Bezerk Cycles June BLOG

29th June...The end of the month is fast approaching, so is the next race! With the 7, 8 and 12hr following in quick procession, the kms will have to start ramping up some more.

Wed night had Chris and I out in the gale force wind...good tempo workout! We went for a quick Dandy's loop and went up the 1/20. The ride home being really quick with the tail wind and 60+ kph in some sections on the flat road, sweet!

Friday morning was another 1/20 run with some loops around home to add some kms before work. So over 280km this week with around 12hrs saddle time...

Friday arvo the boys and I had a boy's road trip over to see William at Beach Rd Cycles to hopefully buy some guards for the roadie, guards in stock, check, black, check, long enough, just, check, good price, check...out the door with guards in hand, thanks William! Fitted them up on Saturday arvo and they seem to integrate in very well, almost look like they're meant to be there. Had to do some adaptation to get the rear guard fitted, but hey, it's not meant to be too easy! Changed over the short arm v-brakes on the front for a regular mtb version, this should make for some better braking...

Today had Sam and I venturing out on the mtb's to the Nong's, over to the Basin and up Basin Olinda Rd and over to the Mt Evelyn side for some venturing around. Lots of new trails were ventured along and some great views over toward to rest of the mountain range, glorious! Then up to Channel Ten track to test the nerves...end tally of 56km and just short of 1,700m of up.

Hopefully another roadie on Monday...hopefully not to test out the guards! Hopefully the business cards arrive on Monday, things slowly coming together...frames are due for shipping at the end of the week, it's getting exciting now!!!

24th June...The roadie was looking a little neglected and was asking me to give it a little TLC...so a 3 - 1/2hr wash it got, ha ha ha. Yes folks, I did go for a ride on Monday night...pretty much light rain from home to Ringwood/Mitcham, then the bikepath looked and remained dry all the way to the city! As soon as I turned around back to head down the Sth Eastern bikepath the water returned and got heavier the further I went...hmmm, looks like I'll be trying to find some full-length front and rear fenders...

22nd June...Finally a chance to get back into the Dandenongs, and it was a great 4 hrs of pedalling!!!

Sam and I took off from Bezerk HQ around 6:40 (sweet, a sleep in this Sunday...) and headed up to FTG Rd and down Burwood Hwy to make our way up "the real Devil's" climb. Haven't been up here for a while, last time might have been on the SS roadie, so having some gears was a nice change of scene. Legs felt great and I kept focusing on technique to get me up.

From here we headed down to Sherbrooke and then onto Grantula, down here and onto Emerald. Roads were wet and I was riding well within my limit on the descents with Sam leaving me for dust as per usual. Onto Monbulk and a detour before hitting "the Wall". Here the legs worked a tad harder but were still itching for more punishment.

So over to and down Perrins Creek and turnaround to make our way back up. There was certainly plenty of riders wherever we rode, so this time we had a few carrots to chase. Sam descending out of sight again and turned around early to give me something to chase and I turned around at the bottom to make the hunt a little more challenging. I got the heartrate up this time and finally caught Sam as he passed another rider doing it hard.

From here we went up to Olinda and all the way down to Montrose, turn right at the roundabout and right again and you might know what's coming up next...Inverness, sweeet! We started with a good pace and for some reason decided to put it in the "dog" for the steep section up to the Tourist Rd...still probably easier than the SS up this incline, but still great to bring on the hurt. Left up the Tourist Rd and right turn up Ridge Rd to Skyhigh.

We did the hot chockie at the top and by this time our good luck with the weather had worn thin, "looks like we're getting wet!" We froze for the first km of so, but a short climb or two and some pace on the flat had us warmed back up for the return to Bezerk HQ via the Tourist Rd/Burwood Hwy all the way.

So end tally, 95km, over 2,100m of climbing and the aforementioned 4 hrs of travelling. Off for a roadie with Steve on Monday night after I do some extra hrs from home, should be a good tempo session.

21st June...I'll start with Carter's birthday! Our senior son has somehow made it through 5 years of life, yesterday being his big day. As is usual around here, he's having several days of festivities... Carter and your's truly have made it to Youtube with a production that Harry did a little while ago of us riding the Michael Rogan designed snow mobile...

