Round 2 Anaconda Enduro Series

Looking forward to round 2 this weekend, a 6hr with an hour & a bit each way on the road bike thrown in for good measure, should make for a solid hit out whilst keeping the heart rate fairly low as I'm still working on building that solid endurance platform before we start ramping up the intensity again.

One thing is for certain, busy times ahead, just as this week has been since the 12hr with Sun. & Mon. 1hr recovery rides, then 5hrs on Tues after work & 3hrs last night & tonight.............. so stay tuned.

Some great news for BMC fans, roomer has it that Jason English (Aus 24hr Solo Champ) is back on the bike, recovering well from his broken back & making plans for Canada, I'll be sure to keep you posted as news comes to hand.

Live to ride....Ride to live,

Troy

Bendigo 12hrs of Hard Knocks Race Report

Breaking news, the new BMC Full Carbon 4Stroke 01 has landed, this bike is pure Porn, drop by Kaos Custom Bikes to check it out!

If for no other reason than just to see the latest in Cycling technology, to have a bike that rides as plush, peddles as efficiently & weighs a mere 9.74kg is INSANE!!!!

From the big wheel of the big smoke,

To Bendigo,

For the 12hrs of Hard Knocks, whilst the numbers were down due to a very heavy schedule of Endurance Mtb events on the calender and a little early in the season for most, the quality of riders were certainly not lacking,
with the likes of Robbie Hucker seen blasting around doing some hot laps sharpening things up before he takes the world by storm, when he heads to Europe next week for the Junior XC worlds, with out a doubt one of Aus. hot talents.

Lets not forget the World 24hr contingent front & centre chasing a solid endurance ride,
Just to name a few, John Claxton (Eventual winner in superb form, doing it easy), Bellie (Picking up 2nd, a mere mortal of the Sport of Endurance Mountain Biking, not choosing to go to the worlds this year due to family commitments.), Craig Peacock (He's only a dual World 24hr Champion, "Soft"), Tim Ferris (3rd at the Worlds last year in his age cat.)

Oh & Mwa of course, very happy with way I rode, kept my heart rate in the required Zone all day, with my average being bang on what I was chasing, with a few little micro sleeps on the back fire road, on the bike mind you, due to a blatant lack of sleep from a very heavy work load last week.

Finding my second wind just on dark & finishing strong into 3rd Place & feeling good!!!!

Due to the lack of numbers, the race Photographers deciding to have a week off, so I figured it to be the opportune time to show off my trusty steeds, of the BMC (Fourstroke 100mm travel) & (Trailfox 125mm) Making my job easy & so damn enjoyable.

A bit of the Captain Kaos Bling in the drive train.


Now for my next trick, Did I mention Sticks, picked up one here whilst climbing, one peddle stroke & snap, cost me about 15mins by the time I ran back to grab my spare bike ready to rock,

A big thanks to the boys @ Felt for getting her running again all by the time I came around for my next lap......CHEERS

Did I mention work load, yes we build things as well, here's Ash putting in the hard yards of demolition before we can make it look pretty again.


I still have some good stuff for sale in my Garage, feel free to pop in & have a look.

Live to ride....Ride to live....Troy

Bendigo 12hrs of Hard Knocks

Got to be happy that!
On the podium with 2 Legends of the Sport, still can't miss a trick or should I say a stick. Will elaborate further soon, with a full report.

A Big Birthday shout out to Jac, my Queen of the Pits, who gave up her Birthday drinks with friends, in order to dial in Pit procedures at the 12hr in preparation for the Worlds in just 8 weeks time.
Thanks heaps Jac.



Live to ride.........Ride to live,

Troy

Training update

With the weather living up to the forecast & some, I suited up in hope, then coming to my senses after checking the BOM again, the mountain would have to wait.

Deciding this was a better option all round, roll the legs over on the wind trainer in the balmy conditions of my lounge room.

The ultimate training machine.

With the weather breaking mid morning on Sunday & a few less leaves in the trees, due to hideously cold, wet & windy conditions of yesterday.


