SCUM XC Round 3 Race Report by Bel Althaus.

Race reporter, Bel Althaus (BMC). 

On Sunday the 22 June, SCUM held its 3rd round of XC racing at the flowing Coondoo track. I was keen to race on this track as I had missed on the first round, and therefore had only managed to race the Butterfly trails. I woke up a little indecisive and in two minds about whether I wanted to race due to a disappointing pull out from the GP series Round 3 which was held at Ourimbah the day before.
I had travelled a few hours to the event late Friday afternoon, set up camp and then hit the sack for the night hoping to get a decent rest for what was to be my first 7hr solo experience (and first ever ride at Ourimbah…lesson 1 learnt). I woke the Saturday and decided to head out for a steady practice lap which quickly turned into a long “am I actually going to finish this lap before race starts” adventure. Within the first 1-2km’s the track was testing me mentally, and I was off the bike walking. Not a good start to say the least. I kept going and found myself baulking at much of the trail, stuff that in hindsight I may have usually ridden, and all the while in the back of my mind I was thinking, 7hours of this!! (Let alone 4hrs if I had decided to change category). I made my mind up pretty early on that today wasn’t my day, and decided to pull the pin…after a lot more walking and finally making it to the end of the track. I returned to the event centre, packed up my gear and instead became a photographer for a few hours, taking shots of all the other riders and of fellow friend Michael Crummy who was having a comeback from a few months of little riding competing in the 4hr category. As disappointing as it was to pull out, I was glad to have had the opportunity to check out what is the most technical track I’ve seen, but one that could be extremely fun and rewarding if the heart and mind is in the right place! Maybe I’ll get back there and next time I’ll smash it
A long drive back Saturday afternoon allowed me to think a little and I was keen to get back on the bike, probably in pure revenge for giving up…I had the option to either race a local road race or the local MTB race. Sunday came, a little more thinking and decided it was time to give the MTB a crack again. So a steady ride out to the track, a quick practice and it wasn’t long before the race was starting. The trail crew had done some amazing work cleaning and rebuilding the track after damage from local motorcyclists. This round was also a youth orientated event, which meant the ankle biters had come out in force all to have a go, and it was great to see the many smiling faces waiting in anticipation. The track was shortened for them to a 1.1km circuit.  
We headed to the start area which was about 200metres down the fire road, making it for a uphill start - that always works well. I wasn’t sure if I had any fellow competitors as some of the ladies were hanging back. We kicked off the race along with the elite men (5laps) and expert men (4laps). The race started and I looked back to find I had one competitor that I could see, Liz Smith. She had lagged behind a little, which meant I was able to enter the single track in a good position. She was closing in on me very quickly though, so decisions were made quickly about how to ride the race. She stayed in my sights for ¾ of the first lap and on the long climb out of “rock and roll” I managed to open up a small gap. Heading into the 2nd, I put the pedal down to increase this lead using the small climbs to my advantage and riding my fastest lap for the day. I knew I was in a good position towards the end of this lap and found my rhythm over the final two laps. Little did I know until the end that I actually had a third competitor, Danielle Pollock who had an unfortunate start which meant her first lap was nearly double time. She quickly picked up the pace however for the final 3 laps and her lap times would have had me fighting if she had started with us. I knew what sort of rider she was from a previous race, the Ginja Ninja 250 where she pipped me at the podium by 2 minutes. Today however I managed to hold onto the lead and rode a good race. A nice comeback from a disappointing day earlier. 
Some great trails meant some fast racing for many of the riders. Local rider Jake Whitton took out the Elite men category ahead of Douglas Pollock, with other local rider Mark Astley coming in third. Their times were extremely close, so a race well run. Nicole Fellows again took out first place for the Expert female which means a few wins now for Nicole. In the expert men, David Bell had a clear win from fellow competitors managing to come in ahead of Matt Smith and Dion Carter with a 5.5min lead. Unfortunately there were a few DNF from local riders Liam Dooley and Kane Barrett due to mechanicals. As usual the expert category was a tight field with minimal time between riders. For full results of all the categories, head to www.scum.asn.au where you will also find details about upcoming races and events.
78 riders including the young guns came and shredded the trails, and it was great to see such a diverse mix out on the local trails. Round 4 will be held again at Butterfly on the 20th July, but this is also the Chocolate Foot at Mogo 4 and 7hr race. I will be heading to Mogo for this one, hoping to regain my passion of endurance racing Stay tuned!

