RTE SuperFlow Taree - Round 5

The Taree Tease

An all but to brief visit to Taree for the fifth round of the SuperFlow Series. We made an exception and included it into our weekend of adventures, two hours out of our way, on what would have been a four hour journey. Given our time restrictions, this would see us time dependant on trail. Getting all our race runs, and improvements done, all in three hours.

Taree has to be one of the only east coast trails we haven't ridden. No XC, endurance or gravity EVER! Not sure really why we haven't raced at Taree but all we knew was that it was over due. Sadly we only were able to see the trails of the SuperFlow course this time, but with that as a sample... this place rocks!

We were treated to well sculpted flowing trails, in the loose dry and fast way. A variety of switchbacks, berms and gaps were laid out for what was at times a choose-your-own-adventure between the thick dusty braking ruts. As the day progressed, there was evidence corners were being over-cooked aplenty.

While not overly steep the Taree SuperFlow trails still offered up plenty of technical challenges and one "pedally" section to really balance out the competition. Looks like we'll have to book in a few more visits to Taree and have a look at ALL the other trails on offer. Our next big event is in a few weeks time... See you there!

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Inverell MTB Copeton 6hr

Tamworth local at Pairs team rider Ann bombs through one of the many rocky sections. All photos by: CrummyMTB

We'd never heard of Copeton but when it came up on the list as one of our "local" events we were keen to get along and have a look. Copeton 6hr has been a long standing event for the Inverell mountain bike community for close to ten years and for good reason. The location is on the edge of the great Copeton Dam and the event hub this year was based out of the Reflections Holiday Park. The park is a solid two hour drive north of Tamworth and included a section of dirt road.

Riding this week in the annual Ride for the Chopper and getting some kms under the belt.

We joined a number of TAMMTB, NEMTB and Inverell riders, who had sorted themselves across a variety of teams and solo categories. A quick reccy before any official business and we found a number of short but rocky descents and plenty of wide hard-packed trail, sprinkled with patches of sand. The rock and hard-pack were particularly grippy, with no surprises about the short sections of sand.

The trails and granite rocks of Copeton.

The race got underway with quick start by some of the teams, we followed but just not too enthusiastically, finding a Inverell team riding spinning along at a reasonable pace. Tamworth endurance rider Mick Sherwood wound his way onto our wheel and we settled into a nice train. While the teams swapped riders a pleasant wave and a call of our race number was all that was needed from solo riders. Back out on the trail Mick had joined us again and we were discussing and trialing a few line choices. Not that line choices were bad either way, a couple of sections could have you off the bike if you weren't careful or they could have you putting in more effort for little reward. We had worked through a couple of laps that most B-lines may only cost a few seconds.

Inverell hosted and had a number of riders in attendance.

Mick was still following us onto our fourth lap, we were sitting pretty high in the overall standing with just a few teams in front and a few swapping lap times similar. It just took an error on a fence crossing to bring us to a crashing halt, catching the bottom of our pedal in some of the wire. On inspection nothing was broken, a cork in the thigh from the headset but when we looked at our bike we were missing a pivot linkage bolt. This missing bolt brought our ride to an end and Mick had to complete the remaining in his usual solo style as we made our way back to transition to call it a day.

Mick went on to take the solo win, only a number of minutes down on some of the fast teams. We were stoked to have had a solid couple of laps out on the Copeton trail, then getting to hang about the transition area and out on the trail watching the race unfold. We look forward to the next opportunity to ride this unique location, thanks to our TAMMTB friends for all their support!

Great support by the regions clubs TAMMTB, NEMTB and Inverell.

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RTE Superflow Ourimbah - Round 4

An early morning start to head from CrummyMTB HQ to Ourimbah, our second week in a row. The morning skys on the west side of the Great Dividing Range were clear and blue, as we rolled south east and over the Divide it became misty and cloudy. The result of the last few days of rain the east coast of NSW had received.

At Ourimbah we were briefed by Rocky Trail, met up with our JetBlack MTB Racing team mates and caught up with a number of friends and fellow competitors who had made their own trek for a day of SuperFlow. Rolling out onto the trail for a quick reccy, it was clear that we were going to be under-gunned on our XC rig from last week.

While traction was low, we made a race runs of each trail to set our minimum times in the wet and slippery conditions. With sunshine and a clear day predicted, the trails could only get faster as more water ran-off and mud packed-down. It was time for lunch and we refuelled, cleaned and lubed our chain, and wiped the mud splatter from our glasses.

With a check of the Rocky Trail live timing I could see that our early runs had placed us in the top 5. There was only a handful of seconds between third and fourth, something achievable with good knowledge of the trail and smooth flowing lines to keep momentum. We headed back up the hill to lay down our fast runs in the changing conditions, and if possible pinch some seconds.

Race runs done and a check of the live timing had us sitting in 3rd by just a few seconds. Time to hit the hill, again, and make sure we would hold a top three.

We pushed hard and found the limits of our Mitas XC tyres and the limit trees move, these mistakes cost us time, but even still we clawed back a second. Refocusing at the top on something between our limit and our safe runs, a smooth but fast run, we blasted back down to the bottom and found those seconds.

It was getting late in the afternoon and there was just an enough time for a couple more runs. I knew my competitors might be out doing the same, trying to improve their times to pip us for a top three place. We hit the most aggressive trail as our last run, we had given our utmost on the on the other trails and this trail was where we had lost most time. 

Sprinting off the gate we u-turned into the single-track and let gravity take over. Looking ahead and floating over the obstacles we wound our way to the bottom in our best attempt to roll with as most momentum as possible through every section. 

At the bottom we found we had gained another couple of seconds on our previous runs and were done for the day. We had held onto third and in doing so, had some great riding in the conditions. It was great to make this round of SuperFlow and had some great laughs in the process.

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