Session 1 - Wet Weather Plan enacted. Brought the whole team to 360 Fitness. Body Balance, Cycling specific Strength and Conditioning and a Spin Session.
February - Northern Inland Academy of Sport (NIAS) MTB Program athletes kicked off their 2020 season with a small tour to Orange to compete in the Rocky Trail Entertainment Grand Prix. Supported by their sport partners JetBlack MTB Racing, three NIAS pairs lined up against some of NSW's fastest endurance riders.
The team met a number of experienced mountain bikers at the event. Thanks to Jon Odams MTB guy for sharing his insight with the team.
NIAS pairing of Lawson and Kaden placed 3rd, with returning athlete pairing of Kal and Lachlan won their category.
Inverell athletes, Jock and Campbell, placed 4th overall for line honours on the testing mountainous conditions.
Thanks to our NIAS parents and coaches for their support in making the tour to Orange happen.
Session 2 - Visiting Inverell MTB Park with assistance from Inverell MTB Club. Huge day for our crew today. Great listening and co-operation skills by all athletes. Awesome to hear all your positive outcomes from the day.
April/May - Virtual racing and online education topics by NIAS. More here.
July - Gravel Fitness Ride. Athletes braved the cold winds this morning to complete our Training Ride from Attunga to Manilla. Thanks to our parents who encouraged and supported their efforts. We hope you all have a safe holiday period! Racing returns with a wet Awaba SuperFlow.
Some of the Northern Inland Academy of Sport (NIAS) Cycling Program athletes returned to racing for the 2020 season with a visit to Awaba, just outside of Newcastle, to compete in the Rocky Trail Entertainment SuperFlow event. With the backing of their sport partners JetBlack MTB Racing the athletes had to contend with some of NSW’s fastest Enduro riders, under the COVID conditions. For some of the athletes this was the start to their representative racing for 2020, having only raced locally with Tamworth Mountainbikers before the pandemic hit.
Saturday at Awaba was wet, muddy and slippery after the rain stopped mid-morning. With three mostly descending trails to test themselves against the athletes aimed to get the shortest collective time. “There was very little grip,” Campbell Walsh from Inverell told us,” it turned out to be a good day of racing, but conditions were pretty bad”.
From Tamworth Lachlan Marsh recounts the three trails from Saturday. “The Lazer track was nice and flowy with a few jumps and lots of berms and rollers that you slid through. The Fox track was nice and fun at the start, then it turned into a pedalling, sliding track with a few rocks and some faster sections. The Stans track was the XC loop climb, backwards, it also required lots of pedalling.”
Compared to Saturday, Sunday the trails had turned fast and tacky and the athletes racing on Sunday crossed their fingers the rain wouldn’t return. Lachlan Butters from Tamworth was one of the Sunday racers and describes his first ever SuperFlow and event at Awaba as “Very, very different! You really had to be on your game, sprinting out of every corner for every track.” Summing up his experience, “It was an amazing weekend and I’m frothing for the rest of the SuperFlow season. It felt so good to be back racing”.
Kalean Blair – Uralla – 8th U15s
Lachlan Butters – Tamworth – 2nd Hardtail
Lachlan Marsh – Tamworth – 12th U15s
Josh Deasey – Kootingal – 16th U15s
Ashton Scales – Gunnedah – 15th U13s
Lawson Walsh – Inverell – 13th U15s
Campbell Walsh – Inverell – 36th U17s
Athletes will now attend a Regional Training Session in Tamworth before possibly more racing.
Session 4 - With rain predicted, we are very glad our Regional Training wasn't due to be carried out on Sunday or today. A light sprinkle gave us some extraordinary conditions not normally seen, hero dirt was quickly turning to slick. And while a few laps to bed SouthPark in sounded like a good idea, it was quickly time to move on to more sound trails and features. Everyone got a chance to extend themselves and tread the line of control. Thanks to previous Northern Inland Academy of Sport (NIAS) athlete Eddie Willis for being our guest speaker and discussing how NIAS provided a stepping stone of goals and structure for his current and future riding/racing plans.
