Wombat 100 (or “Played like a Fool”)

So, the email goes out, “Who’s doing the Wombat 100?”. Before long the discussion’s in full swing. “How about accommodation?”, “Who’s driving?” etc. It all sounded good until Will started spouting some rubbish about not paying extra for the elite entry. With the team’s interests in mind I went and put my entry in, forcing the issue. This seemed to put an end to the argument and I forgot about it for about a month.

Imagine my surprise then, less than a week before the race, when the subject came up in casual conversation and I discovered that Ross hadn’t entered! “There’s still time!” I exclaimed, but he seemed reluctant. After some mincing of words and shuffling of feet he let on that he was considering some bohemian, social cross ride instead! “Huh?! Whatever man, I’ll talk to Will.” “Nah, Will’s not going either. He’s studying.” (Yep, you read that right...)
Panicking I called Rudzki, “Dude, tell me you’re racing on the weekend!”
“Yeah man, calm down, it’s gonna be great!”
What a relief! Rudzki was my lift, I would have had to drive!

Two days later Nick and I got a very business-like email reminding us about our obligations as the team’s representatives at this event, and the penny dropped; we’d been set up. Most of the rest of the team got burnt by this race last year (it was longer than advertised, which can hurt in an endurance race). Predictably Ross and Will wouldn’t want to do it again (not being hardmen) and I was a logical choice as the fall guy having not done it before. Nick was going to be necessary collateral (and was an easy target, being the indomitable hardman that he is), and getting the rest of the team on-board with the plan was child’s play. Hook, line, sinker.

I couldn’t stay mad for long though. Nick’s endless optimism, the weather forecast, the prospect of racing on top notch singletrack and the news that Adam Llewelyn (another Kingsville local and Rocky Mountain Slayer rider) was coming too, all served to put me in good spirits. Having opted to camp at the site (because getting up at 4:30am was clearly not an option) we headed out there on Saturday evening. Showing an uncharacteristic lack of discipline, both Nick and Adam ate dinner before we left which meant they were unable to fit any Maccas in enroute, putting them at a significant disadvantage in the competition to come. Having arrived, rego’d and set up camp, we discovered there’s not much to do in the middle of a paddock, except of course arrange playlists for extended hours of partying in the saddle, so we had no choice but to get ourselves an early night.

Playlist selection and bike maintenance are activities that can be undertaken in a dark paddock.

Sometime in the early morning it started raining, with vigour, and above the rumble of droplets hitting canvas you could hear an entire paddock of people simultaneously groan, roll over, and wish they were somewhere else.

As predicted by Nick, any discussions about what time to get up which may have been had the night before were rendered moot by the arrival of ‘the early risers’. Climbing out of the tents we were greeted with a conga line of red eyed people in cars, a well sodden paddock and a sunrise that promised good things for the rest of the day. Breakfast was eaten in silent contemplation of coffee and man’s elusive ability to create fire to cook it (ie, Nick forgot the matches) and aside from some brief discussion about what to wear we quietly got ourselves together and ‘warmed-up’ over to the start line. Despite having slept one hundred metres from the line, we’d somehow managed to miss briefing and be amongst the latest arrivals at the start.

The race started fairly sensibly, with only small amounts of jostling and healthy amounts of banter, and with little to no singletrack in the first few ks the field gradually stretched out into smaller groups. Buoyed up by sunshine and maybe a little adrenaline I eased into the race by trying to ride with my betters, and promptly found myself put in a box to contemplate a hurried breakfast eaten too recently. With nearly the whole race in front of me and already hating life I mumbled some very helpful commiserations to Andy Blair who was fixing a puncture and turned my brain off for a while.

Some time later I had managed some form of recovery and had found a rhythm of sorts, only to be totally demoralised by a flying Andy, who (given his friendly manner after the race) managed even to outrun my retraction of aforementioned condolences. Nevertheless, as a few more lengths of singletrack came and went I was once more on top of the world and happily settled in to spend the rest of the first 50ks listening to tunes, rolling around short bits of singletrack and rough, steep fire roads, ignoring the patchy rain and having a generally good time.

As I rolled through the feed zone at the halfway point I picked up my bottle and another bar and had to face the fact that I still had all the food I started with. I knew this wasn’t good, so despite the objections of my breakfast I got stuck into a bar. Shortly afterwards Jenny Fay rode past, triggering a series of events culminating in me foaming at the mouth with half masticated muesli bar flying everywhere, trying not to choke and watching her ride clear out of sight.

