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

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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