As I headed for the Dandies, looked like the rain was still coming down on the main range, so opted for the reverse direction via the rolling hills of Emerald.

Perfect, a little hard to pick, however hiding behind those clearing clouds is the Dandies & some good hurting to be had.

It was time to hit up the hills, bog down the cadence, keep a close eye on the heart rate & clock up some vertical metres & that was certainly mission accomplished with 6hrs in the saddle, 2550m vert. & 160km in the bank, with the late start & short days getting me home after dark.

Pretty sure you can see the grimace on my race above due to some lower back pain, with a couple of contributing factors of pushing big gears in the mountains & the crash at the First round of the Anaconda Enduro Series playing a card I'm sure.

I owe this smile on my face below, to my behind the scenes crew, Pulse for Health & Rehabilitation, the name pretty much says it all, if you are after good loosen up rub, any health issues you need help with to stay on top, injuries to come back from, the highly trained crew at PULSE will be sure to have you walking out the door feeling 100% better than walking in.



The next contributor to the smile on my dial whilst out for a squirt with a few of the keener Kaos crew down to Frankston last night is without a doubt, First Place Osteopathy, if you have any back, neck, joint aliments or just feel a little out of alignment, these guys will fix you up quick smart, don't be put off by his minimal website, these guys are that good they don't need the bells & whistles of a flashy website as the service is second to none.



Looking forward to the Hard Knocks 12hr this weekend, if you haven't entered better be quick.

Thanks for dropping by.

Live to Ride, Ride to Live..........Troy

The Weekend that was

With an absolute hideous day weather wise on Sat & today breaking mid morning, all was definitely not lost, my first weekend off from racing in 5 weeks, was a refreshing change to be able to concentrate on some specifics, that I feel could use some improvement to help me become a better bike rider.

I'll get the full report to you on went down soon, I also had some good news come to light over the weekend regarding Canada, so be sure to check back to find out.

Live to ride, Ride to live......Troy

Seize the Opportunity

This morning, sitting right where I am now, finishing off some work from the night before, about to head down to site, I thought maybe I should check the weather for the weekend, as a solid weekend in the hills was the plan, for the start of a strength faze in the 10 week lead up to worlds.
Rain & a top of 10 degrees for Sat & that's in Melbourne, you can minus another 5 up there.

With the weather like summer out there, the signs of winter in the trees and a forecast like that, there was only one thing to do, shoot an email to the Client & on the bike bee lined for the Dandies.




For those of you who have done a bit of riding in the Dandies would recognize this service station, yep a few runs up the elbow for some SE efforts & a few sneaky steeper pinches over the back, just for a bit of fun was the order for the day & bolt home along high street in the dog before the traffic heats up to much.



Thanks to Ash my Apprentice for being at tafe, one less thing to worry about.

Live to ride.....Ride to live,

Troy

Round 1 Anaconda Enduro Series Cont.../Results

Still managed a top 10 result, final results are now up at FGP, Hindsight being the b...ch she is & without being to analytical, going by my lap times, providing I got a decent start looks like I could have been ducking it out for a podium.

Some how it all seems oh so irrelevant, feeling quite somber to be honest, knowing I've put Bellie in the hurt box, (not in the fashion we like to brag about) especially now with the knowledge he may have a broken scaphoid :(
I sincerely wish him a speedy recovery.

To finish on a brighter note, didn't manage to win one of these babies back this time, there is always Round 2 (without the gloves on), Superbly designed & hand crafted by none other, yep you guessed it, we at Stonnington Renovations.


Don't forget to drop by my warehouse before it all goes on ebay this weekend.

Live to ride, ride to live......Troy

Round 1 Anaconda Enduro Series Cont.......

From the words of yesterday, a picture helps tell a thousand.

Shocking start, check top right, on the gas trying to make amends, Bellie in white behind the boy in pink.


You've seen the damage to my body, now correct me if I'm wrong these parts work a tad more efficiently if they are flat & straight.