August - The Northern Inland Academy of Sport (NIAS) Cycling Program athletes have again been racing, with with a visit to the Mid North Coast. Trails just outside of Port Macquarie, called Jollynose, and trails up the road near Kempsey were hosts to Rocky Trail Entertainment’s SuperFlow and Gran Prix events. With the support of their sport partners JetBlack MTB Racing the athletes had a chance to race a mix of trail conditions over the last couple of weeks.
Tamworth’s Lachlan Marsh backed up a good result at his previous SuperFlow at Awaba, with a 6th on Saturday at Jollynose, with the Sunday riders still to race. Conditions were tacky and he did well over his previous visit to Jollynose last year. Lachlan ended up placing 16th in the U15s overall for the weekend.
Ashton Scales from Gunnedah, was part of the Sunday SuperFlow racers at Jollynose, where the conditions were slightly drier. Ashton placed 7th in U13s for the day and slipped to 13th for the weekend. This is still a great result against lots of locals and in a highly competitive field.
Brothers Campbell and Lawson Walsh got away with a double header weekend at Jollynose and Kempsey to compete in the Grand Prix events. Hailing from Inverell the boys placed 3rd and 4th consecutively against their fellow adult competitors in the Pairs Team category. Great effort in some testing conditions and on trails they have had limited experience on.
The NIAS Cycling program continues with a training ride near Walcha later in the month before being hosted by their sport partners TAMMTB for a local race.
Thanks to our NIAS parents and sport sponsors for their continuing support.
Just over an hour to bomb down the hill from Woolbrook to Limbri for our second NIAS Fitness Ride. The team showed lots of positive attributes throughout the ride and were all happy with their descent along the dirt road. It was a picture perfect morning with plenty of scenery changes, cattle grids and natural obstacles to keep smiles on dials.
September - TAMMTB COVID Buster Event
With all multi-region racing on hold Northern Inland Academy of Sport (NIAS) Cycling Program athletes were excited to be hosted by sport sponsor Tamworth Mountain Bikers (TAMMTB) for the clubs return to racing. TAMMTB rolled back their 5hr event to a more comfortable 3hr titled, COVID Buster, giving our athletes a chance to test and hone their skills.
In Junior Solo Fast and Furious representing NIAS were Inverell riders Jock Hollis and Campbell Walsh, with Jack Larkin from Binnaway. The boys got a comfortable start and rode together during the first three laps sandwiched between TAMMTB locals. After completing a 50km ride the day before Jack began to slowly fade but continued to push and completed five laps in 3:33hrs for third. Jock’s times had him yoyoing in the top three places and he put together a number of well-timed laps for second. Campbell’s race strategy worked well and with the local rider stopping short of completing the three hours, Campbell was able to slide into first for the category (6th place overall including teams).
NIAS filled two teams in Junior Pairs Fast and Furious and were up against the pairing of NIAS athlete Lachlan Butters and former NIAS athlete Eddie Willis. Lawson Walsh (Inverell) and Ashton Scales (Gunnedah) worked well together swapping laps. Out on course the pairing of Jack Mackay (Gunnedah) and Joshua Deasey (Kootingal) were evenly matched with Lawson and Ashton, so much so they swapped their placing every lap. A mere five minutes split the NIAS Junior Pairs who went on to place second and third.
Our Junior Female Pairing of Tamworth locals Isabelle Willis and Eliza Shaw took on the Roll’n loop. Some consistent laps by the pairing saw them place seventeenth with seven laps against all other Roll’n categories.
The Roll’n loop and Male Pairing of Kaden Thistle (Tamworth) and Harry Fairfull (Gunnedah) completed ten laps. The boys initially took turns completing single laps before swapping to double laps for the last hour. They placed eighth against all Roll’n categories and were the first all-junior team.
October could mean the return to state-wide racing, the NIAS Cycling Program athletes are poised for more events and a NIAS Regional Training Session in November.
Thanks to our NIAS parents and sport sponsors for their continuing support.
