luxury.

Despite the recent rain, the track was relatively dry for practise on the Friday. It was fairly similar to last year, with a brutal climb and steep decent in the first half of the lap, then undulating for the second half. There were quite a few fun sections but nothing crazy, my biggest problem looked like it was going to be the heat.

The race started with a bit of excitement; I lead it out and had Neil vdP on my wheel when Dave “smack-down” Whitney came around on the right just before the first single track. His chain slipped and he did a huge superman to front flip. Whitney’s sideshow helped Neil and I to gap the field on the first descent so we emerged onto the first big climb with a small lead. It wasn’t long though before the pecking order was established with Aiden Lefmann taking control of the race leaving me on my own just in front of the chasing group of Lewi, Muzza, AJ. On the second lap I was caught by the boys and we rode around still losing time to Aido, with Frendo and Whitney close behind us.

I was starting to suffer a little bit and a small mistake on the 3rd lap meant that I was soon in 7th. Aido broke his chain which really opened the race up again as the lead group rode away from me. I started getting some chain suck problems that restricted me to the big ring by the 4th lap. This wasn’t ideal as I had to run up all the climbs and it was hard to maintain any sort of rhythm. On lap 5 it started to piss down with gusty wind and lightening. This was great news for me as it cooled down heaps and it would make riding up hills harder for everyone else, so running was less of a handicap. I was managing to hang on to 6th position but I could see Hendo catching me. Shortly after, the commissaries decided to shorten the race due to safety concerns so I was quite relieved at being able to stay in 6th.

AJ took out the win in an awesome demonstration of smart riding, and strength. He rode conservatively though the heat in the beginning and had enough to attack latter in the race. It is his first National Series win, a great effort, well done mate!

The result also puts Hendo in the lead of the national series, and if I’m not mistaken, lifts me up into 2nd.

New Bike

I've been laying low after getting the flu and having a very ordinary race at the Highland Fling. The training is starting to build up again though , and i'm starting to feel good again. It's just as well because it is getting close to the 2nd national round and the Tour of Bright, so the 5 hours planned each day this weekend it should do me good. The timing for a big weekend could have been better though with the forecast for snow and blizzards down to 1000m. I had heat stroke a couple of weeks ago! My body isn't going to know what hit it when i go to the Goldy for XC round#2 next weekend.

Luckily i just built up my new roady, so was still looking forward to riding despite the weather. My only reservation was getting it dirty. It is a new Spats Javelin Titanium Frame, with SRAM Red groupset and i am super happy with how it rides. I haven't got it on the scales yet, but it is light. It also felt really stiff and the new Red groupset works awesome. It didnt take long to get used to the "double tap" shifting, although i have to attmit, i did try to push the brake lever a few times early on. The only thing that took my mind off the new bike was riding into a hail storm. That turned out to be the first of 4 brief hail sessions. 5.5hrs later i rolled back into town pretty blown but chuffed with the new rig. I was too far gone that even my new bike couldnt make me feel any less fatigued anymore. There was only one thing that could save me....a big tray of nachos. yeah....

National Series XCO #1 - Adelaide

photo: Adam MacLeod


I travelled down to Adelaide for the National series opener on the weekend and before the race I was uncertain as to how my form would be. The Scott 24hr was pretty much the only intensity that I had done since having a break and it had left me tired for 2 weeks. The plus side of this is that I didn’t feel any pressure so I went to the line very relaxed and with a race plan of taking it a bit easy in the first 5 laps, then finish strong in last couple of laps of the 7 lap race.

After the first 200m metres it was a race for 2nd place as Chris Jongeward unloaded the chasing group of Hendo, Lewis, Aiden, Haas and me. Sensing that it would have been suicide, none of us were happy to go with Chris’ pace and he put a minute into us on the first lap. For the chasers, there wasn’t ever much time between us but Hendo the pressure on and we split up a bit. Lewi unfortunately flatted and then crashed out of contention on lap 5, and I was starting to feel the hot weather but was hanging onto 4th ahead of Haas with Hendo and Aiden still ahead. On lap 6, Haas bridged back to me with ease and put me under a lot of pressure on the hills. The descent on lap 6 was the highlight of the race as we amped each other up and tried hard to get back to Hendo. It was so much fun, but then on the last lap, I found myself unable to stay with him as I started to suffer in the sun.

So Chris got the win by 3.5mins, followed by Hendo, Aiden, Haas (1st U23), then me. The 4 of us separated by only 2.5mins. I was lucky that the race finished when it did because soon after the end i realised that i was not doing so well. I guess the snow in cooma last week wasn't great for aclimitisation because it turned out i had a bit of heat stroke and needed some medical assistance. Thankfully Carolyn McKinlay was there to look after me and get me back in order - thanks a lot Carolyn! Still, I am really happy with the start of the National Series and I’m looking forward to round #2 at the Gold Coast.

Scott 24hr

It have been over a week since the Scott 24hr and i am still feeling a little tired. 24hr races are always tough, but for us chasing the entire time, it was particularly strenuous. It became clear quite early on that it was between us and the Gu team, but unfortunately we let them go on Saturday evening when Willo double flatted on one lap and came in 9 minutes later than he was expected. I was waiting in transition and it is an aweful feeling, just watching the seconds and minutes tick by while the Gu team was riding away from us. By the time i got out on my lap, we were over 15 minutes down and the pressure was on us to chase. Through the night we gradually clawed back a little bit of time and got the gap back down under 10minutes, but we couldnt decrease it anymore as we started to tire. In the end we came in 9minutes down in second place, which isn't such a long time over 24 hours. It was a really good effort by our team, and quite pleasing to know that we pushed Gu all the way to the end, its been a while since any team has been able to do that. Despite Willo's little mishap, our "Swell" team was well oiled machine. Our lap strategy worked really well, no mechanicals, no crashes and thanks to Laura (our manager) we never missed a transition and our legs were always freshly rubbed with goanna oil through the night. It was also a really good team atmosphere, Lewi, Matty, Willo and I had a good morale the entire time and we had a good laugh, which is the best thing about this format of racing.

Special thanks to Swell Design Group for sponsoring our team, and of course to Laura, the world greatest 24hr manager. She had the least sleep out of the entire team, she was tough with us when she had to be, but nice to us when she could be. Hopefully next year we will go one better.

Off-season

I have had a bit of a break from the blog and the bike since the Angry Doctor 100km at Mogo. That race was a bit disappointing for me, I had some really good form and was exactly where I wanted to be after 65km (at the front with Lewi and Hamish), but I completely feel apart and ended up suffering to hang on the 6th place. Not sure what to put that one down to, everything seemed to be going well, never mind, at least it was good to see Lewi get the win to make up for last year debacle.

My 2 weeks off the bike went by in a flash, work happily stepped up to fill the void! So I’ve been back on the bike for a couple of weeks now and looking forward to the Scott 24hr this weekend. I will be part of the Swell Designs Pro Team of 4 along side James Williamson, Shaun Lewis and Matt Fleming. What a team, hey? I would like to think that we are a chance at the win, but with no less than 5 awesome teams the only thing for sure is that the racing will be tight.