Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Revisiting old trail

Rhino invited me to join a local woodend crew on a ride from the Wombat loop out to Blackwood and back. The ASR5 was my bike of choice for the ride, plenty of travel, nice and fast.



On the drive into wombat forest i may have detoured through a few mud bogs, just for a laugh...




5s all round, the Yeti Strike Force(Farce) was in the house...


Ryan getting some mad air!


The ride out to blackwood was pretty uneventful. A small section of the wombat loop, some fire road, a long straight with rolling hills that we "Tour De Timor'd" along then a sweet ridgeline decent. The bikes ate up the decent and before we knew it we were climbing again.

The climb kept going and we turned onto the water race trail. A track that skirts around the hills and climbs very slowly toward Blackwood.


Jules from the Wombat MTB club is just ahead.


The trail is narrow in some areas with no real room for error. its a long drop off the side.


From Blackwood we hightailed it back to the cars, cracking out 60km in just on 3 hours. Not bad for a MTB ride.


Ryan and i may have hit up the mud in the 4x4's on our way home as well. This time my bike copped a spraying...

Strange happenings

Late last year Neil and I headed out and made a bridge with old pallets to span a mud bog. Just quietly we thought it was awesome. We even dug trenches under it for the water and left plenty of room for horses to get through as well.


Lookin good.

So I was surprised when i got sent this photo

All the sections removed and thrown into the bushes. Guess we must have pissed someone off...


So when Mel and i went for a ride out that way on Friday we weren't expecting this

The bridge is back!!

Wonder how long it'll last this time......

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Nemisis Marathon Challenge

Last year this race taught me a lesson. I was in pretty good form, had preridden the track and climbed almost all the hills with my 2 x 9. The single track endurance trail i had also ridden while helping to clear it so i was ready for a good day. Not expecting to win, just ride strong and cross the line at the end.

I never got there... I built a new bike the week before and had some setup issues. Big cramps, going backwards and at the 70km mark i stacked and taco'd my rear wheel.

This year would be different! Perfect weather. No pressure. Smaller field. Just ride my own race.

I did however roll to the startline on a new bike....

Couldn't help myself. Brand new ASR carbon with 10speed XTR. Built on the thursday before


Special Projects Area


Done, just need to shorten those brake hoses


Sweet cranks....

Sweet ride. Full XTR. Thomson. Easton. DT wheels. About 10.5kg with my Tricon wheels. When my new DT240 with stans rims arrive it should shave a bit more off...

Probably not down to Sid's 9.04kg ASR but enough for me..

Race Day

Rhino on the startline. Ready for climbing... His race didn't go as planned, many of the leading elite field missed a turn and ended up on an earlier part of the course. I missed the arrow too but thanks to the preride day i knew early that i'd missed something and turned back.


Halfway up one climb, think this was at about 50ish km. This was where i got off to walk. No Shame, everyone else was too...

The bike was awesome. Climbed well and decended like a rocket, i even picked up a place on the last descent, passing in the rubble on the outside of a corner and dropped him launching waterbars like a crazy man.



Finished. Slammin down a solo... It didn't really hit the spot.

The meat pie from a BP servo on the way home sure did tho....

Mel raced the 45km event and smashed the field. Winning the Queen of the Mountain on the first climb, riding away from her competition and even people in the 90km classes. She nearly caught me apparently.... There is a new ASR arriving with her name on it. Me thinks someone will be unstoppable in a few weeks.

Photos from the race will appear when i can find some.

Counting Down....


Thursday, April 7, 2011

Monday, April 4, 2011

Duael 6 hour

Rules, Pairs only, No double laps.

Ryan and i started our race prep the night before in what is becoming typical style.




Sunday morning rolled around all too quickly and with the usual daylight savings stuff up we managed to get to the race site with time to spare and set up.


Lap times had been a hot topic all week and the quoted times ranged from 17 out to 45 mins. A quick word with some locals had it pinned around 20mins for the fast guys, it was gonna be a tough 6 hours. Constantly swapping out, minimal rest time, on the rivet for 6 hours. Who would crack!


Ryan and i had decided earlier in the week that the ASR5 would be our weapons of choice. Pine forest single track can be rough and with both of us still listing shoulder injuries in the excuse book it would make the day a little nicer toward the end.




6 hours in a skin suit, Ryan 'threading the needle' on a double jump into a rut.




No skinsuit for me. Climbing one of the only steep sections of the course.


Laps were indeed fast. The lead pack were doing 18-19 mins. Ryan was cranking out the 19s, shaking the night before off like a pro, i was still attempting to see through beer goggles and consistently in the 20s. No time for wandering around. In, food, drink, jacket on, jacket off, GO...

Heaps of fun.


The fast group were smashing it, at the 3 hour mark there was a split where one Paul Van decided to up tempo and cracked out a 17min lap, then another. This split the 4 teams up and from then it was just a matter of who could hold it together and not lose a place.


In our race we had settled into a comfortable 10th place in elite. Doing some jostling early with Brad Davies and Brett Kellet(who were in the 40+ damn them) and the CBD Cycles team of Paul Randell and Grant Lebbink.


Eventually the 40+ guys left us behind and we left the CBD guys behind. As we both started to hit the wall it was one lap to go and Ryan took the last lap honours. Finally even-ing up the lap score from the Kona 24 hour in 2009.


Great day and a great course. Super quick laps made for some exciting times with everyone pretty shelled at the end.


Bring on the Short Track Enduro format!