So, back to me! ha ha ha. I got out for my first Friday morning ride before work, a neat circuit I have near home with a moderate climb, a pinch climb, some recovery time and a tempo section, all in around 4.8km. I was expecting a wet one, but the weather held off with just the road being wet. On one of my laps I thought I'd try "backing it in" around a roundabout where I have to turn right...nope, not a wet road, flat tire, DOH! I wasn't far from home but had the spare tube and Co2, so no excuses, I was out here to ride...flat fixed and back into it.

The legs have been a little sore with the ramped up hrs, but this week was possibly a PB for the year, 310km, over 14hrs ride time, 3,200m of ascent and the knee doing OK...

Might be off to Kinglake with Sam on Sunday for some roadie kms, been itching to get out on the roadie for some hills...

19th June...Well, I really smashed myself last night, legs are knackered and the last 20km seemed to drag on a bit...I was certainly looking for the flattest way home from Westerfolds to minimise the climbing with thrashed legs...

The DH tires must have taken their toll, didn't feel much slower to start with averaging 24+ to get to Bulleen rd, held to just over 22 by the time I got toward the Eltham turnaround and then met up with Sam who was not far behind me after running late for our hook up at Bulleen rd.

He then hammered me back to Bulleen rd and we still had the average over 22, so was pretty happy with that...just 26ish km to get home of mostly a climbing route back to Mitcham rd.

Having not been to Westerfolds for a while I wasn't sure what to expect...no, not huge cavenous puddles, not a highway width singletrack like Lyster is ending up like, but great smooth flowing well worn in singletrack, NICE!!!! A few new detours since the last trip with trees down and alt routes already established, couple of wrong turns on my behalf, brain fade maybe, LOL. Certainly need to ride here more often, well worth the trip out for some fast pedalling.

Once again a sh1t load of people out riding, plenty of oncoming lights to blind you, some pretty large groups as well...now I need to decide what to do for Friday's ride and Sunday...road or mtb...choices choices, ain't it great!

I've decided to change the sidebar as I'm not sure anybody uses the upcoming rides stuff...so I'm going to compile a list of stuff I like to read, mostly BLOGs of other riders, a good way to either inspire you or make you realise how soft you are!!! ha ha ha

17th June...Bezerk introduces it's version of the EBB (eccentric bottom bracket) for any EBB frame. Using Enduro bearings for increased load resistance and double row bearings on the drive side, this system should accept any 24mm axle type crank...

So I've fitted some DH tires up to the SS, they'll get their first run tomorrow arvo when I venture off to Westerfolds for a change of scene...maybe I'll see you there! Will most likely leave from Bezerk HQ around 4:30...expect around a 100km ride...

16th June...Managed to fit in another core strength workout today at lunch time, slowly adding more reps and not feeling too sore afterward, so could be going the right direction with this...some weights Tuesday night....

Finally got out for a roadie at 5:15pm and decided to go down FTG rd and join up to the bikepath at around Warrigal rd...lts of cars out, fortunately most of them heading the other way so no cas hooting at me this time!

The bikepth itself was more of a surprise, the number of commuters these days is staggering, it was pretty much a constant stream all the way to the city! And some of the track changes, seperated cycle/walk lanes...a section lit up like a runway with LED's lining the path, freaky sh.t...

So I got to the Boulevard and was intending on making my way over north to the Eastern path...somehow I when I took the road for a short section I must have missed a turn somewhere...DOH! so I ended up somewhere in Hawthorn and had no idea where I was headin...so flick the trusty Garmin screen over to see the crumbs trail of where I had been, zoom out and start heading in that general direction...there we go, back to Toorak rd and onto where I'd just been...oh well, a ride's a ride...

So I thought I'd detour and stay on the path to Jells Park...then the phone rings...why did I pick it up?..."Can you check out the brakes on my race car?" "I want to mount new calipers and need some mounts made..."...so I agree and make my way from Pinewood across to Bayswater to see Mark and come up with a plan..."and can we get it done by the weekend..?"

So with that sorted I rode home and ended up with 75km for the night, not bad for a recovery ride, LOL.

