Rocky Trail Grand Prix Orange

Orange's Kinross trails, home of the legendary Ginja Ninja, host to numerous XCO and endurance events over the years. It's blissful winding climbs and joyful bermed descents, were laced together with some XCO-bar-biting pinches and white-knuckle off-camber loose downhills for this the first of the Rocky Trail Entertainment Grand Prix.

It hadn't taken much arm-twisting but we had a posse from Tamworth arrive late Friday after my JetBlack MTB Racing team mates had setup a prime transition position within the event centre.

After a distraught melancholy of overnight moos for those who camped at Kinross, race morning finally arrived, and it was a comfortable and mild. A caravan of cars with bikes attached started arriving and plenty of pre-race rituals were underway. The event centre went from ghost-town to down-town as the RedBull truck arrived and 3x3 shades rose from Kinross's reddish dirt.

As the countdown started, we lined up close to the front as to benefit from the short run into the single-track. It was a cracking start and while the pace was on, it felt good on legs that had seen plenty of kms over the Christmas break. Sitting behind Tamworth local and frother Justin Roberts, our pace solid over the first three laps. 

With a 2019 endurance result not to be scoffed at, we followed a pairs-team from Inverell for as long as we could. These young guys were blasting around the track and had sneaked slowly up on us, Justin couldn't take the pace, dropping off somewhere mid-forest. A couple of laps was all we could handle but this had brought us onto the wheel of a local, who was more of a match to our 4hr endurance pace.

Settled back into a sustainable pace we were caught by the leading 4hr, then eventually the leading 7hr riders. Jon Odams had the lead on Ben Fillingham as he flew by us, but a tyre issue saw Ben take the lead and complete the 4hrs first. Mick Sherwood was on a very good rolling pace when rolling with us, when we paused at transition to take on more water, Mick was up the hill and gone. Mick went on to win the 7hr.

Little did we know there was in-category rivalry as a quiet Matt Clutterham rolled behind us, returning to Grand Prix racing after a few years hiatus. Again we paused at transition to sort out our gear for the final laps and Matt slipped up the trail to take 2nd by a mere minute.

An awesome day on the trails of Kinross and a timely reminder of what cool trails we have on offer around our regional towns. Can't wait to race the next event, we'll see you there!

JetBlack MTB Racing are support by the following;

#ridejetblack #jetblackproducts #theoddspoke #rockytrailentertainment #hubbardproof #prismbike #M2Oindustries #blacktownfamilydental #ambmagazine #mitastyres #raceface #ridefox #northerninlandacademyofsport

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Full results here.

2019 Wrap!

• It has been another massive year. Thanks to my team and team mates for all their support. While some our results are individual we get great support from friends and family who give up their time to hand out bottles and drive us after an exhausting day.
• We have a number of standout events and results, here they are in no particular order.
• 2nd Pair 12hrs in the Piney

• .

• 1st NW Mountainbikers Mt Borah GE

• .

• 1st NSW Police Games XC

• 3rd (5th overall) NSW Police Games GE

• .

• 2nd Jacks Ridge XXX

• .

• 4th Elite TAMMTB Summer Race 6Feb

• 1st Elite TAMMTB Summer Race 14Feb

• 4th Elite TAMMTB Summer Race 27Feb

• 4th Elite TAMMTB Summer Race 16Oct

• 7th Elite TAMMTB Summer Race 23Oct

• 2nd Elite TAMMTB Summer Race 30Oct

• 2nd Elite TAMMTB Summer Race 6Nov

• 7th Elite TAMMTB Summer Race 13Nov

• 4th Elite TAMMTB Summer Race 20Nov

• . 

• 2nd Masters 2 National Cup XCO NEMTB

• 2nd Masters 2 National Cup XCC NEMTB

• .

• 1st RT Grand Prix Championship Awaba

• 5th RT Grand Prix Ourimbah

• 8th RT Grand Prix Glenrock

• 17th RT Grand Prix Series (28th GC Rnd 3 & 5 only) 

• .

