24hr Solo Nationals

Firstly my apologies for not getting stage 4-7 of Terra Australis to you as yet,
I do however have some very valid reasons,

With a very busy week shortened by Easter & to be totally honest, still feeling far less than great,

Then I proceeded to head to Canberra for the 24hr Solo Nationals over Easter, however due to my health, not to race! to support Kaos & BMC's own, Jac & Jason respectively.

A successful 24 it was for both of them,

With Jason taking out the win in the mens, Picking up his second consecutive National jersey & ticket to Canada for the Worlds,

Canberra's Dan Mackay took out 2nd, pushing Jas all night getting to within a couple minutes around day break, then with the rise of the sun Jas found his second wind, bringing it home,

Queensland's very own Andy Fellows was also still in the hunt until the early hours of the morning, eventually fading & hanging on for 3rd.

Jac finished a very credible 7th in the womens & an excellent result of 2nd in her age group,
It took Jac a while to find her groove, however as darkness fell, Jac got in the zone & rode very consistently all night picking them off 1 by 1, I'm sure her Night Lightning lights gave her an extra bit of confidence too, turning the pitch black Majura Pine forest into day.

Congratulations to both Jas & Jac & huge thanks must go out to Mel & Dave of the Kaos crew for their superb job of support crew for Jac.

Congrates must go out to Jes Douglas for taking out the win over Katrin(current #2 in the world)
& commiserations to Johnny Claxton & Mark Fenner, both DNF for their own reasons, click on there names to hear why in their own words.

Keep an eye out for the final wrap up of the Terra Australis as it was an absolute cracker of an event & I'll do my best to due it justice.

Speaking of great events, the BMC 100 is on again this weekend in the awesome trails of the wombat forest, Woodend, Vic.

So plenty to report on, in the near future.

Live to ride, ride to live,

Troy

TERRA STAGE 1

TERRA STAGE 1 Falls Creek - Mt Beauty
96km, 2600m+vertical gain

The hits keep coming!

It was always going to be a tough, especially when I was woken up at 5.30 Saturday morning with my throat closed up struggling to breath, due to a severe throat infection & flu like symptoms, no doubt brought on by a stressful week, not enough sleep & not allowing the body to recover from last Sundays 6hr, with a bout of concussion thrown in for good measure.

Any how, on with the show, to sum it up, I certainly wasn’t feeling great, however had a reasonable start & was holding good position, then the wheels fell of so to speak, about 20km in I started to suffer from a severe lack of power, then copped a side wall slash to the rear tire on a fast rocky virgin trail decent which the Stans did seal for a while,

Getting to the bottom of the first descents in front, it was all down hill from there, so to speak!

Time for a tube, then another, then picked up a bit of debris off the track bending my rear dérailleur hanger, so a bit of bush mechanics was required,

All & all not the start we were hoping for, still managed a 4^th place, 5 & 8 minutes down 2 Torque teams consisting of James Mabis, Pairing up with the owner of Torque & Dan Mac With Luke Fetch also suffering a few mechanicals, With Mark Fenner & Sam Back taking the Stage win in just under 5hrs.

The one consolation to all this, it was certainly one of the most scenic rides I have done & the word is there is a whole lot more to come, did I mention the weather was absolutely magic.

Thanks must go out to Joel for his patients on what was a pretty trying day.

Live to ride, Ride to live,

Troy

TERRA STAGE 2

TERRA STAGE 2 Falls Creek – Dinner Plain

106km, 2200+m elevation gained

Another tough day in the saddle, crossing a huge valley from Falls Creek to Dinner Plain {just down the road from Mt Hotham}

With some more very steep, true granny ring climbing rewarded with all out bombing, super fast descents, choosing some tractor like tires getting us through without flatting even though the rolling resistance suffered a little on some of the flatter faster fire roads, worth the trade off I reckon, as your not too quick on the side of the track playing bush mechanic.

Feeling a bit better today & getting through pretty much unscathed apart from a twisted chain about 10km from home, with a bit of a tweak got us across the line without loosing too much time & thanks to the event mechanics for sorted me out with a nice new Sram chain.

The boy's burning the candle.

We came across the line in 3^rd place behind Mark & Sam, with the stage win going to D Mac & Luke.

The highlight of the day again being the spectacular scenery & the perfect autumn weather, not to forget throwing the fresh mountain air into the mix.