15th June...On Saturday arvo I got around to finishing off the proto EBB (eccentric bottom bracket) for Paul N's Bezerk. I believe I mentioned earlier, an EBB that has direct fit bearings to accept any 24mm axled cranks. I started it Friday nite with the final lightening process on Sat, pics to follow...it came up sweet and the alloy/carbon Bezerk is back on the road, zero flex and movement in the new assembly.

Saturday nite/Sunday morning had been a restless sleep nite, mainly thanks to Carter...anyhow, I got up around 3:40am and had a good breakfast in anticipation of a good few hours in the saddle.

Megan and Rog were collecting the Quike from the GS factory early for an advertising ride along the Eastlink Fwy, so instead of leaving it out overnite I went and locked it up outside in the wee hours. With some air in the tires and one of the drivechains retensioned, I locked it up and closed the factory back up.

I was meeting up with Steve and Chris for the "Dark and Early" ride, clock said 4:40 so I thought I had some time to kill to get to Steve's on time, I was thinking 5:20...so out for a bikepath loop out to FTG station, head to Boronia, turn left halfway there and back toward Scoresby Rd...I'm looking at the time and thinking "maybe I've gone too far out of the way...bitten off more than I can chew again!" so a pedalling frenzy commenced!!! Expecting to see Steve tapping his foot waiting on the road, I rolled up to his driveway at 5:22, alright!!! 8 mins later we were rounding up Chris for our D&E ride.

After the downpours over the last few days I was expecting the worst of the trails but was surprised in the lack of standing water, the usual puddles were there but nothing worse. Going through Churchill first up is always an "interesting'" way of warming up...climb, flat, climb steeper, flat, steeper again, some downhill, then climb climb climb until you're up over the top of the CG climb. I still haven't kicked the butt of this climb yet, bailed at the second marker posts again...one day....ha ha

Chris and Steve had their own personal battles up the same climb, middle ring was their aim for as long as possible before throwing it into the saviour gear to finish the ascent, I used my low gear of bailin' and hoofin' it, LOL

Steve then suffered from "fog impared vision" with his glasses providing a tough shield to seeing the heck where he was going, surprised he made it down intact at all! I threw in an extra climb to step it up a bit and we then took off on a pretty regular loop around counterclockwise with some detours here and there. Steve was digging deep to find some form, maybe we'd gone a tad hard from the word "GO" and had never really got into full operating temp.

The trails were damp for sure, but remarkably still flowing a treat, really grippy because of the sandy surface making roots and corners almost tackier than when dry and dusty. Chris was on the pace again nippin' at the heels...it was all over sooner than later and we once again parted company.

Steve and I went out for another lap of the same with Steve's target to ride for over 3-1/2hrs. The trails are great at this time with almost no sign of human life circulating, "just like old times" Steve said...yep, 10+ years ago when we used to ride here twice a week there was very little mtb'ers getting out and dirty...we like to call ourselves pioneers...ha ha ha.

By the time 3-1/2hrs was coming around, the batteries were running on empty for young Steve...just one more climb, nope one more climb, nearly there...with a new PB of over 4hrs he battled on with the usual humour I come to expect, well done!

So at Wellington Rd I said goodbye and went West to go for another bikepath loop. As I'm riding along Wellie I notice a s..t load of parked cars and bikes a plenty...hmm, Eastlink ride...haven't registered...oh well, let's see what happens! With bikes taking up majority of the four North bound lanes, it was an awesome game of cat and mouse dodging riders everywhere, no idea why they didn't open up the South bound lane as well rather than using bollards to seperate peletons of riders going each way...

Not too many road riders seemed to be happy with me passing them on a singlespeed mtb, my legs seemed to be a blur at 30+ kph and I was enjoying the spin session. I ended up going to the turnaround point and back to FTG Rd, around 23 kays on the section I hadn't been on yet, I was hoping it was going all the way to Ringwood, but not to be. I caught glimpses of Baz, Nath, Russ and Tony going the opposite way and also caught up with riders from the Adapt-a-Lift Around the Bay team, so it was a good detour!

So end tally was 100+ km with 5:45hr ride time and 1,400+m of climbing. The knee survived the journey this time with some occasional IT stretching to try and keep it in check, another plus of the ride. Now to decide on Monday's ride...