Jenny closing in at the half way point.

Well aware that the next twenty five kilometers or so was mostly amazing singletrack that I know backwards I calmed down, cleared my airways, popped a gel (one of the exciting caffeinated ones) and hoped I could get my heart rate back to a manageable level good before ‘the good stuff’ arrived.


That worked a treat. I’ve ridden the Wombat singletrack and surrounding trails innumerable times over the years, but I’ve never had the chance to race on it before. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the hour that followed is a contender for the most fun I’ve had on a bike recently. The rain overnight and during the morning had left the trails slightly greasy, but hadn’t robbed them of their characteristic ‘reward for commitment to turns’. In short, they were perfect.

The Rocky Element's slung nice 'n' low, you can't help but commit!

The motivation of racing drives you to hold a little more speed, push it a little bit harder, brake a little later, and to top it off my music player chose this point to play several Rage Against the Machine tracks. Say no more; I picked up something like five category places (and probably another five in the race overall) in this section, and I didn’t even feel like I was trying.

I love this bridge, it's a good blend of 'rickety' and 'not broken'.

Unfortunately, it turned out I was trying... with three quarters of the race done I exploded. I knew the feeling well, from there to the end it would be all about hanging on and “getting it done” as Nick would say. With the odd morsel of single track keeping me just nourished enough I managed to hold off the places I picked up earlier for quite a while, but finally they all came storming past me at once. Peter Malcolm did the gentlemanly thing at least and slowed enough to have a chat for five minutes before rolling away.

Black and white, like my view of the world at this point.

A few kilometers out from the finish I clawed back a couple of these guys and hopped on the back. We rode along with our heads down for a while, but as the end got closer I couldn’t just sit there any longer. Seeing a piece of single track approaching I figured I’d have a crack at dropping them. I squeezed past with elbows out, doubled a pair of roots to make the point, and disappeared.

Two turns later we were back on fire road with me looking like a total prat. To save face I had no choice but to tear myself apart on the front whilst pretending I was fresh as a daisy. The gloves were clearly off now and the battle for nineteenth place began, ending ten minutes later in a sprint finish. With Shane Roberts and myself recording the same time it could have gone either way, but unfortunately for Shane I had laid a trap hours earlier. My late arrival at the start of the race meant I crossed the start line at the back of the bunch, so the clock started a few seconds later for me than for him, giving me the win (well, the 19th win).

Daggers.

Nick took the above photo at the finish line, and it wasn’t until sometime after this was taken that I registered that he must have smashed me; he had already changed and looked fresh! Unfortunately it turned out that he’d smashed his elbow and his shifter instead and wisely decided that riding the second fifty kilometers with two gears and slightly less skin than he'd like didn’t appeal even to his hardman sensibilities. Well done to Adam for a respectable finish in the middle of a hotly contested Sub-Vets category and a solid demonstration that you really can just have one bike for everything.

The Slayer killed it.

It needs to be said that the few members of the iRide Rocky Mountain team who didn’t show up for this event (ie, basically everybody) missed out. The weather, course, trails, event management, competition and Red Bull chicks were awesome; I’d do it again without hesitation. I'll see you all there next year!

2012 Mt.Beauty 6hr - VES Rd 3

I haven't raced in a pair (or anything except solo) in a 6hr race since my very first enduro about 5-6years ago.  What a revelation!

I wish I could say that going lap-for-lap with Mt.Beauty local (and Team Mount Beauty President) Cam Dickinson meant that I could get out on course after just under 30minutes rest each time and smash myself to pieces but my body just doesn't work like that...yet!  After so much training to race longer, uninterrupted races and very little short, intense training plus diminishing general fitness from too much work and not enough riding recently, it was a tough lesson.
Cam and I went lap for lap all day. I put in a reasonable first lap after which we were both cutting similar times around the 7.5km course with ~230m of climbing/lap.  A slight addition to last years course meant for a smidge more climbing which earned a really fun descent all the way to transition.  The inside word was that the real race was to see who could get the Strava KOM for the main descent. At time of publication, I'm sitting in second by just a handful of seconds.

