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...

Air Time!

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......

New Bikes!!!!

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

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

www.yeticycles.com

Big weekend of Mountainbikes part2

Sunday... FTF winter Series Round 4. Officer.
Final round of the series, with a 4th, 1st and 2nd I had to go. Been a while since I've finished an XC series.
The weather on saturday was ugly and sunday wasn't looking any better. And the rain didn't hold back. Cold and wet was the order of the day. With a minimal turnout for A grade it was a matter of getting around and hoping the 8 hours of saturday Epix riding wouldn't slow me down too much.
With Big George, joel and i on the startline we had went with the No Warmup and No Clipping in till the gun goes off rules. Seemed to work for me. Stunned into life up the first fireroad I followed joel around for part of the first lap before taking the lead and slip sliding my way around the park...




Early on in the race, clean...

Half waydone?? still kinda clean so maybe not....

As the race went on i lost the rear brake, over shooting a corner or two and finding the rough i realised it was metal on metal. oh well, along with my rear tyre I was relying on skills to keep me moving...

The Side knobs grip, you just have to lean it over there....

In the end I stayed in first. Covered in mud and loving it.

Finished! Mud times. RIP rear pads, front pads and bottom bracket...

Series Winner!! Dare I say one of the Best Trophys I've got...

Big weekend of Mountainbikes part1

Saturday, Epix... From Ringwood to St Andrews on the trails. My day started at 6:30am as i rode from eltham out to Ringwood for the start of the ride. In typical Epix fashion we had all weather combos. My favorite was the soaking rain that turned to hail and created a river down the trail we were riding..

Chose to ride the ARC as it was already dirty. Plenty of monos, log jumps and drifting to be done...

Not many photos taken by me cause of the rain but i got this one of Bellie..

and one of Matt...

Safe to say it was an awesome ride. Plenty of good times, good trail and a beer to finish it all off.

Checkout the EPIX blog for all the photos....

Winner!!

OnYa Mate!! #1...

I didn't make the trip upto Canberra so to keep it interesting I got some new parts for the Carbon ASR....2010 Fox, Elixir CR Mag and White Pedals.... Awesome

Staying in melb over the Worlds weekend left me with some time to do some service work... The DH9 is now ready for new bearings, should get rid of that klunk noise too.

And finally, since my Myotherapist says digging is good for my back, a few more turns have taken shape...