Well I've been brewing an idea for a new eccentric bottom bracket shell for the Bezerk frames and any other EBB type bike, that will have direct fit bearings to take any crank with a 24mm axle, eg Shimano 2 piece, Truvativ, FSA etc. It will most likely run double bearings on the drive side and a single on the off-side. This should have the advantage of both lighter weight and as a bonus a wider scope of adjustment. Just to sweeten it a little more, maybe even a range of anodized colors! More news as I finalize the design, I will be making a proto for Paul N's Bezerk to begin with.

Tuesday had me going hard at the weights again, starting to ramp it up a bit more and I felt sore the next day for a change, so must be hitting the sweet spot now! Have added a few more specific excercises to the routine to increase the core strength too...

Wednesday was a 4:30 start at the servo with Baz, he had to be back there by a certain time so I setout a course as we rode to extend one lap to best use the time...well maybe Baz shouldn't have been riding that particular arvo...anyhow, we cut it short, if you can call 17km and 350m climbing short and B lined it back to the servo...

As we got to the gate I saw a car pull up...can that be Sam?...hell yeah!!! So I was in for trouble now, a mad paced Baker Deluxe was in order, "would you like some pain with that sir?" As I've been saying repeatedly for a while, the tracks are in fine condition, they really egg you on to push it harder. Sam set a great pace that I was more than willing to go along with, the lights ablaze we had great fun carving it up.

The CG climb was topped out with ease but then the dreaded "Grinder" loomed large...I have ascended this climb a few times before on the SS, today was going to be the exception with redline fast approaching...yep, jump off, run a few meters, recover slightly, jump back on...bugger, that's right, still more to go...getting close to cookie toss time....nearly there...we're there, don't stop, keep pedalling or you'll pass out...ha ha ha.

Anyhow, that done the rest of the ride was just plain good riding, Sam's light reverted to limp home mode along Blair so I got the rare chance to lead for a change, hope I didn't slow Sam down too much...hopefully made him work enough on the climbs anyway, maybe a roadblock for the descents, I am getting better, yes???

By the time we got back I was ready for round 3...maybe Sam wasn't so I was happy enough as the knee wasn't complaining this time and thought it better to stop while this was the case. So we went back to Bezerk HQ and topped up one of Sam's tires with some more Stan's as it appeared a bit lacking...hopefully all good now.

Last night I sent off my order for some business cards, they accept PayPal which was great as there was some cash in there to cover it... this company is great, good service, online ordering, fast delivery, good quality and great prices. CMYK Cards if you're at all interested, thanks for the contact Mello!!! Get the free samples sent out to you, well worth it to see what you'll be getting...

So it teaming down with rain as I type this, so this may be the end of sweet singletrack for a while...oh well, out for another early one on Sunday, hopefully I'll see you out there!

8th June...Another early start with the tires rolling down the driveway at a little after 5am to meet up with Chris for our now regular Sunday morning ride. The fog wasn't as bad as last weeks AES race, and the temp was merciful on us this time around. With the new overshoes fitted and now wearing some arm warmers, I think this made Chris feel a bit warmer as he used to get a chill just looking at me riding with bare arms, ha ha ha.

The start into Churchill showed it had rained on Saturday, but there was very little puddled water on the track and this proved to be the case for the whole morning with all the tracks holding up really well, in fact they are in some of their best conditions of some time.

I wasn't looking forward to the climb out of Churchill into Lysterfield with my left knee still not A1 since last weeks race, maybe I forgot to mention that little issue....so I rode a small section of the climb and opted to hoof it for the majority of the ascent. Then off down the CG track with bunnies making their way Kamikaze style in front of the bike as you're already on your limit on the loose gravel descent, oh yeah!

We decided that a counterclockwise loop was in order and took off toward the Nth Hallam Rd carpark and straight into the singletrack. As mentioned the track was in great shape, the race hadn't f.....d it up too much and had actually smoothed it out or bermed it up in some sections, lots of fun I can tell you! We put in a few detours like Thompson's track and Boy's Farm to help Chris add some kms but still make it back for Brendan's swimming class.