• 2nd Elite NIXCS UNE

• 3rd Elite NIXCS Tamworth

• . 

• 2nd RT SuperFlow Champs Jollynose

• 3rd RT SuperFlow Enduro Ourimbah

• 5th RT SuperFlow Enduro Taree

• 7th RT SuperFlow Enduro Awaba

• 7th RT SuperFlow Series
• JetBlack MTB Racing are support by the following;
  
  #ridejetblack #jetblackproducts #theoddspoke #rockytrailentertainment #hubbardproof #prismbike #M2Oindustries #blacktownfamilydental #ambmagazine #mitastyres
  
  @jetblackmtbrace @ridejetblack @jetblackcycling @theoddspoke @rockytrailentertainment @prism.bike @M2OIndustries @australianmountainbike @mitas_tyres

Rocky Trail GP Ourimbah - Round 5

All photos by OuterImage Collective

It was a short series again for us this year. Last years series saw us only get to two rounds and again this year, for different reasons, we unfortunately only got to two rounds of the series. 

In the last ten years of RTE GP Series our consistency has shone through with sufficient results, and only a small amount of individual wins, to place on the podium for the series.

Check out our 2009 GP races here. 2010 GP races, 2011 GP races, 2012 GP races, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and our previous 2019 round here.

The RTE show was in their home town at Ourimbah, the massive Shimano arch and the Red Bull tent were up and providing the hub for this final round of the Grand Prix series.

JetBlack Mountainbike Racing Team were out in force for this round too, and for good reason. A year of excellent individual and team results throughout the rounds was going to cumulate today, hopefully.

It was a packed start and we had underestimated how many riders were in attendance. We wound up with a fairly lazy start lap but well warmed up.

The course was a pretty standard Ourimbah XC offering. A couple of new sections to link it all together and some newly updated features to keep the trail a little more sustainable. Conditions were very dry and sandy, roots and rocks were harshly exposed in some sections more than the last time we race here.

After a couple of laps we caught up with some of the leading 7hr solos Garry James, then further on Mark Astley. Mark and the next 7hr solo rider ahead of us, Mick Sherwood, are focusing on the upcoming 24hr endurance events and were smashing along at their "all-day" pace.

Unfortunately our next lap saw us get a smashing of our own when we joined another rider in at moment of "what just happened?". Seems we both collected a stump with our foot which sent us into the bush, off the trail and off the bike. Thanks to the lady with the Tathra MTB Rider jersey for looking after us both, hopefully the other rider got his glasses back and you enjoyed the rest of your ride.

Brushing the dirt off our jersey, checking our head, neck and collarbone. Not injured we took a couple of breaths before heading off down the trail and back on our bike. There seemed like a huge gap time to pull back, lap after lap we attempted the smoothest run and it seemed like we were not getting back amongst the riders prior to the incident.

Thankfully we had a number of team mates in support, much like the JetBlack MTB Racing junior team chasing us and the pairs and teams of three. This kept us motivated and pumped for the next lap.

Climbing out of the gully for the last time we were very happy to have left everything out on the trail.   There were so many fun sections and we had managed to dial in some fast lines across the trail. Checking on the results we managed a respectable 5th place amongst one of the most competitive categories. We are excited to return to Ourimbah next week for SuperFlow!

JetBlack MTB Racing are support by the following;

#ridejetblack #jetblackproducts #theoddspoke #rockytrailentertainment #hubbardproof #prismbike #M2Oindustries #blacktownfamilydental #ambmagazine #mitastyres

@jetblackmtbrace @ridejetblack @jetblackcycling @theoddspoke @rockytrailentertainment @prism.bike @M2OIndustries @australianmountainbike @mitas_tyres

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;

#ridejetblack #jetblackproducts #theoddspoke #rockytrailentertainment #hubbardproof #prismbike #M2Oindustries #blacktownfamilydental #ambmagazine #mitastyres

