Mountainbiking finally resumes in 2014

Last April, I rode around Lake Hawea on my dualie 29er.
Then it had one more ride before Alex (our summer intern from FOX) went home in May.
Then it got stripped back to a skeleton and had the suspension bearings replaced.
9 months later I had finished and came upon the next hurdle of which bike to raid back for parts....
Carbon hardtail or Bike Packing bike ?
- Might still fit in one more camping adventure if the weather plays nicely.
- Carbon hardtail has an internal brake hose - be good to leave it in place.
Pondering that issue I then got a call from a friend who was stuck for time to have his shock serviced before taking off on the Godzone adventure race.
So I did the good thing and lent him my shock.
Which prompted Marty to clean his frame properly and found it had cracks.
Which cracked him.
Then his replacement frame arrived and it was too small, which cracked him further.
- I hope it works out for him.

Maybe my frame will be reunited with it's shock by end of the week and I can find another Juicy 3/5 rear brake ??

I'm planning on riding around Lake Hawea again, so best I get it rolling shortly.

www.rabbitridge.co.nz has been running a 5 race XC series this summer - so far I've number 2 & 4
The clusterfuck I mentioned in my previous post joined me for both.
A loose bottom bracket prior to the start had me using a cone spanner to tighten the end cap on the cranks.

The course was 4 laps, about 30 mins each.

When Jim Hawkridge says he might need another couple of gels on the start line you know it's going to be a toughie.
And it didn't disappoint - sweet place to race.

In between races I stripped down the bottom bracket but didn't test ride it.

Muppet.
So I had to use the cone spanner again, seating the seals properly this time.

Sign on guy: Steve, said put your number on the front of your riding top - I might have said I wasn't running a marathon and would put it on my handlebars: thanks.
Funny thing, got a flat tire on the start line and was then lent a bike.
Lost a few minutes swapping that pesky number over.
Ha ha.

A different course this time - fireroad climb, sweet single track with swoopy downhill berms for the first part.
Got passed by a girl on a 26"dualie on the uphills then realised I was kinda thirsty - my drink bottle back at the start on my bike.
Bugger, better peg it back a notch lest I expire.
A bottle of bright blue Powerade materialised track side.

I grabbed the front brake so hard I nearly flew over the bars !
Now back on track and sucking someone else's bottle of blue germs, but really did I care ?

Fiona was back in front and the course was getting shorter.
Smoked her by the bottom of the dual slalom and then past dayglo shoes guy in the last corner.
A hollow victory if ever there was one, but I now lead the points table for Vet Mens Long Course.
One race left and I could win a drink bottle or a tube.
Here's hoping.

2014 Cycling Season Resumes

January 12.
 Around Lake Dunstan, 90km mass start.
Wet. Really wet. Again.
Awesome ride - hung onto main peloton in howling tail wind for about 20km. Rode with another guy from Invercargill for 30km.
Got picked up by another bunch at Luggate for the final 40.
Everyone just put their heads down and got on with it - and it was crap.
Well if you were a fish it was great, riding a road bike in a 20 strong bunch: not much.
Got rolled on the line for a second place in the gallop and finally broke the spot prize drought.
Mr Sharman and Denise stayed with us for the weekend and did the ride too.
Much pre race nerves over the correct level of clothing etc etc, but Marc carved a way thru the chaos like an icebreaker with Little Toot following faithfully behind.
Then she drove home 'cause Marc was fucked.

Feb 16
Alexandra to St Bathans, 75km handicap
This is the start of a clusterfuck of recent racing nightmares.
Drove into Alex to realise the start is on the back road, not the main road, so a quick phone/maps look up and arrive with time to spare.
Front tire is half flat from when I pumped it up earlier that morning - threw a tube in while race briefing is happening. Get covered in tubeless tire sealant.
Leave repair bag/tube etc in car. Hope for no more self deflating moments.
- Ces (my new nemesis) did puncture 5 km in, leaving 4 of us to head off the faster bunch behind - they caught us after 14km, then scratch caught us just over halfway.
So that was it then; the laughing bunch for 30 km, which then decided we should keep smashing it.
Not a great start back on the horse.
Luckily got a lift back to the start with one of the lads, so at least I didn't have to keep my bottom lip off the handlebars all the way home.