As we came back down from Boy's Farm to the usual trail via the ultra-tight, tree lined singletrack, I spied a light going to meet up with us at the intersection..."could it be Steve?" I'm asking myself...jeez, it is!!! I usually get to Chris's place just before 5:30, well haven't made it there yet as he's always rolling down the street as I'm riding up, so Steve had got there 5:32 and just missed us...man what a fluke to come across each other at maybe 6:15 in the middle of Lyster!!! Much to Steve's disgust we both hadn't answered our phones...I never heard it....honest! So hopefully if there is a "next time" we'll get it better organised, as I basically ride past Steve's door anyhow to get to Chris's...

So on we went with the lap with the lights ablaze to show the way with a sweet constant tempo. I had a "moment" heading down toward "Dog Pound" with a tree root trying it's best to change my direction of travel, a quick dab kept me upright this time around...continuing on we parted company with Chris at the start of the CG climb and made our way toward the Quarry climb and down Ambulance Hill.

With the time getting toward 8:00 we headed towards the servo to pick up the next bunch of riders, that being Russ, Welsh Paul and Dan. From here on the pace was high with Steve starting to feel the effects of extending out his usual distance/time on the bike. We we're going clockwise this time and were enjoying every trail along the way.

Russ had recovered well from his first solo race last week and had learnt heaps from his experience...now deciding on whether to team up or solo the 7hr...plenty of training weeks to go!

We departed company with Steve at the top of the CG course climb, this being Steve's first venture into the 3+ hrs territory, well done!!! There's talk of a new Bezerk team with Chris and Steve joining forces, should be interesting to how they push each other to achieve whatever goals they set.

We finished off the lap and all of us but Dan deciding to call it a day, my knee was feeling good for majority of the ride but was now starting to make its presence known. So I said goodbye to Russ and Paul and made my way to the bikepath for an easy warm down loop, but even cut that short as I didn't want to aggrivate it any further, oh well, 5-1/2 hrs will have to do...

So I've also been working on a business card, one of the few things I think I can afford before the frames are ready for shipment, design below, comments as usual welcome!

7th June...On Wednesday I decided I was going to give the MTB a miss for the week, so in the end I decided a road ride was in order and that I'd take to opportunity to actually look at buying some extra winter clothing, shock horror as most of you know me for riding in a jersey and knicks most of the year round!

I have been using my Netti overshoes of late with my MTB shoes (S-Works shoes, jeez they're good) but they unfortunately don't work well with my Carnac/SPD SL combination for the roadie...and my Netti arm warmers have gone AWOL, so something to replace those would be great for those cold morning that turn into a sunny day type of ride.

So after some back and forth emails with Steve I decided to go visit William at Beach Rd Cycles, as Steve had just recently updated his wardrobe there. We decided to meet there at 7:30 but I had some work to finish off at the GS factory. I decided to ride toward Mitcham and take the Eastern cycle path toward the city and follow the Garmin arrow to the shop...maybe leaving at 6:00 was a bit optimistic...so it was a mad dash from the cyclepath to the shop, not realizing that the whole journey was nearly 50km and the constant stream of traffic lights impeding my progression...anyway, 15mins late wasn't too bad!

FIrst time I have made the journey to William's store, a compact space with plenty to see. A wide variey of tandems for anybody wanting to go two-up and most importantly this time a range of clothing for me to choose from. I ended up selecting some new ACCU-3D arm warmers that are three panel items to help prevent bunching on the inner side of your elbows...sweet! To finish off some shoe covers from BBB, hopefully waterproof and windproof enough for the road kms ahead....as I had rushed to get ready for my journey to the shop, I had quickly grabbed a card out of my wallet thinking that it was my eft card....oops, can't buy much with a Medibank card, LOL! Thanks for the lifesaver Steve!

With the time getting away, we took off at around 8:15 for a tempo effort along Nth Rd, with Steve steamrolling me in a sprint at one set of lights and me trying to be a windbreak for some of the way. Certainly relatively peaceful at this time of night, motorists mostly leaving you alone and being able to ride two abreast for the later half of the way home. I finished up with around 80km for the night which was a good alternative to the Lyster craziness.