@jetblackmtbrace @ridejetblack @jetblackcycling @theoddspoke @rockytrailentertainment @prism.bike @M2OIndustries @australianmountainbike @mitas_tyres

Ourimbah - Grand Prix 4hr Solo

There is no doubting that we love the Ourimbah MTB trails. A quick look back over the last few seasons of Grand Prix’s have seen some favourable results, 3rd 2017, 4th 2016 and 1st 2015. It is the amazing technical sections with their brutal rocks, and the twisted ribbon curves of trails that draw you to ride faster. This is one trail that can hold you in the edge of bar-gripping fear and outright hero-dirt exhilaration!

With a massive break between rounds, I couldn’t wait for the Ourimbah GP weekend to come around. There had been a number of other events on the calendar, a couple of club XC events and a weekend away at Rydal. But when it comes to full froth there is nothing quite like finding your flow at Ourimbah.

We are lucky to have a team of dedicated riders within JetBlack MTB Racing and some of the team had rolled into the forest on Friday, setting up the monster JetBlack pit area. We hummed along the freeway in the early hours of Saturday morning to join the team riders and our support crews for nervous pre-race catch-ups and laughs.

After the rider’s brief we headed down the fire road for the short haul back into singletrack for the race course. As the race got off there was a mid firetrail incident on the hill and due to my poor positioning, I was caught amongst the mid pack riders rolling around on the first lap. 

Looking to pull back some time and bless my bike with endless momentum, I knocked a couple of minutes off lap 2, 3 and 4. It was pure pleasure, allowing our 29” wheels to float clear of obstacles, hearing the swoosh of rubber bitting into dirt as railed heavily into the turns. With this effort I had made it back up to JetBlack MTB Racing team mates, team of 3 7hr of Browny, Elton and Nathan.

It was good knowing I was back into the mix with the teams, but as Nathan passed me on a climb I went to follow and found nothing to back me up. My legs had seen their fun and were now zoning out. Shortly after I made some technical errors and I knew I was in trouble, both my mind and my legs were a fuzz.

The only way out of this hole was to dig it myself and I eased off the gas, hoping I could roll it in on sheer guts. Thankfully I wasn’t the only one having a rollercoaster of a time, while chatting to others out on the course, there were some in deeper holes than I. Then there were high rollers, like Jason English, pulling himself back from a flat on an early lap, chatty as always, and Jon Odams, lapping me during my state of self-imposed recovery, happily holding a wheel then zipping effortlessly away down the trail at the next opportunity. 

Ourimbah’s sweeping trails, with short punchy climbs and fun rough descents still remain a favourite of ours. Rocky, loamy and with un-proportionally long descents, it is mountain biking goodness that we’ll always return to. For this event we managed to hold onto 5th place and snuck a top 20 fastest lap of the day! Whoop!

Next stop Coondoo on the South Coast for Round 3 of the GP Series. Thanks to the JetBlack MTB Racing Team and our sponsors for another fun day out!

JetBlack MTB Racing continues to be partnered with The Odd Spoke, Natural Balance, Rocky Trail Entertainment and AMB. Full results from this round here.

Muddy Trails of Glenrock

Welcome back! It's 2018 and the racing season kicked off with Rocky Trail Entertainment's Grand Prix Round 1 at Glenrock, within the city of Newcastle. This is not the first time Rocky Trail have used the Glenrock trails, previous blogs here 2017, 2016. The lushly forested, well defined trails are always a hit with riders. A huge range surfaces were on offer this year with an overnight storm. The initial single track was particularly muddy, which transitioned into a dry, if not a little dusty section as well!

After placing on the GC Series podium the last three years running, we're back to do it again, racing with the JetBlack MTB team. It isn't going to come easy though, a quick scour of the Glenrock lineup  and particular our category was brimming with suitably fast names. Martin, head honcho of RTE, got us started well down the main access fire-trail, much further than previous years. With over 300 riders attending, this was one of the biggest GPs EVER! As per usual it was going to be important to be in the first group come the singletrack, a good early position to start from.

