First “proper” mtb ride this morning since I got thrown.
And it was a good one to be at. The annual post-ride BBQ at Max’s Christmas Daisy Hill Wednesday morning crew event ride thing.
Above is the morning’s crew (from left): Becca, Jody, Max, Michael, Gordo, Sparky, Gaz, Geoff, Neil, Floody, and a dude whose name I don’t know (sorry!).
At breakfast but not on the ride were Dean0 and Aaron (Jaman).
Missing from the regulars are Flyboy Dave, Chris, Rich and no doubt others who I will kick myself for forgetting. (expect this sentence to be updated!)
Flyboy had a post on his blog recently about what he sees as a resurgence in the one-off big rides organised by forum members on MTB Dirt. It’s a good thing, and part of what makes the mtb community quite a lot of fun, I find.
I am very thankful that early on in my mtb riding ‘career’ that I found the Wednesday morning crew. It has always had riders faster than me, which is good becos you can measure yourself against them. It has always had a friendly & welcoming vibe … anyone can join in any week.
And it has always had a solid core of riders who are looking to improve. Whether that means getting faster or mastering more technical trails, or whatever it means for different people.
So although I have got towards the end of a year in which my performances in races and other big rides has fallen away a bit, I’m not at all disheartened. I think I have improved in skills and knowledge quite a lot this year. And there’s always another ride coming up, another challenge to prepare for. G2I. LunarC. Bring it on.
I’ve spent a little bit of time lately looking at mountain bike trails. And I have just realised that I have neglected to mention here that the new (fourth) edition of Where To Mountain Bike in South-East Queensland is now available at all good bike shops, and from Bicycle Queensland as well.
WTMBISEQ is the long-term labour of love of Gillian Duncan. This time round Gillian has teamed up with a cartographer, Mark Roberts, and the result is nothing short of sensational. So good that Sunshine Coast Regional Council has done a deal with the pair and reproduced all the Sunshine Coast area maps on the Council’s website.
Gillian was nice enough to give me a signed copy of the new edition. Which I will both treasure, and use. But much more gratitude is owed by me and every other trail rider in SEQ to Gillian.
I almost described Gillian as indefatigable because of her long, long involvement in mountain bike advocacy, trail care and mapping, even helping to run mountain bike races for several years, but on reflection that’s not correct. Gillian has had her ups and downs over the past couple of years, and at one point told me she was burnt-out on mountain biking.
The fact that Gillian was so ‘fatigued’ but has come back with such an amazing resource for mountain bikers in SEQ, once again shows her strength. There’s still plenty more to be done in trail access for mountain biking, but right now there are three major SEQ regional councils (Sunshine Coast, Redlands, Logan) that are doing amazing stuff in co-operation with mountain bikers. And the impetus for all this started with Gillian.
I really do have the best job. This morning’s invite was from Redlands Council to join in with the group of Council staff and local mountain bikers looking at the concept plans for the Cleveland Track Park. That is what’s happening in the pic above … we’ve jumped off the bikes for a second to look at a creek crossing, and there’s discussion about the best route for the trail on the far side of the water.
Cleveland Track Park will be in bushland that is right in the middle of suburban Cleveland and Alexandra Hills. The trails are not especially technical, but the setting is so very sweet … wallabies on the side of the track, lush Australian bush, even though we’ve had a pretty dry year.
And what gave me a boost was the massive enthusiasm of the Cleveland folks to make this happen and improve access to the bushland for all users: walkers, cyclists, old young.
And if the very best I could manage this morning was to lever myself out of bed at 4.45 am to get ready and down to Cleveland in time for a 6 am ride start, then fortunately that was good enough.
Can I do it again tomorrow morning for a South Bank ride? I’m optimistic.
Not much (good) news at the moment. Fell off the mountain bike on Monday, attempting a jump that was beyond my ability. Not my cleverest moment.
Busted shoulder. Participation now very doubtful for the Great Escape Gravity Enduro.
[Insert sad face icon here]
But the Brizzy Bike Fest is going to be fun, and I will be attending as much of it as possible. Eleanor’s doing the inviting over on her blog, how could you resist an offer like that?
But even though the B2GC is a massive day, with 7500 riders and lots of stress, it also marks the end of the high pressure event season. And therefore a massive sigh of relief.
Only a few days later, it was off to Melbourne with some South Bank friends for the 2011 Around the Bay in a Day. With the craziness of event season at BQ, I must admit that the training for Around The Bay was nearly non-existent. I was pinning my hopes on the idea that my residual fitness would be enough to keep me safely around the middle of the bunch, and that having just done a BG Fit that I would be comfortable on the bike.
Both held true, and it might sound like boasting, but Around The Bay was the easiest 200km ride I’ve ever done. The South bank group was 12 riders strong, which meant plenty of shelter in the bunch. And I was in the sweet spot of not being under stress by the pace at any stage.
The SBB crew do the Melbourne-Sorrento-Melbourne version of the ride. So, no waiting for the ferry, down and back on the “nice” side of the bay. We experienced some Melbourne-style weather on the day, with some lovely sunshine, and some occasional spits of rain, and one quick shower. But the challenge of the event was mostly in keeping the group intact, and a small amount of cross-wind on the way back. We did a solid 8-hour ride, averaging 25 km/h.