I have promised a pic of my "slightly modified" TriNewt, so here it is, click for larger image. The basic mod is cut off the rear end to just clean up where the original gimble mount finishes. Then use the standard Niterider Universal Handlebar Mount Sku#1050, and replace the clip on the mount with the head unit screwed directly to it. No extra hardware is required, the screw holding on the bracket is reused for the mounting. So the clamp provides for up/down adjust, the screw for twist adjust and the hinge for left/right. On my Salsa oversize bars, this is rigid enough that I can lift the whole bike by the seat and the light!!! Above was mod #1, pictured is with mod #2 where I've gone a little crazy reducing the length somewhat more. I'd recommend #1 for beginners as it will be the easiest and most straight foward...

Oh, and a new Welcome screen thanks to the great pic taken by young Brendan, Chris's son. He was very patient taking many pics over the few hours he was at the AES2 event, thanks Brendan!!!

3rd June...It's been a hectic week at Greenspeed and I decided to take a few days off riding to recover from the extra kms I've been doing in the last couple of weeks as well as do some extra work to help pay for the first Bezerk shipment of frames.

Saturday was used as preperation day for the Anaconda Enduro Series Rnd#2 on Sunday. So clean the bike to a spotless condition for promotion (yes, I did receive a few "sweet bike mate" comments during the race) and installing the Ozirider grips. Not sure if I overdid the hairspray, but they never did stick properly by the next day, knew I should have done them earlier in the week, fortunately I didn't reef them off during the race whilst airborne over some of the jumps!

I then gave the bike the usual once over to make sure everything was tight and well adjusted, lubed the chain and checked the tyres for pressure and faults. Must say I'm still liking the Magura Durin forks and the Marta SL brakes...

With that out of the way a ride was in order, so I pumped up the tyres on the roadie and proceeded over to Anaconda in Bayswater to pick up a new Co2 inflator, Genuine innovations Air Chuck SL being my weapon of choice. Why a new one?...seem to have lost my original...well they are small and light...surprised It's taken this long to lose it!!! So took a little while to find, where would you go look in the bike section, "pumps" I would have thought...nope...OK, in the spare tubes section...

With this done, it was a ride to Lyster to register for the race, pick up your number and the sort of freebies. It was a Fluid jersey this time around, so something else I'll be stashing aside for a big return day and see what is up for swap worthy value...was a great arvo of riding with the sun beaming away, although I was a little concerned riding back with the sun directly in my face, this usually means drivers have less chance of seeing you so I kept well to the left hand side of the road...

Well it started with the usual race brekkie, usually some good ol' Weetbix but the pantry was saying out of order, try the Cornflakes today. Whilst sipping away at the also pre-race cup of tea, the must have, even if I eat nothing, I prepared my bidons with some Glucodin (something I spyed in the chemist and thought worth a go, yes I did try it the week before to make sure nothing nasty happened!) by funneling the required amount and leaving the water out. I was actually thinking ahead for a change, why fill them and haul them around when you can just do it when you get there!

With everything now packed into the ute it was off to the Nth Hallam rd carpark to find out if there were any parks left, fortunately I had chosen the right time and secured a place, skillfully guided in by Snozza himself.

Made my way down with bag and bike in hand to find Nath, Russ and Tony walking back up the other way. We had a quick discussion on where to setup and I mentioned the possie I had eyed off the race before. The 1st round I really bombed out and ended up with our camp on the other side of the transition fence, fine if you're teaming up, but bites the big one when you're soloing it...so the new location was close to the carpark, just beside the race line and this time relatively ant free (unlike last race where bag had aquired a new ant colony!).

So we setup the marqee which was great as this particular morning was a tad fresh to say the least with much fog hanging around, so this gave some respite to the chill. Thanks go to Nath who had brought along a table which was great to leave your bidons and food on for a quick ride-through pitstop, sure makes it much easier when unassisted.

Baz and Georgina turned up a while later with Baz having missed out on a park, so he had to park a distance away and ride in...Georgina had been voted to start off proceedings, probably a good thing with Baz's wrist still complaining about getting up early in the cold for a ride!

So by the time we had geared and suited up, it was getting close to the start time, so we made our way down to the start line and I remembered to take my time getting there so you're not shoved to the back of the field. I found a spot at the front next to Mitch. Mitch is great bloke, loves enduros and I reckon he'd race once a week if the calander showed 52 enduros in Vic, good on him I say! I was spewin' to see him later on with a flat tyre, I offered assistance but he promptly told me to "keep riding!".

