Sport

There is a certain feel of achievement with things you do. On Saturday the feeling came from working my way through the field of A Grade riders. SCUM held their installment of the XC Series on a Saturday afternoon, just for something different. There was the usual large crowd and most Grades had a bit of competition. Being a bit slow of the start, I warmed up over the first lap, slowly working my way between riders and across the ever expanding gaps to the next rider. From what I remember lap one was Nat and a few others, lap two Kurt. Three would have been Dave "The Bike Shack" Tuckerman. Then I saw his bike spin spectacularly and pin-ball between trees. Dave on the other hand made a splendid dismount, superman flight between the trees and land like a cat on the soft soil.
After five slightly shortened laps, there was still fuel left in the tank and felt good enough for more. I crossed the line in 5th for A Grade, after making my way through the field. The Coondoo track was in fair shape and offered challenges for all levels, be it the loose soil and sand, gradual climbs or fire-trail sprints. SCUM continues to offer competitive racing at all levels and great value of money over a variety of tracks.

Check out the new Orbea at Bikes at the Basin, Shane is riding the latest carbon hard-tail variety.
The sense of achievement continued on Sunday with a different challenge. The Southern Highlands Cycling Club held a 5hr Enduro on part of the well known Wingello MTB trails. The field of riders wasn’t big but many rides had traveled as far as I to race. There was quite a bit of open fire-trail from the start before we hit the first great sections of single track. No slow start this time, I was in the right gear during the uphill start. Twenty seconds later someone called out "hold his wheel", the terrain leveled out and I found myself tucked in behind the lead rider wearing a McGee jersey. The trail started to descend and in my pre-race warm-up I had noticed the worn line on the left, I moved out of the riders shadow and across to the line. Briefly I held the lead across the flat, through a very sandy corner and down the next section before the McGee jersey span past me. All I saw were legs ferociously spinning the single gear and the rider pilot the full ridged bike first into the single track.
Leaping forward to the end of the first lap I had managed to hold 3rd position through all the single track sections, till the last fire trail climb this is where the young teams made ground. It wasn’t the last time I saw the teams, we jostled positions numerous times throughout the race. Over the first few hours I maintained a XC rhythm and it was late in the third hour as I was lapped by the lead rider that I kicked back into more of an endurance rhythm.
Highlights of the race have to be the single track sections that are very easy to flow. Knowing the right line through corners, over obstacles and when to or not to brake paid dividends to your speed. Fire trail sections were kept to a minimum but was still plenty for grabbing a bit to eat or drink. The race organisers had quite a few free giveaways and plenty of bits for the podium places. It was nice to place on the podium in this race, a solid 2nd.
Turns out after closer inspection of my tightly tensioned rear wheel on the Canaan, the wheel had been making a bit of sound and a wobble over the weekend, I have busted a spoke out of the rim. Luckily it looks like the nipple has failed and done no damage to the rim. This will be the first time that I will have to spend some serious time on this wheel set.
Good luck to all you riding the bird this weekend.

Our mtb scene won’t be the same without Willo.

March Riding

Last weeks recovery week saw me on the bike a bit and make steps towards further strength training. The strength training will include over gearing short rides, hill climbing and gym work. Ow!
Sunday was WSMTB first round of their XC series. It was nice to line up with a bit larger field than normal. Turns out some of the sandbagging B Graders finally pulled their fingers out and give me some competition at the back of the Grade. I had some really good racing with the new recruits to 5 lap XC. Had my HR monitor on to check out how I was doing, turns out I may need to work a bit harder during training. So it is back to HR based cycling to ensure I get the most out of the training I do. The only disappointment was the increase by 50% of the WSMTB race fee. I am not sure the claims of an increase in National Parks fee needed a race fee increase.

Spriggsy giving it max through the narrowest section of narrow-neck.

The weekend just gone, Saturday included a session with the Tri Club, flat sprints and TT style riding. Sunday a few of the guys and I headed to Katoomba. We rode the narrow-neck fire-trail, it is close to a 40km return from the center on town, and has great weather dependent views. With plenty of climbing, narrow-neck offers a great couple of hours of riding and is popular with MTBers and hikers.

Keep an eye on your tyres for cuts and exessive wearing, I found this nice nick in my Kendas after racing with WSMTB.

In the news this week my cycling is additionally supported by Carman’s Fine Food and Wealth Creation Accountants.

SCUM XC

Ripping it up.

A good week of training was finished up with a visit to SCUM on Sunday. SCUM held the second round of their XC series at Superbowl which this week featured some loose and sandy descents. With less categories to ride in this year you can easily be riding next to National XC Series representatives or even a National Champion. But this didn't stop many new people from riding on the day, just to check out what all the fuss is about.
In the race and in the lead the real fast boys blew off the front after a lap. Josh Carlson continually put small amounts of time on his rivals and bike shop owners Paul “Berry Mt Cycles” Trayner and Shane “Bikes at the Basin” Wood. Back just a little further I tussled with Dave “The Bike Shack” Tuckerman as he made ground over the climbs and I pulled him back through the remainder of the course. Dave was fully aware that he had to put in the extra effort to keep me off his tail. Not far behind us were other riders who just couldn’t make the gap we had over them and continued to loose small amounts of time to us over the five laps. There was some good racing in A Grade.
Thanks have to go to Richard and Tracy who gave me a place to stay on the Saturday night. Good luck to Richard and his team as they head towards the Mont later in the month
Products on trial at the moment include Verofit Regeneration, Jetblack Lock-on grips, ESI foam grips and Fox XC gloves.

Rouse Hill on Friday before heading down to Nowra for the weekend.