Paterson video

There were some strange mechanical whirring noises. They started softy at first but as time wore on, they became more an more urgent. A deathly mechanical growl which accentuated the growing heat. The heat was becoming almost unbearable and it was unclear as to whether the whole system would explode. Warning lights flashed with a dim incandescent glow to mark the precise point at which catastophic failure was imminent. Through all this, I battled on. The end was in site and I couldn’t quit now.

So after a lengthy battle with a recalcitrant 5 year old laptop, a video of the Three hours of Paterson was born. Check it out:

Paterson wrap up

Well, it seems from the chatter on roto-farkin that quite a few people enjoyed themselves at this weekends 3 hour. Unfortunately, I was elsewhere and am writing a wrap up based on a couple of phone conversations I have had with people who were actually there.

It seems that no-one liked Tuesday hill….. <insert sarcasm>I can’t figure out why that would be<end sarcasm>

It seems that nearly every single person had a crash or their life flash before their eyes. I can understand why, trying to bust out a hot lap with zero chance to do a recce is a tough ask.

A few sections fell apart and need some work. This is a good thing, at least we got to identify them early enough that they can be fixed.

I still haven’t ridden a lap of the track, In fact, the E graders have now done more laps of the course than I have.

We will run a social ride in April at the property so people can have a chance to test out their courage and climbing legs without having to run at race speed. I might even do a lap during that ride.

 

3 hours of Paterson

Things are all ready to go. Lots of hours spent putting up bunting tape today. I hope everyone has a good time.

Science berm

Lots of rocks were moved today. Lots and lots of rocks. Dad and I were trying to fix the lower TINAS berm and it wasn’t an easy job. There had been a couple of half hearted attempts to get this working but it was time to have a real go. I used a rope anchored at one end as a giant compass to ensure we kept a constant radius. We moved some BFO rocks to form a stupidly solid backing for the berm and it all turned out really, really well. We were broken men when we finished but it was the last piece of the puzzle that needed to be sorted before this weekends race so all systems are now go.

Friday will see us bunt the course to ensure no one gets lost and accidentally ends up in Vacy and then I can put my feet up and have a nice weekend away with the Mrs since I can’t actually make it to the race. By some confluence of Murphy’s law, the race fell on the same weekend as a conference I had booked many months ago so I will have to rely on second hand reports to find out how things went. I sure hope everyone enjoys themselves.

If anyone takes a camera along to record the action, send me the pics as I would be most chuffed to see the course being ridden in anger.

Sesame st A-line

Paterson is almost ready to race. I can only think of two little bits of digging required until the trail is ready to roll and I’ll take care of them on Wednesday. That leaves Friday to bunt the track (and hope the cows and roo’s don’t knock it all over) and then Sunday is the big day.

Today we finished off the A-line at Sesame St which was is really quite amazing. A nice rock roll over into a skinny bridge and a steep climb out. It will reward skill and bravery and yet the B-line is a really pretty little causeway through a creek in a darkened forrest which it would be a shame to miss out on.

Then we built a really smooth jump down Rudigers run which I can’t wait to actually hit – I’m thinking several meters of air time! It has a great roll out in case you bite off more than you can chew and the fall zone is a large grass paddock so it will be pretty safe in case things don’t go as planned.

Finally, we removed an ugly corner at the start of Rudigers run which now makes for a really neat slalom effect down the hill and should remove the kink from the trail that I hated before.

Anyway, enough chat – here’s the pictures.

The jump. The wide angle lens doesn’t quite do it justice. It is going to be SWEET!

Flogger on the whipper snipper. Instant trail

The rock drop into the A-line at Sesame St

Looking back along the bridge at Sesame st

Paterson curse

5 hours of spraying roundup today.

80 litres of roundup sprayed.

1 million pumps on the garden sprayer.

6 hours required for roundup to ‘set’ before exposure to rain.

