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;
  
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North West Mountainbikers - Gravity Enduro

A dozen riders from around the North West region and beyond to join in a morning of shuttles at Mt Borah, near Manilla, 50km north of Tamworth.

Attending were a number of junior riders from our local club Tamworth Mountanbikers, these kids have spent some of this year attending SuperFlow and other Enduro style events from the mid-north coast to Newcastle, and beyond.

It was our first visit to these trails and geared up with protection from 661, we felt this could be a good technical challenge. The Borah trails are strewn with jutting rocks and with the current dry weather a super loose top surface.

Photo: Ben Marsh

The Borah trails also have a number of drops, gaps and tabletops, all with B-lines. Rolling these trails can be slow and laborious, racing these trails, a technical nightmare of choices.

We managed to roll through the three trails North West Mountainbikers had put on offer. There were a plenty of sections that you could spend hours perfecting, but we were keen to put some timed runs together, to compare with the other riders.

Photo: Ben Marsh

After a “race” run on each trail, we felt there was still room for improvement, we headed back up to Stage 1 and 2. We put together smoother runs for both stages and reduced our times by 10 seconds on each stage.

Not resting on our laurels we rode back up to the top to get Stage 1 just a little better. Almost at the end of the run we lost some speed in a double drop biting the dirt on completion of the drops. Pushing our bike past the gate, bars bent and with dusty knees, we had managed to drop the race time by another 3 seconds.

Photo: The Broken Spoke Tamworth

In the wash-up we placed 2nd on Stage 1, 3rd on Stage 2 and 3rd on Stage 3 for a win by 8 seconds.

Full results here.

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NSW Police & Emergency Services Games - Gravity Enduro

After an exciting day 1, we headed out to Green Valleys MTB Park again for a day of gravity with the NSW Police & Emergency Services Games. Scheduled was a morning of sighting runs followed by a single race run of each of the courses.

Today's gravity crowd was bigger than yesterdays XC, and so were their bikes. We had a shuttle bus and trailer, so no need for riding to the top.

At the top we were probably three times higher than yesterday's XC course elevation. We were able to sight the trails with some steady roll downs, everyone rolling on just one trail at a time due to a mid-track crossover. Squid City wound its way in an almost gentle manner down the hill. Sections of Squid were machine built, a metre and a half wide and very rolling.

Our other gravity trail to ride was Dirty South, a mixed terrain course that slammed its way down the hill. Dirty had been used in the Block Party a week earlier and was super dusty and blown-out. Between our two sighting laps on this trail it only got dustier and slipperier in sections.

But first and after the mandatory briefing was the Straight race run. This was more a BMX or dirt jump course and the lads with the best times were able to manual and pop their way along. The manuals and subsequent speed helped with the rhythm and gap jump 2/3rds of the way along.

We then piled onto the bus for a timed run down Squid. There weren't to many issues on Squid and it was very much a brake a least as possible for a smooth run down.

While the remainder of the last Squid descenders were on track we all piled back into the bus for the ride to the top. We had pulled on our new 661 full-face helmet from JetBlack for both Squid and now for Dirty South. When we attacked the Dirty South trail it was a matter of holding on as long as possible. We didn't have a good run and found ourselves over-cooking sections and not holding the right lines but we did get down in one piece, probably not as fast as we could have though.

It was again a reminder to ride the appropriate tyre for the style of riding, our slim XC tread didn't hold up as well as the Mitas Kratos has in the past. Of course we were on our XC bike, just with the seat slammed and pro-pedal off. 

We had a great day out with the guys representing the mix of services at the Games. We managed a 3rd for our age-group across the three trails. 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.

**Edit** On receiving the results for the GE we can also claim on overall 5th place as well.

JetBlack MTB Racing are support by the following;

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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.

JetBlack MTB Racing are support by the following;

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SuperFlow at Jollynose - Championships

With the success of our return to SuperFlow last month and our body holding up to the riggers of riding we were looking forward to returning to Jollynose for another SuperFlow session with Rocky Trail Entertainment. This return to Jollynose, after last years fortunate adventure, was only our second time to the area and there was much talk of the trail changes and updates.

