Saturday, December 19, 2009

Big Year....


Its been a busy year. Next year is shaping up to be the same. Hopefully without the hospital trips.

Wildside, Terra Australis, pairs 24hour racing, XC, Marathon nationals....

Will be on new rigs in the new year???

maybe.....


In the last week i have started working at Trailmix, yes we sell Yeti.


The new workplace... hiding in the trees. Singletrack starts top right and goes for miles...



My commute to work has a bit of offroad..... Might be a bit sketchy on the old 700x23 tyres, thats what makes it awesome!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Monday, November 30, 2009

AyUp Special....

Kona 22:03 Hour


Reality is, I don't know where to start. It was a huge weekend. Involved everything from planes, car breakdown, supermarkets, pet dogs, Frisbee to the back of the head, late night hot dogs, mud, rain, pain and being awake for 39 hours

I will start with the arrival at the race-site in Forrest, home of the Kona 24 hour. We got there at lunchtime on Friday, and I quickly found Ben ready to set up our home. We quickly constructed out 'fort' and went for a practice lap. The course was a solid mix of fantastic single-track, with painless fire-road climbs. At this point it was hot with a dry course, perfect for a QLD Lad.
We went back to camp, showered, had some dinner and settled in with some beers. Then the rain came, then the storm and then the torrential thunderstorm that ruined a good few campsites.
Everything pointed to a very wet and muddy 24 Hour race.
Our plan was simple and aggressive. Smash out fast laps till we are a lap up, then smash out quick night laps to get a lap up, and if it rains we were to ride faster/harder to get more time up. Fun as going to be interpretation as 'hurt yourself badly'.

H-Ball (AyUp/Yeti Australia Manager) was set to look after us in his 'no bulls*£t and ride faster' management technique. He would look after us, give us time checks, make sure we ate, were warm and was the critical link in exchanging communication between Ben and Myself. Take very careful note of his last task.

Ben drew the short straw (not that there were straws) for the first lap. He donned his mega-fast YETI skinsuit for the first lap, and was keen to put distance into our competition early. He went hard, and we were in 6th place overall for the first lap. I took over for the second lap (we were going to alternate each lap, no doubles) and we got into 5th place.

Next lap Ben went out and we were up to 4th, and with my next lap we got in 3rd place Overall. We were having fun, despite the mud. At this point of time I had changed my clothes twice and had a shower. I only had 5 complete kits with me, and if it rained more I was going to be in for a long cold night.



Nighttime kicked in, and with 8 hours into our legs we settled into the race. With night meant we could bring out something special. AyUp had given us some of the latest lights, with upgraded technology. We both ran with a narrow on the helmet, and a medium on the bars. It was during the dark, when we stepped back into race mode. We punched out sub-48minute laps for the next 10 during the dark.
10 fast laps was enough to help secure our lead.
Sure we were cold, we were getting hungry and trying to keep on fluids was getting difficult. With the communication link between Ben and I handled by H-Ball, he was able to keep our spirits high. My stomach was killing me, so H-Ball would tell Ben I was still happy going lap for lap. Ben's knee were giving him trouble, so Dad would tell me Ben was looking good. It was this 'management technique' that kept our heads level, and our legs turning the pedals.

At Daybreak, we started to crunch the numbers. We were roughly 2.5 laps up on second place, but as we had not yet ridden the new 'Day Course 2' we didn't know how long those laps we going to take. We started the new laps and did 2 each at a solid pace. I finished my last lap at 9:10 and the 'team' sent out Ben for his final lap.

It would be the teams last one, despite Ben's desire for me to go out for another to 'even out the number of laps'. With that at 10:03am, Ben returned to the tent, and we had sealed up the race.
We sat looking like death, I had bloodshot eyes, and Ben could hardly stand. Still, we found the strength to find 2 beers, crack them open and enjoy the victory.

In the end we won the Mens Pairs with 27 laps in 22:03 hours, and as the race neared the 24-Hour mark we remained a lap clear over 2nd place. In good hands, we had done what we setout to do.


The Yeti’s (I was on my ASR Alloy, and Ben on his ASR-c) ran flawlessly. They were fantastic, and for the entire race we a great combination of comfort and speed. Out AyUp lights helped us win, simple as that. Our lap times at night were fast and consistent, as a result of a fantastic product.


Lastly, while Ben and I stood on the podium, the real champion was H-Ball. He orchestrated the chaos, and made the actual riding the easy bit.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Winners


Kona 24 hour Male Pairs Winning team AyUp/Yeti Australia Renegades Of Funk.

done



Ben and I went hard early, stayed going hard in the the night and by for breakfast we were 3 hours ahead of 2nd place. We did one more 'buffer' lap and at 10am we finished, both so smashed it took all our combined energy to have a beer together.

HUGE thanks must got to H-Ball (AyUp/YETI Australia Team Manager) for keeping us two lads smashing out the laps. He worked as hard, if not harder than us. Not only did he look after us for the entire race, but then packed up and drove home.

