Monday, November 21, 2011
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Flinging it.
My previous fling was back in 2009, suffering mechanicals and instead of doing the long 160k leg I opted to cut to the shorter 110k. This year I went straight to the 110k, I knew it was going to be a big toll and the century was enough. This race finished me off for a build to the garmin 24 hour, and I really did not know how the legs or body would hold on. I have tried to have a pretty rapid build over the last 1-2 months after being forced to ease back on training early on.
The race started at great pace, I was keen to do a solid 1st stage. I was happy things were looking good and comfortable. Kylie and Robyn filled by hydropak super quick (love ya work!) and I was out for the 2nd stage. I was really enjoying the singletrack sections with some cool drifting (something I have never been comfortable to do on a 29er before) and it was all going well. The ups and downs were going great time was passing quickly and then, 50k in and time to jump the little crossing and bang. My semi mended thumb into the bars and it hurt! I carried on my thumb did not like shifting now and all of a sudden with some climbing to do my mojo was gone. I was a little lost but pushed on, tried a pick me up gel, rolled up the KOM and kept moving. I was pretty happy to get to the open fireroad and tried to push on hard to Wingello but my mojo did not return when a car overtook me and sat about 20m in front, so I rode in a dirty dust cloud for a few k's grrrrrr.
I was keen for stage 3 thinking how good is the fire road finish going to be this is going to be super quick! It started well moving along quick, I passed Kendra and Erica and had a little chat. Then hit the singletrack wow this slowed me up, over brokeback, and into more singletrack thinking that these half flingers are starting to struggle with the amount of full flingers coming through....I hope Kendra is all good. I came across a guy with what looked like a broken collarbone, it was a bit of a war zone. I battled through just wanting to finish. It was not long before I was over the line and keen to get a coke and food.
Mixed emotions this year, I had some tough times but also a load of fun. So proud of Kendra making it through, that 2nd half was tough on her, and very glad she had a fantastic friend to do it with.
Now the build is over looking forward to recovery time :).
Well done to those that had a great race, it is good to see you reach the goal/results you were after. Definately the training is paying off, keep up the good work!
The race started at great pace, I was keen to do a solid 1st stage. I was happy things were looking good and comfortable. Kylie and Robyn filled by hydropak super quick (love ya work!) and I was out for the 2nd stage. I was really enjoying the singletrack sections with some cool drifting (something I have never been comfortable to do on a 29er before) and it was all going well. The ups and downs were going great time was passing quickly and then, 50k in and time to jump the little crossing and bang. My semi mended thumb into the bars and it hurt! I carried on my thumb did not like shifting now and all of a sudden with some climbing to do my mojo was gone. I was a little lost but pushed on, tried a pick me up gel, rolled up the KOM and kept moving. I was pretty happy to get to the open fireroad and tried to push on hard to Wingello but my mojo did not return when a car overtook me and sat about 20m in front, so I rode in a dirty dust cloud for a few k's grrrrrr.
I was keen for stage 3 thinking how good is the fire road finish going to be this is going to be super quick! It started well moving along quick, I passed Kendra and Erica and had a little chat. Then hit the singletrack wow this slowed me up, over brokeback, and into more singletrack thinking that these half flingers are starting to struggle with the amount of full flingers coming through....I hope Kendra is all good. I came across a guy with what looked like a broken collarbone, it was a bit of a war zone. I battled through just wanting to finish. It was not long before I was over the line and keen to get a coke and food.
Mixed emotions this year, I had some tough times but also a load of fun. So proud of Kendra making it through, that 2nd half was tough on her, and very glad she had a fantastic friend to do it with.
Now the build is over looking forward to recovery time :).
Well done to those that had a great race, it is good to see you reach the goal/results you were after. Definately the training is paying off, keep up the good work!
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Very Exciting
Some bikes I get more excited about than others, and I get the feeling this one will be special.
Trek Superfly 100 Al Pro
Why??