SuperFlow is like Downhill racing but pitched on more Cross-Country trails than crazy Downhill trails. That isn't to say there is nothing a little insane, there are often a number of technical features, possibly and A and B lines for you to choose from. And when your whipped into a peddling frenzy from the Enduro crowd cheers, fat-tyres and fluro, you can feel like a Downhill adrenaline junkie.

We had a number of JetBlack MTB Racing team mate in attendance, some regulars and some new to SuperFlow this season. It was great to get out and ride with our team mates now that we don't see them as regularly. What is also pretty special about SuperFlow is the new friends you create along the way, either through a bit of a heckle or some competitive spiritedness, or just a regular chin wag.

Unbeknownst to us we even had some Tamworth locals in the mix. A "Hi Crummy" was all that was needed to affirm that behind the full-face helmet, was someone I did know mid way through the day. 

The trails started at the same places as last year and were generally the same through the top halves. Lower down one trail had been shortened to remove some pedalling, another had been updated with a series of obstacles including a serious flow section of gaps. The third and final trail was a fairly straight forward XC thrash.

We did a series of warm-up mini runs on our first trail till timing started. It was good to test out the hardtail since it has been over 4 months since we had ridden it. We had our Mitas XC tyres on and needed to have that reminder of how far to push both them and the bike. It was also a test for our shoulder as we are still coming back from the clavicle break in March.

We completed three timed runs of our first trail improving the first run by 17 seconds and the second run by another half a second, for a sub three minute run for Fox. We then went and visited Stans, said to be the most challenging trail for the day, and they weren't wrong! Our first run was very much a sighting run and an eye opener, especially as we got down to the gap flow section. Yeah, we were out of our depth. It was almost a four minute run, some twenty seconds off our closest competitor. 

We had joined one of our team mates for the next run, Lazer, and we gave them a ten second head start. We caught them at the pinch of the short pedal climb and tried to scoot away but was caught back up by the line for a 3:50.5. Our team mate had to complete another trail so we parted ways and returned to the dreaded Stans.

After psyching ourselves up and a few deep breathes we took Stans on again, trying to find the most out of the trail to keep it smooth and flowing. Unfortunately we still rolled a few of the largest gaps and couldn't connect all the sections together but managed to drop a massive twenty seconds through finding our smoothness on trail, a time much closer to our competitor at 3:34.4.

Another run was needed on the fast Laser course, just to see if we could better our time. We attempted to chase down an e-bike but didn't improve our time with a 00.1 of a second slower. Close enough to our 3:50.5 previous run.

It was pretty close with only four or so seconds between our closest competitor and after some pretty fast runs we were about cooked. We called it a day, joining our team mates and other competitors for post ride beverages and food.

We ended up coming second in the category after our closest competitor went and dropped nine seconds on his first run of the day. All and all a great day out with Rocky Trail Entertainment and the Jollynose Crew!

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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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Jollynose - SuperFlow 2018

Epic days begin like this, it is still dark.

Pack the car, load the bike.

Short drive, pick up team mate.

It is still dark, there is no traffic.

Hornsby, Wyong, first light.

Bulahdelah, Nabiac, Taree, almost there.

Dusty road, unload bikes, rego.

A tale of bookends.

Bookend 1 - Race Run 1

I had a quiet word to myself, have a safe smooth run, get a run on the board. The top section was pretty open and fast before moving through a more rocky section. From there it was a number of rollers and jumps before the mostly flat sprint to the finish.

Have a safe smooth run, I get down past most of the obstacles, just before the flat finish, the bike has handled well and I find myself in the dirt, on my back beside the trail. How did that happen? I'm shaken, I take a couple of breaths before checking myself for injuries. I'm just covered in dirt, my shoulder seems to have made contact as I was thrown.

A number of riders pass me including my team mate, yes I'm ok thanks, but I'm still a bit shaken as this felt like one of the biggest offs I have had in a very long time. Retrieve the bike from where it had landed in the bush, all seems ok. What did I hit?

I look over the trail, there is nothing obvious at first but as I walk around the corner I spot a 100mm tall thin sapling stump on the inside of the corner. Did this just collect me? I look back to where I collected myself from the dirt, yep must have been. I listen out for any immediate riders before rolling through to the finish timing. Not the safe smooth run I had envisaged.