Live to ride, ride to live,

Troy

TERRA STAGE 3

Stage 3 Dinner Plain - Bright
74km, 1220m elevation gained, 2480m elevation lost

These stats could be easily read as an easy day, this would prove to not be the case, Feeling a bit better again today with the course predominately going down, I thought this might be our chance to make back a bit of time,

So after the controlled start of a couple of km I went to make a breakaway, that lasted no time at all with D mac & Luke pulling me in & drove right by, soon after Mark, Sam & Joel were back on & we all worked together trying to pull them back on the climb up to Mt Hotham & then up to Mt Loch,


With the views, totally breathtaking, although chewing the stem could have had something to do with that too.

They had put a fair gap in, therfore we were on the rivit all day trying not to loose too much time to the D mac train, it was a super fast stage, some fire road descents up in the high 70km/hr with the 20km flat run in to bright averaging 40km/hr putting a different kind of hurt into the legs, from the previous two days of climbing, only to find out later that Dan was holding high 40s - 50 on the run home.

Not all was lost, we managed to put some more good time in the teams behind to consolidate our overall 3rd placing.


More to come, going to roll the legs out with the Kaos crew.

Live to ride, Ride to live,

Troy

Terra Australis report

In a word,.....WOW!!!


Without a doubt one of the best events I've experienced, with all the right ingredients,
Extremely challenging terrain with stunning scenery, really well organized (hats off to Iain, Clayton & the whole Finish Line events crew), Great people with lots of laughs & friendships forged & perfect weather all thrown in with the fresh mountain air.

Joel & I finished up 3rd overall behind the Total rush boys of Mark Fenner & Sam Bach, With victory going to the Torque Pair of Dan Mac & Luke Fetch.

Full report coming your way in the next couple of days.

Live to ride, Ride to live,

Troy

Terra Australis

Terra here we come!

Should be able to keep an eye on how it's going down daily,

Read on,

TWITTER

Tell your friends and family they can follow your progress in Terra
Australis live. Updates including live results, photos and video will be
posted via Twitter during the course of each stage. Registering for Twitter
is very simple, just go to www.twitter.com <http://www.twitter.com/> and
follow the registration process. It seriously takes 1 minute.

Once you have registered search for TerraAustEpic and start following.

The full results of each stage will also be available through
www.terraaustralismtbepic.com <http://www.terraaustralismtbepic.com/> at
the conclusion of each stage.

So there you have it,

Been a very hectic week at work to say the least,
Very much looking forward to a week in the Mountains riding my bike!

Be sure to check back for my take on the event, early the following week right here.

Live to ride, ride to live,

Troy

Round 2 Vic. Enduro Series, Mt Beauty, report

YOU CAN'T WIN THEM ALL

Round 2, with the stage set in Mt Beauty, or so I was lead to believe, as it feels like I went 2 rounds with Mike Tyson, you can only imagine how that would turn out.

The first "2 - 2.5hrs"of racing, was awesome, I was sitting well in 3rd place with the legs feeling great & the course as good as it gets with a bit of rain to settle the dust, thunder & lightning to add a bit of excitement,

Evan Franskie(Team other bike brand) grabbed the early lead & Adam Gibson(Team other bike shop) in 2nd, I was happy with that as they are both known climbers & Mt Beauty is certainly a pretty hilly one, so I didn't want to go into the red to stay with them,

To my surprise I was holding an even time gap on Adam & had put a decent gap into Paul Randell(Team other bike & shop), with the course drying it was nice & tacky, I was having a ball,

Then Mike Tyson jumped out of the bush & went whack!

Well not exactly, I actually hooked into a fast yet tight bermed corner, that you enter blind & hit a log square on that was laying in the middle of the corner, sending me over the bars landing square on my head, ending up some 15ft down the track,

The log was actually used to build the berm, someone obviously dislodged it a short time earlier,
As it definitely was not there the lap before.

That's racing, after a few minutes of rolling around on the ground, I realised nothing was broken, so continued on taking it real easy waiting to see double or start throwing up, didn't happen so kept creeping around holding 5th place, with about a 5minute gap on 6th.

10minute before 6hrs was up i stopped at the timing tent to wait for Dan(6th) to have a gentleman's agreement not to continue as I couldn't see the point, he didn't stopped & buzzed on by, so i was forced to do another to get my 5th place back, for the points in the series.

I pulled him back, then i flatted, picking up a thorn in the front tire, right next to the tread & the side wall, so I had to stop to let the Stans do it's job, In the mean time Tim Ferris rolled passed putting me back to 7th.

Oh well, In a nut shell, wasn't my day & you can't win them all.

