Blogs

Missed last year's Back Yamma when it was cancelled due to flooding, but this year it was dry as a bone. The tracks had been at least partially restored, although what I'd remembered as a 50km loop was this year 2 x 25kms (or 2 x 28km actually). It's now a club race run by Orange MTBC and it was a pretty relaxed and relatively small scale affair.

First time riding at Rydal. Usual casual but smooth organisation from Rocky Trail. Nice little track courtesy of CTMTB. The track flows pretty much along the side of a ridge, crosses over and then flows back up along the other side. Not much in the way of climbing or descending, just plenty of tight single track. Brake, pedal, brake, pedal. On it all day. Plenty of trees and branches on corners. As a tall guy, I felt at some risk of concussion if I didn't get the cornering right.

Hi,
just wanted to say hi from John & Maree, we are staying at Katoomba until friday the 9th.

A big thankyou to Michael Hampson for his help and information on the phone the other day, knowledgeable & friendly a great rep for your club.

We are looking forward to the social ride Wednesday evening, must make sure we arrive by NSW dalylight savings time though ! & not our Qld. time !

Current Category Series position: 5th
Current Overall position: 50th

12th September 2015 at Mt Annan

My first race at Mt Annan, but this time I at least got to have a couple of exploratory laps the weekend before.

Category: 4hr Solo Male 40-49

Current Category Series position: 5th
Current Overall position: 56th

15th August 2015 at Stromlo Parklands

This race was so good. Stromlo was yet another place I'd never been to, but wow! . . I loved it. The four hours flew by. There was no wishing it was over, I just enjoyed this from start to finish. Even on the last lap, when I was really feeling tired, I still loved it. Then to top it off I even got my best result, so all in all it was a great day.

Category: 4hr Solo Male 40-49

Current Category Series position: 8th
Current Overall position: 75th

1st August 2015 at Ourimbah MTB Park

This race should have been held in July, but was delayed due to the weather, so there had been a fair time gap between races by the time this day came along. Ourimbah was yet another that was new to me. I have to say I quite liked it overall though.

Last round I had some sort of chest infection and couldn't breathe properly, resulting in me coughing through the entire length of the race. Today I was feeling healthier and I needed a decent result to shake doubts, caused from the last round, out of my head (I race for fun and I don't have to win, but I do have to feel like I improved, otherwise I feel disappointed).

This was my 6th Careflight Woodford to Glenbrook Classic. The last 2 years I was within a minute for braking the hour mark. This year I not only beat it but smashed it.

Usually I would start at the back of my age category. from the back the group is bottle necked and the pace is slower than I would like so this year I figured I try and start closer to the front. Somehow I managed to jag the poll position for my group next to Philip Pidgeon and Martin Wisata.

Climbing is certainly my weakness and where I would get overtaken, but I was quick to get back onto the pedal at each crest.

So, I entered this race again this year to test how I have progressed over the 14 months since I first got on a MTB.

Last year I finished in just over 1 hour 15 minutes and going into this one I really wanted to come in under the hour.

Though I missed out by 67 seconds on that goal, there are other ways to measure progress. Most importantly for me was that, unlike last year, I rode every climb and didn't stop once.

May not sound much to many here, but it is a quiet victory for me.

Thanks to the organizers for a lovely little event.

It was a cool and foggy morning (the view from the lookout as I drove past was amazing. . . you were above the clouds and thats all you could see). My warm up consisted mostly of sitting on my bike chatting and I can live with that. The social aspect is a key draw card for me participating in these events.

Not my best day, but it's all about getting out there. And on the funny side of things; I washed out the front, crashing right in front of the timing tent (apparently I was the third person to do this).