Bookend 2 - Final Race Run

The same trail a run 1. I needed to revisit and better my time from that first run, but my day had been generally dulled by the crash. No runs today had been 100%, my shoulder had tightened after taking some of the impact, and I couldn't find the spark to light-up the trails. Just one more run, better my crash time, safe and smooth.

Through the open flowing dusty section into the rocks, keep the hardtail light and dancing. Move to the rollers and jumps, sweet, just remember the stump on the inside of the corner, done. Not far to go almost at the flat sprint section, then BAM! The back end of the bike flails loosely around, a quick glance confirms just before the only part of this trail specifically designed for the hardtail rider in mind ;), the rear rubber has come off the rim! Oh it is to late in the day for this, I muscle-up over the front wheel and ride onto the flat sprint section, there is no stopping now. I cross the line on flat rubber and call it a day.

Awesome to share the podium with long time shredder Kyle

At the time JetBlack MTB Racing was partnered with The Odd Spoke, Natural Balance, Rocky Trail Entertainment and AMB. Series results so far, here (yes, we are leading the Hardtail Category).

Full Jollynose SuperFlow Round results here.

Ourimbah - SuperFlow

It was only last week we were racing at Ourimbah in the GP4, AND this week we are back again, this time for SuperFlow! SuperFlow is the new generation of Rocky Trail's Rollercoaster Series, of which we participated in originally (1st - 2012, 5th - 2013, 23rd - 2014). It is the XC take on Gravity Enduro, with probably the most popular Enduro series, the Enduro World Series (EWS) grabbing most of the attention.

So we are back at Ourimbah and there is a buzz. It is different from last week’s Grand Prix, a more casual, more fluro, baggy and longer travel buzz. This is the second round of the RTE SuperFlow Series we have been able to get to, we missed the Thredbo round a couple of months ago. Not surprisingly the SuperFlow Series has some serious followers, just about all male categories were buoyant with enthusiasts and punters alike.

We joined JetBlack MTB Racing team mates Eric, Troy, Matt and newcomer Brad at the event rego and hub area for our racing plates. There we also met with the Rocky Trail Entertainment crew, Martin and Juliana for the pre-race brief. We had a couple of hours to check out the two race trails before the 11am race kick-off.

It was a cool start for the practice session, we transitioned along the XC trails to warm up the legs. From the bottom of the valley it was couple of hundred vertical meter, fire-trail climb, to the start of the timed sections. This round I teamed up with newcomer Brad and we sessioned the shorter, steeper “Fox” trail first. 

The short, steep trail was a portion of the Ourimbah Downhill track. It was pretty intense and we stopped a number of times to sus out lines. We also had a chat with a couple of Ourimbah regulars, gleaming some invaluable insights for our race runs. Then it was back on the climb to the top to roll the “Fox” trail again, just to make sure we had absorbed as much trail information as possible in a couple of sighting laps.

We managed to squeeze a roll through of the “Stans” trail before 11am. A couple of sections we hadn’t seen before, but much of it was used last week during the Grand Prix event. All good, lets go racing!

First trail to we chose to race on was the longer "Stans" section. Having just rolled this trail and it being significant longer, our fairly fresh legs would stomp the XC styling of this section. I headed out first with Brad chasing, but through the dusty first descent section with adrenaline pumping I pushed to hard, driving into a tree on a tight left-hand corner. Shaken and with signs of some blood after taking much of the hit to the tree via my arm I went to jump on the bike, but the bars were twisted. I quickly re-aligned the bars as I saw Brad crested the hill and begin descending to my position. I had just about lost thirty seconds due to this off, I remounted and whipped the bike with a frenzy of pedal strokes to get me back down the trail.

At the bottom of the "Stans" trail I quickly self diagnosed some pretty good inflammation to my elbow, no joint pain or deep cuts. All good to continue racing, we headed back to the top for a couple more runs of the shorter DH trail, and get timed on the "Fox" section. 

For the first run at “Fox” Brad went first, I quickly counted twenty seconds and chased after him. My idea was to close the gap as much as possible on the mostly flat transition to the singletrack, then hold onto that smaller time gap as I wrestled the hardtail through the rough course.  It seemed to have worked; Brad was just heading down the singletrack as I was coming up to it. In regards to the “Fox” course it was a definite balance of control, because gaining speed no problem, it all pointed downhill. I was glad I replaced the brake pads a few days earlier, keeping the bike on the trail and pointed in the right direction was executed with volumes of braking.

