Land of Drift and Flow

Racing has been a bit sparse this year, that’s just how it goes sometimes, so I was feeling like a veritable newbie the night before the Kowalski Classic, trying to remember all the little things required to get ready for a race of this type.  100 k’ers aren’t normally my strong suit, the last one I did being the 2012 Husky100 albeit with promising signs.

Sunday morning revealed a gorgeous crisp Canberra morning with lots of sunshine and I felt ready on the start line.  Wave 2 was the who’s who of Masters racing, and with the Fenz off in Wave 1, it would be a race for 2 and 3 places.  The start was pretty sedate and the bunch soon strung out as we headed up Seismic climb.  You know if it is going to be a good day or an ordinary day pretty much at this point and as I held the wheel of some strong guys, I knew it would be a good day for me. 

The course was simply awesome, the network of trails through Kowen and Sparrow and a beautiful thing, there is just so much flow to be had.  The rain through the week had delivered a few boggy sections, but overall the course would best be described as tacky with a bit of drift thrown in and the Giant Anthem was riding beautifully.  I had heard some of the locals would be putting on their wet weather rubber, but I stuck with the Rubena’s which have been my staple now for 12 months or more and they didn’t let me down.

Grantley Butterfield was riding the best I’ve seen him for a long while and he jumped at the chance to bridge to the lead group in Wave 2.  Riders such as Garry James and Trent Moore were present so it’s always a good feeling to be counted amongst these guys.  Grantley just kept powering on all day, and Garry and I rode together for what must have been around 40km which was great.  The thing about the course was that there was plenty of time for recovery in the flowing single track.  The one big climb at Elevator wasn’t too long and at the end of the 50km loop I was still feeling fresh. 

A quick bottle change and it was into Sparrow (eventually!), Garry and I were a bit worried for a while thinking we might have taken a wrong turn but eventually reached the turn into Sparrow (phew!).

With just 5 km to go, Garry put the hammer down and I was happy with my ride so I sat up and chugged into the finish to find I’d gotten third place.  A little while later it looked like I’d been pipped to 4^th by 30 seconds, oh well, someone has to come 4^th.  If only I’d stayed with Garry at the end…..and then when I checked results from home I was back into 3^rd!

My son Tom was also racing his first 50km endure and whilst he was a little disappointed with his ride still finished mid field in the Juniors with a time of 3:20.  Not bad for his first race!  Well don’t matey.

We packed up as the weather closed in and made a dash back to Nowra to our favourite family holiday destination in Jervis Bay.

Thanks to Alan Voight and all the Kowalski crew for an awesome event.  It was by far the best

And as always thanks to my LBS Turramurra Cyclery and my wife and family for your support.  3 weeks to WEMBO.  Bring it!

Keep riding

Mike

Happy New Year

Having heard about how much fun racing in a pair can be, I thought this would be a nice relaxed way to ease back into the racing scene for 2013. Mistake number 1.
I also thought we could combine it into a bit of a road trip come MTB tour for the family, taking in the delights of Canberra one day and the legendary Snake Trail in Batemans Bay the next day. Mistake number 2.

Mistake number 1: Racing is never relaxed, especially when you roll into one of the favourite playgrounds of riders with a postcode starting with 26. Added to that, I must have had illusions of grandeur when I invited Peter "The Flying Fluro" Selkrig as my partner. I knew he was strong after watching him set trails on fire last year at a couple of 8 hours so I was pretty excited when he enthusiastically accepted. What I will never forget is the utter feeling of desperation knowing Pete was on my wheel virtually cruising (and giving me a nice little shove when I needed it) while I spent 150 mins in the box AND knowing that at any moment, arch rivals Garry and Jase would be mowing us down! Off the start line, I got the hole shot and felt great powering on the wheel of the fast guys. I managed to hold a wheel all the way up to the first single track with Pete right next to me and seemingly noone else with earshot. A few k's down the track we heard that one of the On-The-Go boys had had a big fall and he was on a Cannondale. That could only mean Garry or Jase, so while the pressure might have momentarily lapsed, Pete and I both knew to win our category we'd need to go flat out to the finish. Pretty soon Pete was leaving me for dust on the little inclines so we swapped around the order and I set the pace. By the middle of the second lap, I was starting the hack and gasp like an old horse who's be flogged too hard, so I focussed on just keeping it smooth and enjoying the sweet single track of Kowen. With around 8 k's to go we heard the monster coming, it was Garry haunting us through the pine trees so we stepped on the gas a little and gapped a team we'd been trading places with all day. Garry was chasing hard and got us in the end; fortunately for us Jase was nowhere to be seen and we finished together to take 1st place in the Masters. As a postscript, Jase had come down hard after touching a wheel in the mad dash off the line and took ALOT of bark off. He ended up still finishing the race just a few minutes behind us and then smartly got himself to hospital for some stitches and xrays (thankfully nothing broken). All I can say is KUDOS! You are one tough cookie JMac!

