Rocky Trail Grand Prix Championship - Awaba

A smaller crew had turned up at Awaba for the Grand Prix Championship for 2019. It was warm already on arrival with a forecast that only promised further heat and wind. 

We gathered with our JetBlack Racing Team mates, many of which had just completed a reccy lap, sweat already dripping from their brows. Some light banter as both teams and solos considered their strategies.

On our own short reccy we found the trail was dry and loose in sections. With Jason English naming the game for the day being smooth in and out of corners, it wasn’t long before we headed down the firetrail for a race start.

All photos by: OuterImage

On our first lap we were joined by team mate Kevlar, who was on his final run of large rides for the year. With Kev barking orders we wound our way around the increasingly diverse trail Awaba now has on offer.

Passing Kev, we kept an eye on the riders a couple of hundred meters in front of us, maintaining a nice pace over the first few laps. With the inclusion of Camelback Climb there was plenty of sweet long descents to have fun on.

Hitting the midway mark it was getting crazy warm and we could feel our body not responding well to the early heat. But it wasn't just us starting to suffer, we tagged onto, then passed Mobius rider Chris who admitted being cooked. Chis went on to slide 10mins behind over the course of the remaining laps.

All the front running teams and solos had seemed to slip away again for this event, leaving what seemed like a huge gap of space to makeup. Thankfully with less riders on trail this did leave plenty of open trail and very little passing over the course.

Two laps from the end our support crew must have been reading our mind as they handed us an extra bottle of water and a cooling towel. The towel, a permanent part of our riding kit, soaked with water brought some relief from the punishing conditions.

On our final lap we were joined by team mate Dave, who was riding in a team of three for the 7hrs. Having Dave behind us kept our mind focused on riding and not worrying so much about the dry heat sapping all our energy.

We crossed the line with 15mins remaining on the racing clock and very little left in the tank. We waited and were relieved when our competitors chose to call it a day too. This gave us our best result for the Rocky Trail year with a 1st in Category and 5th overall. Thanks to all my JetBlack Racing team mates for their support again!

It has been a solid week of racing with the NSW Police and Emergency Games XCO [1st] and GE [3rd] (a 1200km road-trip) and the Grand Prix Championship (a 560km road-trip).

Full results can be found here.

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SuperFlow at Awaba - Round 3

We were excited to take another step in our on-bike return to racing. After six hours of racing two weeks ago at Glenrock and Armidale, it seemed our shoulder was holding up ok. Thankfully most of the issues were with our lack of cycling endurance, our legs were very tired. On the upside all the BodyBalance and standing-strength work we had been doing over the last few months were paying dividends and keeping us in the game.

The SuperFlow event at Awaba was the next event on the calendar and after all the fun we had last year, was not one to be missed. SuperFlow is like Downhill racing but pitched on Cross-Country trails. That isn't to say there is nothing crazy, there can be a number of technical features, and A and B lines. When your whipped into a peddling frenzy of air-horns, fat-tyres and fluro, you feel like a Downhill adrenaline junkie.

We were joined by Tamworth local Nathan for this massive day which would include the four hour trip down the New England Highway. As much riding as we could pack into the day's events. And finally the four hour trip back up the New England, keeping our eyes peeled for any kangaroos in the twilight.

Rocky Trail selected a great series of trails for us to ride this round, knocking off some of the flat and pedally bits and dropping in some more vertical challenges. From sweeping open dust-bowl corners to tight loamy switchback there was plenty to keep everyone on their toes. It was pretty cool to bounce in and out of the top five times for most of the day as everyone dialled in the lines. In the end after numerous fire trail climb repeats, a go at riding the bike SS and some rear brake issues, we were happy to say we had left our best efforts out on the trail.

We placed 7th in Veterans with a 7:39sec, and
Nathan placed 7th in U19s with a 8:04.

JetBlack MTB Racing are support by the following;

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Awesome Awaba and JetBlack MTB Racing Team

All good intensions, train, eat, sleep. Reality, work, sick, sleep. And with this level of preparation we headed into the final round of the RT GP. Initially we were disappointed that the location was moved from Mt Annan, only due to travel convenience. But Awaba, well, what can you say about this trail, a favorite of just about everyones, a trail that encourages flow. You know where we'd rather ride...

Finally a great start with limited hold-ups on the first lap for us. The trail has seen some rain and it was tacky in spots. Unusually we come across team mate, Browny, off the rivet on this initial first lap, we're feeling good and hammer up Camelback Climb (my fastest ever - Strava) but don't see Browny again.

It is on our second lap flyer we drop a water bottle after Camelback on a fast flat section, we silently curse our poor bottle handling and mentally note its location as to pick it up next lap. Thankfully it wasn't to far to transition, and we picked the near empty bottle up on the next lap.

Again it is a race where we are swapping places (for four hours at least) with 7hr team of two, Max and Charlie. Max would warp-speed his SS past us then, on the next lap, we'd come across Charlie as she was having a ball on a sweet section of trail.

We also spent some time with our JetBlack MTB Racing team mates, like Jason Hewitt, a man on a solo endurance mission. Jason has been making his mark at the top end of the 7hr solo for a couple of years. Can't forget our other team champion Dalene Pretorius, again a 7hr solo, who every time we passed her had a big smile.

Back in our race we catch up with Morgs from Shimano and once again we figure we're riding a little fast for our current fitness level. Morgs was going at a good pace so we hung out with him for a couple of laps. It was on the second last time up Camelback after leading Morgs for the lap we knew the pace had been to hot and we motioned to Morgs that this was it for us. 

Transitioning to what would probably be our last lap our team mates passed on info the team mate Kurt, also a 4hr solo rider, who had gotten away from us on the initial laps, was jus 30 seconds ahead. It was tempting to rush into the single track and chase Kurt but we didn't get carried away, catching Kurt in the first quarter of the lap. Kurt looks like he might be hurting, testing him we don't ease up as we pass but Kurt doesn't tag on the back of my wheel.

Reaching Camelback another of our team mates has caught us though, it was one of Browny’s team of 3 partners in crime, Shad. It was going to be a fair effort to climb Camelback and we tell Shad to take the lead, of which he declines. Ouch! No it was more than that it was double ouch this time.

Thankfully from the top of Camelback it seems like the trail is just about all down hill. Shad is yo-yoing off our back wheel as we make the final kilometers back to transition. As we get closer we hear the PA is alive with race updates, seems like the 4hr race has just finished. We have time to zip up our JetBlack MTB Racing jersey and be the first 4hr #rockytrailracer across the line.
It has been a great series in 2016, I've especially enjoyed the company I've been able to keep on trail. There has also been such a diversity of trails too, epic hills of the Glenrock region to the speed of Singleton. With Awaba being the final jewel in the GP Series crown.

Thanks to JetBlack MTB Racing and all our supporters for making this series of events as smooth as it has been. We'll see you at the next event!