Tuesday 4 June 2013
DIRTY DEEDS PROLOGUE FRIDAY NIGHT MADNESS!
Thursday 2 May 2013
Victorian Enduro Series Round 2 - Mt Beauty
A Fitzroy Revolution Sandwhich with the best kind of filling. |
Monday 18 March 2013
Marathon Challenge Avoca
Monday 18 February 2013
2013 Otway Odyssey
The full thrust that is Will Geor |
Aleisha 15th 3.39 (50km)
Tuesday 8 May 2012
Wombat 100 (or “Played like a Fool”)
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. |
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. |
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! |
I love this bridge, it's a good blend of 'rickety' and 'not broken'. |
Black and white, like my view of the world at this point. |
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. |
The Slayer killed it. |
Wednesday 2 May 2012
2012 Mt.Beauty 6hr - VES Rd 3
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
Sunday 25 March 2012
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.