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.

On the road again.

Well, not so much the road as the single track. That's right, the man flu has passed after a week of miserable suffering. Yesterday morning was the most perfect winters morning you could ask for, calm, warm and sunny. So I went for a little roll to to enjoy the delightful surrounds of O'connor Ridge. It took me a little while to get going, and I was coughing a bit, but by the end I was feeling great, a nice peaceful adventure out of the house was just what I needed to get me going again. But it was just a warm up, this morning me Tom and Ben headed out on a mtb epic from O'connor Ridge to Stromlo and back. The ridge was a blast, and it was great to ride around black mountain as well. When we got to Stromlo the clouds were getting dark and there were a couple of drops of rain. By half way though the ride, the rocks were getting slippery and the track was as gripy as you will ever see them at Stromlo, but it never developed more than that. It ended up being an easy 3.5 hours in the saddle, so I'm still doing OK.

In other news, a parcel from CRC arrived on Friday afternoon full of answers to my cycling problems. I pulled apart my rear wheel today, after picking up some spokes I will rebuild that. I'm also going to service my front hub as well, so that I don't need to replace that any time soon. The bike is going into the shop on Tuesday to get a new BB and wont come back with the small chain ring (I'm going 2x9) then Finlay a new cassette, chain middle chainring and tyres are going on.

So thats all for now, hopefully in a week I will be back on track and feeling PUMPED!!!!!

Another excuse

Yep another excuse for why I have been for maybe 4 or 5 rides in the last 3 weeks. Very little sleep has now resulted in me getting fully sick, and not in the usually way. Seems to be just a cold, but its painful, can't breath all that fantastically and my nose is like a tap. I'm really disappointed though, I was planning to race the Iron Mike, a pretty big race that I did pretty well in last year and one of the biggest road races during winter. I was planning on racing the ACT road champs this weekend as well, but I'm going to need a remarkable recovery to consider doing that now. I want to make the epic trip to the end of Boboyan Road and back by the end of winter/before the Angry Doctor but times running out for that as well, but its still possible. In case I haven't mentioned I'm confirmed for the Angry Doctor, followed 2 weeks later by the You Yangs Yowie then the Scott 24hr a week later. Even if I'm not all that fit, I'm really looking forward to the Yowie, looks like a really fun track. If any of you guy(s)/girl(s) reading this are familiar with the You Yangs and particularly the Yowie track, please let me know what I'm in for. Is it a lot of single track or fire road? and what are the climbs like? steep and hard or long slogs?

So I'm off for more tea and sleep, hope you enjoyed my uneventful update.

Tour de Holidays comes to an end.

After 3 and a half very lazy weeks, the Tour de Holidays has come to an end. That's right, back to bloody school today for some not so great times. But lets go back to the happier days of the holidays. Last week didn't see the potential epicness that it could have, but finished the Tour with a bang. After a Wednesday morning bunch ride which I think I did very well in, riding at the front in the climbs, there was a days rest before the final stage. Canberra to Goulburn to Moss Vale to Nowra, a 220km battle against the Hume highways gravely shoulder and constant ups and downs, variable but reasonably strong winds and some mind blowing hills. The ride to Goulburn (100km ish) was pretty flat and sunny with dad helping me with a bit of pacing. After Goulburn, the road started to go up and down a bit more, but not any real climbs, but some pretty bad road surfaces. It wouldn't have been so bad except that it was only the shoulder/cycle lane which had a crappy surface, the rest of the road had buttery smooth hot mix which I couldn't ride on because of all the traffic. Riding through the southern highlands wasn't much better and the friendly folk in Moss Vale really motivated me to move on and finish the ride. I knew I had the descent into the Kangaroo Valley followed by a climb and another descent, but had no idea what I was in for. Droping down the Dividing Range into Kangaroo Valley on the smoothest of smooth hot mix roads with so many corners was the only thing in the world that could make me smile like that after such a long day. What followed was a 5km climb up an amazingly steep hill. It hurt more than anything, and I'd had it but I was determined to make it to Nowra as fast as I could. My music stopping halfway up didn't help either, but rolling down the other side made it all worth it. They sure know how to build a mountain road in the Kangaroo Valley!

So although the Tour de Holidays did see a few too many rest days, a lot has been gained, in both training and great cycling memories, and I now have an extra 897km in the legs (that's right I mapped out each ride on bikely).

What now I hear you all chant? Well this week is a bit of a rest/stay up watching the last week of the Tour de France week. Ill probably do the Hour of Power in the morning and then maybe a road race on the weekend. Then I will start focusing my training on speed and power, with hill climbs and hard bunch rides in abundance and a long endurance ride on the weekends. I think my endurance is pretty good right now, but if I want to keep up with the elites riders, I need to be a lot faster than I am now.

So that's all for now, good luck to Andy Schleck but Contador is going to win, and keep on rolling.

Tour de Holidays

Well there have been a few more crack stages and some not so cracker stages. A trek up to Burra and back last Tuesday saw some nice climbing and high speeds due to a strong tail wind on the way home. A pretty good ride at about 3 hours I think. The following day was a very unmotivated Cotter Uriara loop, which was briefly interrupted by some exploring of Mountain Creek Road, but was rudely interrupted by a very buckled wheel due to a broken spoke. It ended up being a very slow and hungry 4 hour ride as great care was taken not to further buckle said wheel. Last Friday saw the return of the always inspirational Honeysuckle Creek ride, a 110km ride with an 8km climb reaching gradients of 20% and a 400m altitude gain. Probably my favourite ride due to good roads the whole way, with opportunities for high speeds, and a cracker of a climb that really lets you enjoy the high mountains, and finishes in the most peacefull surroundings.

Yesterday I raced the CORC club race, and wasn't really feeling like it, and after the first lap decided to stop racing and just rolled the last lap. I had a bit of a recovery ride today out to Stromlo and back. Wednesday is likely to see a long awaited return to Corin Forrest and potentially Corin Dam itself. There is also speculation of an EPIC 200km ride to farewell the Tour de Holidays.

But for now, I'm going to have some dinner.