We stepped it up for our third and final Training Ride with more rolling hills. The weather turned it on too, with plenty of perfect skies, and a dirty headwind for all the gravel roads.
A mix of perfect farm-scape green scenery and creeklines kept drawing eyes off the road in front. The bovine and serpentine highlights drew the focus back on the task at hand.
Everyone rode well and had a bit of fun. Thanks to our support crew and NIAS parents for helping bring the ride together.
October - Northern Inland Academy of Sport (NIAS) Cycling Program athletes returned to state-level competition after a six-week hiatus. They headed to Glenrock in Newcastle to attend the Rocky Trail Entertainment Grand Prix, riding in two teams of pair over seven hours.
Jock Hollis from Inverell, “The JetBlack Racing team [sport sponsors] were all really welcoming”, Jock started the day as his team’s only competitor, a quick phone call between parents discovered team-mates were still in bed, and the race had already started.
“It was a fun and diverse track with great twisty descents and long climbs,” Jock said his training had really paid off for this event, he was able to overtake many people on each of the climbs. Despite starting without a team-mate, Jock went on to ride well and smoothly throughout the day. When his team-mate did show, he had already completed five laps, the pair completing a total of 18 for the event. Jock and team mate Campbell Walsh (from Inverell) went on to place in the top 10 overall against all other competitors, an outstanding effort from a rocky start.
NIAS’s other pairing, Kal and Lawson had a very similar rocky start as Lawson is Campbell’s brother. Kal also had some mechanical and tyre issues which hampered his day’s ride. “It was the toughest race ever”, Kal Blair from Uralla explained, “they [team-mate Lawson] were still in bed, [then I] had a mechanical and needed to walk back [to the transition area]”.
Kal went on to say the Glenrock trails were awesome and in the face of adversity he managed to keep the bike upright and finished the day with an ocean swim. Kal and Lawson completed 14 laps to place in the top 25 of all competitors.
Thanks to our NIAS parents and sport sponsors for their continuing support.
Northern Inland Academy of Sport (NIAS) Cycling Program athletes continue to source a range of competition this time visiting the home of mountain biking on the NSW Central Coast, Ourimbah. At Ourimbah they attend the Rocky Trail Entertainment SuperFlow and Grand Prix events over two weekends.
The SuperFlow event was held over two days with athletes Josh Deasey and Kalean Blair supported by NIAS MTB Coach Michael Crummy riding on the Saturday. With three trails to familiarise with the small team was joined by one of Crummy’s previous athletes Brad Weston, and they set about getting comfortable on Ourimbah’s newest track and flow trail.
After a number of attempts at finding their fastest time on the flow trail all athletes headed across the hill to look at the other trails. First up was the more technically demanding downhill trail. Crummy was able to provide guidance and short sections of “trail-walking” so the athletes could break the technical sections down to smaller components and choices. The rough and rocky trail provided plenty of challenges, especially as Kalean was riding his cross-country hardtail, a bike not particularly built for the downhill extremes.
After completing a race run on two of the three trails the athletes and coach moved to the final trail which had a mix of graded trails, an uphill pinch and a little knar before returning to more familiar cross-country trails. Even the coach had to have a couple of goes to get a positive “race run” after dropping a chain on a couple of the runs. Kalean didn’t fair any better on the hardtail but was determined to make the most of this new trail experience.
Josh rode well to complete a race run on each of the trails for the day. The temperature of the day did rise quickly as did the humidity, making it a bit day for athletes who had to get back up the hill after every run, under their own steam. Josh placed 31st in the very competitive U15s, while Kalean placed 8th against all other hardtails over the weekend.
Lachlan Butters attended the SuperFlow event on the Sunday and joined Tom Jenkins from NIAS Cycling sport sponsor JetBlack MTB Racing Team. Tom said that having Lachlan ride with him made for a really fun day. The pair duelled for the top positions in the U15s competition. “Such a brutal race on my cross-country bike”, Lachlan said, “it was sooo much fun with a wide variety of technical features. Had a cracking weekend!” Lachlan went on to claim 3rd in the U15s, an awesome result on his cross-country bike.