It was a hectic start but the open fire trail was suitably long enough to place on the back of the front group. Conditions on this first lap were slick but manageable in the rainforest section, most of the remaining trail was grippy if not dry. Eventually we found the wheel of team mate Michael Brown, which helped maintain pace and consistency. For some though these first few laps saw more action than they would have liked, a couple of local lads in separate encounters were off the bike, one with a broken frame, the other a possible collar-bone.

From gnarly downhill sections to the granny gear switchback climbs Glenrock has it all. RTE chose to remove some of the climbing from yesteryear, in place a smooth fire-trail back to transition. Everything was working well, our Pivot 429 had a service during the week, with the rear shock getting much of the attention. Slickonium grease from DIYMTB had the shock working a treat, evening out the trail. We have also been running our own nutrition over the last couple of years, finding what works for us. You can check out some of our previous reviews here. Anyway, it felt like we got our nutrition right again this round using High 5 products. Thanks to our team mates and family for the bottle hand-offs.

Over fifty JetBlack MTB Racing team riders were at Glenrock, providing a friendly atmosphere for all. It is great to have on-trail moral support and the transition expertise of a large team. JetBlack MTB Racing continues to be partnered with The Odd Spoke, Natural Balance and Rocky Trail Entertainment. Which allows us to ride how we like! In the results the team was well represented across all categories and delivered some top results for this event, good signs for 2018 and the GP Series. You'll see us at another event shortly!

Full results here.

Stolling on Stromlo

There is no doubt we have a thing for Stromlo, it probably all kicked off ten years ago with our first attempt at 24hrs solo. Over the last ten years the mountain has taken shape, from bare dust bowl to an all inclusive cycling hotspot. We still visit Stromlo on a regular basis, albeit once or twice a year, for an event or two.

It is our first outing to Stromlo this year and much has changed, the houses and units are now verging in the parks fence-line, and the hillside shrubbery seems more dense. Again we are back for another round of the Rocky Trail Entertainment Grand Prix Series, the final round for 2017.

With so many kilometres of trails and a variety of ways to gat around there had been much talk of the chosen route. No matter what, our experience told us there were gong to be rocks and the standard hard-pack of Stromlo dirt. This time Rocky Trail had setup a different event centre, in the carpark and transition from the trails was via the path to the jump-park. We then exited back out onto the trails by going through the tunnel under the DH track.

It has been another massive year with the JetBlack MTB Racing team and like all the Grand Prix's previous this year, we were going to litter the hillside with our bright stripes. Things were heating up too in the GC and Age Group/Team stakes for many, as this was the last chance to gather valuable points before the afternoons presentation. We were all excited to get out on the trails!

Rocky Trail continue to move forward from lessons learnt, and this year they had thrown in some significant fire-trail climbs. This allowed plenty of passing opportunities, nutrition ingestion and particularly open the field up off the start, reducing the first lap or two of conga lines during the single track sections. 


It was a heck of a line-up this round, the JetBlack MTB racing team had brought our own guns but what ever the lure, there were a number of national representatives present. And as such the start was pretty fast, we managed a number of snappy laps before settling into a comfortable pace.

Super happy to continue to ride our Pivot 429 Alloy, it has been dependable baring our poor maintenance routine prior to the Singleton round. Our change last year to Shimano's XT 11 speed with a 30t Hope N/W cog has been the the perfect drivetrain for just about every event we have ridden this bike. (We'll talk about our CX steed another time.) We are also touting Ascent Cycling Enterprises wheels, switching from Stan's alloy rims to Nextie carbon wrapped in Mitas tyres. With Ascent Cycling Enterprises now being based out of the greater Canberra region.