Feb 23
Roxburgh, Moa Flat, Raes Junction & Return, 75 km handicap
Driving down with Russell and he says 
"don't rush the hill, it's like a half hour climb"
Bullshit.
It actually took me 44 minutes : Tom Vessy = 28 mins.
Got dropped, got back on, got dropped, got back on.
Swooping downhill and cross wind; hung in there. 
Raes Junction and I was on my own.
Got on a couple of bunches, but really I was dreaming.
60 km mark (Millers Flat) and I was getting hungry - it was lunchtime after all.
Passing through Ettrick and the 60 year old powerhouse that is John Alabaster said jump on behind Ces.
Fuck me, that guy is strong - pulling 28km into a headwind that had me at 18-20.
Got spat and grovelled home.
Coffee order got screwed up at cafe for prize giving - of which there was none for me.
Very humbling experience; 10 km hill climb and gain 400 vertical metres. Ouch.

March 2nd
Chatto Creek, Oterehua Loop, 100km handicap
2 climbs within first 20 km, then rolling, so stay together - that was the plan on the start line.
Reality - our bunch of 5 got splintered by the schoolgirl climbing machine (Mikayla Harvey - new resident of Albert Town) and then we didn't regroup for another 10 km. Good one.
Picked up Darryl along the valley so we hustled along to Oterehua when everyone was a bit flat.
Turn to head home and it's howling head / cross winds and road works.
Bunch broke up again, Mikayla dropped us then bridged to next bunch.
Another 10km and got passed by Russell's bunch and that was it.
Laughing bunch with 40 to go.
Kept the foot on the gas, only got caught by Gav Mason & Jim Hawkridge ( fastest time of the day right there) in the last 5 km.
Standing round saying how hard that was and the young girl who went off first with one other rider, puts on her running shoes and goes off for a jog.
Guess we not that hard after all.

MTB notes to follow in next installment.
Many things also not going to plan.
Stay tuned.

Christchurch CX Race at Steamscene July 14 2013

Took Friday off work to drive up to CHCH.
1hour 10 to Omarama, looking forward to coffee at the Mobil station; the disappointment lasted all the way to Twizel as it was thermo nuclear.
Lunch at Farm Barn cafe near Fairlie = yum everytime.
Finally found the elusive Thompsons track which basically follows the old train line from Geraldine to Rakaia.
Then the new motorway leads round to Woolston way nicely without any of that snarl up through Hornby etc.








My host for the weekend; Marc Sharman said meet me at the Brewery
Pizza, beer and a friend of his; Ali who physco analysed me all night.
I was easy - she's a child physcologist.

Saturday we managed to achieve very little - at the market, a visit to Eastgate Mall which had Mr Sharman climbing the walls to escape the Zombie Apocolypse, coffee here and there and we didn't even get into the CBD.
Oh, I forgot Ewen chased and faced the headtube on my dualie 29er while Marc ogled the Cup Cake girls.

No pub before race and due to a lack of geographical awareness no coffee enroute to the race either.
Lucky we smashed one down in St Martins early in the morning.







Scott, Jeremy and the gang ( I guess we could mention Timo here and his nodding Mercedes dog) put on another sensational course with a spiral of doom, hail and rain at the start a new section out the back with actual sand, noted that it wasn't liquifaction !

 

Anyone in fancy dress or a skinsuit got a headstart on the Le Mons running start through the spiral of doom. Have to say that running in cycling shoes in ever decreasing circles is pretty dicey.

Somebody won, probably Logan or Dayle.
Results and more pictures here
I finished in front of the first Lady home and Marc and Peter Page so that's my bragging done.
Um, Darron Burns pasted me in pure straight line speed in his first CX race but did have to crash a few times in the corners. Top effort.