Unfortunately this race was not to be won on the descents (the intermediate descent '3rd Parallel' is another Strava segment of which I share a KOM with the bloke who beat me on the main descent..grrr) and I just don't have the legs/lungs/heart for smashing climbs at the moment.
So despite risking life and limb on the descents, Cam and I held 2nd place in Male Pairs at the end of the day.  Which was nice.
More exciting perhaps is how iRide's newest Solo Racer King, Llew Thomas rode throughout the day.  After a steady, smart start Llew kept riding comfortably through the pits with a wide smile all day.  Reports from marshals out on course were that Llew didn't even look like he was trying but he's assured me he was!  Despite a far smaller field at this race than others in the series, Llew's competition was no less stacked as he battled it out with the Chancellor Cousins, Phil Orr and Peter Casey.  Llew was leading from Peter for quite a while and I was sure he'd hold his place on the podium but it looks like Casey had the legs on the day putting Llew into 4th place.  Bloody stellar effort Llew!

I think Team Mount Beauty put on an excellent event overall, thanks guys and gals!  Of course I am biassed and I may have enjoyed the socialising as much as the racing with (at a guesstimate) around 20%-30% of the field made up from Mt.Beauty locals.  Unfortunately for the racers and the club (who won't make any money from this event I won't imagine) numbers were pretty low. A Sunday race 4hrs drive from Melbourne is always going to be hard to get people to and the club will no doubt rethink this next year. Those few that did come got to ride our tracks at their tackiest and without a spot of mud all in the finest of weather.

I look forward to seeing you all here next year!

Results HERE

Official iRide supporter Laura (my Sis), Llew Thomas and Me

Solo Female podium (L-R): Jenny Kromar (2nd), Eve Burrell (3rd) and Tory Thomas with the prestigious winners sash.

Photo courtesy of someone else

This shot of me was taken near the bottom of the main descent.  I was as knackered at this point as at the top of the main climb!

Photo courtesy of someone else

GMBC Crazy 6 – solo effort by the Short One

Started the day with the forced enthusiasm of someone who would have preferred to stay in bed. Ross arrived and the mood didn’t get any better. Jas was full of beans and Will seemed focused, so much so he focused his energy on anything but putting up the marquee. J I’m learning.

Got kitted up, put out my food and drinks. From looking at the start field for the women’s solo, I’d pretty much got the mind set, go out, ride and race yourself; the other girls are going to be WAY up the road, if you try to race them, you’ll blow up and only ride a 3 hour.

First 2 ½ hours cruised by, was getting passed on the fire road ups, only to zoom past on the single track downs. Soon learnt to push harder on the fire roads, to get good position going into my favourite single track sections so I didn’t get grumpy being held up on the fun bits.

Between 2 ½ and 3 hours my legs decided that they were going to warn me of oncoming cramps. Crap! I’d forgotten to have my magnesium this week to prepare. Oh well. More Staminade, toilet stop, Rich lubed my chain and off again. 3 hours to go and I was asking Tom (out on course doing Physics study) for some questions to keep my mind occupied. Alas, he was fine, so no problems for me and mind back to figuring out where the chick in the black and the one in the Fitzroy Revolution kits ended up after my toilet break.

Saw the black kit girl, only to have her blast away on the fire road. Crap! Really got to learn how to not blow up on those. I know they can be helpful, as evidenced by her. In the early stages I’d catch her back up in the single track, but soon she just had more legs than me. So back to the early mental game of just keeping consistent laps and racing myself. Might need to work on how to actually race other people...

Came in with 20 minutes to go, to be greeted with Coke in my bottle, put there by Rich (thoughtful one!) and I left with a huge grin on my face and the knowledge that there was only one more time up the bitch fire road. Found legs (I don’t know where they came from, perhaps the Coke) and pushed hard to finish in front of whoever was following me.

Great race, great team, great support, great iced chocolate post-race and a great sleep to follow.

Geelong MTB Gazebo Series Rnd 2

Round 2 of the GMBC 3 Gazebo series was a 3 hour twilight race from 7pm to 10pm, meaning lights would be required for the last hour. Having just seen Kanye West during the week both Ross and Will turned up pumped and with their swagger on 11.

Both Ross and Will are normally alseep on the couch with a cup of tea by 8:30pm on a Friday night so just finishing the race could have been a challenge for the two, Will fell alseep on drive down and both rolled up to the start line with minutes to spare looking half awake. As akways Aleisha was organized and ready to go before Ross and Will had arrived.

As always GMBC are well organized with the race starting bang on at 7pm despite the fact 150 riders had rolled up and registered in just an hour or so. The start was furious with riders bustling for position in the early stages of the race.

