NSW Police & Emergency Services Games - XC

When one of my riding colleagues mentioned they wanted to compete at the Games, I was keen to join. These Games had been on and off the radar a few times due to clashes with other events but we had never managed to participate. This years event included a Cross Country (XC) race and a day of Gravity Enduro, first up was the XC.

This was our first time at Green Valleys MTB park and this was another attraction to this particular event. GV had a good name amongst the gravity crowd for its range of trails, features and shuttle back to the top. 

But first the XC event, and there were no shuttles, just pure climbing followed by a descent. We were joined by about 20 others for a one hour plus a lap format of race.

We jumped up onto the front row of the small crowd to get our best start into the singletrack. The race organisers had included a short grassy loop to filter the riders before we headed up the hill.

Our colleague got the jump on the start and we pulled into second wheel to push along the grassy section. It was pretty immediate to notice that our bunch of riders weren’t all pinners as we lead a strung out line onto the course.

We held second wheel for the majority of the climb. It was a fairly graded effort, a number of spots which pinched up and had you grabbing a couple of extra gears. The climb wound its way up a +50m vert hill and the graded efforts were connected by a series of switchbacks.

Nearing the top and before the descent we rode around to the front before the bike started to point down. The descent was fairly natural to start with, a series of dusty and blown-out corners from the The Block Party a week prior. We then skipped onto a more open section, jump a series of doubles and roll down to transition.

We almost took the extra grassy loop for a second time but got called back and they pointed us up the hill again. While climbing the switchbacks we could see my colleague had dropped back a little way and just behind him were a number of other riders.

Over the course of the next laps, only about 8-9minutes a lap, we caught a number of riders and passing through transition there was some joviality about slowing down for those behind us. 

Some of the on-course obstacles included a Butcher bird who took to buzzing the left side of your helmet if you rode alone. The bird was consistent and tapped your helmet over a number of trail sections.

Rolling through transition just before the hour mark we only had one rider left to lap, our colleague that lead us out at the start. He was a quarter of the way up the climb already so we spun up the hill after him. As we crested the hill there must have only been 10 or 20 seconds between us, we pushed the bike down the hill for a last time.

This hard push resulted in us overcooking a corner and coming down in the dust before we had left the forested descent. Back on the bike we rolled through the remaining course to finish our first Games event.

Thanks to the Games and the small team of event organisers for hosting. It was great to ride Green Valley too. We'll be sharing the images from this event on our Instagram and Facebook page when they become available.

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

NIXCS Series Tamworth Round Finale

Hardy souls gather for NIXCS Tamworth. Photo: Ben Marsh

We woke to a pretty brisk morning for the final 2019 round of the NIXCS series. Multiple cold fronts had crossed the region delivery proper cold and windy weather. CrummyMTB HQ was a flurry of action to fit a quick visit to our local ice covered regions before getting back to Tamworth for the midday start of the race.

A number of committed enthusiasts trekked from Inverell, Armidale and the surrounding areas to take part. TAMMTB had set a fast and flowing course with only a hill and a half in the loop.

Photo: Ben Marsh

With a number of juniors recently peaking for the National Schools event, it was a cracking start and their pace was well maintained through the race. Nick Chisholm lead from the start followed closely by U15s shredder Eddie Willis, the rest of us, eating their dust and fighting for our place over the first couple of laps.

Photo: Ben Marsh

 It was a pleasant ride, when you were riding out of, or with the wind, the rest of the time we found our body, even after warming up, was in a state of shock. We had a good ride with the returning Brad Newman, who managed the sub-zero temperatures in just a jersey and knicks (Brett Bellchambers style).

Photo: Ben Marsh

Thanks to TAMMTB for putting on the event. You can check out our other NIXCS race this year here.

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

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.

National XCO Series Round 1 & 2

Photo: Iona Reynolds

Orange hosted the opening rounds of the MTBA 2017 XCO National Series over the weekend, with all participants facing hot, dry and dusty conditions at Kinross State Forest. The first time National Series hosts put together a couple of short and steep loops, reminiscent of old classic XC loops for both days.

With a number of local Sydney based riders attending, given the chance to race Kinross again and catch up with riders from other areas, we sealed our trip to Orange with the race fees. It was busy at Kinross when we arrived, the Juniors and older Masters were finishing their round 1 race. Rego was a breeze and we were able to watch the start of the Elite Woman.

There were a number of big names in mountain biking in attendance, across many of the categories and riders had come from almost all states to represent. Did that mean that all racing was fast and furious? Thankfully no, there was some breadth albeit just a handful.

Photo: Iona Reynolds

With any XCO racing it was super fast paced, probably something we could work on after all these years of endurance racing. Those who could punch up the climbs had the time wins, but the trails featured numerous great descents plus a number of rough blown-out ones, putting smiles on dials.

A sprint to the first section of singletrack initially sorted the groups out, particularly on Sunday when there were some already heavy legs. Flowing trail took us up to the large rock climb and from there the trail differed for the each round. Saturdays round included the longish quarts-climb, previously used in a Ginja Ninja (2015?). From there we connected up to some firetrail before the epically good North Shore trail back to transition.

On Saturday our pace wasn't super fast and over the four laps we managed to pull a few riders back from our grouping. The older categories were hot on our heel though and the fastest of them caught us and in a couple of cases, just powered away.

Photo: Russ Baker

Sunday's route took us up a few climbs that felt like we had never seen them on previous visits, after turning right at the rock climb we continued to climb for what seemed like forever, some gradual but most of it steep or pinchy. This trail was only completed three times for our category, where as Saturdays was four.

We had a good weekend in Orange and were pretty pleased with our first outing at National XCO level. Bec Henderson and Anna Bec won the womans elite rounds consecutively and Dan McConnell made it all look pretty easy in the elite mens.

They were long hot days in the sun and dust so a big shout-out to our JetBlack MTB Racing team mates and our support crews. See you all at the next event!