Then we went to the pub for Collector Card number 2 release party.
Special thanks to Ewen for bringing his stunt double along without a translator.
A good turn out, with Shark Marmon co-ordinating his floozies nicely throughout the night so there was never any down time.
For a Sunday night we once again behaved like small children who like drinking. Awesome.

Monday was low key, pack up have coffee with Marc & Scott then back track home with a stop at the museum in Fairlie for chow which was excellent and highly recommended.

Cycleworld Dunedin CX Race 4 - Kaikorai Valley

OMG, the courses just get better and better.
This one through a garden centre and surrounds which used to be a firewood and car wreckers yard.
I thought it much like Kosovo mid conflict.

Puddles over your shoes and you have no idea what's lurking beneath.

A fast pace on a long course meant this week I pretty much sucked.
Mind you I didn't crash or puncture.

Craig Bates came back with a vengeance after I pasted him the week before at Forester Park.
Kashi Leuchs pasted most everyone and finished second behind Tristan.
Speaking of Kashi - I've never raced with him previously - no surprises there, but man can he ride - he flows like water. Very Impressive.
Timo & Dayle and Dayle's hot Mrs made the trip from Christchurch and weren't disappointed.
Neither was I.

This race also marked the unveiling of the Richard Woodward Collector card series.

Thanks to Matt & Trudi for the accomodation and my family for braving the cold weather on the day.

Brendan Ward Photgraphy was there again which contributed the next card in the series, but more on that later.


Results and more race details here

Cycleworld Dunedin CX Series Race 3

Like one glass of red is never enough, I was back for more.
Keighley had worked Saturday, I was 50/50 on making the 600 km round trip for another hour of mud and splash.
The weather was also in question after Wellington's south coast had been slammed by weather not seen since the Wahini disaster.
Wanaka and Central Otago had snow too.

Within 15 mins of Keighley arriving home, I was back out the door wishing the Tardis had been first cab off the rank on Jumpstarter....
So I drove the 3 hours with snow chains at the ready, but alas they stayed inside the truck.

Matt & Trudy were once again gracious hosts with excellent coffee, muesli, toast, cheese toasty sandwiches and muesli bars all on tap before the leisurely start of 2.30pm.

A different location this week around the Forester Park - just up the valley from the steepest street in the Wooooooooooooooooooorld.


Great course: tar seal, muddy walking track, bark garden, uphill walk/carry, culverts to cross, plywood covering the same culvert down the hill (slidey slidey), singletrack in the Spooky Forest, tight turns and the BMX track......

Not surprisingly Scott Lyttle again lapped me - but only once this time.
Maybe he was toying with me like a cat does a mouse, maybe I had him strung out and he was on the ropes ?
Guess we'll find out in Race 3.

Mechanicals played havoc with a couple of locals before the start with punctures, mud ate most everyone's traditional brake pads away during the race.

My prediction is that next year disc brakes will be the norm, not the exception.

Wellington & Christchurch hosted their first races the same day and had good turnouts - no mention of Fight Club though.

Round 3 is ooking good with the import controls being relaxed to allow a couple of Cantabs in da house.

Cycleworld Dunedin CX Series Race 2

The local Cyclocross season was already one race ahead of me and my enthusiasm was low.

Enter Big Gav, also from Wanaka, who said he would collect me on Saturday and “be ready”

Luckily he hadn’t prepared a playlist in the style of “As Good As It Gets” and we arrived in Dunners 3 hours later.

I had quietly observed him devour a packet of Jet Planes single handedly and wondered what else he was on?
So much potential for crass blokey humour as this point.

I stayed in Mosgiel. The rain was horizontal.

Gav was in the North end of Dunedin where the street lights were still on mid morning.

Perfect biking weather.

Tomahawk is on the East Coast and comparatively sheltered.

Cycleworld had set up a brilliant course around the sports grounds with a road section to join it back together – after we’d splashed through the estuary.

31 riders started, 30 finished. One hit the road and then tried to hit the rider that he hit.

Around 50 mins later Scott Lyttle passed me for the second time, timing couldn’t have been better as that meant just one more lap.

