LadyToast's blog

This will be short, sleep is iminent.

I'll just outline the bullet points.

I was part of a great team of riders from South Sydney who I hadn't met before.
We had 6 flat tyres and one blown shock (incluiding my UST larsen.
Without the flats we would have come first in cat (oh well).
As it was we missed third by 1:30 minutes...

Ace stuff
The event was really well organised.
The track was awesome. Hair raising fast desents with nice (yes really) climbing to pay for it. Lots of crazy air to be had and a fantastic track for the Yeti.

Man I love these short course races, it feels like ages since I have done one.

"What the hell am I doing this for again?"

It all came back to me after 20 kays in... "Hang on, this is bloody terrible". There are plenty of excuses I could use for the way I was feeling, getting a flat, screwing up my food royally, running out of water, getting a virus the week before.. the bottom line is this is a mother of an event. I had just forgotten.

My new commuter

Nice and cheap, made mostly of parts I had already. Not pretty but super simple and reliable (I hope).
Weighs 10.7KG which I am happy with considering the Talas forks.
Rides really well, very quick steering. Tt would be fun on a XC course actually, I must try it out sometime.
Currently running 44/18 but still working on the gearing, some of the hills around my home are killers.

I thought about giving it a paint job but I think I will just tape it all over with electrical tape for that rat look.

Sixth again!!

My first solo here and my first race in B grade. Loved it, what a place. The track is amazing at the moment.

I'll be back for round 5 and a top ten finish goal!

This will be short as I can't see the screen and my hands would be better controlled by a lorrikeet at the moment. I am really happy though, I managed to shave an hour and five from my time of last year to post a respectable (for me) 5:28. I had been doing quite a lot of shorter training rides but nothing over 70 kays so I was concerned I wouldn't go the course. Sure enough when I go to the top of the second large hill the cramps hit me and didn't leave for the rest of the ride. I just wasn't able to put the power down any more and had to limp home for the rest of the way on half power.

My first WSMTB XC race, and it won't be the last.

Another great race with the Lap Dancers, this time at Yellowmundi. I was keen to have another go at the 8 hour race as at the first round I couldn't really get in the course and I felt I didn't do it justice, struggling with front end grip and the furnace like heat. This one was different and I loved it. I had swapped my igniter for a new Panaracer XC and it made all the difference, I had controllable front wheel slides and I actually didn't have a crash (who'd have thought?)

It was raining on the way down there, it was raining when we put the tent up, it was raining on every lap, and it was raining when we packed up and went home 24 hours later. Not just sissy rain, but proper hard man rain. Myself and the rest of Toasted decided that we would camp - in tents - in a field - in the rain - Oh how I envied the orgainsed bods that had pre-ordered cabins. Lightweights

This was always going to be an interesting race, ever since I saw who was signed up for the team. Sadly we lost Carlgroover at the last minute who selfishly went and got sponsored, but who redeemed himself by offering entertainment throughout the whole weekend, and got first place solo 24 40's to boot - awesome. Happily Tod stepped up in his place. Despite the incessant torrential downpour, moral in the team was high, and we spent most of the race switching between third to sixth position. Wayne was always on hand at the tarp to keep humour following, and reheat his never ending supply of pasta. Critty was there simply to smash out fast lap after fast lap, he didn't disappoint despite the multitude of technical aggravation's his bike was dealing him.