Flynny's blog

Great night for a ride. then it pissed down just as we were leaving the pub. Had a few spills tonight so I hope Paul and Glenn are ok

Lovely night for ride.

the stars were out in force as Richard, Meggsie, Charlie and myself headed off around the first half of the Rydal loop. At the far end we headed leftonthe fire trail and took int he new stuff out through the diggings and then followed the railway line out to the highway.

After bit of dicking around trying to avoid the highway itself we gave up and ventured up the tarmac and across Pikes lane back to the western road and then ground our way up to Mt Lambie to Clints place.

I knew I hadn't done as much riding as I would have liked leading into this one but I was feeling pretty good and was reasonably confident.

I got off to a good start up the fire trail and entered the single trail in the lead and settled down into a tempo and rhythm I was comfortable with.

Back out on the fire trail Beggsie blasts past near the top of the hill. I was feeling good and thought of challenging but in my last race (round #1) I rode much better by just sticking to my own tempo so Beggs hits the main ST a little in front of me.

Myself, Phil and Mick met up with Joe and Harold for a blast on the Mt York convict trails.

It was a nice night and as we plodded up Berghoffers it didn't take long for me to start unzipping the windstopper vest.

By the top I was ready to peal the vest and outer jersey off and noticed Joe was already down to a tee shirt.

It's been a while since we've done Mt York and Lockyers would have to be my all time favourate trrail. It has a little bit if every thing and a whole lot of fun.

Close racing is good race, yeah?

Despite the trash talking Dukesie set a good pace of the start after getting in front of Barnsie on the gap jump. Brad Roughely was just behind while I was sat in 4th. Paul Whitefield lead the second bunch that closed the gap on us in the far single trail and he was sitting on my wheel when I ran a little wide, clipped my front wheel into a tree and stalled. He hit my rear, getting me going but unfortunately Paul fell off int he process stall those behind him too.

Racing bikes is fun.

Got off to an ok start. Was with the lead group through the first bit of ST before loosing 50-60m to them on the long fire rd out to the fare end of the course.
Tucked into the next bit in 5th. Some deep braking and hard efforts got me back onto the lead group and I could see Richard chasing hard behind too,

A missed gear change saw Brad stall and go from 3rd to 6th and let Barnsie and and the new bloke, Hutto get a bit of a break. Richard also caught us and took the opportunity to slip in front o f me.

here's the write up I submitted to Lithgow radio and the various papers from Lithgow Bathurst Blue Mts and this week Orange. I know Lithgow been running them so hopefully the other are too.

With competitors coming from as far afield as Wentworth Falls, Orange and Mudgee the Stella Maris Mining Services/Centennial Coal weekly Tuesday evening cross country mountain bike races held near Rydal are fast becoming the CTMBCs most popluar series ever.

With a friendly vibe and close racing on a fun but challenging track it's proving to be a great way to spend a Tuesday afternoon.

Ah how fun was that.

Last week I though we had made a good start on the trails with "Ants Pants" but was kind of dreading racing as we only had 800 meters of ST to about 2.5km of fire road. Heaps of potential just needed more work. Tuesday ight racing usual consists of 5-6 laps of a 3km loop. It's basically a 40min sprint.

In steps Richard Campbel.. He calls Sunday night,, "I've had my doitcher(sp?) out there today and cut some more trail to get rid of some of the fire trail"
Thus "Rags to Rich's" was born (Didn't have my gps but will add it to the data base shortly.)

It was a dark and stormy night, Well Ok it wasn't stormy, more slightly drizzly but it was dark and night....

The day had been soso weatherwise starting out damp and doing its best to dry out. It had been 3 weeks since my last decent ride so I was keen as. Riding home it looked good. Or maybe it was wishful thinking I stepped inside turned back around and outside looked wet...

I scoof down some soup and the phone rings... It was Mr Lights "We still riding?" "Yeah why not."

I pack up the ute and head around to pick him up. I get a message from Rich "You reckon it's too wet?"

Myself, Meggs, Dan Blowes and Richy had an enjoyable night out with this one.

Crystal clear skys above, fun trails below...

Not even the deep patches of sand could spoil it.

Ended up doing this loop
http://ctmbc.net/node/15010
Which took in some old fire trail a lot of which may as well have been single trail.
Back up the enduro trail in the reverse direction from what we'd normally do. This provided some techy climbs and some surprisingly flow sections that were an absolute blast.