A new era.

So national champs was on sunday morning. I had spent a week practising the track, getting mentaly prepared, getting the bike ready and just preparing for probably the most important race i have done so far. I got an ok start in the sense that i was moving around with the front riders and feeling pretty comfortable (not in pain tryign to hold the pace). I got droped a bit before the single track but i knew i would catch them again as they slowed down to enter it (which i did) i raced this young gun up the hill and passed him with ease at the end and held him of down most of the berm track. I was feelign good and looking for the next riders to pass, i was probably in 10th place when i felt my back tyre start to slide all over the place... I had a flat tyre. i had to ride on a few corners before i found a good spot to stop and tried to fix it but had to stop a second because i was way too scatered to change a tyre with gloves on. it was changed in no time but my CO2 canister didnt fill it up rpoperly so i had to ride to the feed station and pump the rest in there. i continued to race on but i had lost alot of places, and time. I ended up coming in 18th which i felt pretty un happy with. I think i could have been mixing it with the top 7 or 8 had i not got that stupid puncture, but we will never know that.

It was a pretty crazy race though, Michael Baker won in his first year in U19s, Brenda Johnston got 2nd (i think he might have crashed), Trenton Day got 7th and there were a whole heap of new zealanders throughout the feild. To sum it up, the feild was very big, very close and some people had a great day, others had a shit day.

So this is the end of my XCO days now. I will still race nationals a bit, but my focus is on marathons now. Im looking forward to my training and racing now. the training is more relaxed, enjoyable and flexible. Im hoping my first race will be the Australian Championships in which I will race the u18s 69km (haha) race. And i will then try and win open in the Capital Punishment race here in Canberra. WhenI can get in a position where travel is less of a problem (sponsorship, money) I will start racing alot of marathons in spring and autum.

So im of for now, hit me up if you want to ride, and peace out.

Lats minute prep

Its a bit less than a week from National Champs. Ive done a fair bit of training in the last two weeks. On the road there has been a bit of everything, racing, intervals, and fast hilly bunch rides. Monday was my last road ride and I did intervals up the Federal Hwy, I was a bit tired so I couldnt push my self to the limit, but I felt pretty fast anyway. Ive stoped road traing so that my legs can recover a bit for the weekend, and feel fresh and ready to hammer it. As for the mountin bike, Ive been to stromlo a few times now, mainly just practising the world cup climb and berm track. Im pretty fast on both now. Tomorow im going to go and get everything down perfect. I havnt been able to get up the first pinch of the world cup climb, but im riding virtualy on slicks which makes it pretty hard. I feel pretty fast on most of the track until Break out, the fast track with a few switchbacks at the start followed by flying straight down to the backup car park with lots of of camber corners. It is just such a slipery track and I cant get through the coreners fast enough, hopefuly some aggresive tyres and a cleaner dustyer track will help me out a little bit. Ive been riding the caurse with my borther and Brad Morton (sp) a bit which has helped because I now know where Im slow and fast, where i should be attacking.

My plan is to go out tomrow morning and try and get every thing down. Then thursday night, go out and race the short track and do a lap of the track with racing tyres on and then ride out to stromlo on the roadie on sat morning to help dad in his race. The saturday mornign ride is to just keep my legs moving and keep them loose and streched.

Ive now got a new middle chain ring, cassette and chain so I should have plenty of power. Im looking forward to the race, im trying to get myself in a good mind set. My best perfomances have been when im in a good mood but a bit aggresive, so i guess im just going to listen to some tunes and get angry while I warm up...hahaha.

So unless somthing happens between now and then, ill see you all in a weekish.

Hot Damn Boys!!!

Look what arrived today

So after a pretty average road race on the false flat at Uriara this morning (I got droped half way and DNFed), me and dad poped by Cycle City to pick up my new frame all ready to go. Its an 08 model Carbon FLX 5000 frame so its a little different to my old one. Its got a scratch guard on the drive side of the chain stay and different shapes around the place. Feels pretty much the same as my old bike though (as you would expect). Hasnt been for a ride yet, but will be seeing the likes of the Stromlo World Cup track sometime tomrow morning.

Im trying to sell the forks so I can buy some R7s which will be followed by XO shifters and rear mech.

Too much road (the dirt is calling)

I have some fantastic news (for me anyway) after waiting ages to hear from Merida about my frame, they came back and said they wont cover it because its accidental. They did however offer a frame for $700ish. This was not good enough, we talked to the guys from Merida (not the bike shop) and explained how well the bike had been treated and the agreed to replace it. They reckon I will have the bike by the weekend, but I don't know about (I really hope I do though). This leaves me with 2 weeks to nail the nationals course (not as long as the month i had planed on).

Besides the fact the nationals are only 2 and half weeks away, I need another bike so I'm not always on the roadie. As much as I like road riding, my bike is a piece of shit. Its only 8 speed which isn't too bad, but sometimes I wish i had more choice when I just cant find my rhythm. The drive train is pretty worn out, and is getting pretty sloppy. But the back wheel is the biggest problem, the hub spins around about 5 or 6 times and stops (with a good spin), and I the worst rim you have ever seen. It takes about 2 maybe 3 rides before it buckles again. I am constantly truing it. Then theres the the tyre I put on it, I got the tyre in October and it is already very very flat and getting a lot of punctures. How many you ask? Tuesday, a flat while chasing the Hour of Power, fixed that on Wednesday, as we were leaving another flat, so we replaced the tube, then another flat on the way to the crit, then this morning, another flat about 300m from home.

