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Tuesday, November 27, 2012

STM Awaba Event Wrap

The final round of Chocolate Foot's Singletrack Mind (STM) Series 2012 was hosted by the Hunter MTB Association on everyone’s favourite trail,Awaba. The Awaba MTB Park is well know for its smooth lines and flowing sections, attracting riders from around the state to experience its fun.

The STM Series draws a large following and this round was no different, with over 300 riders registered making up 177 teams, included the solo riders. A quick crunch of numbers proved that this Awaba round was the biggest STM round this year.

The event hub was tightly packed with event sponsors and team marquees, in some places they were two and three deep. The car park was even more packed with cars parked half way back to the park entrance gate.


It was again a battle between the Canberra locals, Ed McDonald and Andy Hall, in the Solo Male category, with Andy having the upper hand in the series points thus far. The Ed and Andy show began from the offset with Andrew Lloyd kept them company. It was on their 7th lap, in the 4th hour where Ed and Andy began to ride away from Lloyd. Late in the 6th hour Ed continued to push, breaking away from Andy and cementing well over a five minute lead for the remainder of the event.

While the morning’s temperature did start out at fairly comfortable it didn’t take long before it became a hard slog in +35 degree temperatures. But it was the coolness of the rainforest section that offered brief relief before being cooked on the Camel Back Climb.

In the Masters Solo category Radical Lights’ Gary James lead from GO, a little further back his team mate Jason McAvoy was plugging away with Phil Welch remaining consistent just few minutes further back. Jason started to have trouble in the 5th hour with the heat and began slipping time to Phil, who eventually moved into 2nd. This battle of attrition was evident across all the categories especially the solos with a bulk of riders calling it a day some where between three to seven laps.

There may have been wine tastings from Jimmy Jack but it was the local DHers with the smell of their bacon and egg BBQ sangers that would have most riders mouths watering, that and the sweet hammock setup would have been inviting. They also kept the cool friendly STM vibe going with their hoots and calls encouraging passing riders.

It was the steady efforts that reaped the rewards in the Female Solo category. Libby Adamson started the day sitting in around 5th and mid way through the day moved into the leading position, a well deserved win in the testing conditions. Janet Martin and Jess Simpson made the most of the morning’s cooler temperatures setting the fastest female solo laps and rounding out the podium.

Hunter MTB Club keep Awaba in great nick and over the course of the day the trail fairies continued to sweep and marshal sections of trail. There was no litter and defiantly no complaints about the brushed effect on sections of trail.
                                   
Wendy Stevenson, already the clear Female Masters Solo category series leader, was conscious of her placing against the Female Solo category but chose a conservative approach through the latter part of the day. Wendy went on to complete the eight hours while her direct competitor Nicole Lancaster called it a day early.

Even the St Johns guys were even getting into the swing of the STM vibe out on the trail. The trail conditions may have in some cases overwhelmed their pannier laden MTBs but they were seen to be giving it a go and hung out at the spectacle that is the bessa-block descent.

With the final round of the STM Series over for 2012, the full results from the round are available online, you can look forward to more excitement from the Chocolate Foot crew in 2013. It all kicks off at the end of April with Round 1 of STM 2013, visit the Chocolate Foot calendar for more details.


Monday, November 19, 2012

NSWMTB XCO Ourimbah

What more could you want than the states fastest XCO riders on one of the states best trails.


Quantum Leaps with Steve

CamelBak - WSMTB Summer Series 2012-13 4hr

This was my first race after the Croc and whilst I knew the legs were full of power, I’m not sure where my head was at.  I had my back Rocktaped up by Hana our team masseuse in preparation the night before and had finally put my Epic 29er back together after the Croc.

After overnight rain, I headed off to the race for the 6pm start.  Lights would be required after around 8pm, so there was at least 2 hours in the dark.  Numbers at the start line seemed to be down but it was still competitive with a couple of solo guys racing off into the distance with the team guys when Big Dog started proceedings.

Steve (Quantum Racing) blurs by during the 4hr
The track was in super nick.  The last time I had rode it around a year ago after the floods it was destroyed, but some extensive work by the WSMTB guys has made it all good and I was having great fun on the singletrack 6.7km course.  I was smashing the climbs with the croc legs, but initially had some trouble with the loose sand on the descents.  A few laps in and the sand had been compacted and my Rubena Scylla tyres really came into their own.  I could rail those corners like nothing else and I never lost traction on the climbs – awesome!!  I was running low pressures (25psi Front and 28psi Back) as I knew the course was technical and I needed the grip, not the rolling speed.  I was trying to set a steady pace not knowing how far ahead the couple of leading solo guys were.

