Weather Shock and Stage 2

The weather has shocked many of the entrants into the annual ICME. For as long as I can remember and from stories told by other riders, this has been one of the only wet starts to the event. Of course with the sand based trails, much of the courses would drain well but that doesn't mean there wouldn't be mud and puddles. An additional positive from wet sand is the grip it provides, the sand compacts in the wet producing a harder surface.  

Stage 2 of the ICME is a hill climb up Anzac Hill in the evening after Stage 1. A 300m individual time trial, with a starting order in reverse of the finishing order from Stage 1, it is almost a full anaerobic effort. It is a great spectator stage who line the sealed road shaking cow bells and shouting words of encouragement for every rider.

Andy Blair continues to lead the ICME through stage 2. Not surprisingly Ben Hogarth can put the power down and sprinted to split the Specialized/Swell team pair of Blair and Shaun Lewis. Hogarth placed second with Lewis rounding out the top three.

Avanti's Rowena Fry is liking the conditions in Alice Springs and enjoying the competition that her closest competitors are bringing. Rowena extends her lead with another +10 second margin between her and the Jennis/Jennys. King pipped Fay by tenths-of-a-second in the ascent, in what is a reversal of their finishing placings from Stage 1.

Riders during the neutral start of Stage 1 Photo: Expose This

Stage 1 of the ICME

Andy Blair, no stranger to leading the ICME, has over a minutes lead heading into the second stage. Andy's team mate Shaun Lewis placed second with Tasmanian Ben Mather on his tail. A Tasmanian also featured in the top three woman's placings too with Rowena Fry across the line before Jenny Fay. Jenny King rounded out the podium but was five minutes down in time from the leading two woman.

At this stage there isn't much between the top riders, it will be interesting to see how the week pans out. Will Andy and Shaun work together all week? Which stage will Andy gift Shaun? Can XC pros of Kyle Ward and Ben Hogarth make inroads on the possible domination of the Specialized/Swell team?

Image care of Rapid Ascent from the 2012 edition.

Steve Billington gives us an insight to how his stage went down.

Yippee, Monday morning, finally race time.  The rain had continued though as the 200+ riders were released for the 42km (claimed) stage under police escort through Alice into trails at the north part of town.  As the police car sped off to signify  the end of the neutral stage, the elites came to the fore with the Specialised Swell boys and Rockstar taking control at the front.  Expectedly the pace upped a couple of notches and the field started to spread out.  The initial 4wd track was sandy and sucky making everyone work that little bit harder to keep up the pace.

              

I found myself racing alongside the 1^st two female elites and the track started to firm up with some pinches and sharp descents.  During one of these early descents before the single track there was a rock bed that was kind of chunky which was bouncing everyone around at speed. Unfortunately for me, it took a liking to my front wheel, which suddenly grabbed, sent me over the handle bars and slapped me down on the track, Ouch.  Luckily all good, bark off arms and legs, but everything was still working and the bike was not visibly affected. As everyone who has endo’d can attest, for the next 10mins afterwards I was all over the shop, adrenaline pumping whilst I tried to catch back onto the pack that I was with.

We had entered the single track now and whilst the grip had gone up immensely from before the rain, I could not get settled into a rhythm and was getting frustrated.  Calm Stephen, its a 5 day race, do your best for the next section as  you never know what will happen.  Slowly I was working my way back into my race pace.  I took a gel at the 1hr mark, grabbed a new bottle at the 20km drink station and I was starting to feel  good.  Another guy had caught up to me and we worked together, which is always easier than trying to push yourself.  I was also getting into my race zone, feeling good about pushing and the single track was coming more naturally.  The sharp rocks were a bit of paranoia for me, we had heard so many stories and I was trying to dodge them or hit them head on and protect my sidewalls. I was also suffering some chain suck and decided to try and stick in my lower front chain ring (2 x 10 setup) to minimise the chances of having to stop and get the chain unjammed.

At about 30km on my garmin, we hit a nasty climb that I stuffed up and had to run.  We over took the leading girls here and I could start to see some other guys up ahead, good, this is not going to be so bad.  I put the hammer down on a short road section and then got a big surprise, we were at the velodrome finish, what! We had only done 35km, Nooooooo,  I needed the extra 7km!   I still had my mate on my tail for our sprint around the velodrome and managed to snick him on the line.

