Is just what I need 9 days out from the scott. Not much I can do about it though, plenty of rest, a good diet and some crossed fingers shall hopefully do the trick. I am abstaining from any bike miles now as I am loathe to tempt this to turn into a chest cold and leave me an asthmatic mess.
No bike miles means I am left with a new saddle and grips that are untried…. what was it they said about changing things before big races???
Another CRC order 😦
I really didn’t want to spend any more money on this bike right now, but with the drive line completely shagged, the spider on the cranks bent, the brakes playing up and the cables full of dust and mud, I didn’t really have a choice. I hate to think what it would feel like riding around all those problems for 24 hours at the Scott. Timing will be a bit tight to allow me to receive the parts, fit them and road test them before the race!
Work was a real challenge today. All that hard racing on the weekend has left me feeling pretty drained.
My eyes are still blood shot red from the dust, wind and sweat. My grip strength is almost non-existent. Today I have been challenged and bested by a clothes peg, a perforated piece of paper, a staple and a car key. My (soon to be changed) driveline requires an immensely strong thumb effort to illicit a gear change and so my thumbs have simply gone on strike.
It will be a relatively light week this week and next week heading into the scott. I am taking a little longer to recover than I would like and don’t want to burn out before the big event.
A new video page has been added for todays HMBA rd 9 videos.
Alternatively you could go to my youtube page where I have listed all the race numbers appearing in each video so you can find yourself more easily.
I backed up for the club round at Awaba today. Getting out of bed, everything was stiff and sore and I really didn’t want to be back on the bike again.
I did warm up lap on the kids track and found to my surprise that it hurt to walk, sit or lie down however sitting on a bike was OK. Perhaps today wasn’t going to be quite the sufferfest I had been expecting….. WRONG!
The Danbotic Feltron was to be my nemisis again today. This time the roles were reveresed. I made a leaisurely start and was a couple of positions behind dan. Over the next 1.5 laps I made a little ground so that I was around 100m behind him. That is when things got interesting. We both dropped the hammer and went full attack for the next 1.5 laps – out of the saddle sprinting the climbs, kamikaze descents, the full monte.
At the end of lap 3 I tanked. I had burnt all my matches too soon and had to let Dan ride off into the sunset while I crawled home – how disappointing. I would have dearly loved to mounted a challenge up to yesterdays finish, but the legs weren’t listening any longer.
I think I placed 4th in B grade which was really pleasing since the fast kids were there today. Big props to Dr Rob for coming straight off a hellish night shift to place 5th. If you can do that with zero sleep, then you can do a 24 hour solo!
My Dad was out there with the video camera so stay tuned for some Vids when I get a chance to process them.
over and out like a light
What a fantastic event.
This morning saw the return of the dust storms and an orange haze hanging over Newcastle once again. Hey we are mountain bikers, we are meant to get dusty!
With all the bike problems that went on to get to this race, things didn’t get a whole lot better once I had picked up my bike from the shop. At some point during the last 12 hour race I did, the rear pads on my bike had become contaminated and the bike was making the dreaded avid turkey gobble noise, there was also intense vibration that would shake the entire rear end of the bike. The bike shop informed me of this on friday afternoon when I picked it up however i had been well aware of it.
No problem, I had ordered a couple of sets of new pads and a new disc from CRC so began installing them on friday night after work. Following avids instructions to the letter, I successfully swapped out the pads and rotor however success is a relative term: it appears that after re-setting the calipers, the system was now over filled with oil…. the brakes were dragging horribly and the lever had zero travel before engaging. To top it off, I didn’t have a t10 torx head to open the bleed valve to let some of it escape. Bummer. Now defeated, I went to bed and hoped a solutioin would present itself over night.
At the race site, I took the bike to the on-site mechanic and we bled a little of the oil out so that the pads were no longer dragging… Hooray; success. Well, success is a relative term and it seems that we may well have contaminated the pads. The lever was now in the right spot but the brakes were back to the shuddering, warbling, not stopping games that started this whole escapade off.
Now it was too late, It was qualifying time, so I front up to the line figuring that I would have to do the best with what I had. To quote one Mr QZ13 “brakes only slow you down”. The qualifying format see’s riders sent out at 30 second intervals to do a hot lap of a shortened version of the main course. It was about 1.8K’s for this round. This lap time determines what wave you are released in at the start.
Since I was determined to win the pissing contest with my mates, I went all out and managed to swing a sub 5 minute lap (4:57). Ultimately, this wound up being the 5th best lap time behind two local A graders, Gordo and a sponsored Garry Fisher rider – Woohoo! It seems the lack of brakes had helped quite a bit.  For a bit of MTB celebrity spotting, Gordo handed us all a spanking we will remember for quite some time. I was pretty pleased that it took him 8 laps to catch me during the race.
At the race start, I went out a little harder than I had intended. The red mist had descended and I was chasing two friends who were running as a two man team. I managed to hang onto their tail for 5 laps which I was pretty chuffed with but I was pushing a bit too hard and was starting to pay the price My goal was to do 10 laps (7.7 Km loop). I was passed by 2 solo riders in the early stages and decided to let them go since I was still sitting in 5th place – perhaps they would blow up and I could get them back at the end.
Around the two hour mark, I had been riding hard to fend off another two solo riders who were slowly hauling me in. Traffic would allow them to catch me, then I would get a run and lengthen my buffer, then they would haul me back in. This went of for two laps before it became apparent they had my measure so I let them though and they disappeared into the distance.
Around 2.5 hours in, I rolled out of the throttle a little as it was becoming evident that cramps were going to become a significant problem if I kept up the pace. Â I proceeded to roll around on my own, passing traffic and being passed by some fast team riders. The funny thing about this particular event was the number of first time racers – it made you feel like a riding god as you caught and passed rider after rider.