The big ride was only one part of a very enjoyable long weekend in Melbourne. I drew on the expertise of my friend whose Mastermind Special Subject would be the cafes, bars and restaurants of inner-city Melbourne. And so we visited places such as Wabi Sabi Japanese restaurant, and Cafe de Clieu. And Pellegrini’s. And Hill of Content book shop. And I saw Melbourne Heart vs Perth Glory, and the Bike Expo. So it was a wonderful weekend, lots of laughs. I really enjoyed how walkable Melbourne’s city heart is. And noticed the growth in cycling culture in the city as well.
So, back in Brisbane, I have been happy to take it relatively easy for a while. The Enigma needed a little bit of a tune-up after the rigours of travel. And I managed to bust something in the front shifter of my Frezoni during the week as well. So on Saturday I went for a spin round Daisy Hill on the mountain bike with Bruce, instead of the South Bank bunch ride.
And yesterday I spent a couple of hours mucking round with the project bike. Won’t be long before its ready to ride. It will be the perfect machine for the Great Victorian Bike Ride.
OK, so a little while ago I started adding the occasional music track for your “enjoyment” while reading this blog. Can’t think where that idea came from.
On Sunday I raced in the Coffs Harbour Pleasure & Pain mountain bike enduro. No, Chrissie Amphlett isn’t the event organiser. But considering the name of the event, there’s only one possible track to play for this post. So here it is.
I drove down to Coffs on Saturday, and it rained all the way down. Picked up my race number, & booked myself into a very nice cabin at Park Beach, and unloaded the car. All while the rain continued. Went out for a pizza at a busy little Italian joint on Harbour Drive, as the rain continued. Got back to the cabin in time for most of the Wallabies-All Blacks, while the rain came down some more.
I raced this event in 2009, and it was the best enduro race I’ve had so far in my “racing” “career” (double scare quotes, is that the right way to do that?). But that race was on a dry track.
In the week leading up to the event, I began to be worried about the possibility of a wet, muddy Pleasure & Pain. Specifically, about what damage racing in the mud would do to my precious. I couldn’t do that. But I had paid my money to enter the race, and a little bit of rain and mud wasn’t going to stop me going to the event.
So, Plan B.
This whole section might end up in another post that will come out sometime soon which has the working title of N+1, or The Trickle-Down Theory of Bicycle Economics.
My old Gary Fisher Tassajara hardtail had been earmarked to be reborn as a single-speed. And the time was now. I already had most of the pieces necessary for the conversion. So I just dumped it all on Andrew Pritchard at Flashing Pedals on a Thursday, picked out the nastiest-looking mud tyres in the shop, and said “can I pick it up Saturday?”
And so it was that I drove south with two bikes on the back of the mighty Charade (the Cannondale meets the criteria of the bike-obsessed by being worth more than the Charade, but it was a passenger for the whole trip).
The GF-SS was set up with a pretty easy gear as far as hard-core singlespeeders would be concerned: 32 x 20. This is equivalent to around the middle gear on the middle chainring. So usually I would have (roughly) 10 gears lower than that, and 10 gears higher.
But for the blessing of not totally destroying my lovely new RZ 120, I would attempt the single-speed route.
I tried to take it steady from the start, but soon found that propelling the GF/SS around the muddy single track took everything I had. Up out of the saddle on every climb, trying to balance the need for traction with the need for power. I was on the limit inside the first 15 minutes. Because I’ve raced on this track before, I had a pretty clear idea of where I was on the circuit, and how far through the lap I was. And I realised almost straightaway that there was absolutely no possibility that I would finish 100km on the SS Gary Fisher.
So when I finally made it through the really muddy first section, and got onto the Cows With Guns part of the track, which follows a creek alignment (!), I found that rather than thick mud, it was ankle-deep muddy water. That cheered me up quite a lot, and I got to the end of the first lap in reasonable spirits.
What made me smile even more was the sight of race organiser Trevor Creighton holding a board which said “Race reduced from 4 laps to 3″.
That’s OK, I said to him, I’ve reduced my race to one lap at a time.
So I pulled over for a bit of a rest. In the pit area were quite a few folks from Brisbane. I had already seen Jaman & Miff, before the race. But there was one of the fast boys, Blackjack Al. He was on his single-speed too (anyone who HAD a SS used it at this race), but he had decided that one lap was sufficient in these conditions.
So Allan encouraged me to get back out on the track, “You’re a BEAST!”
Feeling not at all beast-like, but maybe a bit beastly, I rode off for lap two.
And once again knew straightaway that lap two was my last lap. The track had got worse. Where the first lap started with riding through thick mud on top of the trail, now the whole trail had been churned into a quagmire that defied both traction and forward progress.
And when I finally pushed and grunted my way past the first section of the course, the Ratchet, and got towards the lower parts of the course, it was only to discover that the parts which were covered in water were now covered in sloppy mud.
It’s kind of liberating to give up the idea of “racing” in these circumstances. Nobody would be able to compare my times from two years ago to this event. I could just potter around at whatever pace was possible, and still be regarded as having given my all.
And that’s pretty much what I did. Cos it took everything I had just to make it to the end of lap two. I had a couple of spectacular over-the-bars-type incidents, both of which landed me in the tasty brown goo.
And so I got to the end, and I looked like this.
After finishing, I went and found the creek, and sat there, in the cool chest-deep water, with my bike for a good 10 minutes. It was the best part of the day.
Of course you know that I choose to do this stuff, for fun. I actually paid the race organisers for the privilege of being part of this event.
I’ll post some musings on the Coffs Harbour Pleasure & Pain mtb enduro soon. In the meantime, you can all see (if you want to) that I was the fourth-placed non-finisher in my category. Only seven finishers. That’s a hard race.
