Back on two wheels

After a 4 week taper, I finally went for a ride on Saturday and did the ACT Hill Climb Championships at Corin. Dave, Nath, Tamas and myself all rolled out there early to find that we were going to be in the last group of riders to start. On the ride out there I felt fine, but I was getting Short of breath on the climbs, but my legs weren't getting sore. I started 30 seconds after Tamas and made it my goal to catch him, which I thought was a good and probably achievable goal as I'm usually a better climber than him. The undulations at the start made it hard to find a rhythm, and made him look a lot closer than he was, but by about half way when the real climbing had started, I caught him. I was under the impression that once the top of the climb was reached, there was just one pinch before rolling down to Corin Forest where the finish line was (you would think for a HC they could actually have a proper hill top finish), but there were about 3 pinches before Corin Forest, and then we had to keep riding along the flat road before the final pinch to the highest point on the road. On the final part of the actual climb I smashed myself and then gave it everything up the final pinch, but I' had it after that and couldn't smash myself on the flat bit to the finish. But after all that, I won in under 19s which I was pretty happy about. It ended up being a big day and a very nice ride, and I was just ahppy that I made home not feeling too bad after such a long break.

Last night saw my return to the CCC summer crit races. I was pretty tired and feeling a bit dead, so I had no high expectations. I was riding a lot smarter than I have before, but the race was just ridiculous. right from the start it was absolute chaos, people passing on the inside in the middle of a corner, intense speeds and constant attacks, I saw one guy about 4m in front of me get cut off by a girl he was pulling to the front and had to brake so hard that his back wheel was sliding out. I had a pretty good crack, but I had to pull out with about 3 or 4 laps to go.

I'm looking forward to doing some big rides now that school has finished, Cameron (another XC rider on the ACTAS talent development program) wants to have a crack at honeysuckle and Im going to attempt the Boboyan Road return, as well as Williasmdale? and the Murrembateman, Gundaroo, Sutton return. If I can do these three rides, I will complete my goal of riding every rural road in the Canberra region this year.

Lazy Days

I think we left off at me preparing for a road race at Tharwa a few weeks ago. They got A and B to race together (I race B) which meant the pace was going to be a bit more full on, but probably not to bad, and it wasn't all that bad most of the time. I was doing some solid turns on the front, racing a bit smarter than the last time I raced road back on May. But 3rd lap (of 4) they decided to really crack it up the climb, and I really didn't have the energy for something that intense at that stage and decided to let them go and catch of on the brief descent on the other side. This wasn't my greatest move, as it turned out the pace had been set for the rest of the race, not just the climb and after hammering myself for about 5 km sitting only 150m behind I gave up and just rolled to the finish, knowing I had a good ride and enjoyed the sun. In the end only 2 B grade riders finished.

Since then nothing has happened.

I currently have a crack in the back rim of the roadie. After abusing the heavy delicate piece of crap for over a year now, it finally gave in. I also haven't fixed my mtb forks and my SS commuter is out of action, so I have done no training for 2 weeks. I will probably try fix my forks this week so I can do the dirt crits, and I guess I will try and sort something out for my road bike since I'm meant to be racing the road crits on the Token team now.

So that's all for now, if you don't hear anything for a while, its because I have no bikes and I'm a bit busy with school (which finishes forever in 3 weeks) and enjoying a few late nights out to make up for all those last while training over winter.

Fine weather, fine times

I think if training is the only thing in the way of becoming a good rider, I just need to move to a good climate. As of the Scott, I was planning on just chilling for the rest of the year, training when I want, but not forcing myself out of bed at 6am (not that it ever actually happens). But this week has seen the most training Ive done in months. Why you ask? Its been hot, sunny and not too windy, so Ive been doing all the riding I can before it gets windy or cold or wet again.

Tuesday I did a ride out to Sutton before school, which ruined me for the rest of the day, but it was well worth it, had such a great time, then Wednesday night, I hit up the epic Mt Pleasant and Mt Ainslie, had ACTAS gym sesh yesterday, then I did a 70km ride out to Lake George after school this morning. Plus Ive been riding to school everyday, so me and the roadie have spent a lot of time together this week, were becoming good friends.

Tomorrow, I PLAN to do a road race out at Tharwa, its about 75km over 3 laps on a fast, picturesque undulating coarse. I'm going to have to ride out there, which as about 30km, so I hope I'm not too stuffed after that to have a good race, but I will have fun either way. After that, I will probably race the Club Championships at Uriara Homestead next weekend. Then there are two big races (for me at least), the IBM Classic which is doodles around the bottom of Corin dam for a bit before the 12km climb to the finish at Corin Forest, a climb I know pretty well, and can climb very well, followed by the ACT Hill Climb Champs, a TT up Corin Dam, another race I think I could do well in. There is also the return of Team Token Products to the Summer Crit Series and CORCs dirt crits once I fix my forks.

That's all for now, Ill let you know how the Tharwa race goes next week.

