Rob's blog

As promised the Merry Cross-mass cup was muddy, but fun. To be honest I found the short track race format a little odd, but eventually cottoned on to the nature of the beast. Like anything it takes a bit of getting used to so sure next time will see better times and a more comfortable ride.

Well, not that the format had anything to do with the comfort factor this time I guess. Mud, mud, sand, rain and mud were probably deciding factors in that.

Did a couple of reccy laps on both bikes and found the short track wet and slippery as expected. The one pinch climb didn't seem so bad, how hard could this be?

So, again it's time for a chain change. Since the last one the Rush has done 994Km according to MotionBased. Which is a good deal more than the 400Km the first one lasted so that's good right?

Well, almost.

I'm sure at the last check just a week or so back the old chain was < 0.7% but suddenly (after Muddy Xmas Cup) it's past that point and gone on to be just over 1.0%

Some great and very true words from Mountain biking for fitness in 2008 || Mountain Bike Blog || SINGLETRACKS.COM. Click that link for the rest of it, but here's a teaser:

Let's start with first things first: mountain biking is fun. Honestly, the word "fun" doesn't really do justice to what it's like to bomb down a narrow trail through the woods, adrenaline pumping and endorphins popping. Mountain biking is exciting and it's the kind of thing that millions of folks dream about while they're at work. Ever hear of a co-worker gushing about the great time she had at the gym on Saturday afternoon? I didn’t think so.

'nuff said - get out there!

Most people would probably see this as sensitive personal information, but then again, I'm a little odd so will share. Perhaps other people would find this useful...

As a few of you know, I've not had the best run of luck in the last few marathon events, and have mainly put this down to sickness, nausea, etc. Despite trying to eat well in the lead up and during rides the stomach would just not be able to take in enough fuel and when that happens a DNF is pretty much always on the cards.

How much fun was that? I haven't done a race like this before (the 24 hour Mont doesn't really count - it was more an endurance than sprint event) and it turned out to be tough. Maybe this was down to the course and heat? Didn't the elites manage 14 laps? Results are in and Solo male winner did 13 laps. Now wait a sec, these boys normally do 100Km in 4 hours so to do only 130Km in 8 must say something about the conditions!

Hard as it was, fantastic day out and loads of fun. There was pain, particularly from cramps in the thighs which normally never happens to me - although calf muscles sometimes complain. A few hard, sprint laps turned out to be a completely different kind of punishment to enduro events. I found that coming in after pushing for a lap left one exhausted, but because it's only been 10Ks, well, the exhaustion soon subsided and everything was good.

It was also very nice that we (Cupcake, Junkie and I) ended up doing 4 laps each. This was just under 3 hours riding for me, I suspect Junkie rode maybe 5-10 mins a lap faster average (mine wasn't helped by those cramps in the final lap which dragged the average time down badly) and Cupcake probably could have done so if it wasn't for his puncture. Yeah, so although I was going to the slowest Slow Joe, wasn't that much off the pace.

Two weeks after The Mont and back we go to another field full of tents for some more race fun. Here's how the 2007 Fling went for Rob...

Aside from not getting a decent nights sleep (due to roasting hot sleeping bag inside chilly tent - too hard to get the temperature 'just so') everything ran smoothly on Saturday and Sunday morning. Seemed to be timing things just right, from arriving, setting up and giving the bike a once over to rolling up at the start with 10 mins to go.

As some of you will know I was lucky enough to receive the gift of a Thompson Masterpiece seatpost recently.

Fitted it today - and very swish it is too. Am impressed with the adjustment (tilt especially) mechanism and overall looks a quality product.

The old one (a Ritchey Comp) had a tendency to slip sometimes despite cranking up the clamp silly-like. Am hoping the slight, 'ribbed for your pleasure', feeling of the Thompson will stop that.

The Masterpiece is also a whopping 110g lighter[1] than the Ritchey it replaces - niiiice!

Thanks all!

[1] As measured by myself - the claimed weights are 305g 'v' 193g.

Let's start by saying first off that the Mont experience was a blast, and I'm definitely up for another 24 hour race next year.

Why it's necessary to start that way is that my report isn't a glowing rave about the weekend, but that's only because a number of rather silly episodes meant the cherry topped icing was missing from my Mont cake. Still, a tasty cake it was, so let's quickly summarise then zap through the events of the weekend (from a rather Rob'd slant - see Mont 24 Hour Wrap for more angles).

Summary

So here's how NoBMoB-ish teams managed:

MONT-y Python, 34 laps, 32nd/68 in Open Six Male
NoBMoB Monties, 31 laps, 47th/68 in Open Six Male
Team UFO, 17 laps, 66th/68 in Open Six Male

NoBMoB, 36 laps, 11th/47 in Open Six Mixed
NobMob Soft Shocks, 27 laps, 42nd/47 in Open Six Mixed

Wow! Just now I have managed to replace the Crossmark UST tires on the Rush. Shockingly easily too! In fact, I'd go so far as to say changing the GF's (tubed) nobbies for slicks on the weekend was harder!

When I last rotated them just couldn't get a re-seal and had to resort to visiting local servo to use their compressor powered line.

This evening the new tires sealed like a dream with only a slight amount of over-exertion on the floor standing pump - top stuff. Perhaps the newness (I rotated front to/from rear last time) - which I'd left un-folded for a day or two beforehand helped?

Phew, you go away for a few nights and look what happens! Glad to see everyone had fun, for what it's worth, our little trip to Barrington Tops was very nice. Just fantastic all round, but more importantly - it's a great place to ride!

Saturday, Pratiwi did very well, I told here this would be, "Just like Terrey Hills":

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/4089425

Oops