30 minutes after finishing the rain starts.

sigh

No punishment for me

Well, my race season has officially gone to crap. After an alfine induced hissy fit 2 months ago, i’ve barely ridden my bike and have today sold my entry to Capital Punishment. It was my planned warm up race towards a peak for the Dirtworks in May. Sadly, I have fallen in a heap and it just isn’t going to happen. Its quite disheartening and I am kicking myself for letting this happen.

At least there is a rad trip coming up shortly where it turns out I will be sharing Rotorua with some of Australia’s best up and coming riders including Newcastle’s own Chris Aitken who is just itching to make me look fat and slow. Awesome.

 

Un Zudd here I come!

I almost forgot to mention amongst all the Paterson talk that I’m off to New Zealand in a mid April. I just booked everything 5 minutes ago and the excitement has just started to build. Day 1 will see me at a conference and days 2-11 are going to be me all my by lonesome with a campervan, a road atlas, some trail maps and a bike. It is going to be rad.

Since I am fat and unfit at the moment, I had better start doing some commuting to work on the roadie so I have some form of legs for this grand adventure. Happily, I will be in Rotorua on the weekend which means there is a shuttle bus to get my fat arse to the top of the hill repeatedly so little red riding huck is going to see some rusty skills and spectacular spills.

I’ll also be making stops at Lake Taupo, Wellington, Auckland and wherever else takes my fancy. Any suggestions from the peanut gallery?

I expect to spend my evenings blogging, uploading rad photos and savoring a quiet beer (Nice and cold from the fridge in my campervan… no more wicked campers and shitty esky’s for me). I think I will be taking the anthem for this trip (and very little else since I only have 20 kg’s of checked luggage).

Anyway, now it is time for me to check in the with Dr Rob of The Motor Cortex and see if he requires any cardiac meds after Looping the lake on the back of his solids couple of weeks of commuting to work (A grand 4 k round trip).

Paterson build day #2

While numbers were smaller than last time, enthusiasm counts for a lot and we made some sensational trail today. Most of the work focussed on AK’s forrest which is a stunning little microclimate full of moss covered rocks, maiden hair ferns and a dense canopy of shade. It also had a fossilized cow trail which needed unearthing that gently meanders through it and it proved to be a a lot of work in rocky soil.

We also buit a neat little causeway out of ye olde nanna’s cottage. In the old quarry there is some hand cut sandstone blocks with many still bearing testiment to the fact that it was once an inhabited building including some blocks which still show old plastering and many with wall plugs. The blocks are quite large and take 2.5 men to lift. Unfortunately it was just B-rad and I doing so and there was some sandstone  vs ‘ute tail gate’ interface which ended with a swollen bruised and most probably broken single speeders finger. Luckily he doesn’t have any buttons on his handlebars to worry about pressing so he should still be able to ride.

The best thing about the causeway is that it nicely aligns with a embankment on the other side which is going to see some excavation in order to produce another memorable berm. I’m pretty excited about this one and can’t wait to get started on it.

I was too buggered to do any more work by 3pm so I took the camera for a walk however the sun had finally come out and the dappled sunlight wasn’t doing any favors to trail photography. Never the less, here is the best of a rather average bunch of happy snaps which gives some idea of what to expect come race day.  You will notice that the trees are quite close to the course in several places and it has become a running gag that every riders should trim their bars to a ‘standard cow width’ (which I suspect is somewhere close to 680 mm) otherwise it is going to be a tight squeeze in several places.

Showing the S.I unit known as ‘the standard cow width’ to which all riders must cut their bars

A section of AK’s forrest known as ‘the burglar’ can be seen in the distance

Online entry systems… bah!

Well, I doubt anyone actually noticed, but entries for Paterson were closed today for a short period of time. While we still have heaps of space left, there is a heap of ‘junk’ entries in the background where people have partially entered some details and then abandoned the process. There were so many that it reached the rider cap and closed the entires. Stupid computer!

In case anyone missed the posts on the event website, there is a build day this saturday. I will have plenty of spare tools for anyone that needs them although if you are anything like me,  you will have a very ‘special’ relationship with your trusty tool and couldn’t imagine life without it and will bring your own no matter how new and shiny the loan tools on offer are.