I was pretty cooked so that was a blessing – except the timing lady insisted it wasn’t the bell lap….my new friend Nick and I discussed the ramifications of this and trundled around for one more and maybe one more.

Gav and Tristan Lawrence passed us just short of the finish line for 2^nd & 3^rd.

Nick and I thought we were owed an extra lap so we used that as a warm down and swapped stories; he’d watched the first race of the series the week before and stepped up this week for a ride.

Post race smack talk had rumours circulating of an altercation during the race.

 It turned out it was just like Days of Thunder : “rubbings racing boy” except it had escalated to Fight Club.

Good times.

Our trip home was looking low key, just 3 hours, until we hit Clyde. Rather big rocks had hit the road and closed it prior to our arrival and wasn’t reopening till the next morning.

Two options, no three presented themselves.

1)      Find beer and consider next move.

2)      Ring Bluebird Malcolm and invite ourselves round for the night.

“Gidday it’s Malcolm here, super busy right now, please leave a message”

3)      Go cross country up and over the hill to Bannockburn was what we tried. Last time up that hill was for downhill shuttles in a big 4WD – we were in a Subaru Outback with a river running down the track towards us.

Up the top things got progressively worse; the puddles bigger and deeper. We turned back when the water was over Gav’s gummies.

Another call and a few beers later had us, well me, snoring my way thru a forest all night long.

Driving home next day you couldn’t see any sign of the rock fall.

Oh well, no matter. Happy Birthday Gavin.

16 June 2013

Tarras - Roubix 2nd June 2013

Paris - Roubaix; a race steeped in history.
Tarras - Roubaix; a ride steeped in filth and a little cow shit.

So a wet and windy day greeted the Gentlemen this morning at the Tarras Coffee Shop. We supped coffee while waiting for one late entrant to arrive.













Scotty Rainsford - local Outside Sports bike shop guy and carbon cop out.

Myself - informal Club Captain for the day.
Matt Corbett - a visitor from Dunedin with most unsuitable bike of the day rolling tubular tires and no spare, until I lent him a couple.

David Drake - obviously riding with me last weekend didn't scare him off for today.




















Marty Rowan - the smiling assassin. Turned up with a Titanium bike and 23mm tires and rode strong all day. 


Gavin Mason - Didn't need knee warmers. Everyone else did. Certainly had a spring in his step.
Sarah Goodwin - another visitor from Dunedin, actually a 28 year old dentist with excellent oral habits; no doubt.
Seat height difference - you do the math...............

Dan Van Asch - the elder statesman and our late arrival sporting a fancy new bike to ease his old bones.



 A 10am departure led us north towards the Lindis Pass, about 10km on the road. 

A real mixed bag of cross winds through the trees, getting blown up Cluden Hill and hanging on for dear life on the way down: I mean really hanging on not knowing which way the wind would try and whip your bars.
Down on the flat Scotty had obviously forgotten the gentle part of the ride and bought his heart rate up to cruising speed, of course Marty and David couldn't leave him alone.
I felt like the little that engine that couldn't.
A couple of times I felt helpless in a 39 x 24 headwind haze.

A quick regroup and photo, then off up the gravel hill to home.

Yes, I was last up the hill -  I was in no hurry.
Actually I was trying as hard as I could and still went backwards compared to the others.
That's ok, I didn't have to wait at the top in the rain.

 The descent was long and fast - remember this is gravel and had turned into an impromptu Enduro, as is the go these days.
Taking a few right handers mighty fast the wind catches you like bringing a boat into the wind and slows things down sufficiently.
Some of that poo on the road might not have come from cows ya know ?
Some tailwind action brings the speed right round till you're all out of gears - holy shit, I'm spinning out the dog - yee ha.
16km of gravel bought us back around to the cars and another coffee.
The ladies thought we were nuts before we went riding and cussed us in the kitchen for dripping all over the floors afterwards.

Scotty is hatching his own version in a few weeks, but it shouldn't clash with any CX action.

A good couple of hours in atrocious weather.