Blogs

the day started with what appeared to be set in rain but by 10 am the clouds opened and the sun shined through and made for perfect riding conditions. The 50 k race started I was in the back half of the field taking it easy getting warmed up, about half way up the first climb I found I was getting held up so I figured it was time to push on a bit I got with some blokes who were setting a comfortable pace,I felt pretty good at the end of lap 1.

The first 24 hour .... not really:)

First foray in mountain bike racing/competition, happy to finish not knowing what to expect and stuck to my very conservative strategy to get me to the line. A good place to start.

Entered the 80/ 75 km version, but the climb up Mt Stromlo got the better of me, resulting in my first DNF.

May have had something to do with arriving in Canberra at 11.45 pm Friday and sleeping badly, but I think it was more likely the usual issue of dragging 100+ kg uphill for extended periods. And that climb up Mt Stromlo is an extended climb - not steep or particularly difficult, but it goes on and on. And then on this course there was a couple of km's of pretty techy downhill, so not much chance to "relax" until the last third of the loop.

Report on my first "race"

Drove down Fri afternoon hoping to get a bit of time to go for a ride. Left home about 12pm, it started spitting about Campbelltown then got heavier and heavier. Driving into Canberra was down to about 80-90 in the 110 zone because it was so heavy.
Drove straight up to Mt Stromlo and it was not as heavy, but it obviously had been. Scrapped the ride but waited until 6pm and registered.

Off to hotel, have dinner, watch tele, crash.

after drinking rather a lot of beer on saturday i didn't know how i'd cope doing a xc race on sunday morning but i turned up anyway just to have a crack at it and if anything, it would be a good training ride.

I've been planning on getting back into trail running (for a bit of X-Training) and I've been a massive fan/user of Salomons for a good 9 years. Needless to say I decided to scope out the Net to see what was new on the trail shoe tech front and came across something rather different in the form of Vibram FiveFingers.

Our good man and valuable Mont 24 hr team member Stu (Dibbler) had a bad crash during last Sunday's group training ride at Towler's bay track.

He landed hard and stacked after a water bar on an otherwise "easy" part of this firetrail that descends from West Head Road down to Pittwater.

He couldn't get up and had strong pains in his hip/leg. (He was later diagnosed with a fractured pelvis).

went to menai for aride on saturday, the plan was to do about 30 km non stop to see how I would feel in preperation for real ins mtb cruise next week,at about 15 km I was having a ball felt good 30 k would be easy!than disaster struck, derailer hanger snaped it did a lap of my back wheel took out a couple of spokes I quickly stopped to check out the damage hmmm not good but I allways carry a spare hanger so i quickly got to work only to discover that the new one was slightly different and did not fit what a drag!(may have been for 08 bike) well I figured that was the end of my ride so then I t

not knowing what to expect on the day I arrived a bit early, found out the difference between the top and bottom car park(about a 500m hill climb ) After rego and a bit of a wait it was game on. Not to bad a start but i suffered on the climbs, that really showed me where i need to work, could pull away from riders on a d/h section and hold my own on the flat but got smashed on the ups. Have realised a free beer(wedding) isn't ideal preperation and have just found out i have another free beer (50th) before rd3. glad i started this racing caper and looking foward to the rest of the year.