The weekend following NIAS athlete Jock Hollis attempted his first solo 4hr event. After a year of 7hr (pair) teams and plenty of training around his home roads and trails in Inverell, he was keen to perform. Getting some practise in the day before Jock was positive about how the trail looked, “the ground was really dry and loose”. The forecast was patch to bleak though for the following day and overnight rain surely had turned dry to damp. “Conditions quickly changed with the overnight rain, but by the race start the sun was out again. Each lap the track conditions continued to change, making every lap a new adventure and challenge”. After two hours the rain returned, turning the tacky trail to a sloshy mud bath. Even with the weather against him Jock held onto 2nd place for most of the event and only slipped to 3rd after tearing his rear tyre on his last lap. “I had a blast at Ourimbah,” Jock said about his solo ride, “I’m quite happy with how I rode my first 4hr, only feeling myself fatigue in the last hour. From the moment we arrived the JetBlack MTB Racing Team provided support and encouragement throughout.”
Thanks to our NIAS parents and sport sponsors for their continuing support.
November - Northern Inland Academy of Sport (NIAS) Cycling Program continue to race with their local clubs. This week they visited the trails at UNE with NEMTB. NEMTB hosted a substitute event for their annual 12hr, a little 3hr endurance ride.
We had four riders over the U15 and U17 categories in attendance. Lawson Walsh (Inverell) and Lachlan Butters (Tamworth) rode in the U15s 2hr solo event. Lawson started well chasing Lachlan and cruised in with five laps, placing 3rd.
For Lachlan the Armidale based event was his first step into solo endurance riding, after a number of years as a high performance team mate. "It was a 2hr solo race, I learnt a lot in such little time period", Lachlan said on reflection, "had some close calls with the pine and poplar trees, the error winded me." Over the course of the 2hrs Lachlan found he was smoother and faster as he found his pacing, finishing 1st in U15s.
Jock Hollis and Campbell Walsh, both from Inverell, rode in the 3hr U17s. Both riders started well with Campbell fading towards the end. This allowed Jock to sneak in another lap with just one minute to go. The boys place 1st and 2nd in the U17s.
Athletes will continue their local racing with a 6hr and 3hr this month, plus some Regional Training at Mt Borah.
Thanks to our NIAS parents and sport sponsors for their continuing support.
Northern Inland Academy of Sport (NIAS) Cycling Program are completing their year with numerious local club events. This week they visited the trails at Copeton Dam with host club Inverell MTB. This is the 10th annual Copeton 6hr, with around 100 participants lined up to ride, including five of NIAS's enthusiast MTB athletes.
The Copeton track was well prepared by Inverell MTB club, with a great mix of fast flowing ascents and descents. The Copeton trail and event hub was conveniently close to the Reflections Park kiosk and the Inverell MTB volunteer staff run a smooth event.
One of the NIAS pair teams was Harry Fairfull and Lawson Walsh. Harry has this to say about his race, "Lawson started the race enabling us to get a good start. We rode fairly well with both of us having similar times." Harry went on to ride 4 laps with Lawson completing 5. "It was a good experience riding at Copeton, technical features included steep rocky climbs and sandy descents. We ended up fourth in our category (Open Male Pair, which included adults)". Both athletes stepping up to the challenge with an outstanding performance.
Our other NIAS pairing of Campbell Walsh and Jock Hollis also raced in the Open Male Pair category. Again both athletes performed to a high standard with near perfect race conditions and no mechanical issues. "It was a good day and a great turn out of people. Everyone seemed to enjoy," Campbell said about his local event. Campbell and Jock have learnt a lot in the last year, having been paired together on many occasions, and relish the measure a pairs race can bring. The boys went on to place third in the Open Pairs category.
Lachlan Butters rode in team with previous NIAS athletes, the Roberts brothers, in the Teams of 3/4 category. After a fast start by his team mates Lachlan had a flat tyre mechanical on his lap, he did however recover from this to put in three fast laps and help his team secure first place in the category.
