Category Archives: Racing

Pedalling harder than the other guy

Road Racing again – this is becoming a habit

28 January, 2014 11:04 am ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅
Giving it some stick off the front

Giving it some stick off the front of the bunch

I made my second road race outing – yes ever – on the Australia Day public holiday, heading out to Eastern Creek Motorsport Centre for a Waratah Masters CC graded scratch race. 70 minutes of racing around a quite well-known and popular motor racing track? Yes please.

As you may know, I’m quite new to this whole road racing thing, and while I’ve come over from the MTB racing scene with fairly good legs and a competitive nature, I’m still not what you’d call a seasoned road racer.

And so it was with Monday’s race. Continue Reading →

Posted in: Meta, Racing ⋅ Tagged: , , ,

LACC Newington Armoury Twilight Crits Round One

24 January, 2014 10:50 am ⋅ 2 Comments ⋅
LACC Armoury Crits Round 1 23 Jan 2014

Pic courtesy of the Park Bikes Twitter feed

Last night saw the first official foray into a regular weekly criterium event at Sydney’s Newington Armoury event centre, hosted by LACC. I finally got round to paying up my road racing licence, and went along for a first foray into crit racing. I really liked what I saw. Continue Reading →

Posted in: Meta, Racing

WSMTB Summer Series Round 2

20 January, 2014 3:45 pm ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

Photo credit: Bikeminded

What was effectively round one, since the original round one was cancelled, went off this weekend at Yellomundee Regional Park in the foothills of the Blue Mountains. A strong turnout, very dry conditions and monstrously loud cicadas were the order of the day

It was the first race outing for me on my Bianchi Methanol hardtail. I raced 2013 on my BMC Speedfox SF29 full-suspension rig, and I was itching to give the new hardtail a good hit out, even though Yellomundee is one of my least favourite circuits, mostly due to a broken rib I picked up there late in 2012. It’s a fairly short track, technical in nature with a nasty rock garden climb in the first half of the lap, often dry and dusty and with a couple of fast rocky descents. Suspension would be nice for those, but overall a lighter, more chuckable bike would be the better choice. Continue Reading →

Posted in: Meta, MTB, Racing

Happy 100th Birthday Rocky Trail Entertainment!!

20 December, 2013 1:56 pm ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

From the recent JetBlack 24 hour, Rocky Trail’s 100th event. Here’s to at least 100 more!

Posted in: Media, MTB, Racing ⋅ Tagged: , ,

Heffron Crits washed out

15 December, 2013 7:41 am ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

Today I’d hoped to bring a report from the SUVelo Open crits at Heffron Park, however due to weather conditions more favourable to ducks, that’s not happening. So instead here’s a picture of a cat chilling on his bike

Found at http://www.kim-watkins.com/blog/?p=1179

 

You’re welcome.

(I did a quick fifty or so instead)

Posted in: Racing

British Cycling: Road To Glory

11 December, 2013 2:44 pm ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

I like a good cycling documentary, me. Here’s one about Sky and British Cycling’s epic 2012 – Part one, and below the fold, parts two to five. Forty-five minutes each. Settle in.

Continue Reading →

Posted in: Media, Pro Tour, Racing, Training ⋅ Tagged: , , , ,

Cycling Goals for 2014

4 December, 2013 2:06 pm ⋅ 1 Comment ⋅
The author at Capital Punishment 2013

The author at Capital Punishment 2013

I’ve got a few specific riding goals, and several less specific goals, for 2014. Some are on the bike, a couple are off the bike, but they should all be attainable in some way. I thought it might be nice to get them down ‘on paper’ as December kicks in and the whole lot gets lost in the party season. There are the goals, and then under the goals there are some sub-targets which should help meet the main goal. I’ve decided to set a few of them down below the fold  Continue Reading →

Posted in: Meta, Racing, Training

The Maverick Series is here

26 November, 2013 11:58 am ⋅ 1 Comment ⋅
The author at Capital Punishment 2013

The author at Capital Punishment 2013

Australia now has an embarrassment of riches in terms of XCM racing, and yesterday that lineup was further strengthened by the announcement of the Maverick XCM Series.

The name is something of a thumbed nose towards the Real Insurance XCM Series, which formerly included two of these races but was dropped for 2013 and revamped for 2014 without its former flagship events, but with the backing of Cycling Australia, who have ambitions to integrate it into the national XCO and DH series, thus making it a far more national-scale event. From this it will gain a far wider reach but possibly alienate some of the XCM-faithful who could formerly ride each and every Real Insurance XCM event, but will now be hit with huge logistical hurdles if they want to do the same in 2014.

Obviously more than a few people were annoyed by the whole thing. Hence, I assume, the name of the new series. Continue Reading →

Posted in: MTB, Racing

Flung

11 November, 2013 1:30 pm ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

Yep, the 2013 Camelbak Highland Fling went off yesterday, but for me the day was not without a hitch or two.

Last year, I signed up late for the Fling after posting a competitive time at the 2012 Kanangra Classic. I figured another 100+km XCM a week or two later would be awesome, so I headed off to Bundanoon at an unholy time of the morning, only to end up parked at the side of the Hume Highway with a flat tyre and no spare. I’d used my spare the week before and not got round to replacing it, so 2012 was a no-show. I went home and sulked.

So this year, inevitably, I had unfinished business with the Highland Fling Continue Reading →

Posted in: Meta, MTB, Racing ⋅ Tagged: , , , ,

I’m hoping Yellomundee survives the bushfires OK

23 October, 2013 3:35 pm ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

Yellomundee, in the foothills of the Blue Mountains, is my MTB club’s track. It’s currently closed due to the fires raging in the Springwood area, partly because of fire danger and partly because the heavy helicopter traffic in the area is likely to cause falling branches and downwash. I’ve got my fingers crossed that it’ll survive the fires without too much damage, because a little later in the summer, I’m hoping to race in this

I don’t rate my chances of victory too highly – Yellomundee might be my club’s track but I don’t ride there all that much – but I think the series will be a great set of races. There’s a lower profile than the Chocolate Foot and Rocky Trail events I’ve been racing so far this year, so there should be an even more casual feel – though I don’t doubt there’ll be some guns smashing out hot laps too.

Hope to see you there…

Posted in: MTB, Racing, Trails