NIXCS Series UNE Armidale Round

As if four hours on the bike wasn't enough of a wake-up call, that was the Rocky Trail Grand Prix at Glenrock. We booked a seat in a ute (thanks Marty) and paid a race entry fee to see if a double dose of racing was what out legs needed.

A cool windy dry New England day greeted us when we arrived and there was a chance to catch up with our NIAS MTB Program athletes, Tamworth MTB riders and reecy some of the course while the kids were out doing a short race.

NEMTB had marked a course that was no where near as technical or hilly as the National Cup Round we raced early in the year. But it still had a number of tech challenges and plenty of open ground to cover at race pace.

They young-guns got us started off the front and we worked our way around the first lap. We took it not to easy but straight away it was evident there was massive fatigue from yesterday's 4hrs and 1500m Vert.

UNE trail is a short fun trail with a variety of features and riding conditions. It is based on a hard-pack dirt with very little loose sections. It's openness offers a choice of lines through many of the features and the trail pays back, like so many do, when you connect it all with rhythm and flow.

We had a short duel with one rider as my descending gained me ground but his climbing brough him back. In the end the wind knocked me around and I couldn't pull enough power to stay with him across the open ground.

Local Tamworth riders Mark and Marty (of ute fame) where behind us and we managed to hold Mark's wheel for most of the remaining laps. Marty didn't quite make any ground on Mark and I but was keeping close.

Mick Sherwood went on to place 1st for Elite, a good half lap in front of us after he rode in the eight hour race the previous day too. We placed 2nd in this round and look forward to more of these NIXCS events.

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Rocky Trail GP Glenrock - Round 3

Ever since Glenrock was introduced as a round of the GP Series it has been a standout event and better still it has been a solid three months plus since we broke our clavicle. It was time to ride.

Our aim for Glenrock was to take it easy, slowly testing the body, seeing what might hurt. After a nice warm-up ride up the hill from Merewether we had time to catch up with some of our 40 odd JetBlack MTB Racing team-mates, our extended MTB family and sign-in at race registration.

We gathered at the back of the start bunch determined not to fuss with any first lap madness. The usual fun of the conga-line was had as we caterpillared our way around the chosen route.

Half way round the lap we bombed down a firetrail and instantly found ourselves at the bottom of the valley. From experience there is only one way we take back to the top, Snakes and Ladders, a singletrack grind back up most of the ascent.

It didn’t take long for us to get distracted though. A guy on a massive +20kg big-travel bike tried to zip past me with his dropper post down but he topped out at 25kph…. Oh, damn, an e-bike. Haha, this one isn’t getting away.

I stuck with the e-bike for a lap, wasn’t too hard on the single track and firetrails initially. The trail was busy with riders, which also was to my advantage. As soon as it opened up on a climb though, the 250W of seemingly endless power got away from me. 

What was nice this round was to ride with so many different people. Not racing meant we were riding at a pace to on-trail socialize and enjoy the scenery a little more. 

After a couple of hours on-bike the legs were starting to say this was their longest ride in months and at 3hrs we hit the limit.  Our legs cracked and all power was gone, a quick mental calculation and there was still three laps still to go, if that.

We ended up doing just on the 4hrs of riding for our first big race back. The shoulder feels pretty good, no issues there and it was nice to put our legs through some serious testing. Our legs are toasted.

An 8^thplace in our Category is just a start. Looking forward to some SuperFlow and more GPs soon.

JetBlack MTB Racing are support by the following;

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