On a positive note I did have 3 or 4 very enjoyable laps of Mt Beauty at it's best & Jac certainly had a good one, picking up 1st place in the womens solo,
well done Jac.

Live to ride, Ride to Live,

Troy

Round 2 Vic. Enduro Series, Mt Beauty

Hi ho hi ho, off to Mt Beauty we go,

Any excuse is a good 1 to head to Mt Beauty,
Be there or be square,

For those of you unfortunate square ones,
have a squiz back here early next week, to see how it all went down.

& remember,

Live to ride, ride to live,

Troy

ENDURO SEASON

Well the Enduro season is about to kick into full swing,

With a good start to the season, just to recap,
2 wins from 2 starts, taking out the 1st Round of the State Enduro series fire relief 6hr Solo & the week before last winning the BMC Mts to Beaches stage race with fellow BMC rider Joel Donney.

Coming Up!

22nd Mar - Mt Beauty 6hr State Round 2

29th Mar - 4th Apr - Terra Australis Vic Highlands stage race.

11th - 12th Apr - Australian 24hr Solo Nationals (Might race 6x6 ???) Canberra.

19th Apr - BMC 100km Marathon, Woodend.

26th Apr - 1st Round Chase the Sun Enduro Series, Lysterfield.

3rd May - Dirtworks 100km Marathon, St Aubans NSW.

17th May - Rockhop 6hr Beaconsfield Upper, State Round 3

24th May - Bendigo 6hr, State Round 4

31st May - 2nd Round Chase the Sun.

7th June - You Yangs 6hr, State Round 5

26th July - 3rd Round Chase the Sun.

16th Aug - 4th Round Chase the Sun.

23rd Aug - Castlemaine 6hr, State Round 6

15th Nov - Officer 6hr, State Round 7

My plan is to do all the State Rounds Solo with hope of taking out the series & Joel will be joining me for the Chase the Sun series in the Pro pairs category which will no doubt be hotly contested.

At this stage going to Canada to defend my world title is not on the agenda, (Unless there is a sponsor out there with a spare 10k kicking about that needs a tax write off) The main aim is to enjoy the racing locally,
As you can see there is plenty of it & some really great trails to boot, so if your up for a spot of Endurance Mtb racing, see you on the start line.

Be sure to keep an eye on how the season unfolds.

Live to ride, ride to live.

Troy

BMC Mts to Beaches Clean sweep

Just as the title reads, Team BMC Wins the Overall & Open Pairs @ the Inaugral BMC Mts to Beaches stage race from Thredbo to Narooma.

With Jason going right down to the wire to snatch line honours from Andy Blair for the overall win,
to see how the battle went down have a read at, www.jasonenglish.bigblog.com.au.

As for Joel & Myself we managed to take the pairs out by a convincing margin of almost 2 hours.

Whilst the pairs was not a hotly contested category this year, I'm sure it wont stay that way in years to come, as we along with most other teams found it a very enjoyable way to do a stage race such as this.

How it went down,

Day 1
2 race stages,
1st stage basically consisted of a time trial Bombing a slightly tamed version of the down hill course at Thredbo with a couple of punchy pinch climbs thrown in for good measure, fun times, I picked up 4th overall with Joel about 20 seconds behind.
2nd stage was a mass start cross country race on the single track around lake crackenback.
With our times combined we were already 55 mins up.

Day 2
68km race stage,
Starting at Perisher with some classic monster alpine climbs through Blue cow & out the back of Guthega through some real man from snowy river country, with no pressure on us, we road tempo all day & ended putting another 25 mins into our nearest competitor, the race was followed by a 20km cruise stage down to Buckenderra resort, during which we saw a pack of 5 real life Brumbys on the fly.

Day 3
26km sprint race,
4.45 am riders briefing for a 5.15 am start, with the aim being a sunrise finish, with Gu being the order of the day for breakfast, I had a great start with my Night lightning I blast providing oodles of light, holding about 5th overall for the first half a lap of a 2 lap race on some pretty rough a ready 4x4 track, when I picked up a thorn or such like, enough to pierce the sidewall of my rear tire,
Whilst the Stans did eventually seal the hole, the bunch was well & truly gone along with my gas cartridges, therefore only getting approx 20-25 psi in, on the very next descent whilst overtaking the masses I hit an unexpected rock pinch flatting the tire.
Forcing me to throw a tube in & in the process dropping around 12 mins from both incidents.

Followed by a great spread put on by the local country folk for breakfast it was leisurely 41km cruise stage down to Cooma.

