Training with the roadies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lliUsY9u1b4

Win some, Loose some

This weekend I headed out to a possible damp Yarramundi for the third round of the WSMTB/MWMTB XC Series. At rego they had the point score results for the first two rounds and there is my name sitting 4th down in A Grade. Sweet!
From the start there was hot competition, Mr Price, Mr Elliot, Mr Gordon just to name a few. It was fast and furious up the front and I kept up for the first kilometer but their attack of the climbs was what I could not replicate. I did all I could but wasn't the only one to be left behind, my first lap was fun, swapping our "lead" with the other riders.
But it is amazing in cycling how fast you can come from nowhere, then how fast you are brought back to size.
Chain suck. Or variations of chain suck is where it went wrong. In three separate incidents over the second and third laps variations of chain suck happened after or during a rutted downhill section. I find chain suck ok when you can recover it on the move and a key to a good riding style is to not stop. These incidents had me off the track to recover the chain, I lost my rhythm and the back end of the A Grade field.
My support crew came along but I had to ride off the track to the car to get a fresh bottle. I had failed to inform my crew of my needs before the race. Off the track again. It was at this time my fun race wasn’t just that. On my way through the fourth lap I re-focused, cooled my jets and set about making a fun ride of it all. Whipping the tail out over the whoops and nailing the limited technical downhill sections.
The course was a basic Yarramundi layout with many of the technical climbs and rocky sections removed. Simple, fast and I liked most of it. In trying to limit the wet parts of the track it still had some damp and slippery patches. Good thing was my tyre choice, I had kept on the set of sparsely spaced full knobby tyres that I race on at Cabbage last week. Again it was a great choice keeping my power positively connected to the dirt.
Up the front I gave the Velvet R five more PSI to take it back to 60 as recommended by Duncan from DIY MTB. The fork continued to deliver full travel, effortlessly eating through the bumps and drops. The Canaan now climbs much better with the 100mm internally adjusted fork up the front.
After some really fun racing this year I came in with a win this week. Scoring a free entry via random draw to a round of NSWMTB XC Series. Cheers, Mr Armour!

Wet Cabbage

SCUM hosted another round of their XC series on the weekend at their flat and fast track at Cabbage Tree. Cabbage gets two thumbs up from Beginner through to Elite riders for different reasons and is a great track for honing some of those single track skills. Heaps of riders turned up to the round even with the scattered showers being forecast for the day.
From the start of the race I managed to hold Josh Carlson’s (State XC Round 1 elite winner and FRS rider) wheel and it wasn’t till the third lap that he made a considerable gap. I held off any other riders for the remaining of the race.
The track conditions were described as lying water and the track is normally hard packed dirt and clay. It didn’t take much more than a lap to change the lying water to muddy sections. I had picked a set of sparsely spaced full knobby tyres to match the conditions and was a great choice keeping my power positively connected to the dirt.
The mud wasn’t the only thing I had to contend with there were two occasions, mid race, where my rear derailleur could have been eaten by sticks and I had to stop to rescue it. On my fourth lap I had another incident that hasn’t happened in quite a while. By this stage I was covered in mud including my tinted glasses and it happened during a fast flowing section. I found myself removed from my bike, briefly flying, then impacting the soft dirt beside the track. Thankfully I didn’t damage myself or the bike.
My Mongoose Canaan Team from Bikes at the Basin now has a X-Fusion Velvet R fork from DIYMTB
fitted and it was great to test out the fork. Duncan from DIYMTB internally adjusted the fork from 130mm to 100m travel to suit my bike. The Velvet is a neat looking fork and I found it’s bump eating performance just as good as high end forks. I look forward to putting the Velvet through its paces in coming races.
It was a shame there was no Dugong sighting or swimming stories. But I had quite a bit of fun returning to Cabbage Tree and reminded me of my early MTB days when Cabbage was my local track. Two muddy thumbs up!