Bendigo 6hr Round 3 Vic. State series

Yesterday the Bendigo Mtb club set an awesome fast & flowing course,

Railing, (Thanks Russ Baker for this shot)


Which seemed to suite me, as it all came together, to take out a hard fought win!

I was especially stoked & surprised to have got up due to the quality of the field, there was half a dozen guys in the field of 50 odd solo's, all capable of victory.

From the gun, Evan Franzkie shot off, latching onto a couple of team riders, to gap the rest of us, dozen or so in the next bunch, he lost contact with them on the back fire road, about half way round on the first lap, deciding to sit up & wait for the bunch,

Just as we caught him it started to go up, so I threw in a bit of an attack just to stir things up a bit, as I was feeling pretty good,

Putting in, (Thanks Stephen Rowe for the images)


To my surprise, it worked & managed to put about a 30 second gap in, by the top of that climb,

That's pretty much how it stayed for the next few laps with Evan, Paul Randell & Phil Orr riding together, then Phil came across, breaking up the trio, as soon as he got close I attacked again, I was just thinking if I could maintain the buffer he would have to work to get back on,

Whilst Phil & I where going at it, we manged to open up a bit more of a gap on Evan & Paul, still only by a few switch backs, however.

Then Phil disappeared on the back descent, couldn't believe my luck, he must have binned it!
So I back it off a notch whilst keeping an eye on Evan & Paul
(Later finding out he had flatted),

Negotiating a rocky descent

However being the cunning XC racer that Phil is, he snuck back up using some other riders for cover, as soon as I saw him I attacked again, knowing the gap I had, he must have put an effort in, to get back on, it worked gaining another 30 secs - 1 min buffer,

It went on like that for the next 2 - 3 hrs, Phil would surge, then I would go, In the end I got up by just under 2 mins.

Thanks must go out to Phil especially, for a great race & pushing me all the way,

Big thanks to Andy at Kaos for giving the Fourstroke, the royal treatment, didn't miss a bit & handled the rocky conditions with ease.

Also must thank all my supporters & sponsors listed in the right column, your ongoing support is greatly appreciated.

Live to ride, ride to live,

Troy

Six Hours In The Saddle

Thanks to bicyclephotos for the shot

The S.H.I.T.S was held up in Beechworth on the weekend,

For me it was a race not to be taken seriously, It was all about
having some fun & the Finish Line Events crew didn't disappoint,

Putting together an all new tech 9km course of 95% single track in the
Beechworth Mtb park,

With some rain on Friday night, conditions were a little greasy early on, how ever the rain did stay away all day & the course just got better, by 2pm it had bedded in & was hooking in nicely,
making my last 3 laps to finish off the day with a smile from ear to ear.

So mission accomplished.

If your in the area I recommend you pop in & do a few laps & don't forget to replenish your stores when your done at the Beechworth Bakery.

Live to ride Ride to Live,

Troy

DIRTWORKS 100KM CLASSIC Race report

A day of jubilation & disappointment,

Mother nature played her part in the best way possible, with the early start time of 6.30am,
The early low cloud/fog help the temps be a manageable cool instead of snapping, in previous years,

Which soon broke into beautiful blue skies in the mid 20s, with a bit of rain early in the week, the course too, was as good as it gets.

I got off to a good start working at the front of what was huge bunch, along the first 8kms of road, just enough to earn my spot, warm the legs & lungs up whilst saving myself for the first climb,
Which was sure to break the bunch up,

Thanks aurora for the images.

It didn't disappoint & worked in my favour, being 2nd up the climb & 3 of us getting away, with one guy dangling about 50m ahead & one sitting on my wheel for the next 10ks, then on one of the many smaller ridge climbs i manged to bridge the gap & drop the guy sitting on.


On the very next decent I hit the front, having some fun in the process, then continued to drive along the ridge line at a decent pace whilst riding within myself, opening up good gap on the main field, by the 50km mark.


Over the next 15km was the rockiest section of the race, with sandstone ledges & loose boulders a plenty, I concentrated on riding the smoothest lines I could as I was again running the light weight Zmin tyres,

Then half way down the last rocky decent of the course, I dropped a ledge, unavoidably hitting a rock square on with the front tyre, cutting the tyre & burping it from the rim,
I promptly stopped to gas it up whilst the stans no tubes tried it's darnedest to seal the cut & re-seal the tyre to the rim,

Pretty rocky.

By the third time I stopped to add more air, the guy in 2nd place went by, hastily getting back on I reached the bottom of the decent, hitting a short, straight, smooth dirt road section, hopefully giving the stans a better chance of doing it's job,

Turning left to go through a gate, the tyre almost rolled off the rim, it was time for a tube,
Whilst putting the tube in a bunch of 8 or 10 went past, dooh!

A few minutes later, once again on my way with my angry pants on, forced to go it alone on the fast bitumen section until Brett court me half way up the last climb, he too suffered some mechanicals earlier on, therefore proceeded to help me absolutely bury myself till I was hard in the box trying to regain position, thanks mate.

Brett & Jase working together early.

We did pick up a few positions, however we just ran out of road, finishing up a disappointing 6th,
Mainly disappointing due to the fact, I feel the cards were played correctly & was pretty confident of taking the win.

Oh well that's racing! As a good friend of mine (Jason Jackson) said yesterday, there are alot of variables have to all come together on the day to win a 100km event.

That's where the jubilation comes into it, when you cross the line & you're informed that your BMC team mate, Jason English has taken out the event, setting a new course record!
It obviously all came together for Jason, he is just going from strength to strength, which is just great to see, well done mate.

Jase taking the win


Cliick on the event logo at the top for results & more images.

A weekend off from racing this weekend, then 5 in a row, more on that later & product reviews coming your way soon.

Live to ride, ride to live,

Troy