Day 4
86km Race stage
Starting with a lap of the local horse race track with a sprint across line picking up fellow BMC rider Andrew Lumley a set of A-UP lights, I may have given him a bit of a help with a handy lead out.
Then i proceeded to drive the bunch helping Jas & Brett shell all butt Andy Blair in Chase of Dennis who was dangling a few hundred metres up the road on his own, on board his 29er.
With a couple of very descent climbs & some undulating windy sections which Joel went to the front to help me recover from my earlier efforts.
We managed another stage win & another 40km cruise stage down to Burmagui on the beautiful south coast of NSW.

Day 5
45km Race stage
With the start prologue across a grassy cow paddock before entering the Bermagui Mtb park with some great fast flowing single track, then headed north along some of the most picturesque coastline you'll find anywhere, even having to run across some soft sand on a few beaches along the way, which my calves still remind me of.
Following my double flat the day before yesterday, I had to make 4 mins on the guy ahead to get back into the top 10 overall gc & knowing it was the final day I gave it everything with Joel hanging on for dear life,
Mission accomplished, ending up 7 mins ahead of him in the end, therefore all 5 BMC riders ended up in the top 10 overall gc.

So a good time was had by all.

Thanks to the Dirtworks crew of Rick, Pat & Milly for supporting us all the way, along with keeping the bikes spick & span with the best cleaning products money can buy (MUC OFF) Mark for taking care of the tucker, BMC for a bike that was faltless all week, Ritchey tires & components, Hayes brakes, Manitou forks, Stans no tubes, Crank bros, DT swiss, Night lightning Lights, Andy at Kaos for superbly race prepping the bike, Joel for riding well all week & Jac for dropping me to the airport & picking me up from Narooma.

Live to ride, Ride to live,

Troy

New BMC team mate & Website

Welcome & well done to young Brett Anderson, our newest addition to the Australian BMC Mtb racing team, from South Australia,

Check his profile out at www.teambmc.com.au
On our new Australian BMC Mtb racing team Website.


Picking up a very respectable top 5 placing, in the Otway Odyssey, on the weekend, finishing just behind some very big names in our sport,
1st Chris Jonhgerward
2nd Dan Maconell
3rd Murrey Spinks
4th Adrian Jackson

Rumor has it, he's a training partner of Chris Jonhgerward, this is one rumor I'm lead to believe.

I didn't participate, choosing to focus on other races, so thanks for flying the BMC flag nice & high Brett.

With all focus now on the "BMC" Mountains to Beaches event, March 1-6.

Click on the flyer for details.

With Jas & Brett entering solo, Joel & I entered in pairs, with a bit of luck we should have all bases covered for this great inaugural event,
Bring it on,

Live to ride, ride to live,

Troy

Poor Willo

Had a call from James (Willo, Current World Solo 24hr Elite Champ) Williamson this afternoon, the poor fellow was out on the Yarra trails this morning doing some final prep for this weekends Otway Odessy,

Coming a cropper & went cartwheeling down an embankment/cliff, breaking his collar bone & ending up in the yarra, having to swim with a broken wing, to save his bike that was floating away,

Lucky it was carbon!

So if anyone wants to buy a cheap entry or needs somewhere to stay in Apollo bay, drop me a comment with your email address & I'll pass it on to him.

Here's to a speedy recovery mate.

Live to ride, Ride to live,

Troy

Bush fire fundraiser 6hr Enduro Wrap up & Results

Today sure was a successful one, with over $35,000 raised by the Victorian Mtb Community, for the Bush Fire victims at the 6hr Enduro out at the You Yangs.

There was a great atmosphere with over 300 competitors, a tough yet fun course was set, with plenty of climbing & some of the fastest bermed flowing single track you'll find anywhere.

It was on from the gun, with Willo (Racing in a pair with Nicky) & Clacker (Solo) setting the early blistering pace, I made a conscious decision to hold back & ride a more realistic pace due to the amount of climbing, whilst keeping an eye on Evan Franzke (Kona Solo rider) a couple of switch backs ahead.

Then the race started to play into my hands, passing Clacker whilst he was on the side of the track after crashing, then a couple of laps later passing Evan whilst taking a drink in his tent.

Clacker catching me at about the 3hr mark, telling me he was suffering from a sore shoulder due the crash, doing half a lap together he then flatted, not long after deciding to pull the pin.

Whist maintaining a strong & steady pace at the 4hr mark I was holding a 5-10min gap on Evan,
deciding not to give chase to save his legs for Otway next weekend.