Rocky Trail Shimano Grand Prix at Ourimbah

The trails of Ourimbah hit our top 10 fun list, with plenty of flow and a good selection of technical challenges, it makes a great ride on just about any bike. Add a round of Rocky Trails GP to the mix and you can have over 300 riders of mixed abilities all wanting a piece of the action.

Photo: Belinda Althaus, BMC

We cut straight to the action at two and a half hours after the obligatory sighting and conga first lap, and a solid three following laps, reminiscent of our previous racing. It finally dawned on my body that this was the most riding I had done in quite a few months I hit the wall, shifted for granny-gear and sucked the chain behind the cluster.

With my legs protesting I mustered the strength to focus on completing the four hours, pulled the chain from behind the cluster, tweaked the stop screw and got back on the saddle. From here I found the great thing about riding at more of a social pace was I now shared time on the trail with those I usually hardly saw. We could hoot down the descents and cruise through the climbs having a good gasbag along the way.

Photo: Belinda Althaus, BMC

The choice of trails saw some riders say “no thank you” during a pre-race reconnaissance ride, some mid first lap, but the majority accepted what we think was the toughest GP course ever set, to test many aspects of themselves and their bikes. Massive shout to my JetBlack Racing team-mates who collected some great results across the categories and whose support and encouragement, both on and off the trail is much appreciated.

The next endurance race from Rocky Trail is the JetBlack 12hr hosted by James Estate. Bring on the fun times and we see you there.

Photo: Sonter, JetBlack Racing.

Xeccon First Look

Received this nice looking lighting package from MTB Revolution during the week. But before we put it through the ringer we gave it to the work experience kid to see what the first impressions would be. Turns out we may have to employ this kid, great report Steve.

For my second ever night ride on single track, I managed to get my hands on a Xeccon Spiker 1211 helmet light and a Sogun 1100 handle bar light to play with for a couple of days. Marketed as a set on MTB Revolution’s website as ‘Xeccon D2D Lite - Performance Racing’ at a comfortable $169 it seemed like a pretty reasonable set up for a casual single-track novice like me. First impressions are that the lights and batteries are well made – small, but solid.

The straps for the helmet mounting system were a bit awkward, although it would depend on each different kind of helmet as to what would work best. I played around a bit and some of my choices allowed the light to flop around. I did manage to mount the battery on my lid as well, but it does add a bit of extra weight and is quite a task to do. Running the cable through the helmet would have prevented most of the cable flap that annoyed me on the first night ride, and it’s definitely better with the extra weight in a pocket or backpack than up top.

Sogun’s handle bar clamp system is good – although it does not open up very far to get onto the the bars and I did need a handle bar packer. (The packer would not have been an issue on my road bike’s handle bar, or most modern tapered bars). With both lights the neoprene battery pouches lacked sufficient Velcro and length to easily secure the batteries to anything but the smallest diameter tubes. My Trek 4300D has a largish, oval cross-section down tube and while not particularly massive the Sogun’s battery pouch barely made the distance. With cables on the top tube and a Garmin on the head stem, there was not much option. Even without adding length to the straps, a bit more Velcro would have made all the difference.

As for light output – I was pretty impressed. You could almost get away with low beam, but the brighter levels were really good. I had no problem seeing where I needed to go, wether it was on my own or in the middle of a bunch. The Spiker was everything I needed it to be – except for some rapid flashing for a second or so at random times. With a better mounting system it could be close to perfect. The Sogun did a good job too, but its light is not a much of a flood as I would like. If I was going to buy  my own set, I would probably fork out the extra coin for the Spiker 1210 – not so much for the extra light, but it looks like it would be more of a flood light. For a commuter and sometimes-single track light the Sogun is excellent value, but I don’t think it would suit a serious XC racer.