Mistake number 2: Well to call it a mistake is a strong word, the family had a great weekend, with wife Sarah and the boys all getting into the riding. Tom is getting faster and joined me for an extra 25km along Dog Trap and Ridge roads from Mogo back to BB which was great. And even though I got us a little lost, he more than kept up with me and finished strong with a little time trial back to the beach. It just takes an extraordinary effort to prep, clean, pack, unpack four bikes with four sets of riding gear, calculating hydration for said riders, ensuring the ride is neither too long no too short and keeping everyone happy inevitably means you have to make some sacrifices here and there. It ended up pretty good, with a magic moment when Sarah arrived at the bottom of the Snake Trail, her first word was "WOW!".

Having just cleaned and serviced 4 bikes and thinking about the amazing weekend we just had really does bring home what an awesome sport cycling is, and after reading some wise commentary today I realised that what we do and why we do it has virtually nothing to do with what some self important overpaid used-to-be rider feels he needs to admit on a talk show after years of denial so he can make peace with the world. pfft get real.

Keep riding
Mike

STM2012 #2 Kowen Forest

These races come up awful quick and after some indifferent weather in Sydney, the last two weeks have been all about recovery and carb loading, ie. I've done not alot of training since the Nationals. As Joe Ward said in his post interview race with Jason McAvoy, Masters is super competitive and this time I think I took the approach to just enjoy this ride (well yeah still compete!) without the repeat of the soul destroying last couple of laps at Orange last round. I mean where is the fun in riding a bike if you are just going to flog yourself every time? It was great having a cohort of TORC riders make the journey to the land of milk and honey for MTBer's, here is a selection of some of our finest. Martine doesn't appear here because she was taking all the pics! Thanks Martine

Brad, Marco, Farkas and Mike. Note Simey has made a sport out of riding his comfy chair and esky

On the start line it was a little cool, the Garmin was reading 1 degC but I wasn't shivering (probably because I had the oncomings of hypothermia!) and once we hit the gas, I was pretty comfortable all day with just a base layer and arm warmers. I was quite amused to see a couple of little streams of runoff water had frozen overnight so the ice and frost on the ground made it feel like something out of Narnia. Riding through pine forest is just beautiful, it's so quiet with the little shards of sunlight that find there way onto the track. There was also a brisk westerly blowing that made for a tough head wind in some sections.

A typical chilly Canberra morning but the promise of a gorgeous day once the sun rises

A couple of hours in, I was sorry to see a rider down at the 4km mark. He had come a cropper on a berm and apparently head planted into a stump. It was a couple of laps later before he was moved out with suspected spinal injuries so we all certainly hope and pray the injuries aren't permanent and he has a good recovery. It made me ponder the fine line we balance as I was trying to ride as fast and as smooth as possible, which means braking as little as possible. It doesn't bear thinking about the damage that one tiny mistake can bring about as you speed downhill past jagged rocks. Nup don't think about it.

The good news is my lap times were much more consistent this round. I started to lose a little time towards the end but I figured it was all pretty manageable and knowing I haven't got the legs to challenge the Radical Lights boys, I'd be happy to fill in 3rd place again on the podium. Little did I know there was a new kid on the block who'd been smashing it up all day. He certainly slipped in under the radar and it wasn't until the end of Lap 7 I found out I still had some work to do. I casually asked Cindy on the way out what was the gap to 4th and she says ONE MINUTE TEN! What? did I hear you right.

OK Euston we have a race on here. I gritted my teeth and pushed a bit harder in lap nine cutting 45 secs off and kept it going for the last lap to beat Chris by 6 minutes. Phew that was close, it felt great to know I had someone hot on my heals and to push me all the way. By that stage I was taking more risks on the descents and I had Ed, Andy and Antony fly past me who gave me a fast wheel to hold if only for a few seconds but it all counts. Checking the results post race, I realised I had been cruising in 4th all day and had only just crept into 3rd place after 7 laps.