For the first hour Will was sitting with the top 8 and at times was working together with others on the fireroad sections. Will's plan was to ride his own race at a pace he could sustain for 3 hours. At the halfway mark he found himself sitting in 5th and working with the winner of round 1 Tim Corbett. As night fell he realized he hadn't charged his light properly and as a result he had to stay behind Tim in the single track and could only lead on the fireroad. An agreement was made that if they came to the line together Will would let Tim have the win due to having to suck as wheel for the last hour. As it would happen Will and Tim rode a final hour of the race catching the leaders then putting a few minutes into them. Will showed that he has a heart and isn't just an attractive man with a 40" python and stuck to his word and was happy with 2nd place.

Good friend of iRide Bikes Cam Day has written the below reports on how thier races went.

Ross

Race 2 of the Gazebo series kicked off with a twilight/night race at the You Yangs.

My Friday nights usually consist of a table at one of the fine establishments in King Street, followed by several hours of Formula 1 on the PS3, so the chance to race under lights was a welcome change.

I took a chance and got my beautiful girl CFS to come along for her first ever MTB race which she was very hesitant at first, but when I said that Cam Day was racing, I couldn’t stop her from talking about this race, and how she was confident of beating the shit out of him both on and off the track.

We rolled in, got our gear together and we were ready to race. After a quick kiss to wish CFS all the best, we were off.

Tonight I was on board my new Rocky Mountain Vertex 990 RSL. I had ridden this puppy previously but not under race conditions. I knew with a pretty tough field, it would be a bit like a blind man at an orgy, I would have to feel my way through.

3 hours later and 80kms down, I felt like the Energizer Bunny thanks to the awesome ride of the 990, I could have kept going and going and going.

Cam

With race 2 of the Gazebo series now upon us, I chauffeured the Bike Buller poster boy down to the You Yangs while he signed trail maps to hand out at the iRide Bikes tent for all the fans.

In the lead up to the race, I became the target of repeated threats and abuse from none other than CFS, and so ‘The Showdown’ was announced. The winner would have to drink a box of UDL cans and then complete an obstacle course which consisted of parked cars, chairs and trees over a 1km course. I thought about ‘tanking’ this race, as I would be happy to see CFS complete this challenge again after her exploits at Mt Beauty a few years back, but decided on a fair race.

After Will had given out all his Bike Buller trail maps and signed a few young ladies chests, we were off and racing. The next 3 hours is still a bit of a blur, very fast track and pretty dusty but got 6 laps in and felt good aboard the Rocky Mountain 50MSL.

The trip home, I had to comfort Will after he had some issues with his lights which forced him to follow the winner into the finish line, but still a great effort jagging 2^nd. I remember him saying that he did his best work with the lights out, sad to say it didn’t eventuate this time. I was a little worried in the car, as he had the Dawson's Creek theme tune on repeat for an hour, but I’m sure he will tough it out and be back bigger and stronger for the last race of the series.

Gravity 2012

The move of the Gravity 12hr from it's original location of Rosewhite to the new venue of the caravan park centrally located in Bright was a smart move by the organisers, Finish Line Events. It worked so well that many wondered why someone hadn't done this earlier.

This change of venue, comfortable weather (some thought it was a bit hot) and a really excellent track made for a great race and despite the pain and suffering I went through f0r 12hrs as an under-trained, over-rested solo rider, I'll be back next year for sure!

My recent work commitments have made training difficult and a 12hr solo race is not the type of race to compete in at the drop of a hat but I've never had the opportunity to defend a 'crown' so I couldn't pass up racing in this popular event that I won back in late 2010. At about 7hrs into the race, I was wishing I had passed-up on this opportunity.

Gravity 2012 attracted a pretty impressive line up in all categories this year from the high paced male and mixed pairs tearing up the course to the male and female solo riders who battle it out all day. I had my time at the pointy end of the solo field sitting in 4th for a few laps and even felt pretty good out there but I couldn't keep up the pace and was soon back in 5th. Never really threatened was Andy Hall who took out the solo male on 16 laps, one up on an insane single speed effort by Ed McDonald. Impressive.

My laps times were slowly and reasonably stretching out until my lap times started including pit-stops that went for much longer than the desired less-than-a-minute..

Then came my horror lap.

Picture your worst day on a bike. You've bonked, you know you've got a long time to go, you're talking yourself down, you've got chafe on both thighs, your ass hurts, molten-salt sweat stings your eyes like capsicum spray, all your mates are passing you while you're stopped on the track.

I had this for 15kms. And then I knew I'd have to deal with it for another lap.