I wanted to limit my stable to 2 mountain bikes, but still do 24 solo's on both and also be able to have a good weapon of choice depending on terrain. So my top fuel paired with the superfly seemed the logical choice. 26er for tight, tech, hilly rides and 29er for flatter less technical rides. I have always loved the design of the top fuel, it seems apart of me whenever I ride it. So with almost the same design I really feel like I am going to be right at home on this machine. I hope that the interchange between the 29 and 26 will be easier to adjust to due to the similair design's. Trek come up with what seems like loads of acronyms like E2, ABP, FCC, APA, G2, and while some are more important than others all of these do make sense, and some are not just limited to Trek (but most are). G2 seems to be a big key with the Trek 29er's and why it works so well in tight single track, now I'm not going into details about it but I'm glad this has it. I wanted a stiff bike, as with all 29ers longer stay's, longer forks can add more flex, so the E2, 15mm front end and 142 by 12 rear end should stiffen it up quite a bit. The suspension design (ABP) just works it has no quarks, under braking, stiff under pedalling, and in the gnarlyist moment it just works and takes everything I throw at it. As you can see the bike looks fantastic, but not carbon, I just could not justify that model, it has beef in all the right places, but simple and finished nicely, I love the black/blue/white look :). The spec of XT, Bontrager, Fox should be solid but light enough. So really how could I knock this logic in thinking, it just seemed the obvious decision. This model is selling out quickly with a waiting list that is getting very long.
Can't wait to test it out this morning and I'm expecting this to fly over fast rough decents. Should be a good choice for the Fling this weekend, hopefully my thumb will be up for the task.
Trek Superfly 100 Al Pro
Why??
I wanted to limit my stable to 2 mountain bikes, but still do 24 solo's on both and also be able to have a good weapon of choice depending on terrain. So my top fuel paired with the superfly seemed the logical choice. 26er for tight, tech, hilly rides and 29er for flatter less technical rides. I have always loved the design of the top fuel, it seems apart of me whenever I ride it. So with almost the same design I really feel like I am going to be right at home on this machine. I hope that the interchange between the 29 and 26 will be easier to adjust to due to the similair design's. Trek come up with what seems like loads of acronyms like E2, ABP, FCC, APA, G2, and while some are more important than others all of these do make sense, and some are not just limited to Trek (but most are). G2 seems to be a big key with the Trek 29er's and why it works so well in tight single track, now I'm not going into details about it but I'm glad this has it. I wanted a stiff bike, as with all 29ers longer stay's, longer forks can add more flex, so the E2, 15mm front end and 142 by 12 rear end should stiffen it up quite a bit. The suspension design (ABP) just works it has no quarks, under braking, stiff under pedalling, and in the gnarlyist moment it just works and takes everything I throw at it. As you can see the bike looks fantastic, but not carbon, I just could not justify that model, it has beef in all the right places, but simple and finished nicely, I love the black/blue/white look :). The spec of XT, Bontrager, Fox should be solid but light enough. So really how could I knock this logic in thinking, it just seemed the obvious decision. This model is selling out quickly with a waiting list that is getting very long.
Can't wait to test it out this morning and I'm expecting this to fly over fast rough decents. Should be a good choice for the Fling this weekend, hopefully my thumb will be up for the task.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
October: Summing it up
Allot has been happening and I think it is about time for a quick summary.
The Scott: My team of Hagen Ganahl, Andrew Murrell, Grantley Butterfield, and myself was a good solid team that had fun. We had 2 new riders to the Scott so we gave them the fun of hitting up the first 2 laps. Each of us mixed it up acorss both red and blue, and although I tried I just could not match Grantley's times. Andy did well on the first lap keeping out of trouble, then keeping timing consistent and always seemed to be up for a bluey where everyone else declined. Hagen surprised me with his 8 laps and over 7 hours of riding, definately pulled his weight and proved although he is a roadie he can mix it up on the MTB. I just had little personal goals for this race and meet most, I think the not falling off on the blue lap was a major fail. Great to have a fun social one, where I did not have to think about too much, sometimes it is good to just go relax and be apart of it without any pressure or performance required. So thanks KAHG it was a teams race that my mind needed. One big highlight of the weekend was listening to D-Mac on the mic, great to hear he got out to be apart of the fun. But CORC did a fantastic job bringing it back to a really enjoyable race, great track, and a good spread of riders.
A few weeks ago we went to a little retreat north of Sydney and it was a great little get away for a few days. We went to Ku-ring-ai bike park and it was a load of fun. The track's has really 4 aspects which I will go through. The mini downhill single track this was a tricky little course with tight corners with loose over hardpack and very easy to slid out. Loads of humps and some berms. Fire roads, these lead into the national park we did not really ride them but looked pretty challenging. Mini north shore, this is where I came unstuck and broke my thumb, I was lucky it was not a collarbone, but these structure's were good if your into it. I just wish they were not so temping to try and that they had a softer landing around the edges. The middle section of craters, this was really cool and kept me busy for an hour. It was a mini pump track with so many lines to roll around pumping with no pedaling very cool. Check out some of Kath's pic's: Kath Bicknell I did take some of my own which I should upload.
