Thursday, June 27, 2013

Eleven Speed Oh?

A 94-millimeter bolt circle forged aluminium X-Sync crank, the sweetness.
After the release of SRAM’s XX1, eleven-speed drive-train, it has taken a little while for any sneak previews of the expected trickle-down of the X-Sync system. But expect to see this trickle-down on 2014 season bikes with a second-tier eleven-speed system, yes a lower price variant of XX1, conveniently called X01. Most recently X01 has been spotted at a product launch in France. 

While this will be a more affordable version of XX1, saved some anticipation for the X9 variant, which will show SRAM has figured out how to produce a "on-every-bike" value priced product. Expect to hear more from SRAM later in the year and can’t wait to see X01 on especially on 650B enduro bikes in Australia soon.
Trickle-down with the same zero-slant parallelogram
and Type-2 clutch system, yum.
  

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Ultra Enduro - 24 Solo

What does it take? Where does this drive to ride for extended periods of time, pushing your body and mind to its limits. I pose this question to myself while out on a solo 100km training ride.

It comes from being surrounded by supportive friends. The drive comes from seeing others achieve the goal and seeing how far they went to prepare. Participating along side some of the finest local athletes we have to offer, then seeing them step into the international arena, tearing it up as they go.


The surprises you have along the way, when your out training 50km from civilisation, on a miserable day and come across a bunch of mates out for a hack on the fire-trail, all smiles and laughter. Forgetting about those lonely dark hours mid-race, following a couple of spots of light around the trail, after you introduce night-riding to others and their faces are lit with delight from the experience.

These are the sorts of things I remind myself of, the accomplishment, satisfaction and experiences of getting there. The journey.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

All Schools Mountain Bike Championship

JetBlack NSW All Schools XC Mountain Bike Championship 2013 was held on the weekend. It was a 4 hour teams event, reminiscent of the Mont 24, where the team with the most amount of laps will win their category. Participation points will also be collected, so combine this and the category results would determine the NSW All Schools Champion for 2013. Hosted by WSMTB and NSWMTB it looked like the winner on the day was mountain biking, though I did hear one of the Southern Highlands schools brought a CX bike.
Having ridden for her New England school, Holly now rides for Target/Trek.




The NSW All Schools Champion results for 2013 are;

First: Pymble Ladies College

Second: Chevalier College

Third: Abbotsleigh

Monday, June 17, 2013

Rocking the Trail at Ourimbah

Rolling into the Ourimbah mountain bike area and it is busy, wall to wall team tents and bikes going every which way. There is a large line-up at registration, this isn't unfamiliar though, Rocky Trail Entertainment have built on their Grand Prix Series since 2009 and it is now one of the most popular events on the mountain bike calendar. I reach the rego table and Juliane from RTE confirms the big number of rider entries, it is around 300.

There is the usual scurry around to get prepared for the next four hours of racing, finding a clear patch of dirt beside the trail I place my bottles next to other riders from WSMTB. I pull out the chosen bike for the day and now that I'm here I second guess the choice of a hard-tail. While the Ourimbah trail has plenty on flow, it is technically demanding with rocks and roots to bounce off, hopefully the 9er wheels can just do their thing. I scuff the dirt with my shoe, it looks pretty dry up in the transition area, there were a few questions leading up to the weekend re the weather but it looks the goods for at least the top sections of trail.

Photo: P4P
For this round the start was conducted down the hill, beside the adventure park and was more of a good scramble up the hill to be the first into the single-track. RTE had included the section with the aptly named feature G-Out and included some slippery tree roots to keep us all on our toes. But the usual fun stuff of Jurassic Park and Rollercoaster were incorporated. After the first lap shenanigans the trail opened up and you could make the most of the faster sections, on camber corners and all the hard packed trails.

It is only after a few hours that you get an appreciation for the technical aspects of the trail. It is an upper body workout lifting the front wheel constantly and soaking up all the front end hits. The climbs are a short grind but with every climb you’re rewarded with some sweet descent. I felt on the hard-tail you have to work much harder to keep everything smooth, my calves were on fire from being the shock absorbers for the rear wheel, 2.2” tubeless tyres only float over the small rough stuff.