Putting the hammer down, passing & giving chace on board Andy O's Super Bling Trailfox 01.


Still passing slower riders, no offense Vinka, Climbing in the dog, putting the hurt on.


Finally with a bit of clear track, able to loosen up & find some flow. Thanks to Stephen & Tim Rowe for these great pics.

In Summery, I'm a firm believer of everything happens for a reason & it seems I tend to learn things better & faster the hard way, therefore I have definitely learned a h..l of a lot in the past 6months of racing, if anything could go wrong, it has! better to get all the bad stuff out of the way now, than it being all peaches & cream now & turning bad in Canada come July 26.

Let's face it doing it hard is what I need to do best, so if the hits want to keep coming, bring it on as I'm rolling with the Punches.

Live to ride, ride to live.........Troy

Round 1 Anaconda Enduro Series (Former CTS)

First up I need to apologize to Andy Bell & give a huge thanks to Andy from KaosCustomBikes,
read on to find out why.

Up early, on the road bike I headed out to Lysterfield for the above mentioned race, deciding I would ride out & back, an hour & a bit each way, with a 5hr race thrown in, giving me about 8hrs in the saddle, with the worlds only 9 weeks away, the BMC & Dirtworks 100s out of the way, upping the volume of training is in order.

Another one bites the dust & so did we, we being Andy Bell & I on the gravel fire road just one minute into the Race, the start for me went from bad to worse. From my cleat slipping out of my peddle on very first peddle stroke at the gun, putting me right into the middle of the pack of a couple hundred riders, then put the hammer down to get within 20 from the front before entering the first bit of single track, I remember thinking to myself, all is not lost, you can still do alright from here.

Then BOOM!! we were on the deck, as I was passing Andy I thought I would just give him a little pat on the back to say G'day & wish him good luck for the day, not quite sure how??? we locked handle bars & went down like a sack of potatoes, leaving us both with plenty of bark off, my front wheel skewer snapping & front disc rotor bending about 90 degrees, so NOT cool, I thought may day was done, running back over to Koas headquarters with my wreckage, luckily & very thankfully Andy assessed the damage & unselfishly letting ride his bike, with a quick seat/post change & I was back in the game chasing about a 5 minute deficit.

Getting just 2km down the track coming across a lady lying on the side of the track in all sorts, stopping to give a hand, she was definitely very dazed & confused, after helping her out & getting some more help, finding out latter she was carted of to Hospital.

Now with approx 20mins down on the leaders, it was all about just cracking out as many laps as possible & see how many punters I could real in on Andy's fully bling BMC Trailfox.


Damage report to the body.

I was very apologetic today to Bellie in person, this is my formal apology, I'm really sorry mate & hope the damage report to the body isn't too bad. I'm definitely giving up pats on the back in races from now on, that you can count on.

Troy

Thank...........It's Friday

You fill in the blanks,

With the trend continuing, of yet another busy day, only just finishing the Invoicing for the week, yep it's pumpkin time, if I'm to enjoy the weekend without my eyeballs falling completely out of their sockets .

I "will" get those pics to you & believe you me, they are quite entertaining, so will be worth the wait.


This ones just a little sampler & just so happens to be on the DIRTWORKS 100 home page in case you didn't check the link the other day.

Don't forget to check out the warehouse over the weekend, maybe in have a squiz at what the Epix boy's are up to , I'm led to believe they are of on another search for the ultimate single track, not sure if they're headed in the right direction.

Live to Ride, Ride to live.

Troy

Workin Smerkin

A busy week, with a couple of very long days on site,

Leaving no time for much else therefore, I'll get those pics to you & the full wrap up of the Dirtworks 100 as soon as I have a spare moment, fortunately it's a scheduled easy week on the bike, so training has not been hindered, bit more sleep would be nice though.

Looking forward to the first round of "Chase the Sun" this weekend, or should I say (Anaconda Enduro series) "new name", a 5hr race out at Lysterfield, sure to be a cracker, followed by a 6, 7 & 8hr, a bit further down the track.

Please don't forget to check out my warehouse for some great sale items.

