Day 3 MTB

So day 3 starts with the Ay Up dawn raid at 5:15am, the loop was about 14km long around a dam, the loop had some big ruts and afew hills to keep you honest, no real single track and couple of sandy corners.

So the plan, because these little pegs of mine are not made for sprinting I thought the best plan of attack was to hang in the top 5 for the first lap then hopefully wind up and take a podium position, being a Ay Up rider this would have been great. The coffee van at the start of the race was under the pump it was freezing. I got into a good position for the start and after a couple of minutes it was on. I found myself in the top ten to the first corner, afew early attacks by people didn't faze me to much, just kept the legs turning and stick to my plan.

lap 1 complete sitting in 5th sweet, I knew the guys in front weren't to far away so on the first little climb I upped the pace and got away from the guys I was with and kept the pressure on. All was going great until a slip in concentration or plain bad luck washed the front wheel out from under me. I had put my hand out to break my fall but managed to land over a rutted section and instead of my hand breaking my fall it was my ribs that took the blow. For what seemed like ages but was probably only a minute I had winded myself and as you could imagine my ribs and hip was killing me. Lloyd road past just as I got my breath back and asked if I was OK, I responded yes let them ride past and then HTFU got back on the bike and pushed as hard as I could to finish. Along the way I noticed my back break felt really weird. I got over the line in 10th. Pretty stoked all thing considering.

I thought I had buckled the back wheel but upon closer inspection, I had actually moved the whole rear brake caliper hard up against the disk when I crashed. I must have hit the ground hard. Now post race I had damage to my ribs and trying to get to a doctor to confirm it is a joke, from what people are telling me they are fractured.

After breaky it was time to do the 40km cruise stage. The cruise stages are compulsory stages that must be completed by every rider, if you pull out of any stage or don't make it by the cut off time then you DNF, so for me there was nothing left to do but get on with the job. Pretty uneventful really road 40km across paddock, road and fire road all the way to Cooma. Bring on with day 4.

One of the highlights of the morning stage was seeing the amount of people that had never tried night riding before, come and borrow some lights off Ay Up and give it ago. By the time they came over the line they were completely converted into night riding.

Pretty satisfying really.

Day 2

I was rather concerned about day 2 starting at the top of Perisher because we woke up to the wind punishing our accommodation at 3am. Anyway had breaky and headed up the ski tube once at the top we were greeted with 5 degree temp and a wind chill factor of cold. Andy said it would be cold for a bit then warm up after we got down the mountain but, on the start line with rain threatening this QLD mtb rider donned the jacket.

Well the mountain traverse stage from Perisher to Buckenderra lived up to it's name. By then end we completed a bit under 90km with about 1800m of vertical ascent. For all you Qld folk that like doing Mt Nebo it was Nebo twice at race pace. I really don't know how to describe it, you start in alpine forest and end up down on farmland. From the get go there were about ten guys that were out to make a statement, after 5km I was dropped by the lead bunch, I didn't let this bother me knowing that there was going to be alot of climbing ahead of us. The first feed station was about 20km into the stage and Ben from Osprey told me the guys were about 5min ahead of me. By the time I got to the bottom of the gully the bunch was insight and then the climbing begun. Over the climbing part of the course I manged to get past afew guys, knowing that towards the end of the course was going to be fire roads and wide open space I wanted to put some time into the guys rolling on 29 ers. I got to ride with Lloyd and Scott from GSC for a while and after a bit I got myself in a really good rhythm and rode out by myself once again. The picture above shows one of the sheep stations we rode through for the last feed station. No we didn't eat the dogs.

For the last 20km I managed to hold my position and drag abit of time back that I had lost from stage one. Once I rolled over the line Darryl from shotz was kept busy trying to keep everyone hydrated and from what I saw all the competitors were thankful. It wasn't until this time I actually realize how hot it was either, pretty interesting starting in almost frozen conditions to finish in the baking hot sun.

I manged 6th over the line for the Osprey mountain traverse stage.

Day 3 soon

Mountains to Beach 2011Day 1

I had never done a stage race before and Mountain to Beanch 2011 was going to be my first, the event is organized by Wildhorizons the same group of poeple that bring you the Highland fling and the 3 Ring circus.

Before I get started a big shout out to Ben from Osprey for sorting me with an entry for this race. Big thanks mate

I met up with Andy machine Fellows at Canberra airport on Saturday before the race, on my arrival to Canberra I realized that I had left my riding shoes at home. Time for an upgrade anyway. Got out to Thredbo assembled my new Silverback HT [doing a review soon] and we hit the trails, so much fun up there but I knew that come race day I would have to be on it and hopefully get a good position to set me up for the rest of the week.

So race day: Stage 1:

I had everything ready to go the night before I got up and had breakfast and for me, if I could get on the chair lift without dropping my bike or making an arse out of myself I was happy. I had made it to the top of thredobo in one piece. First sucess of the day. We were sent down the hill in a time trial set up instead of a mass start. Obvious reasonsing.