I knew I had a chance of reeling those solo guys in, I just had to keep plugging away with consistent lap times.  I turned the lights on just after 8pm and dropped about 1+min per lap as I backed off a little on the descents.  The track was starting to dry out as well and come 9pm, my mind was starting to wander and I had some ‘oh crap’ moments where the front end let go or I almost endo’d.  This race had an extra edge for me as I had broken my hand and knocked myself out in the exact same race 3 years ago on the last lap, so I was determined to not loose concentration.

Well past the 3 hour mark I felt I was reeling in a lot of guys and I decided to lift my pace, I might be a chance to catch the leading guys.  As you can appreciate at night, you have no idea where you are coming and whether the light ahead of you is a competitor or a back marker.

On the last lap, I caught sight of a set of lights that was refusing to come in as quickly as all the others, so I put the sprint on.  As luck would have it, on my MP3 player, Mews – Invincible queued up so I had no excuse.  I couldn’t catch whoever it was in the time remaining and dammit; it was 1st place in solo.  He beat me by 30secs after 4hrs and 11 laps.

I placed 2nd in Solo, 5th overall.  A great result, but having a crew callout splits for me would have been a great assistance in a race like this.

PS - Best thing I have discovered in a long time – Rocktape.  If you have lower back pain from mtbing, get some of this stuff, amazing how good it is.  You will need someone who knows what they are doing to put it on.  Previously after these 4hr races, I could hardly move for the pain, but now it is just an ache at the end – way better.


Thursday, November 8, 2012

Thankfully Thursday


Thursday was scheduled for XC and this was much more down my ally. We always have some great XC riders turn up and this year was no exception. The main question on everyones lips though was, which trails were we going to ride? In the dying hours of the Scott 24, only 4 days ago, there were a few trails that had been turned into muddy messes.


Thankfully for the last four days the weather had been fine and sunny, drying all the muddy sections and the trails were dry and fast. Race organisers had created a shortened loop using mostly sections from the Scott 24's Blue Lap. The Elite Men category would complete five 7km laps.



Jarrod Hughes, recent winner of the Rocky Trail GP 4hr at Ourimbah, lead out the pack at an unbelievable pace. No one could match his speed and it was a fight for the minor placings.

I had a great ride, although still fatigued from the recent racing, managing to slot myself in a decent position before the singletrack on the first lap. This ment less overtaking and less time to make up mid race. While the faster XC guys had made a good gap there was still a few of us further back making a race of in in our own little way.

Crummy - (ITT)00:33:17 (DH)00:03:01 (XC)1:48:20 - 2:24:38
Roger - (ITT)00:33:24 (DH)00:03:14 (XC)1:54:26 - 2:31:04

Project 9er

More little goodies have arrived for Project 9er. This just about completes the front end. No imagination  needed, it is a 9er Slider.


Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Wednesday Crit

Before the afternoons Crits and while still in Canberra, we had the chance to visit the AIS. It was an opportunity to receive their athlete recovery briefing and get our recovery questions answered by the AIS recovery staff. It was an informative session and re-enforced the basic principals of recovery.

While we had a large group there it was a chance to participate in a study. This group was randomly divided into two separate groups, one being monitored during a cold pool immersion and subsequent period after the immersion, the other group had a warm pool immersion. You can probably guess which random group I was selected for.

After standing in the sun for half an hour in an attempt to warm up, we headed off on a quick tour of some of the facilities with one of the AIS athletes. 

The afternoons Crit had not only involved ADCC members but also those from the local clubs. This stepped it up a notch as we weren't just competing against our own ADCC members, it was most likely the other clubs rode Crit regularly and this was their home turf. From the outset the tempo was high and there was no shelter from the wind on the open track.


It didn't take long, gaps were opening up and there were people falling off the back of the bunch. I just couldn't get the shelter I needed to maintain the pace and I was out the back, like a handful of others. Here we go again, I was back to TT myself around the track, through the remaining time. It seemed like my second TT in as many days.


Yeah a corner!


Looks fun doesn't it?