This chart shows the gap to Jason McAvoy. Note Chris and Garry fighting out for 1st in the first few laps. Chris blows up on Lap 7 and I sneak into 3rd place

Once again the race had a great vibe and although I've said it before I'll say it again, it is awesome to see so many girls getting out there and racing. The chicks are friendly and very cooperative, they give you track within about 3 seconds of you asking and they tell you which side to pass on. There are definitely a few grumpy blokes who could learn a thing or two about track etiquette from the girls!

Thanks to Chocolate Foot for another stellar event, the Kowalski Brothers and Co. for an awesome track, Turramurra Cyclery for your continued support along with all the TORCIES who turned up and special thanks to Cindy Farkas who took on a cameo role as bottle lady and kept me going to the end. Without your help I'd be feeling pretty rotten about finishing 4th and racking my brain to work out why I didn't ride just that little bit harder!

As a postscript, the whole race prep was very enjoyable, Brad, Mike Blewitt and I shared a lovely bottle of red in the Royal Hotel Queanbeyan followed by the biggest bowl of Penne Carbonara I have ever seen courtesy of the The Central Cafe. Now I know that probably sounds weird, but life is good and I am grateful to the One who provides all the goodness.

Keep riding
Mike

What I ate
1 600ml Optimiser
3 600ml Hammer HEED (mixed a little stronger)
10 gels
2 bars
2 bananas

I would normally drink twice this amount of fluid and I hardly broke out a sweat all day, yep it was cool.

TORC Canberra Training Camp

After a very soggy Sydney Summer, you could be forgiven for getting just a little bit excited about heading to the mecca of mountain biking for a weekend of single track serenity. Sure enough 17 of TORC’s finest climbed aboard the MTNBike Express in search of some sweet dusty trails

First stop was Kowen forest and again we had the privilege of mixing it with Ben Henderson, still recovering from a virus, Ben was kind enough to come out and set the scene for a weekend where the object was to ride your bike as fast as possible through every conceivable type of corner. Before long the natives got restless as Kowen’s beautiful lines beckoned and it wasn’t long before a few keen beans blasted off to stretch the legs and the lungs. The name of the game was “Where’s Brad?” Hardly a puff of dust had been raised one of our team were missing in action. Turned out he thought it was the Roadies tour coming up in a couple of weeks and decided to take a detour via Queenbeyan! Steve also pushed hard on the power limit and broke his chain link by link until he had to scooter back to base camp. There was plenty of “Yieeeew!” and “Yeaaaaah” and “Whoooooa” calls coming across the valleys, these are the mating calls of the mountain biker and the better the single track, the more frequent the calls.

Back for lunch and Will and Laurie really fed us well. The whole tour was expertly organised and the food was a hit for tired legs, then it was out for another couple of hours of soaking up the trails over Sparrow Hill, just 25km of uninterrupted singletrack.

Peter took the prize for the hard man of the weekend, taking particular offense to a certain pine tree and both he and the tree were left missing some bark. Of course the tree won, but Peter has the bragging rights and got a nice ride in an ambulance for his efforts.

Post ride coffees and a good quality “all you can eat” buffet at the AIS were very welcome after a big day in the saddle and then it was off to sample the night life in Dickson. Yes there is night life in Canberra and we all enjoyed some carb loading in the cool summer evening

Sunday morning provided another opportunity to ride the “all you can eat” single track, rolling out at sunrise to take in the manicured trails of Bruce Ridge to roll the legs over the before breakfast. It really was the perfect morning at 12 degrees and clear blue skies and not a puff of breeze. Ben, Hayden, Will and Isy had a great time navigating this tortoise shell of criss-crossing trails with gentle climbs and sweeping bends on the descents.

Our final ride started with an easy bunch ride through the suburbs from the AIS to one of the oldest and best love MTB precincts in Canberra, Majura Pines. The trails were a little damp which made for tricky conditions as one moment you had loads of grip on a tacky corner and the next you could be two wheel drifting over a slippery tree root. There were heaps of riders there including families and heaps of girls all enjoying the best of MTB in Canberra (Great to see more girls getting into this sport!). Mike Farkas was having a shocker and no sooner was he singing the praises of Scarlett and the next, going rubber up at low speed over a couple of sketchy obstacles, very unlike Mike. Fankles also revealed his talents for inflicting pain and made a foursome with Nick, Mike and Isy to explore this area that is some areas resembled the Blair Witch project, gothic aged pines trees, plenty of hills and made for some gorgeous scenery.

All in all a fantastic weekend of riding with friends and right on queue the storms reappeared as we made our way back to Sydney, wishing we never had to return

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