After transiting back to the top to have another go at “Fox”, Brad checks out the online results, I had set initial time of just over three minutes. That result was not to shabby, with Brad sets a time seven just seconds slower. A quick hydrate, a chat with other riders and we were in the mix for another razz down the track. There was a shuffle of riders as we improved the line-up and self-seeding situation, this time Brad was to chase and potentially improve his time. I let the rider in front go just long enough that I knew I would catch them just before the singletrack to ensure free trail for the tech section. It works, I pass the DH rider just seconds before the trail narrowed and I get a clear shot at sprinting down the trail. At the bottom I wait longer than I should have to, but eventually Brad rolls in, seems he had an off mid-course. I set a time almost two seconds faster, pushing me in the sub three minute bracket.

With my young team mate having a crash it was time to make our way back to the event hub for a break, sustenance and refocus. Of course, we still had to do another lap of the longer “Stans” course to post an official time. A transition back to the top again and a good half day of riding is finally catching up with us.

We roll up to the start of the longer trail, this time I didn't need my own crash again but it was important to set a solid time. I rolled away first, diving through the tough loose first section and onto the little climb, boom, there is the first rider I catch, in fact there were three riders all up. I was feeling pretty on fire, pushing the bike as much as I felt reasonable. I launched over the finishing matt and skidded through the mid of the watching bunch on the firetrail. It was good to finish the trail with no major errors and a big smile on my face.

There was time, and energy for one more lap and see as though Brad had made a mess of his last "Fox", I encourage him to finish the day with a smooth run down. We rode to the top again and hit the trails for the last time that day.

All-n-all it was a fun day out. My three times on "Fox" had only a two second deviation, pretty consistent (placing in the top 100/300 riders). And my two runs on the longer "Stans" had a thirty second deviation, which was about what it felt when I crashed on the first of the two runs. The faster of the runs put me in the top 15 riders for the day. This result put me on the top step of the podium for the hardtail class!

Next stop is near Port Macquarie on the Mid North Coast for the Jolly Nose, Round 4 of the SuperFlow 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 SuperFlow round here. Series results so far, here (yes, we are leading the Hardtail Category).

SuperFlow Stomlo

We were excited to return to gravity based racing this year. 2012-13 were both successful years for us with a Series win followed by a Series fifth place in what was becoming the most fun timed style event for everyone!

Race write-ups - 2012 Del Rio, 2012 Stromlo, 2013 Ourimbah, 2013 Thredbo.

Stromlo still holds a special place in our mountain biking destination list. Our first solo 24 probably set it all off, now we were returning for RockyTrail Entertainment's SuperFlow Series. The series has gone through a few name changes but has been drawing an ever-increasing crowd of followers since its inception.

We were on the Hume early, a pickup along the way, fellow JetBlack MTB racer Kurt. At Stromlo the crew met the rest of the team, then a whole heap of other riders we knew from our variety of riding. Yep, SuperFlow is for everyone!

A quick rego for number plates, GU and a bottle, then race director, Martin, was on the mic delivering his pre-race brief to the 400 odd riders in attendance. We had a couple of hours to chill and sus the trails for today's timed sections, so it was on bike and for a spin up the hill.

We weren’t at Stromlo for the climbing though, the SuperFlow's aim: to bomb down the timed sections, in the shortest time possible. We sessioned the more-fun flowing trails first, then the short-rocky-to-open-sprint trail, to finish.

A clear sky had brought a cool start to the day but with the sun now high in the sky it warmed up fast, seriously fast, and racing was due to start at 11am sharp. With fresh and full RTE bottles we headed up the mountain to join fellow racers for the short social wait to get the first race run underway.

Race runs were in the following order, Stan’s (Double D, Pork Barrell). This trail is one of our favourite combinations having ridden it recently on a Pivot 5.5. Bringing our hardtail this time sure set a challenge for us!

Then it was onto Fox (Skyline, Luge), a bottle refill, then back to Stan’s. Who doesn't love these trails! Finally we headed over to JetBlack (Little Seymour). On completion of this it was pretty hot, well over thirty degrees, time for another break. Lunch. Food. Rest. Recovery. More fluids. Sunscreen!

