Rob's blog

What can be said about this race that cannot be gathered from the pictures? It was top fun despite being a little wet and muddy. Sadly it was a bit of a bike killer but c'est la vie.

The course was short and 30 minute times were expected so we elected to do double laps in daylight, triples at night and play by ear on Sunday. Not being present at the previous night's 'democratic' vote I was sent out for laps 1 & 2 but given the staggered start (solo, 2s & 3s + 1 minute, 4s + 2 minutes, rest + 3 minutes) didn't expect much traffic. Little did we know riding first would work very much to my advantage as things played out but more of that later.

Interesting race this one, but have to say am very happy with how it went to be honest. Well - for me - for poor old Cupcake it sucked quiet badly.

Having hastily moved from a trio with Junkie, Cupcake and I begrudgingly formed a pairs team at Lisdale. It would seem no-one wanted to ride with a 'pest' and both of us were too soft to ride alone so worked for me.

Yesterday I was speaking to a fellow rider who was scoffing at my 'training' lately, and didn't think spending a day playing with trail building would help.

Well, I'm here to tell you that if you get stuck into it, trail building is as good a workout as you'll get. Admittedly it was a bit warm at Del Rio today (low 30s with a nice breeze), but after a couple of hours of shovelling I was drenched as I sat for a welcome break. Was wearing a tee and long pants (lightweight, treking gear - I've walked in the Sinai desert in these!) and not a dry spot on the whole outfit.

Today the 575 got two shiny new tires. Both 2.35 single ply wire bead jobbies. Not UST but full of Stans so hope they stay up. The front is a Minion DH F and the rear a High Roller. The High Roller was a pain in the butt to get to seal but Minion went up in seconds. Think that was to do with 'roller being pushed out of shape a little in shipping.

Have to say 2.35s look a lot better (you recall how stupid I said a 2.1 Ignitor looked on the front during the first build?). Hopefully will see how they handle on Saturday.

I was a bit surprised when pulling into Ourimbah today - there were loads of riders around undaunted by the ridiculous heat.

We didn't take note of the thermometer in the car (only one for reference) when we'd done, but after driving a while on the way home it was reading 39C so would guess things were a good bit warmer when it was sat in the Ourimbah parking lot. Thankfully most of Ourimbah is shady - without cover this day would have been brutal (check what happened at Marramarra for that!).

Just a quick note to myself... move along...

Checking the chain wear on the Rush this morning saw it very nearly at 1%. Didn't have time to fit a new one so took the one of the 575 (still < 0.75%) for today's ride. Think this drive train is going to be borderline ridable soon. Will work out how many kays it has on later.

This race certainly lived up to the billing (from punters) as best race of the year. For Sydney siders of technical riding persuasion this is surely the case as it's only an hour up the road and while Can'bra tracks are smooth and flowing Ourimbah also has a nice dollop of technical stuff to keep everyone on their toes. The work done by the local club on the track is awesome - in the Graveyard especially which now has some nice berms.

Nice day to commute - makes a change from the rest of the week.

You've got to love it when you have to brake downhill behind a Hyundai Getz, but when you get to the steepest climb on the route they still can't get away[1].

Talking of which, perhaps I'll do the silly commute training route if it's still as nice this evening:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7015500

[1] OK - so they got to the lights at Union/Blues Point slightly ahead, but I just trundled to the front of the queue and lost everyone along Lavender St.

Was really looking forward to the CORC 24 after having a personally quiet disappointing Mont race last year (due to couple of injuries). Gazza, Cupcake, Tien, Buck, Loz and Rob combined to become 'Dr Nobs Bocz of pins and screws'. As it turned out was quiet nicely matched but sadly again I could not perform as well as I'd like.

My race went a bit like this...

At the risk of looking like a nerd...

I've made a sheet of three different drinks I have the tubs for at home, and shared it in a spreadsheet which you can view here:

Update: Have added Hammer Perpetuem and Gu2O to this.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pUcxuWiLA...

At the moment this compares Endura, Gatorade & Balance Endurance (Balance Endurance Elite Fuel Supply Restore Energy Supply if you want the full name!). Would like to add some Hammer products and anything else you can recommend to this to compare. Please PM or post the ingredients/nutrition from any pack you have as this is annoyingly missing from the Hammer site for example.