Around the 3 hour mark I hauled in one of the solo riders that had passed me earlier. Since I was riding around the cramps, I decided to sit on and see what sort of pace he was making. We rode the next two or three laps together and I was keeping up but didn’t really have the legs to pull away if I tried to pass. One thing I noticed… Man this guy could descend. Normally I catch most riders on the downhills but he gapped me lap after lap on the techy spots – thumbs up!
Half way through the second to last lap, I spotted  Dan aka “the Danbot” aka “The Feltron” (a good mate)  traveling in the other direction on some shared road  about 3 minutes behind us. Before I had a chance to asses the consequences of what I was doing, I yellled out to Dan. Well, it was like I was suddenly under missile lock. I knew Dan would turn himself inside out to catch me so I passed the solo rider infront of me and started to haul arse with all that I had left.
Crossing the start finish line at 3:45 I got a hoot from the timers for going out for one more lap. About 30 seconds later, I hear the hoot for the solo rider I had just passed and about  90 seconds later, I hear another loud cheer which I knew was going to be Dan. Most of the next lap is a blur of cramps, lower back pain and pushing with everything I had left.  I didn’t see Dan again and was thinking I had survived when about 2k’s from home I look back around a hair pin and see Dan about 150m behind me. Now there was no riding around the cramps – all or nothing. 2k’s to go.
Every time I got out of the saddle to attack the climbs I would cramp in my calves. Climbing up out of the final set of switch backs, Dan was now about 8 bike lengths behind me. I scream at a young rider to let him know I am coming up fast as we cross a fire trail and are about to enter  the last 300m of single track before start finish. Dan catches him at an awkward corner and the poor kid stacks it trying his damnedest to get out of the way. Dan pauses to see if the kid is Ok and we are now 150m from the finish. I am about 12 bike lengths ahead and we are climbing to the finish. I am screaming with effort and the pain of cramps as I round the last bend to the finish line. With a raised fist I celebrate that I had hung on and somehow held off Dan the remorseless cycling robot who was hunting me down.
Over the line, I stagger off the bike and collapse on the ground. Dan looks equally shattered and we laugh and swap stories of how hard we had tried during those last 1.5 laps. A hand shake and a grin signify a hard fought race and and end to what was the best race I have ever ridden in.
Outstanding!! No hard tail for 4 hours!!
A massive thanks to the guys at Gateshead Cycles who worked wonders to get my bike ready in time. I called Michael on Tuesday afternoon and out conversation went something like this….
Me: ” Hi Michael, I dropped my bike into another shop a week ago an was assured it would be ready by this weekend. So far it is completely untouched. What is your turn around time for fork seals”
Michael “What sort of fork is it and what is wrong with it?”
Me: “Fox 32, one of the seals is weaping quite a bit of oil”
Michael: “I have some seals due in on thursday. I can have it ready by the weekend”
Me: “Your kidding, you can do it in 2 days?”
Michael: “Yeah, shouldn’t be a problem, I have a couple of guys on and they will look after it”.
What a revelation. To make things even better, when I picked the bike up, they have fitted enduro seals rather than the standard fox seals. I had been meaning to get that done at the next service but was happy to take what I could get at such short notice, so to find an LBS who actually carries quality stock is a massive bonus.
Bring on tomorrow’s race 😀
I finally got around to uploading the last of the photos from the world champs. There are some new women’s photos and some new mens’ also.
I ordered some more infinit nutrition endurance formula on thursday. It arrived today – how fast is that! Unfortunately, their website caused confusion and instead of a lemon/lime and a fruitpunch, I only have lemon/lime. Â Never mind – It got me through the last 12 hour and I hadn’t developed a violent dislike for the taste, so hopefully the Scott will be the same.
With my anthem still awaiting surgery for a blown fork seal, I am currently riding my old XTC. It was always a little too big (being a Large) however this is amplified since my Anthem is a medium and I have barely ridden the XTC in months. The riding position is totally different between the two bikes and I almost died the first night I was forced to ride the hardtail. I had no power, no endurance, no enthusiasm and no suspension.
Interestingly, I thought awaba was a pretty smooth track while riding the dually, but a couple of laps on the hardtail on sunday quickly reminded me why I stopped riding it. It also reminded how much fun you can have bouncing down a trail on the very limit of control since I didn’t have fancy suspension to keep me on the road.
Speaking of Awaba, the trail gnomes have been out cutting away at the bush and the next section of trail is started. I was highly disappointed that I couldn’t make this build day, but mother in law commitments put pay to my digging ambitions. The team have roughed out approximately 600m of new trail that is looking like it will be very special. With some annual leave coming up, I may engage in some quality time with the leeches and log some hours with the shovel helping sort things out.
The Rocky Trail Awaba MTB GP is coming up this weekend. A four hour enduro on Sat and the standard club round on sunday. It should be a great weekend on the bike (provided I have the dually back 😉 ) I don’t have any ambitions for the 4 hour at all other than to run a conservative pace and still be circulating after 4 hours. On sunday, I just don’t want to be caught by the C graders (that means you Ron 🙂 )
Training over the weekend was good although cut a little short by some knee pain on saturday afternoon.I was falling apart after 3.5 hours on the bike while the Danbot was still flying after 6 hours on the bike. Â A bag of frozen peas and some ibuprofen seems to have helped the knee recover. I rode sunday pain free so fingers crossed for the Scott.
Today has been a rest day and tomorrow will see some MTB miles with Dr Rob. Perhaps some road miles Wed morning and then I will probably have thurs and fri off before the sat race to help all these niggly sore muscles settle down.
Race report and photos +/- video to come over the weekend.
the unknown rider 