04 Jul 2009

After three months away from racing I figured it was time to make a return to the race scene at the Rockhop 6hr.

I felt like my presence was missed as soon after arrival I was queried as to why I was there and whether I realized it was a mountain bike. I did realize and figured MTB race = beer and I had drank plenty of beer in the past few months so I should be set.

I had fond memories of the Beaconsfield course from when I raced in my debut solo race a couple of years ago. As with previous years, the course was super technical, a real mountain bikers trail with plenty of rock hopping and no shortage of climbing.

The first couple of laps served as an intensive mountain bike refresher course and I soon remembered how to ride over and thought things that I hadn’t tackled for a while. The field had settled down by this point and I had scored a couple of riding companions (James and Michael) to keep me company on the lonely solo journey.

Three hours had rolled over which marked the half way point of the race which also indicated that his was the longest time that I had been on a bike since the Otway Odyssey which was in February. Not too long after this my riding buddies had pulled the plug and I was once again left on my lonesome.

The bumpy descents and technical climbs were starting to take a toll by the four hour point, it was a rude reminder of how taxing riding off road is on the body. While the upper part of me was feeling pretty buggered, by some miracle my legs were still feeling good and still climbing well. I then realized that there was a really good chance I was actually going to finish this thing, provided I could hang onto the bike down the descents.

I struggled though the last couple of hours and rolled over the line in 4th place after completing 10 laps in 6 hours and 38 mintutes, clocking up over 100kms with close to 3500 metres climbing!

More photos here.

Posted by brett @ 10:12 pm

29 Apr 2009

I know it’s be a couple of months since the Otway Odyssey was held but I thought I’d post a few words and some photos anyway. Better late than never right?

What can I say about that Odyssey, it’s known as one of the hardest (if not the hardest) mountain bike marathon race in Australia and attracts the best races from all over the country. Let’s just say it held up its end of the bargain, it was tough, really tough and given its reputation, you have to stay focused when you‘re hurting and not let the thought of what‘s to come crush you. That pretty much sums up my race I’d say, I suffered cramps from about 90 minutes in (probably due to a case of gastro the day before) which pretty much made for an extra tough race.

Coming though transition after 60 odd kilometres I was convinced that I was riding at the back of the race and had no real drive to continue until I was told I was in fact just outside the top 20. That gave me a massive boost which made me regain focus, I remembered that I was in a similar situation the year before which meant I could still ride myself back into this race. I went out hard into the Yauhter Loop where I past several riders within the first few kms which fueled the fire. Mairina’s Run was as mind blowing as ever with its amazing banked corners that god himself may have carved. Dropping down into the gully after the last burms was when it all turned pear shaped, a stick went through my front wheel stopping the bike and sending me superman-ing headfirst into the gully, knocking the wind completely out of me. After picking myself up and searching around for my ejected bitons, a few riders that I had previously overtaken cruised on past which was a damaging blow for my head space. I got going again slowly as my lungs didn’t like breathing too heavily after taking a pounding during the crash. I had pretty much decided that I would pull the plug at next transition as I was hurting real bad and the final 13kms was nothing but fire road climbing death.

As I limped along in my sorry state, Alex Randall appear from behind and gave me the pep talk I needed to keep going and finish the race, the basic gist of it was harden up and don’t pull out. Alex and I rode together for the remainder of the race though the huge fire road climb of the final loop and crossed the line together in 25th and 26th place.

Posted by brett @ 9:35 pm

21 Sep 2008

I took delivery of my new roadie this week that I’ve been hanging out for a while as my old roadie was pretty much past it’s used by date. Emily (my new roadie) is one of the new Thylacine Tephra XCr road bikes which is new to the Thylacine road range for 2009.

As the name suggests, the Tephra XCr is made out of Columbus XRr stainless steel tubes.

More photos here.

The build.

Thylacine Tephra XCr Frame
Edge Composites 2.0 Fork
SRAM Force Crankset 175mm 34t/50t
SRAM Force Shifters
SRAM Force Cassette
SRAM Force Rear Derailer
SRAM Rival Front Rerailer
SRAM Rival Brakes
SRAM Bar Tape
Easton EA70 Wing Bars 42cm
Selle Italia Flite Saddle
Thomson X2 Stem 100mm
Thomson Elite Post 330mmx29.4
KCNC Skewers
White Industries H2 Hubs
DT Swiss R1.1 Rims
DT Swiss Competition Spokes

Posted by brett @ 9:51 pm

02 Sep 2008

Well we’ve just got back from an awesome weekend of riding, racing, and spectating at the Canberra World Cup round. It was a pretty crazy adventure, with pretty much everything.

2 flat tyres in the support XCO.
1 fast lap that scraped me in to qualify for the short track race.
30 odd super fast riders including a stack of european pros on the STXC start line next to me.
20 minutes + 3 laps (less for me) of mud filled, noisy, painful, spectator crowded, awesome racing.
3rd placed Australian, behind Chris Jongewaard and Laclan Norris. Woo.