A spokes person from Inverell MTB Club said from what they saw all NIAS athletes rode out of their skin and wish to congratulate them on their outstanding rides.
Athletes will continue their local racing with and TAMMTB 3hr this month, plus some Regional Training at Mt Borah.
Thanks to our NIAS parents and sport sponsors for their continuing support.
NIAS Communicator of the Year - NIAS MTB Program athlete Leon!
Our long overdue foray into Enduro training had finally arrived with a visit to Mt Borah. Having been rescheduled a couple of times the coaches and athletes were pretty amped. Early arrivals headed off with Coach Alyssa to session multiple sections of the trail. Thanks to Jock for his insight to the session, “I had a great time a Borah. I was excited and happy to learn and experience something new”. Massive shout-out to Andy from the Broken Spoke Tamworth had made his morning available for us, providing the necessary shuttles up to the trailheads, saving a ton of time and all our legs!
The second group headed off with Coach Crummy, sessioning the top section of trail. A quick roll down athletes were shuttled up for their second look at the trail. With a variety of obstacles, numerous line choices, there was plenty of discussion to be had. All riders tested themselves, extending their strengths and finding room-for-improvements.
This training session had a different feel and style to the previous ones held, due to the nature of the riding and the athletes were rewarded with the opportunity for a controlled roll-down the main trail. “Overall it was a great day out”, Jock said after the session, “it was a good way to grow our skills and confidence when we are faced with trails that we aren't familiar with”.
Northern Inland Academy of Sport (NIAS) Cycling Program athletes continue to gather experience across a range of events. This week they kept it within the region visiting their sponsor Tamworth Mountainbikers, for a 10-year birthday 3-hour.
This was the second 3-hour Tamworth Mountainbikers have held this year, the first being the COVID Buster in September, where the NIAS riders performed very well. This time was a little different, a week of heat and a forecast of even more heat seemed to keep some riders away from the birthday celebrations. But being a similar event, same track, there was also a good opportunity to compare to the event in September, maybe.
In junior solo representing NIAS was Inverell local Jock Hollis. In the latter half of the year Jock has really been stretching his legs, putting in some training kilometres. This has shown at both the Rocky Trail Grand Prix and local events he has attended. Jock got a comfortable start with his teammate Jack Larkin, sitting inside the top ten riders. “Something different about this race to the many others I have attended in the last few months was the heat. I think I was a bit light on the water in the first lap”, Jock said. He went on to congratulate his sparing partners for the day Jack and Campbell, “who both rode really well and were pushing me along each lap as I was determined to not let them catch me”. Jock went out for his 5th lap in the heat but called it at 4, “I could feel myself slipping not so much physically but mentally”. Jock placed 1st in junior solo and 5th solo overall.
Jack Larkin from Binnaway, and Campbell Walsh from Inverell teamed up for this event. Off the start the athletes were well matched and consistent despite the very warm conditions. Not only were they riding with and against Jock but just behind them were more teammates ready to pounce.
Lawson Walsh from Inverell and Harry Fairfull from Gunnedah teamed up again after their successful pairing at the Copeton 6hr. Harry started for the team with Lawson taking the second and fourth laps. The boys were only a few minutes off the faster pairing of Jack and Campbell and put in a solid ride. The junior pair teams placed 1st and 2nd (4th and 7th Overall).
Thanks to our NIAS parents and sport sponsors for their continuing support.
December - Northern Inland Academy of Sport (NIAS) Cycling Program athletes completed their year with a final tour to Rydal, near Lithgow, for the JetBlack 24hr endurance event. The event was run by Rocky Trail Entertainment and based out of the Rydal showground, featuring almost 9km of narrow trail purpose built for mountain biking.
Hosted by sport partners JetBlack MTB Racing, NIAS athletes began arriving at Rydal on Friday morning for the Saturday event. Two competitive teams had been built around seven of the 2020 NIAS MTB squad with riders from Inverell, Gunnedah, Binnaway and Tamworth. But they might not have expected the weather to be so windy cold on arrival, the December afternoon temperatures got down to 10 degrees.
