HMBA round 1

What a race.

The weather was an against us from the start and the track was pretty slippery through the mid laps. It started out OK but with 105 sets of wheels across it after the first lap, it quickly turned into a slip and slide.

I got a jump on everyone into the single track and smashed myself through the first lap to try and open a gap. It seemed to work pretty well however I nearly slid right off the edge of a bridge and decided to slow up a little. I think everyone I spoke to after the race had a story of a near death experience in the greasy conditions.

For the last couple of laps, I just rolled around trying to keep the bike upright. Gingerly pottering through corners to try and stop the front from washing out. It was a funny sort of race, I only averaged 156 bpm and I think it was due to the conditions. You couldn’t push hard on the climbs or the rear wheel would slip, you couldn’t push hard through the corners or your front wheel would wash.

On the last lap, chain suck arrived wearing a party hat, although I still had some brake pads left unlike half of the riders. I spent the whole of the last lap looking over my shoulder – waiting for someone to catch me, but they never came.  I dragged my sodden carcass across the finish line about 1-2 minutes ahead of the Danbot in second place.

So now I have a conundrum. Do I continue to sandbag in B grade or step up to A grade and have my arse handed to me as a hat? I certainly don’t have the pace to  mix it with the fast guys in A grade however I don’t race for podiums – I race to do better than I did last time. So perhaps therein lies the answer.

I think the right decision was made to run the race and I am surely glad we got to play in the mud. I am glad we didn’t race the new section of track – it would have been absolute carnage!

Thanks to all the race volunteers and to the other competitors for a great day!

mud and lots of it

The anthem lives again

Tuesday afternoon following the Australia Day Ride saw me ordering a new rear deraileur from ebay after my old XT shadow gave up the ghost. I had it in my hot little hand on thursday morning and finally found the time to install it today with Dr Rob.

It sure is a work of art, far too nice to actually use in the mud and grime (and it is looking like i might not have to if this rain keeps up and cancels tomorrows first club round). Of course, it wasn’t all perfectly smooth sailing. at 1:30 as we were fine tuning things, we noticed that the gear cable outer was now far too short and it had put a nasty tight radius bend in the cable. The mounting position between the old shadow mech and the new non-shadow mech were different. A hunt through the garage revealed a distinct abscence of sacraficial cable outers, so we scrambled and made it to Gateshead cycles just in time to buy some more.

Notice the 'angle of the dangle' on the right hand mech? It steadfastly refuses to do its job as a chain tensioning device.

This afternoon I have fitted the “retro ralphs” which were kindly donated by weight weenie Dr_Rob who seems to be more susceptible to their inertia than myself. Of course, going to the effort of installing new tyres will mean tomorrows race will be washed out for sure! If i had left the scummy old crossmark on there, the race would  be on and I would be slipping and sliding my way all over the place.

Happy trails and fingers crossed for 24 hours of dry weather!

Australia day ride

An early morning start was the order of the day in order to beat the forecast heat. Up at 0600 (almost sinful on a public holiday) and at the track by 0800.

Cog head ride

It was a 3.5 hour ride this morning with an 0630 start to try and beat the heat which kinda worked.

It was unbelievably hot by the time we finished. Roughly 50k’s of riding through Warners Bay/Teralba.

We all failed to get up beer rock – a case of beer to the successful climber.

Anyways, here is a shot from the top of Munnibung from the early hours.

early morning vista

sucking in the big ones after climbing to the top of the hill

EDIT:

As requested, here is a guess of where we went. There are few sections that I simply can’t remember how we linked them up. I do know we went along a walking path with lots of stairs near Marmong point and ended up following along the very edge of the lake in the gravel for a hundred meters or so.

This is my best guess for where we went. Click for larger version

The climbs were tough – techy and steep but they weren’t too long. There were some excellent rutted and swoopy fire trail descents.

Chain reaction order is a go

The parts are now in the post for my road bike build. This morning may have been one of my last ever rides on the old ALAN. Looking forward to the new bike though.

New trail section at Awaba is OPEN!!!!!!

F@%k YEAH!!!!

It has been a lot of work by a lot of very dedicated people and now we get to enjoy the fruit of our labour…..

New frame has arrived

My friendly local  Australia Post delivery guy has just dropped off my new frame to work…..

Format change

For anyone who reads this blog regularly, you may notice a slight format change.

the walk of shame….

Today was a nice day for a walk in Glenrock. I got to meet lots of nice people, I even managed to get my heart rate up a little – although that was probably because I was pushing my bike at the time…..

Friday afternoon failures

5:30 Am – alarm goes off – alarm is reset – failure to launch.

Never mind, I will do the hours this afternoon…..

6pm – finish work – get to car in carpark – note on windscreen

“Person driving green commodore ran into your car – their number plate was XXX-XXX”

<sigh> File police report

7pm – arrive home. Look at dark ominous clouds, think about food, glorious food – Failure to lanch.

Damn it – it sure takes some commitment to actually train.

Never mind – Tomorrow morn should see some offroad K’s with the Danbot.

Thank god for the weekend!