On completion of the four hour race it was Jon Odams who took the top step for the Solo Elite Males. James Lamb took advantage of the situation when cracks started to show for Kyle Ward who in the second half of the event slipped from Odams’ wheel. James placed second with Kyle holding onto third. In the Solo Elite female category it was Nienke Oostra who led from start to finish, some sneaky training before she heads to some racing in Europe . Belinda Diprose finished in second place with Emily Cunningham rounding out the top steps.

Now that many riders had finished, there was a relaxed atmosphere on course even though the seven hour riders still had quite a few hours to go. It was also a Saturday afternoon and there wasn’t as much of a rush to pack up. A BBQ and a few light refreshments were shared around as we saw riders through transition with plenty of encouragement.

In the seven hour, Canberra road-trippers Mark Tupalski and Ed McDonald placed one-two consecutively with Max Richardson in third place for the Solo Elite category. The Female Solo Elite winner was Sarah Neumann, both Sarah and Liz Smith, the other rider in the category, rode consistently through the seven hours.

The next round of the Grand Prix will be held at Mt Annan on the 13Jul13. More details on the Rocky Trail Entertainment webpage of visit them on Facebook.

Sunday, June 16, 2013

The ebb and tide of MTB


It is pretty harsh when you look at your training counter is down to a tenth of where you want to be. These are the challenges we all face wether it be work, sickness or a myriad of other things. It isn’t often I face the fact but with almost a month without training, it was just a little scary. Slot in two weeks of road only training and my first touch of dirt is dicey (thanks to a "low pressure" session with mates). Second ride back on the dirt and it is the Rocky Trail Shimano Grand Prix at Ourimbah, a fun but at times technical trail. Just cross my fingers and hope it all comes flooding back.

Catch up!


Just over a couple of hours north of Sydney, nestled in the upper Hunter Valley is James Estate Winery. This was a new location for a round of Rocky Trail’s Shimano Grand Prix and a refreshing take on the standard enduro fair. Open paddocks to camp in, ablution facilities and an open cellar door, all against the backdrop of the vines on one side and a ridgeline of bush on the other.

The chosen course for the round included open trail that circumnavigated the rows of vines then ducked into the bush for what was primarily single track before we popped out alongside the vines again, past great big stainless silos and through transition in front of the cellar door. With lengthy open sections it was fast going and the single-track sufficiently demanding especially as some of the corners blew apart with the large volume of riders on the day.

Great race start photo.
Having had a good lead up to the event I was excited to get on the bike and see what James Estate had in store for us. The bike for today’s event was Project 9er, an On-One Inbred, which previously had made racing at Awaba so easy. Custom spritely wheels spin up quickly and the steel frame gives just a little on the rough stuff. This is rounded out with reliable parts like XO/Noir and EC90.

With an ultra-light aircraft buzzing overhead the local Major got the racing underway and I got a great start, working my way to the back wheel of consistent podium finisher James Lamb. In the front bunch things were fast and flowing, it was nice not getting caught in a conga-line. But this fast start had distracted me, I was enjoying myself and in keeping up with the front grouping over the first few laps had forgotten to keep the nutrition up. Once you start going backwards there is no coming back from it during a four 4hr, well not for me anyway. Did everything I could to keep up but friends and rivals kept on catching me.

Tucking in behind to conserve
All up it wasn’t to bad a day, yes I made a mistake but the riding was fun and that is the main thing. Considering how I started, I finished about as high and on par with my previous results at Awaba, where I rode from the back to place just outside the top 10.

Thanks to Rocky Trail and James Estate for finally teaming up, it gave as a good chance to ride somewhere new. Ride on!

Session Rouse



It is great to share some of our trails with riders passing through the area.

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

ICME Video

The guys from Quantum Racing finally threw some of their footage together from last months ICME.


ICME 7stage race - Alice Spring 2013 from Quantum Racing on Vimeo.