Blogs

The weather was perfect and the terrain and track layout fantastic for this event. Props to Kevin and his team for putting this all together for what is a "once a year" event on this unique bit of single track at Coolah. A smallish field, with mens under 45's and over 45's and female categories, in each of the 3 distances (1 lap, 2 laps, 3 laps).
But boy, is it a tough race.....

After missing last year's event, I headed out to the Back Yamma State Forest on Saturday for another go round on this country track. Camped overnight at the event centre - plenty of space and no restrictions on campfires makes for a great camping experience there. Had a short spin on Saturday arvo to free up the legs after a few hours in the car and then lined up Sunday morning for the 50 km version.

Thanks to Ray and the crew for a good race.
Managed my 1st ever win in B-grade!
Also 1st race on the new 29er dually (superfly 100), bike went well.
Ian

Didn't quite get my training right for this one but did OK.

I'd been doing 1 long ride (time wise) a week with a fair bit of climbing in it. but, being time strapped was relying on Tuesday night racing to keep my speed up and struggled to get time back that up. I really needed some more aerobic stuff and some intervals work thrown in.

In the weeks leading up I'd noticed my speed had dropped off on Tuesday nights and recognising my error managed to get a couple of spinnerval sessions on the trainer, a little late but better than nothing.

Well - firstly I must apologise for not posting this up sooner but I was so emotionally overcome by the ride on Sunday that I have only just stopped shaking and been able to put my thoughts into some sort of coherence.

Stephen and I have entered the conquer cancer ride for 2013. We are local celebrities it seems, you can view the details in the following links.

http://www.bluemountainsgazette.com.au/story/122...

http://sy13.conquercancer.org.au/site/TR/Events/...

This a very worthwhile charity to support, so please help us to help those with cancer.

I decided that I would join an MTB Club and do some short xc riding this year. I'd joined WSMTB last week and signed up to ride the 2nd round of the CamelBak 4 hour as my opening race, this was a bit of a learning expereince as this was my first time riding Yellomundee and riding solo laps.
Have to say that the organisation was fantastic so it's great to see that WSMTB is a well run and organised club, clearly this is down to the people that volunteer and take the time to make the events the success they are, so well done to all.

Round 2 of the WSMTB 4hr summer series was gearing up to be a good one with probably 3-4x more riders than the 1st round.
Last round I went out too hard and suffered towards the end.
The plan for this race was to get a good start then ease off through the middle and hopefully finish strong. The plan fell to pieces in the first 50m getting stuck in the bottle neck and riding the 1st section below walking pace. It took 2 full laps to actually get any clear air and be able to ride at my own pace. I definitely need to get further up the front for the start I think.

Man:0
Ground:1

I didn't even take a divot.

Everybody raves about the place, but you never really know just how good the riding is until you're actually pelting down the pumice, gibbering with glee. Until you've made it to the top of the mountain and sampled the best stuff, the ones that are worth chucking your bike on a plane for, even for just two days of riding.

A good friend of mine in Auckland was having his 50th birthday and sent out the invite to all and sundry. At the last minute I made a snap decision to go over and managed to talk another mate into coming as well.