Scott 24 Punter

Had the Scott on the weekend. To sum it up, the coarse wasn't as good as last year, there were too many people and the first lap (which I did) was horrible. It missed the techy sections of the blue lap and the wicked DH of the red lap (there was a little though, and it was awsome). The race seemed to consist of riding on your own in the open boring sections and then meeting a train of punters at the start of any climb, descent or tech section. The race also proved ignorance is bliss, my dusk/night/dawn laps were so much fun, sliding around in the dust giving it everything. But the day laps were a bit sketchy. our team was pretty young (except me) but we had a pretty good race and got 2nd in the school category. A fun race as always, but I think they should go back to last years format, it worked really well.

Thank you CORC for supporting our team, catchya later dudes.

Crazy Yowies

I raced the You Yangs Yowie on the weekend, I got 9th place. I was a little worried as my forks were buggering up again and I only had about 40mm of travel, but as it turned out, it may not have been such a bad thing. It was a pretty small field and there was about 5km of fire road with a good climb at the end. I managed to ride with the lead bunch though this section and reached the top of the climb in about 5th place and stayed with them through the first small section of single track. However when we reached The Clam I didn't really know what was coming and had to walk and dropped my chain in the process. I caught a few others who had dropped off the back but lost them again when things got technical again. the last 15km of the track was super flat, super smooth and super easy. I was in the big ring half the time and just hammering away. At the end of the first lap I could see a guy off in the distance and made it my goal to beat him, I caught him on the big climb and we raced each other for the rest of the race until the final real climb of the lap before halfway when I got a good lead and opened up a good gap by the end of that lap. By the final lap I was feeling pretty smashed and decided to take it easy in the belief that I had an easy lead over this guy and everyone else was too far away, but the the descent at about halfway he caught me and the race was on again. He was way more skilled than me and had a good 30 second gap, but I managed to pull him in, and got away with out being chased. I ended up about 30 seconds in front at the finish in 9th place, 20 minutes off the lead.

One Angry Doctor

I raced the Doctor last weekend and that would have to be one of my best races. I placed 21st overall, and 10th in open men which i was pretty disappointed about, but my time was 20 minutes faster than last year (again not that happy about the improvement) and I raced the best race I could. The heat was intense. 30 degrees with hot winds made it a full on race. I was pouring water on my head but the water was hot and the wind did nothing to cool me down. I had a great start and managed to get in the top 15 or so as we entered Old Mogo Town, and as we started the first long open climb I stayed with the leaders for a while, eventually getting dropped about halfway up. I lost a fair bit of time in the first 10km due to the technical nature of the fire roads and single track, but once we started really climbing I started to make my mark. Just before the first feed station I managed to catch Adam Franklin who has serviced my bike many times and won open men in the race in its first year. After that I lost a bit of time in some of the flat rutted tracks but we all came together at the 50km mark where i had a real fast food swap and chain clean and got on my way. after a few sections of single track for about 10km the big climbs got underway. At this stage I was on my own, but I managed to catch one or two people at the start, eventually Jason McAvoy (I think, Onyabike rider on an old XTC?) caught me an we passed two other guys and I tried to open a gap, but he got away when I stopped at the feed station. After the feed station an epic battle between me and some guy in white and yellow jersey began. I was smashing the hills, he was smashing the downhills. He got away, but at about 5km to go I caught him and 4 other guys including Mark Fenner who was walking, and I eventually beat the orange and white guy and the last real climb of the race.
I managed to do the whole race without hitting the wall, but It showed where I'm weak. I was losing a lot of time on the descents and I just don't know how to eat when I'm racing.

So now I have a few weeks to recover before the You Yangs Yowie and the Scott 24hr, so I might do a road race o sunday I try and do some hill climbs and bunch rides next week. Thats all for now, Ill get back to you when someting cool happens.

2 weeks away!!!!

He's fired up and ready for some malpractice, the Angry Doctor is only 2 weeks away. The highlight of my racing calender is the Angry Doctor, and I'm feeling pretty good coming into it. This is the most enjoyable of any race I have done, the scenery is beautiful, its challenging, there is some really fun single track and its always an adventure. The preparation has gone to plan after a 3 week break due to illness, but I'm still on track. Last week was meant to be a peak training week, but school got in the way and as it turns out, I didn't stretch my legs once. Did some hill climb reps and a mtb ride on the weekend though. A few short intense rides this week and then a week of recovery before the race and I should be in good shape.

At this stage I think I will be in form for the yowie on October the 3rd as school will be very relaxed after that. This is another race I'm really looking forward to, every photo Ive seen looks really fun. I'm making a few plans for next year in terms of racing. I'm thinking of doing a few of the enduro races in the Nationals Series next year with a focus on the Otway Odyssey, a race Ive wanted to do for years now. I might consider doing the BMC Mountains to Beach, or more likely the Terra Australis but that depends on getting money.

So that's all for now, keep on rolling.