So yeah, awesome weekend. We need more World Cup events down under!

Having your bike blow off the roof on the Craigeburn bypass is not the best start to the weekend. Bend the rack back into shape and we’re all good to go again!

The drive went fairly quickly and we arrived in Canberra with no further drama. Team Thylacine spares no expense when it comes to rider accommodation, as shown by our $7/night choice for the weekend. 5 star all the way!

We headed out to the course Friday to see what we were in for. The course had some rather gnarly sections, as shown above. I lined up for the sport support race a little scared, although once out there I managed OK. Maybe because I took all the B Lines! To give you an idea, this is the B line option for the A line in the above photo:

Unfortunately it turns out the pressure that works in Victoria is no good on the fast rocky Canberra course, and I pinch flatted both front and rear before my first lap of just three was done. My chances of winning had vanished, but with XCC selection based on fastest lap time the day wasn’t over yet. I recomposed myself and worked my guts out moving through the traffic to put in the quickest I could managed. It turned out to be good enough to give me the 8th of 10 places available, and also to my surprise second in that race.

Sweet, world cup podium! The sport support race, but I’ll take it anyway.

Saturday was spent watching the XCO world cup races, with a seriously good field making the course look easy. It was something else watching names you’ve read about and faces you’ve seen on TV hammering away just feet away from you. The atmosphere on course was great too with stacks of spectators.

We even found some time to watch the downhill seeding runs. They’re definitely a bit nuts.

It rained overnight and through the morning ensuring a total mud bath for the XCC races, as this photo of Tory Thomas shows. With the women out of the way it was our turn to line up for 20 minutes + 3 laps of pain.

Hmm, American and European pros… and me?!? Oh fark.

The weather didn’t deter the spectators, the course was totally packed and the noise was incredible.

The gun went off and I struggled on the opening straight and got cut off on the first corner, finding myself in last place. My legs felt good though, and I sprinted, climbed, slid, and railed my way forward through the field. It was pretty amazing to be riding with such a crowd, and so much noise.

Eventually the commissaries waved me off the course, and I took my leave. I knew I’d passed a few people, but it took me a bit by surprise when I heard over the loudspeaker than there were just two Aussies left on course. That meant I’d finished 3rd out of Australians ahead of a host of big names and in the money. Totally stoked! No trophy or podium, but the cashola is always good.

Taking the inside line on the berm.

Rather than rushing straight back to Melbourne we took an extra day and went exploring in Albury. They’ve got some seriously sweet trails right in town. They’re in great condition too. If you’re in the area they are well worth a ride.

So that was our long weekend adventure. 5 days of living and breathing mountain biking, and it was pretty darn awesome. I can’t wait to do it again sometime.

Posted by erin @ 5:48 am

10 Aug 2008

If so, give this a try some time. The bureau’s warning:

Hazards include snowfalls down to 400 metres affecting roads that rarely
experience snow. Black ice across roads. Dangerously cold conditions for both
livestock and people in the bush or outdoors. Squally winds in the west of the
State with gusts around 85 km/h.

The actual conditions at Sassafras were -0.5 degrees, with heavy snow falling. How do I know? We spent three hours on the MTBs up there. I’d show you photos to prove it, but my fingers were so frozen I physically couldn’t get it out of my camelbak. Coming back up the singletrack to Sassafras after deciding to call it a day and finding the ground covered in a layer of snow, with the long cold descent still to come, was not the best feeling. We got so cold on the way down just grabbing the brake lever was an exercise in the impossible. Carson decided the service station at the bottom was the end of his ride, and a taxi was called. Semi-coherent and unable to stand it was a fair call. The harder (or perhaps just better dressed) amongst the group put our hands complete with gloves under the hot tap in the toilets to get the feeling back, then jumped on the bikes and tackled the hour ride home in the rain. Brrrrrr.

Anyway it was an experience, and next time I’m feeling miserable in a race I’ll just need to be thankful that it’s A) not below freezing and B) not snowing.

Posted by erin @ 4:50 am

28 Jul 2008

Well we headed out to Lysterfield for the 3rd AES round yesterday, with no idea what we were in for. With a bit of a mess up, someone sleeping in, and some bad directions from me, we arrived rather late and rushed through a warm up. Far too soon I found myself on the start line, taking up a position at the high end. For the first time in the series I managed a decent start, and found myself in the lead group going onto Blair Witch trail. The ground was really nice and tacky, with barely a puddle to be seen, and I was feeling good. We came out the bottom and the group had split, with Paulie and Jimmy gapping the rest of us off the front. I put an effort in and moved from last up to be sitting up on Paul’s wheel… and it all went to shit. We hit Buckle trail and a complete mud fest, and my legs went on strike and totally refused to put anymore power out.