Andy took off a couple of position ahead of me, then before I knew it, it was on. Surprisingly riding my hardtail down the side of Tredbo was pretty good my Canis tyres stuck like glue and I was getting past some guys on soft tails. All was great until I came through a shaded area didn't see a rock and smashed my pedal in. So for the next 9km or so I couldn't get my right leg into the pedal. This was the first problem. All good if keep going I shouldn't loose to much time.

We had been told in the brief before that we would be going on the 4X track. Remembered that as I went sailing past the end of the 4x track, didn't see the arrow onto the track. So I slammed the brakes on went back up the hill and tried not to muck anything else up. By the end of the stage 12km I smashed a pedal, went the wrong way and managed 3 mechanical. WOW nothing like pressure.

I recon I probably lost close to ten minutes over the stage. I rolled 22 over the line. Not my best start. The first stage was great and I really did enjoy the course.

Stage: 2 was a cruise stage from Thredbo village to Lake Crackenback resort about 20km. Once a there we check our bags in set up Denis the Ay Up truck and basically chilled out. I wish, in my head all I could think about is how much time I had lost from stuffing up the first stage.

Stage: 3 was going to be 2 x 15km loops around the resort utilising single track and new multi use track around the resort, some of the single track went right alongside the Thredbo river and you had the occasional wombat whole to negotiate. I was abit nervous on the start line knowing that short track racing is not my thing. Finally the gun went off and I took off up the hill, I settled in the first bit of single track in about 5th or 6th once I got half way around the first lap I tried to make a small break and I didn't pay off. The guys from Gordon St. cycles and Torque Anytime fitness got away from me and my legs did not want to play. After the 2 laps were done my heart felt like it was about to jump out of my chest and I crossed the line in 7th. This pushed me into about 14th overall.

With day 1 over and smiles all round it was time for a beverage and some dinner. Day 2 involved a trip up the ski tube to Perisher to start the Osprey mountain traverse. A 90km stage.

Stay tuned for day 2

Mountains to Beach

Stay tuned for a full Mountains to Beach report as well as reviews on Osprey bags and silverback bikes

2011

This year is bringing some changes for me and my racing. As you know the Ay Up racing team is formed and we have some great sponsors that are going to support us through the 2011 season, Andy Machine Fellows is team manager so as you can imagine he has us lined up for some fun.

With the team not looking for sponsorship with Tomac this year meant, LunarC 8hr was the last ride for my Tomac carbide. I just want to say thanks to Rodney and Bec for all your support throughout the 2010 seanson.


Stay tuned all will be revealed in good time.

LunarC 8hr

Location: Scout Camp

Start Time: 12 midnight

Expectation: with this race being the first of the year I was pretty confident that there would be some stiff competition. With the like of Boothy, Crawford, Tim, Matt and the ever present dark horse my aim was for a top 5 result over all.

It was good to see the guys and lady [ kitten] from AA out and ready to punish themselves for 8hrs, Pearso, Richard, Smac, Al and Mike have all been training hard leading into this event and apart from trying to beat each other they all had there own goals they want to acheive. Firstly I want to that Kiri, John and Kel for all there help in keeping my nutrition up to me.

Well as usual you try to do the right thing and have a sleep leading into the race, that never ever happens for me so once 11pm rocked around I was on the bike and out for a warm up. I had already riding the track earlier in the day so I knew a good start would be key for setting me up for a good result.

I foud myself on the front of the start line [not usually where I like to be sitting but what the hell] Boothy was on the left of me, I knew from past racers that he would be off like a shot so my plan was as always ride my own race and see how we end up. The gun went off and as expected Boothy had put the hammer down, I found myself in the top 10 into the single track which right where I was hoping to be.

The first 2hrs were really well and the 2-4hr mark was terrible I was all over the show messing up corners it was pretty gross. But looking back at my lap times they didn't vary too much.

The rest of the race went well I started to come good after the 4hr mark. For the entire race I managed to average 30 min laps with my quickest 26min and slowest 33min.

All up after 16 laps the course had just on or over 2700m of vetrticle ascent. I had never riden this course before but it was heaps better to ride then slickers, more tech and hills.

With Alister Cook giving me a good run on his SS, I made break for it with 4 laps to go and kept the pressure on I managed to finish 2nd outright to Tim.

All up I am stoked with my race, nutrition was great Infinite was key with a bottle of coke for good measure. I also ran my compressports calf garment and it worked a treat absolutely no pain, cramps nor did my calves feel fatigued, I am sure these things work.

Tubeless Canis tyre were the go for the course, no flats and heaps of grip what more do you want.

Last and definately the best on the market, Ay Up lights kept me riding in daylight. Check out the website there are some pretty cool options for you at Ay Up now.

Until the next race

Later Bozza