That ladies & gentlemen was the ball game as I had half an hour on Geoff Weitz taking 2nd, allowing me to finish up 20mins early.

Got to be happy with that, picking up some good early points in the Vic Enduro Series, as it was the 1st round.

Jac did well picking up 2nd in the womens Solo.

So a good day was had by all!!!

Thanks to the Kaos Crew for feeding & taking care of Jac & I,

To BMC for providing the ultimate Enduro race bike(FOURSTROKE 01), it almost feels like cheating this bike goes so well, climbs like a hard tail & handles like a dream on the descents, with the RITCHIE Z min tires hooking into the dry conditions perfectly.

Live to ride, Ride to live,

Troy

Bush fire fundraiser 6hr Enduro

With the HDATO 8hr in Eidon being a little close to this for comfort,

It's been moved to the You Yangs, all entry fees & funds raised will go directly
to help the victims of the devastation,

King lake will never be the same!
It really hits home when you know these places, amongst others, all to well.
So come on down to the You Yangs & show your support,
Enter at www.entryzone.bighillevents.com.au
Rego 8.00 - 9.30
Race 10.00 - 4.00
As usual solo or teams.
In other news,
Whilst we have been burning, London has been freezing.
A positive swing,
These races are looming, get on them, you only live once!
Click on the Images for details.


Live to ride, Ride to live,

Troy

Rocky Riders State XC round

For those heading up to Castlemaine tomorrow
for the Rocky Riders State XC round,

It has been moved from the Pines to Jubba land,
due to extreme fire danger & related permits,

Not a bad trade off if you ask me,

Whilst the Pines are great, Jubba land rocks!

With today being a day for hibernation playing with bikes at Kaos head quarters,
due to the hottest day on Victorian records,
46.5 degrees in Melbourne &
a fair bit hotter out in the country with a big portion a Blaze!!!!!!!

A cool change on the way & hopefully some well needed rain,
To help the CFA & settle the dust for a us.

See you there,

Live to ride, ride to live,

Troy

Dirt Crits

Coming into a little bit of form at the FGP Dirt Crits tonight,
Nudging out Willo to pick up 2nd to A.J.

With the Introduction of a bit intensity this week, coming off good miles &
a pretty solid strength phase, hopefully a sign of good things to come.



Must say my BMC Fourstoke 01, without a dought made my job a whole lot easier.













Thanks to Stephen Rowe for the Images.

Live to ride, Ride to live,

Troy

Updates Coming soon!!!!!!!!

Must apologize for the lack of posting!

Certainly not due to nothing happening, that's for sure!

One thing you can be sure of, I've been riding my "bikes" loads,
working heaps,

In a nutshell it's been a very busy start to the year!

Even melted into a puddle last week,
Finally solidified again.

I'll fill you in on what's been going on, what's coming up & give you the low down
on the new BMC Ferrari!!!!!!! I'll be racing this year!

Ok, maybe not a Ferrari,
However my new Four Stroke 01!!!!!! feels like one in the dirt,
It's a dead set Thoroughbred!!!!!

So stay tuned, a whole lot more to come as soon as I find the time,
Not forgetting my long ride home!

Live to ride, Ride to live,

Troy

BMC Demo day

BMC's new 2009 range of Mountain & road bikes will be on display
& better still ready for you to test ride,

This weekend out at Lysterfield, by the lake at Trailmix, so come out for a fun filled
weekend & test ride your bike of choice,

Myself along with other BMC crew will be leading out bunches on the dirt & road, from 8.30-4.00 both days.

Just be sure to bring your own peddles & some Id!

See you out there.

Live to ride, Ride to live,

Troy

Sydney to Melbourne Peddling Styles

The storey of my journey is still, work in progress!

Coming to you soon!!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas/ New Years Break

I'm home sweet home & Happy New Year folks.

As mentioned I headed to Sydney to spend Christmas & New Years with the family, which was great!

Whilst up there I also started back into my base phase of training, heading out early each morning for a few hour to beat the heat & start prepping the body for the trip home.

Which in summary was the most enjoyable base phase, bar none, 1380km in 9 days,

Via the south coast of NSW, up to Canberra, Back down to Lakes Entrance via Cooma & Delegate, round the bottom of VIC & zig zagged my way back to Melb. through the rolling hills of dairy farms & vineyard country.

Full storey with pics a plenty coming your way over the next few days.

Live to ride, Ride to live,

Troy