Brett promptly went out and made me look like the gumby I am, coming in two minutes faster. So the day continued, I did a rather wet and miserable double before Snozza took pity on us and changed the course to remove the most disgusting sections. My enthusiasm slowly returned and I finally got a lap time I wasn’t too embarrassed about, although Brett had the indecency to storm out the 3rd fastest lap of the day before hand so I still came out looking slow. We finished up the day in 5th place, a minute behind Yeti. I might have to abandon my serious training program and switch to Brett’s diet of beer and two short rides a week, it seems to work a lot better! One round to go, maybe I can redeem myself and see if we can sneak in at least one podium finish.

Posted by erin @ 10:57 am

20 Jul 2008

It’s been a pretty relaxed weekend this time around, with an easy spin down beach road and a short race at the You Yangs. I headed out on Saturday morning only slightly hung over from a friends going away the night before. The trip down to Mordy felt far too easy, and I found out why riding back into a headwind that felt more like a brick wall.

Waking to pouring rain on Sunday wasn’t a good sign. However the You Yangs didn’t fail us with the sandy soil soaking it all up. There was barely a puddle to be seen. The race started easily along the flat singletrack of Kurrajong. That didn’t stop me stacking (on a straight of all places!) and losing a few positions. Fortunately I moved back up to the lead group before we started climbing the steep technical link track. This sorted the men from the boys, with me and Murray Spink going clear. We rode together for most of the loop of Stockyards, with Murray getting a small gap on me before we climbed out. He held a 5 second gap as we zoomed down Great Circle Drive at over 70kph, and as I spun my 1×9 gearing like crazy on the lower slopes. Eventually my legs could spin no more and he pulled away, taking it out by a minute.

With the race over we dug into the free soup and did our best to stay warm before Simon, Murray, Sarah, and I headed out for another lap. The club asked us to keep an eye out for a rider who had failed to return. We found him with a busted derailleur several Ks from the finish, and called his friend to arrange a pick up. With sweeping duties complete we continued on and hit up some of the fun tracks in stockyards before taking the link track back down into Kurrajong and back to the car.

All up it was a fun four hour day, and a nice warm up for the big race next weekend. Hopefully my legs come to the party this time and I can improve on the mediocre performance of last round.

Posted by erin @ 6:30 am

12 Jul 2008

Simon and I headed up to Lancefield today for my first road race. I choose a rather laid back northern combine scratch race, and when we arrived an hour before the start the race site was deserted. No matter, we headed in to town for refreshments.

Mmm, snot block. Suitably fed we headed back to the race to register in what were rather chilly conditions. A little more standing around and a short warm up, and we were rolling out with the A grade bunch. Starting a race and not going full gas felt a bit strange, but I managed to hold myself back and stay in the bunch. We hit the first climb and surged a bit, then backed it off, then surged… etc.

The course was heavy in rolling hills and had a nasty crosswind on some parts. It was also quite rough which made me feel right at home. It wasn’t long before the bunch split, with one guy making a break and several others going out the back. Another rider punctured and I found myself in a group of four riders who would stay together for most of the race. No one really seemed interested in chasing down the guy who broke away, and the roady laziness extended to the point that we were eventually caught by three of the riders we had dropped early on. We repeated the middle section for a total of 95km, so it was just as well I stocked up on bars beforehand:

What, they were on special OK!

So anyway, I downed a bar and got ready for my big move on climb 6. The bunch was taking it easier on the lower ’slopes’, so I snuck to the front then attacked. No one responded for a bit, and I felt so pro… for about 5 seconds, at which point my legs turned to jelly. Fortunately everyone else seemed to be hurting a bit too, and I made it to the top with only two riders near me. I let them jump on, only to realise they were roadies and were going to completely refuse to work. Oh well. I got trounced in the sprint but finished up 4th in my first road race. Got to be happy with that.

It’s off to officer tomorrow for more racing, hopefully I can back it up OK.

Posted by erin @ 6:35 am

07 Jul 2008

Ah, the joys of the recovery week. A few short rides, plenty of time to laze around and watch movies. And party. Not sure that really helps with the recovery, but hey, it was fun!

We did do some work though, heading up to Woodend on Sunday for a cruisey 2.5 hour spin. Riding it backwards for the second lap was interesting. There is actually some tough technical climbing in the first few Ks. Nice for a change, although the mud wasn’t so much fun. When did it rain anyway?

Posted by erin @ 6:27 am

29 Jun 2008

Wow, that was a big week. North east hills twice, out to the Youies, and a few hours on the Yarra Trails thrown in for good measure. Riding the new Kurrajong section at the Youies was awesome fun, especially the long flowing link track between the sections.

How’s that for a view.

Simon riding the rollercoaster boardwalk at the end of the link track. Great fun until a gust of wind blows you off the side. No kidding.

The problem with riding Yarra Trails on a Saturday afternoon is that everyone else is too. We stopped four times for a bit of a chat with different people, and Alex joined us with his rather shiny looking Yeti hardtail for a while too.

So that was my week. 5800 meters of climbing all up - take that you beach road specialists!

Posted by erin @ 4:31 am

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