But I'm still in a good mood for riding, I just want to go out and hammer myself. I don't think I can do well at nationals, but I think 5th is very possible. But Im realy looking forward to starting my enduro training.

Thats all for now, Ill get back to you once ive been out for a ride on the frame.

New Years!

The shit has hit the fan! A few days before xmas i was cleaning my xc bike before the Mt Taylor hill climb which I was realy looking forward to, when I decided to change my chain stay protector, and what do i find as Im washing the dust away? A great big hole at the bottom of chain stay. So the old Flx 3000 went straight to a Merida dealer where I was informed that it was most likely caused by the derailleur swining up or something. The guy from the shop has been mega helpfull, but has said he cant see them covering it by warenty. If they dont, there will be a bit of arguing on my part. I believe that the bike was well handled, and used for its intended use, yet this happened. All the parts on the bike are stock. So I havnt been doing much training as a result of the festive season and what not and all and all feeling a bit shity about nationals. Im going to continue to train for nationals since I could mabey actualy do ok, though its not looking good at this stage. The thing is, I just dont like racing XCO competitavly that much. Its fun at a club level, but when you need to do well its just too full on for me. Also, training for it is so boring, its all intervals and hill climb reps for less than 2 hours. I just want to hit the road for a few hours and climb some big hills and enjoy it.

Im realy looking forward to training for marathons again. Just going out with the intention of going some place with no intended route and finding something new. Hammering through a full on head wind to get that corner in the distance where i know i will be flying along, riding so far away from home that Im ontop of a hill where I can see all of canberra or some beautiful wildlife or riding for so long with little food that a wobble home in a numb trance. Thats what I love about riding, thats what makes me a happy chap.

On the other hand, If I were to do well in nationals I would be a very very happy chappy. So Im just going to get up early each morning (before the wind) and ride as hard as i can for one or two hours, hope that I have a new frame in the next week or so and see what happens.

In some other cycling news, Andy has managed to get us (my brother pete, andy, dave and myself) on the Jet Black team for the Sydney 24hr in febuary. The race is on the Hawksbry (sp?) river so we can swim between laps which will feel great. After the 08 scott 24hr, Im actualy looking forward to this, Ive learnt how to handle all nighters now so I will probably have a good race.

So thats all for now, I will get back to you all when I find out more about my frame.

End of the year

Its the end of the year, everythings starting to finish and its party time. Last night raced the last road crit for the year, talk about edgy. There was extra prize money so everyone was mad keen to place well and everyone was just all over the shop yelling at each other and what not. I was having a greta time, felt good, no strugle at all just hammering arounf stromlo crit track and figuring out my plan for the sprint. coming into the sprint theres a right hand corner then a left hand corner. I decided to take the inside of the right corner and then accelerate on the far outside of the last corner. The guy in front did the same and I was hammering it and accelerating alot faster than the bunch. I had about 10 meters to make up but I could have done it, had the guy in front of me not violently wobbled all over the place causing me to swerve of onto the grass, finishing in about 3rd last place, I was so angry, I realy think I could have done it, but it was a fun night anyway. Pete got 5th and Dave got 3rd, our best finish so far, so we went out and had some pizza as a celebration.
Tonight, Im racing the mtb crit which is a hill climb tonight as another Xmas special. Im going to try and do well but im probably racing Dylan Cooper and Ben henderson so I wont be disappointed if Im not there first.

Ive been training pretty hard since ive been on holidays (with the exception of last weekend which was too wet and windy). Im feeling alot stronger now, but I realy need to work on my climbing. I never thought Id have to say that but its true. So Im going to bust out some more hill climbs throughout the week and get back my inner mountain goat.
So im down the coast next week, probably with the roadie and then back to Canberra on the 27th for PHD which is going to go off and then after new years, party time is over and it becomes hammer time.

Any way have fun over xmas and new years, dont be safe and Ill catchya later kids.

Getting back on track

Ive been doing alot of thinking about what my goals are and what my strengths are. Illinbah left me in a bad state of mind, It was going to be my big race where Id make a name for myself, and it didnt happen. I went for a few rides last week and felt realy crapy, realt slow up the hills, and just weak in the crits. This was not how I felt before Illinbah and my cold. Ive decided that ive hit a bit of a dip at the moment and I just need to push myself out of it and get strog for National champs in january. This means im not going to race you yangs or anything other than crits till then. Im also not going to be on the mountain bike much for the rest of the year. My plan for the rest of the year is to just get as strong as i can by doing hard fast rides with flat fast sections, undulating rough sections and somegood climbs. Im not going to be over doing it either, I dont want to get sick again. I have no set days for riding just not riding on tuesday, crit on wednsday and thrusday and bunch ride on sat morning. I am already starting to feel stronger again, but still not there. Over Xmas my family is going down the south coast for a week. Ive been looking on bikley and the road rides look a little bit boring, but from what i can tell the XC tracks are few and far between, so im not sure which bike to take. I might have achat to Brendan Johnston see what he reckons, he lives down there, so id say he knows all the roads and xc tracks.
So thats where things are at for now, tell me if you know of any good roads or XC tracks between batemans bay and moruya.
Bye
Nick