Special thanks to Mel and Marnie, for putting up with us, feeding us and telling us to 'harden up' when we needed to be told.

AyUp....what can I say, look at our lap times at night. With AyUp lights turning dark into light, we maintained the same lap times (if not faster) at night.

YETI.....not one mechanical, and the bikes railed everything we threw at them. My ASR is so comfortable, I will be riding to work today. This bikes are the best combination of comfort and speed. Look for Ben and I to be steeping up to the new ASR-5 soon......

Thanks to everyone else who supported or cheered us on. This looks to be the start of a serious 24-Hour two man team from now on. Yes we hurt, but not once did we say we wouldn't do another one.....



Monday, November 16, 2009

We Couldn't Agree On A Name...

Officer 6 hour.

Mel and i teamed up as a mixed pair... Just for fun. So i dug out the 575 for some long travel racing.

On the start line it was all smiles then bam! we were off. I sat in 2nd for a bit then attacked on the aqueduct track. I the lead i finished lap one (with the fastest lap for the race) and headed out for lap 2.


I got challenged early but shut that down and rode around loving the trails to bring us in first overall after 2 laps.



We didn't stay in first overall but we did win our category. It sure was hot out there and tough toward the end of the race.
Everyone was enjoying themselves and it was a great day of racing...

Many thanks to the FTF volunteers who ran the event.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Chicken or Rooster?


UP..... steeper than it looks. GO!

Avoca Trail Building

This weekend was trail reconstruction time at Avoca, the home of the 2009 Marathon Nationals. Plenty of work to be done but the trail that was unearthed is worth it. With short notice it was a 2 man show, swingin fire rakes and cuttin wood...
Some slight redirections are still needed to get around the steeper/unridable climbs. So far so good.












Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Monday, October 19, 2009

Monday, October 12, 2009

Scott 24 Hour

This years Scott 24 bellie and i teamed up as a pair racing as Mavic/Pedros. Our plan was to ride lap for lap as long a possible and see where we ended up.
Our plan worked and for 22 hours we cranked out the laps. By then we were 3 laps up so took the easy option and sat back.

WHAT!!

Yep, bellie and I threw it in early. Race won.

As i was reasonably busy during the race I took no photos. Here are a few from before and after. The Guys from Sportograf photos were there tasking the action shots and I'll post some when available.


The Hume, at night, same as during the day... snore....



Canberra, finally.

Our tent city. Along with us we had a Kona 4 mixed team and a first time solo rider sharing the space.


2 yetis in a sea of kona.... mine are better...



no need for comfortable sleeping arrangements. no sleeping here




The Gu/Yeti team were out racing hard with Sid Taberly as a ringin rider. The finished in third behind the Swell Design team and Rockstar racing


After the race was done we have a sudden storm. High winds, rain, crazy times. Then it was gone. Back to sun shine and sunburn.


Our Trophy...


24 hours of race kit...


Sunday, October 4, 2009

You Yangs Yowie

Well, I made it down to the You Yangs Yowie, which also happened to be the VIC Marathon Champs as well. I know I used to be from Victoria, but my body has slowly adapted to QLD quite well. I know it wasn't cold, but, well..........never mind.
Great start, and before long was smashing it down the long fire road. I had no idea of the course, didn't look at the course profile, just really went down to have fun. Get my body/bike/clothing sorted for the Highland Fling. That was the plan, and then a race number went on and it all changed.
The race was great. The start loop got down to 8 guys, and then the next lap down to 6 and on the last lap it was a group of 3 chasing 2 guys up the road. So many race tactics going on within teams, it was 4 Specialized guys against myself and a TORQ rider. They played it smart, but we did our best.


I ran my new 1 x 9 system, with a single 37 tooth chainring up the front matched to a 11 - 32 rear cassette. The low gear was spot on, but due to the large amount of flat trail I could have gone with a bigger gear. The only problem, is when you drop a chain, you have to stop and put the chain back on by hand. This happened around 5 times during the race, and when I finished around a minute of second place....this is stupid time to be lost. No matter, a device is coming that will solve this issue.

In the end I rolled across for 4th, with 2nd/3rd just up the road. Lots of things went wrong, but so many went right. I dropped my bidon on the second lap, and did the mid 25 kms without fluid, but rode smart and didn't dig too deep to keep rolling fast. I got unlucky on both feedzones, having to stop as I dropped the bidon on the first feed, and needed to get more food on the second, but was lucky enough to put the hammer back down to get onto the bunch.
Climbing wise the 1 x 9 suited me fine, just the dropped chains were annoying and lost time. I also need to look into new grips that suit my hands (OzRiders have some new ones), new gloves and slightly bigger shoes. All these things to make racing the hundred mile highland fling a little easier...


More photos/race report coming......

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

New Bikes!!!!

Called the ASR 5. Comes in Carbon or Alloy. 5inches of travel.





Oh yeah.... So many options... UNREAL!