Saturday morning brought a chance to do a reconnaissance lap with seven times World 24hr Solo Champion, and current Australian 24hr Solo Champion, Jason English. Jason shared his experience and knowledge of the Rydal trails, 24hr events and trail craft with the athletes during the hour they were with him. An awesome opportunity to listen, learn and ask questions.
The two NIAS teams were entered in the 6+6hr relay event, which started at the same time as the 24hr. The difference between the events was the 12hr pause at 6pm for the 6+6hr, allowing athletes to rest and recover before restarting again at 6am. They then were challenged to ride till 12 midday, completing the 6+6hr.
Campbell Walsh lined up on a star-studded front row for race start representing the NIAS “All-stars” team. He was next to Jason English and a young rider named Brad Weston, who went on to claim fastest lap for the event, down the row was New England region and 24hr solo riders Alwyn Miller and Mick Sherwood. Starting for the NIAS “Chiefs” was Jack MacKay, just a row or two back.
Campbell handed over to Jock Hollis after a pretty good start lap, Jock then nailed the mostly clear course with his fastest time (and fastest for the team) of the weekend. Jock handed over to Tom Jenkins of JetBlack MTB Racing, who had been called in at the last minute to makeup the four-athlete team. Tom then handed over to Jack Larkin with all riders completing their first laps in under twenty-eight minutes. At this mark the “All-stars” had a fifteen-minute lead on their category rivals and ten minutes lead on any adult teams of four.
The “Chiefs” were lapping pretty consistently too, with Jack MacKay completing their first lap handing over to Lawson Walsh. Lawson handed over to Harry Fairfull, then Harry handed over to Kaden. Just under six hours later Harry again handed over to Kaden who completed the “Chiefs’” first block of riding, and twelve laps.
At 0635 on Sunday, Jack MacKay set off for the “Chiefs” again. This was after the team had a twelve-hour break, they rotated riders relay style as they had the day before. Some legs were a little tired but some riders were still perfecting their style and performance. “Rydal had its challenges, loose sandy berms kept the team agile and aware,” said Harry Fairfull after the event, “My goal for Sunday was to get under a 30-minute lap”. Amazingly Harry managed to crack the 30-minute lap on his second last lap of the event, besting his previous best 30:02 with a 29:59.
The “Chiefs” completed 23 laps with Lawson sending Harry out with just five minutes before the 12-midday cut-off. This result placed them second amongst the Junior Teams of Four for the 6+6hr. “All the work from this year has paid off and was shown with this race,” Harry complemented his teammates and the experience that the event brought.
Back with the “All-stars”, the team of Campbell, Jock, Tom and Jack all completed their first six-hour block with sub 30-minute lap times. They were able to send Jock out for the team’s final lap with just a minute to spare on the clock in the first six hours. On completion of Jock’s lap, fourteen laps for the “All-stars” team, both teams assembled for a BBQ by JetBlack MTB Racing giving everyone a chance to share their experiences and catchup while not riding.
JetBlack MTB Racing’s Tom Jenkins began Sunday for the “All-stars”, again the team were able to continue their sub 30-minute laps. The trails had changed slightly overnight with more braking ruts, and a more powdery and dusty surface. Solo and 24hr team riders littered the trail but they were providing plenty of space for overtaking when needed. Jock finished the second 6hr block just over three minutes after the 12-midday cut-off giving the team a massive 26 laps, bettering all other 6+6hr four-person teams.
“Rydal was one of the most exciting races I have ever been to,” Jack Larkin reported, “The race was fast paced with every lap being a sprint. I was passing people every few minutes on the track trying to get fast lap times. Our team went hammer-down to stay in 1st place in our category and overall in teams of four.”
“It was a very different track to what I have raced on previously,” Jock reflected on his weekend, “It helped me identify and work on the weak spots in my riding. Rydal was great and the people were even better, being able to spend time with the other NIAS riders was the highlight of the trip. I’m looking forward to 2021 with NIAS.”
Thanks to our NIAS parents and sport sponsors for their continuing support.