Bed time for this little black duck! ZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzz

WINNING ISN'T EVERYTHING

Especially when you get a cover shot on the event web site which also happens to be one of your sponsors with naming rights to the event,
Got to be happy with that.

Check it out here.

A big thanks goes out to the Dirtworks crew for being so very hospitable, taking care of flights, entry & accommodating me just metres from the start line, a special thanks to Mark for playing chauffeur & putting me up on Sunday night,
I'm stoked to be associated with such a great crew, you guys are ace.

Was great to see Mum & Dad again, thanks for coming out and all your continuing support.

Please don't forget to drop by my warehouse as I have lots of cool toys for sale & if they don't go to a good home in the next week, it's all going on ebay.

Have some very cool pics form the weekend, I will post them soon, be sure to drop back to check them out.

Thanks for stopping by.........Troy

DIRTWORKS 100KM CLASSIC Race report

I have to be brief as I'm about to head off for a spin in what looks like it could be in the rain with the Kaos crew,
My first thoughts from the race, are it didn't feel much like a race, more like an overgrown time trial, due to me missing the bunch start by about 2 minutes whilst I was running back to the cabin to get my transponder which I had forgotten to put on, necessary for electronic timing.
With my result of 2nd placed Veteran & 16th outright creating a bit of controversy, as my time was given from the gun, when the Elite bunch left, not when my transponder crossed the Start, as my net time would have given me a 1st place result.

If I have confused you i will elaborate further real soon.

Troy

DIRTWORKS 100KM CLASSIC

Congratulations to Troy for his 2nd Place from 282 Veteran riders (aged 30-40) & 16th Overall on the weekend at the Dirtworks 100km Classic, attracting some 1300 competitors.

Be sure to come back soon for Troy's full report on how it all went down.

There seemed to be a slight problem with the above link, should now be rectified.

WELCOME

Firstly I would like to warmly welcome you all to TROY'S RACING BLOG,
for those of you who already know Troy, I'm sure you'll agree,
His life is nothing short of Hectic & he wouldn't have it any other way!

With the coming months certainly being no different,
whilst he ramps things up in Preparation for the, CLICK THE LINK
WORLD SOLO 24hr MTB CHAMPIONSHIPS (Canada 26-27th July)
Not forgetting he still has a very Busy Building Business to run! Who knows how the ..... he fit it all in !!!??? Stay tuned to find out just how, Troy intends to keep You
Informed, hopefully Entertained & pay Tribute to the deserved, All in the process of going about his business of Riding & Working, Working & Riding... Slipping a bit of sleep in there somewhere, hopefully.

TROY GETTING READY TO TAKE THE
WORLD HEAD ON
At the State XC Champs last weekend.
Pic Thanks to CLICK Stephen Rowe


PS: Be sure to have a look in CLICK Troy's Warehouse
for a swag of Pre Loved Bikes, with & without Motors, all in aid of gaining funds for the Worlds campaign,
& you get a new toy in the process, everyone's a Winner!!!


With a final Note from this opening Blog,
Troy's exited to be heading to Sydney this weekend for the, CLICK
Dirtworks 100km Classic, being his 2nd Marathon event in as many weeks,
Hopefully with a slightly better outcome than the sister event CLICK BMC 100 set on the Awesome trails in the Wombat state forest at Woodend.

Where Troy's race sadly came to abrupt end, at approx the 80km mark, having to stop in order to help out BMC Team mate Jason English after a horror crash with the eventual outcome for Jason being 4 broken Vertebrae,
I think it's fair to say this is not going to help Jas (Our current 24hr National Jersey holder) worlds preparations any good.

Our thoughts are with you for a speedy recovery buddy!!!!

On a more positive note, With some pretty big boots to fill, Troy will be flying the flag as high he can with hope of doing us proud, might even do a sneaky entry change from Elite to Vets, to enhance the chance of a Podium .

Come back soon, as ones things for sure, there's never a
dull moment where TROY's concerned.

Live to Ride, Ride to Live