There were no surprises on the day that the 30-39 age category was the most competitive in the 4hr. This amass of speed-freaks has been a constant for every round of the Grand Prix this year, and this round we were pretty happy to place 7th. The particularly good news was that we had sufficient points in the series to take both 2nd in our Age Group AND 2nd for the General Classification. A definite step-up from both results in both 2016 and 2015. 

Rocky Trail Entertainment delivered a diverse repertoire of course for the Grand Prix this year. Many thanks to JetBlack MTB Racing team for the friendly atmosphere, on-trail support and transition expertise. JetBlack MTB Racing has partnered with The Odd Spoke, Natural Balance and Rocky Trail Entertainment, to allow us to ride how we like. The team was well represented across all categories and delivered some top results for this event and the series. You'll see us at another event shortly!

Full results for this Round here.

Our previous event wraps.

Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, Round 4.

Hits and Misses in Singleton

Getting it all right for race day can often be as hard as the race itself. We definably like to make it look easy but this round of the Rocky Trail Grand Prix we seemed to be on the back foot before it even started. To wrap it all up and summarise it all, here are our hits and misses.

All smiles for the start lap. Photo: Cat Sturrock

Hits

Singleton isn't to far from our base in Sydney, even still we opted for a casual late wake-up and breakfast on race morning staying local.

We were presented with a very crisp but sunny morning, the frost didn't last very long though.

Super dry conditions, with a fast and mostly smooth trail, a regular on the HMBA calendar.

The open trail offered plenty of passing opportunities, with copious amounts of flow and peddling. Just a couple of loose, sandy corners amongst a whole heap of fun.

Getting out with our JetBlack MTB Racing team mates and the rest of the Rocky Trail racers, a nice easy vibe out on trail. Plenty of opportunities to have a chat with those riding around us, good topics included CX and SS.

We spent a whole our whole of our second last lap with @jasonenglishmtb, a rare period to mix it up with one of our very best. Bikes, Di2 and the juggle of training featured along the way. #whosdomestiqueareyou You can read Jason's account of 2017 WEMBO Italy here.

Learning on race completion that some of our solo team mates finally got a smooth run at a Grand Prix. There has been much banter between us, with mechanicals and sickness favouring CrummyMTB throughout the year. This round though, a solid performance without issues. Can't wait to see what happens at Stromlo!

Gloves are off and the fight to pull back time is on. Photo: Cat Sturrock

Misses

It is to easy to make excuses and on quick reflection a lack of proper preparation had significant effects on all our misses.

Some ghost shifting from what had been super dependable Shimano 11spd was the first sign. Thankfully it was on the back half of a lap and we eased it back to transition to see what the problem was. All bar two threads of the shifter cable were connected, the source of our shifting problems easily identified. Our quick race kit didn't have cable but our team sponsors, The Odd Spoke, had provided the team with a box of common kit. The old cable out, new one in and dialled-in faster than we had ever done before (even in a workshop environment) with our upgrade to full-length outers helping the process.

Arm warmers were off at this stage but gloves were still on, but further rattling was coming from the bike. So while out on the trail we paused for more reflection, finding issues with our chainring bolts. Again we nursed it back to transition from the returning section, called benefit of the doubt, and just re-torque the bolts.

The re-torque wasn't sufficient, again we paused finding the bolts loosening. We finished another lap with a visit to the JetBlack HQ tent. Our mind had been racing, searching to find a solution, after all we had run this chainring (32t) on the bike previously (we have been running a Hope 30t for all other courses this year). The fix jumped out at us and we hastily made the required adjustments, swapping the chainring around, providing the chainring bolts more area to grab when tightened.

We went on to finish the four hour race, seems our Pivot 429 is in some need of attention and for us to be better prepared leading up to events. Thanks to our supporters and partners JetBlack MTB Racing with The Odd Spoke, Natural Balance and Rocky Trail Entertainment. 

Ascent Cycling Enterprises support us with custom built wheels and Mitas tyres, proven as a fast combination.

Get your 2018 Giro d'Italia Grupetto tour tickets here.

Last years Singleton Round writeup.