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.

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.