Given the run we had on JetBlack, there was probably more to be had, time to be lost. We went out for one more run at it. A good thing too, a better run resulted in a shorter time, whoop! Nailed it. Now it was time to rest.

Turns out local elite rider James Downing had brought some of his clan to race too, bulking out the category. It was fun to find a fellow hardtail rider out zipping along the trails. James took the win easily while we nudged out the competition, taking 2nd. Pretty chuffed with the result and a whole heap of fun was had.

This 2018 season is a huge six round series plus a championships, so there is plenty of SuperFlow still to come and we might see you there!

JetBlack MTB Racing continues to be partnered with The Odd Spoke, Natural Balance, Rocky Trail Entertainment and AMB. Which allows us to ride how we like! You'll see us at another event shortly!

Full results here.

2017 National Cycling Carnival - Part 1

An early morning commute from Sydney had me arrive for the Opening address and Safety Brief at the velodrome. There was quite a bit happening, people arriving, bikes in and out of the velodrome and the offer of MTB setup/maintenance tips by members. The local velodrome experts were actively fitting bikes, albeit SS, brakeless, ultra-narrow type bikes and there was also amass of bunting featured both within the velodrome and out, looking like a tidy CX course.

I managed to get out on a track bike but didn’t spend too long on it, yes it felt weirdly narrow and never got “on-top” of the gearing provided.

More importantly after a solid year of CX racing I was keen to look over the technical aspects of the days course at “The Bundahdome”. Having never visited this location previously, I was surprised at the steepness of the marked course on the outside of the velodrome, this technical aspect of the course would be a clincher for many competitors. The off-camber slopes had me drop both front and rear 35mm tyre pressure a couple of psi to find more of the grip I was wanting.

Photo: N. Burton

Unsure of how the week was going to roll, I elected to race age group rather than open/elite for CX. Sus out the competition, have a bit of fun on the first day. Jamie Burton was back again this year, and Ty Domin was present, it was us three that headed onto the course in front of the remainder of the age-groupers, once the young-guns and elites had started. The course had a variety of sweeping corners, the usual CX style, a couple of barriers and a run up the flattest section of the velodrome before turning right and making way along the top of the velodrome. Some off-camber and short pinches later we headed around to the steep outside section of the velodrome. It got pretty interesting here, with switchbacks and well-off-camber traverses across the steep and loose course.

Early on in the event I came through a sweeping off-camber grassed corner and the bike fell-out from beneath me, picking myself up off the grass slightly startled I remounted having only dropped a couple of places. On the next couple of corners I figured out what the problem was, a lack of air in the front tyre, the bike was oversteering generally and washing-out when pushed. This lack of air issue would only make this CX event more challenging.

Jamie working hard to keep up. Photo: N. Burton

A couple of laps later we dropped Ty, after all he did have the wrong gear for 90% of the time, not that we had the right gear either. Jamie and I were duelling throughout the course, quite often swapping the lead. On the final lap just before the second last fast section I dropped a chain and had to dismount to rectify the issue. Fighting hard through the tough off-camber traverses, past lines of the DH heckling crew who seemed to be in full support of skinny wheels doing amazing things on dirt, I pushed a last ditch effort to make time back to Jamie, my front wheel battling me all the way.

Jamie and I didn’t quite make up time to the front runner in the elite/young guns category but we had our first contest for this year’s NCC. Both of us winning our respective age categories, with Jamie pipping me by seconds for line honours.

The hecklers, cowbells and horns, for atmosphere. Photo: N. Burton

What has been great over the previous NCC is the availability of skills coaches or serious riders will to show/demo techniques for all to gain from. This year was a step-up from previous that I have attended with the addition of locals Dylan Cooper and Claire Whiteman for the XC crowd. Fastline Bikadamy was on hand for the Gravity/DH crowd again this year. I participated in both a Gravity and a XC skills session, first with MTBA National DH Junior Coach Indi Boer of Fastline Bikadamy, then in the afternoon with Trek rider Dylan Cooper of Ride Technics. I find as an experienced rider there is still plenty to take away from any skill session, and for me it wasn’t till the following day the lightbulb clicked on to what I had just experienced and gained from both sessions.

Stunt rider Indi Boer, Photo: CrummMTB