So the start was imminent when Troy Bailey offered some comedy relief by dropping his bike and relocating a rather large rock, mostly for his benefit of course, but plenty of ribbing by other riders. There was some good lines, but damned if I could remember them with my race face on....

So off we raced for the first corner, half of us cutting through the brush lined shortcut and the rest sweeping through the actual corner. Think I wasn't too far down the front runners but tried to contain the enthusiasm with a long way yet to go. The hectic pace was short lived as we got to the singletrack and had to haul on the anchors, this meant single file for a while until passing opportunities arose.

As soon as we had started the singletrack I could hear a voice behind me saying something like "go the singlespeed" so proceeded to ask if they were doing the same. Turns out it was Craig Borham riding a knobby 700c, singlespeed fully rigid beast! Not sure if it's classed as a cyclocross bike or hybrid...700c says either, but lack of drop bars...well I'm not up to date on that trend, hard enough catching up to speed on the 29er thing! Craig mentioned he'd missed his pacing guy, Mr. Hardman Bennet, so I offered to let him go past but he was happy where he was for now. He passed me a while later and I could tell he was going to be a hard one to catch, he and his bike looked like courier material...not too much later I came across him sprawled on the ground to which I later found out was caused by his apparently glued grip coming off! He pulled away again and I didn't really see him for the rest of the race (liitle did I know I was catching up later in the day...)

Anyway, back to ME, ha ha ha. The gravel roads really sucked...really, really sucked, I was questioning whether I should have gone back to a 16t on the back and in retrospect I probably would have fitted it up as the climbs weren't too bad. It was a good opportunity to have a stretch or drink or break out a gel, but 30+ on a SS isn't a whole lotta fun...fortunately climbs soon followed so this allowed me to reel in some of the riders that had passed me on the road.

The legs felt reasonable all day, went way too hard on one climb and they were starting to protest with a slight twinge, so I backed off a tad and they rewarded me with a cramp free day. Some of the descents were getting really chopped out, obviously riders on the brakes when they weren't really needed, but that's what you get with a varied selection of rider skills. The track in general was really grippy, just point and shoot kind of riding, lean it in and hang on, awesome!!!

I managed the first 3 laps with no stops for supplies, the water not going down really fast. You could tell it was still cold as my legs and arms were bright red and my toes felt numb for the whole race. So I averaged a water stop every 3rd lap or so and a bite to eat every now and then, really tried to keep my stops to a bare minimum, maybe the best yet for time off the bike. Ended up having my banana and orange Torq gel with about 2hrs to go, thought this would kick in nicely as the race progressed.

Legs were definetely in Hurtsville for the last few hours, but nothing out of the ordinary for this type of event, just grin and bare it! Arms survived really well with just the neck and lower back being the weakest link this time around. Hopefully the weights work I'm doing will minimise this by the next race...

So I passed several riders and several riders (usually team riders) passed me, Nath said I was 12th at the 5hr mark when I spoke with him at the end. Unfortunately I got to the transition with 5 minutes to go, I say unfortunately not because I'd had enough but because I had put some good time into some riders and it would have been sweet to finish it up there. So I had half resigned to that being it, but then Tony and Russ rode up toward the marqee saying they had just made it in by a minute and were going out again...oh well I thought, may as well have a warm down lap and get the Garmin over 120km.

So end tally was Nath on 6 laps, Russ on 7 and Tony on 8, nice work by the lads esp Nath and Russ for their first solo race. Detailed results say another thing, but I'm sure Nath ain't complaining! Baz and Georgina reeled off 7 laps between them, Georgina is fast improving and finding places to improve with every ride, still hard to belive you could probably count her total number of mtb rides with your fingers only! Think Baz might be going back for more x-rays....

So my end tally -
Distance covered 126km
Total ascent 2,450m
Average heartrate 160bpm
Average speed 18.6kph
Total ride time 6:49:21
Placed 14th from 90 riders

Thanks heaps to Stephen Rowe, I can finally include some pics of us racing. Visit his site for very reasonable rates on purchasing your images. Norm Douglas was recording the race action again and has put them up on YouTube - Part 1, Part 2

Baz

Craig

Georgina

Simsy

Mitch

Nath

Russ

Tony