The fun has been continuing with road crits, it has been really challenging keeping on the rivet without digging too deep, just in case an attack comes. This week was tough backing up from the 205 Fitz's and cross winds. But it worked in my favour and pullled in a 2nd place, I love it when it does not come down to a true sprint ;).
Fitz's epic, I really like this ride it is a great fundraiser, and a fun event. Some people race it, some push themselves to make the longer distances, some do it because they love hills. The distance you select gives a great selection of climbs, the longer the distance the harder the climbs you should expect. I went with the 205k which took me just over 8 hours ride time. The weather was perfect and a huge turnout for the 250/205 cat's. By the end I needed a compact crank as the 3500m or something caught up with me, but managed without it. I was glad I skipped the 250, I did not want to dig that big hole ;).
Training has been coming along well, starting to look forward to the Garmin 24. It will be a real unknown race as they are building the track at the moment and I have no idea what to expect or how much climbing. But I should be ready for almost anything, I just hope I don't have to ride the hardtail ;).
Other than that the Highland Fling 100k is coming up quick, and I hope my thumb will be up for some shifting. It has been a good thing I have been able to ride the roadie, looking forward to getting back on the mountain bike.
Bring on an exciting November!!
The Scott: My team of Hagen Ganahl, Andrew Murrell, Grantley Butterfield, and myself was a good solid team that had fun. We had 2 new riders to the Scott so we gave them the fun of hitting up the first 2 laps. Each of us mixed it up acorss both red and blue, and although I tried I just could not match Grantley's times. Andy did well on the first lap keeping out of trouble, then keeping timing consistent and always seemed to be up for a bluey where everyone else declined. Hagen surprised me with his 8 laps and over 7 hours of riding, definately pulled his weight and proved although he is a roadie he can mix it up on the MTB. I just had little personal goals for this race and meet most, I think the not falling off on the blue lap was a major fail. Great to have a fun social one, where I did not have to think about too much, sometimes it is good to just go relax and be apart of it without any pressure or performance required. So thanks KAHG it was a teams race that my mind needed. One big highlight of the weekend was listening to D-Mac on the mic, great to hear he got out to be apart of the fun. But CORC did a fantastic job bringing it back to a really enjoyable race, great track, and a good spread of riders.
A few weeks ago we went to a little retreat north of Sydney and it was a great little get away for a few days. We went to Ku-ring-ai bike park and it was a load of fun. The track's has really 4 aspects which I will go through. The mini downhill single track this was a tricky little course with tight corners with loose over hardpack and very easy to slid out. Loads of humps and some berms. Fire roads, these lead into the national park we did not really ride them but looked pretty challenging. Mini north shore, this is where I came unstuck and broke my thumb, I was lucky it was not a collarbone, but these structure's were good if your into it. I just wish they were not so temping to try and that they had a softer landing around the edges. The middle section of craters, this was really cool and kept me busy for an hour. It was a mini pump track with so many lines to roll around pumping with no pedaling very cool. Check out some of Kath's pic's: Kath Bicknell I did take some of my own which I should upload.
The fun has been continuing with road crits, it has been really challenging keeping on the rivet without digging too deep, just in case an attack comes. This week was tough backing up from the 205 Fitz's and cross winds. But it worked in my favour and pullled in a 2nd place, I love it when it does not come down to a true sprint ;).
Fitz's epic, I really like this ride it is a great fundraiser, and a fun event. Some people race it, some push themselves to make the longer distances, some do it because they love hills. The distance you select gives a great selection of climbs, the longer the distance the harder the climbs you should expect. I went with the 205k which took me just over 8 hours ride time. The weather was perfect and a huge turnout for the 250/205 cat's. By the end I needed a compact crank as the 3500m or something caught up with me, but managed without it. I was glad I skipped the 250, I did not want to dig that big hole ;).
Training has been coming along well, starting to look forward to the Garmin 24. It will be a real unknown race as they are building the track at the moment and I have no idea what to expect or how much climbing. But I should be ready for almost anything, I just hope I don't have to ride the hardtail ;).
Other than that the Highland Fling 100k is coming up quick, and I hope my thumb will be up for some shifting. It has been a good thing I have been able to ride the roadie, looking forward to getting back on the mountain bike.
Bring on an exciting November!!
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