I'd made the decision to complete this lap and stop there.

Which brings me back to the very well designed track. The last 2-3kms was flat, fast and fun singletrack along a river in the shade so even though you'd been hurting for the last 12km by the time you're back in pits you actually feel ok and have forgotten the pain of the pinchers and kilometres of brutally hot, exposed fire road.

I kept getting back to my pit crew (who were AWESOME!) wondering how I could have felt so bad only a few k's ago. My decision to stop was reversed by some proper food (pasta, a welcome change from smashing gels and energy drink all afternoon), great support from my parents and mechanic, Dean Barter and a desire to Just Bloody Finish.

So one more lap and believe it or not I enjoyed it and was glad to finish on a high.

12hrs is a long time to ride a bike essentially non-stop. On average would you say most MTB training/social rides are 1-2hrs? And in those rides I'd say it's likely that you'd have some sort of mechanical 'event', not necessarily anything major, maybe even just a dropped chain. Which makes it remarkable, I think, that I can ride for so long and have absolutely NOTHING go wrong with my bike. Having Ross check it over in the work stand at iRide was part of it and my new wheels (Easton EA90XC) which are light, strong and dependable is another while finally having my mate Dean there to check that all was lubed and ready to roll capped it off. Thanks to my wrench Deano, bike shop owner extraordinaire Ross and Simon from Adventure Brands for the Rocky Mountain Vertex.

Righto, I have to get some well earned rest before another 9 day camping stint starting tomorrow. No photos up that I can find yet so here's one my Dad took of me quite clearly having a rough day. Ride hard y'all!

Zigga

All Mountain Cup Round 2

Mt.Buller hosted Round 2 of the 'new for 2012' National Series All Mountain Cup from Friday 20/1 to Sunday 22/1.

Ahh, those races where it all just comes together...can someone let me know what they're like? I haven't had one for a while and this weekend was unfortunately no different!

I entered this series on a whim and full of enthusiasm. I'd just spent 9 days and 8 nights camping in the alpine region near Mt.Hotham without touching a bike so I was itching to not just ride but RACE BABY YEAH!!! The day before I left for the race I spent some quality time on the iTunes store spending up on some pump-up/feel-good tunes (such as THIS one) for the 3.5hr drive to Buller and that's pretty much where my organisation and preparation for this race started and finished!

Everyone has been raving about the trails at Mt.Buller recently so this race was a perfect opportunity for me to race on them and see for myself. The format of the All Mountain Cup is a 3 day stage race with a Super D, an XCO and finishing with a Point to Point. I was super keen for the Super D. A 12km fireroad descent with negligible climbing, massive water bars/ruts, mud, creek crossings and loose toaster sized rocks? Yep, I'll be in that thankyou very much!

Unfortunately and despite a really good practice run, I punctured near the top of the course. Intent on not letting this ruin my run I virtually started changing the tube before I'd come to a complete stop. Back on the bike and back past those that had passed me while I was stationary only to find I'd bent a link in a hurried chain adjustment which eventuated in the back plate of my derailleur getting carved off and leaving my chain dangling. It was pushing and scooting to the line for me. I was not the lone sufferer of bike carnage today. This essentially meant my racing was over as I couldn't afford a new rear mech but after a couple of pleading phone calls Ross had organised Shannon at All Terrain Cycles to sort me out with a complimentary replacement XT mech. A couple of bloody legends! And a reminder of one of the reasons why I enjoy riding on the iRide team so much.

The XCO on Saturday was a much more straight forward affair for me which means no mechanicals or flats! Once again, not quite pinning the technical sections as well as I perhaps could have but that does tend to happen when I'm trying to keep up with Olympians! A better day today!

But just as things were getting better they got worse. Just 15 minutes into the final stage of the All Mountain Cup, the 22km Point to Point, and I flatted on the rear tyre once again. Learn to ride rocks!! This is where it gets embarrassing: I can't remove my tyre without tyre levers. However, no one I know can get my tyres off (or on!) without levers which makes me feel a little better. Hence I always carry levers but today they'd found their way out of my pocket and onto the track anywhere in the last 15mins. It was the straw and this camels back was broken. Without outside assistance I wasn't going anywhere despite having TWO spare tubes on me. Race abandoned. No one likes a DNF next to their name. It won't happen again!

Time to clear the head with another 9 days of track work before 12hrs of power at the Bright Gravity 12hr!

A knackered rear mech

A knackered XCO racer

(photo by Russel Baker)