Dissapointed, yes, but on reflection thankful for no broken bones or bike, no flats and there are 6 stages to go.  I’m still in it.

This afternoon is the hill climb, a stage for the fans and a bit of pride, not no real time gains or losses will be realised.  It is 300m long and quite steep, so we’ll see if I brought my climbing legs.

X-Fusion Trace

With large numbers of riders either converting to 29ers or adding to their quiver a more capable, longer-travel model, the Trace fork may have come in at the right time.

X-Fusion's Trace 29er fork arrives a little while after Fox debuted its 34-millimeter-stanchion 29er fork, so it isn’t a new concept. But development has stemmed for the need of a stiffer fork platform on our big-wheel bikes, as the lever arm is longer, more stress is put into the fork and its components. X-Fusion's 34-millimeter chassis is designed to put more performance back into a 29er fork without boosting its weight beyond what is appropriate for our cross-country/trail and all-mountain applications.

X-Fusion's arrival into the longer-travel 29er market has also given them time to watch the 29er trends. The Trace looks to have a crown arch that is wide enough to clear the some of the largest rubber available and it is said that the internals are similar to the X-Fusion Velvet's, which is a good thing. Features include pin-ladder travel adjustment (internally), rebound adjustment and lockout. The version we will be testing also includes a tapered steerer and 15mm through-axel.

  

It looks like the Trace will fit the bill for a light but stout chassis with smooth and efficient damping. You should be able to get aggressive on the next technical section of trail and be looking for what you can triumph over next. We look forward to bringing you a full on-bike test very soon. Eager Beavers!

The Red Centre heats up for the week long Ingkerreke Commercial Mountain Bike Enduro

 It all takes me back to my own adventures in Alice.

Steve Billington who blogged his Croc Trophy adventures from last year, on here, has headed over to Alice to soak up some of the atmosphere, and sand. As a  gluten for punishment he signed up for this, THE OTHER prestigious MTB Stage race, starting from the 13-17th May, yep next Monday!  Compared to the Croc, the ICMBE  is only 7 stages in 5 days, so Steve reckons it might be a bit easier than the Crocodile Trophy.

The stages will be

 Subway Mt Gillen Stage 1 (Monday AM): 42km

Ingkerreke Commercial Stage 2 (Monday PM): 45second, 300m Hill Climb

Lasseter’s Casino Stage 3 (Tuesday): 49km

NT Major Events Stage 4 (Wednesday): 88km

Schwalbe Stage 5 (Thursday AM): 23km Individual Time Trial

Cyclecover Stage 6 (Thursday PM): 23km Night Race

Chifley Alice Springs Resort Stage 7 (Friday): 40km

We look forward to all the action from Alice next week.

Project 9er - Contacts

In choosing a bar for Project 9er we were looking for a flat bar with plenty of sweep. The Noir T30 Carbon bar has been getting a good wrap amongst riders, especially 29er pilots, for its generous sweep leading to comfortable hand positioning. Its a flat bar which also helps in keeping the front end of the low, something which is particularly needed more now with tall 9ers.

Prior to Project 9er the T30 graced another bike ensuring rigorous testing

An additional to the Truvativ bars now are the semi integrated bar end plugs, which is a tidy feature. In learning from our mistakes last year we are running our lock-on grips with just one, the inside, lock-on end attached. Your probably asking, why? After numerous incidents in which involved bar tapping trees and exits off the bike we had a look at the route cause. Like most cats and their whiskers, us mountain bikers use the placement of our hands to give us a feel for the width of our bars and the on coming trail width. Hence with a little extra bar sticking out, our hand placement told us the bars were not as wide as they were. But the proof is in the pudding, since removing the outside lock-on and sliding our grips to the end of the bars we haven't experienced any unwanted superman moments.

At the other end it is pretty standard fair with Shimano's latest XT pedals. While there is nothing quite like the XTR version, the XT variant gets very close. Solid engagement and a firm feel, out of the box they just feel right.