EPIX

Finally my weekend schedule allows me join the boys on an EPIX adventure,
I'm not going to disclose too much & steal their "thunder" except the fact it is in the forcast,
It's sure to be a hoot & looking forward to a blat in the bush without having a number stapped on.

Read all about it, here! as it approaches & especially after the weekend to find out where we ended up & what went down.

Live to ride, ride to live,

Troy

Australian MTBA Marathon Champs

mtb-images

Aussie marathon Champs have been won & run, Bendigo Mtb club in conjunction with MTBA put on a great event!

It was a sprint finish for the Aussie jersey with Murrey Spink grabbing the Green & Gold, Jase(team BMC) had to settle with silver & Neil VP a mere 100th of a second back to bronze, Exciting stuff!

I had a good day also picking up silver, in the Veteran class(30-40), with a very Strong Taswegian John Darcey turning up meaning business taking out the Gold with Jason Quigley coming through for bronze,
Fellow Kaos rider Leigh Barret finished with a very credable top 10 finish.



Full results can be found here

Bendigo's endless trail network blew me away & the weather was perfect, what more could you want!

Again the BMC Fourstroke 01 was the perfect waepon of choice & thanks again to Andy from Kaos for giving her the royal treatment.

Live to ride, ride to live,

Troy

Jeoff Toohey Badly Injured

Fellow Aussie 24hr Mtb Champion has been hit by a car & is in a serious yet stable condition, read report here.

Fingers crossed for a full recovery mate.

Take care out there!

Troy

National Marathon Champs

I'll be heading up to Bendigo this weekend for the National Marathon Champs, for those new to the scene, that's 100km point to point, flat stick on varied terrain in the scrub, ranging from single track, 4x4 trails & fire road with a big bunch Euro style start.
With National jerseys, wads of cash & prizes & of course bragging rights up for grabs. By all reports, huge entry numbers too!

So it's looking like a big one.

Check back when the dust has settled to see how the BMC boys have fared.

Live to ride, ride to live,

Troy

WORLDS

What a weekend,

Nothing short of huge was the UCI Mtb Worlds event in Canberra over the weekend,

I was lucky enough to experience it first hand,

To some it up if it's ok with our fellow neighbours to pinch a word & phrase, Wickid!!! Choice Bro!

Over the coming days, weeks, months I'm sure you'll see & hear all about it so I'll try to keep it brief with a few of my personal Highlights.

FRIDAY- Running up Cardiac climb(Brutal climb) numerous times with cow bell in hand & cheering at the top of my lungs for Lach, Paulie & Cal in the U23 XC, awesome job fellas 11th, 16th & 18th respectively.

FRIDAY NIGHT- Being track side with a good view of the big screen too, seeing Gravey & Caroline take double Gold in the 4X, the Crowd was & went nuts.

SATURDAY- Joel's local trails in the morning & Seeing Macca in the Elite XC go from 54th on the grid to off the front on the fire road before going up Cardiac & holding 4th possie to the top of the climb,Madman! The crowd again was huge with cow bells, horns, whistles & massive cheers for the riders.

SATURDAY NIGHT- Caught up with Stuart Dorland from 24hrs of Adrenaline & chewed some phat about next years 24hr Worlds(more on that later) then it was Party time with all the XC riders & crew.......Fun times!

SUNDAY- To see tens of thousands of people going ballistic at the men's DH was a sight to be seen.
Oh & Kabush just owned the short track, with Paulie, Ben Hendo & Neil(Before getting it sideways in the loose stuff) putting in strong performances.

TRIALS ran all weekend on various courses, very clever cats.

To wrap it up, great to see the worlds best strut their stuff in all discipline's, for me personally, good to catch up with various industry folk & on a whole really good to see so many people sharing the one common thread,

The love of Riding Bikes!

For results, pics, free casts etc check it out here.

I'm sure Paulie will have some fun tails to tell too.

Grover has a good take on how the womens & mens XC races went down.


Live to ride, ride to live,

Troy

Vic Enduro Rnd 6 Castlemaine

Rocky riders Mtb club congratulations for putting on another festival style event at the Infamous Jubber Land, which I'm lead to believe the biggest yet, with some 350 riders, DJ's, bbq, beer on tap, real coffee & lets not forget one of the best trails getting around providing plenty of smiles.


The crowd forming in anticipation.

From the gun I felt great with all the preparations during the week to man & machine seeming to come together, after the first lap i came in second solo behind Willo & about a minute up on Phil & Jarrod,

Just the way i like it, I felt I had not used too much up to put the gap in & Willo was not a threat as he had informed me he would pull the pin at about 4hrs, So was feeling great, then Boom the front tire Blew clean off the rim,

Soon it became apparent the one thing I had forgotten to pack was Lady luck! As the next couple of laps nothing seemed to go right, with one poor lady falling right in front of me, Kamikaze Style, leaving me no where to go, after rendering assistance, putting me further back in the traffic of a predominantly single track course,

Causing more frustration & more importantly big chunks of time & enjoyment due to not be able to get the course to flow.



All Smiles on lap 1.

Eventually I managed to get some clear track & find my groove pulling back some positions & starting to think maybe all was not lost then PSSS goes the front tire again,

Managed to get the STANS to seal & nursed it back for the second wheel swap of the day, whilst in the pits I was informed I was still only 5 minutes down on a podium finish, with 40 minutes to go, so it was time to put the angry pants on, pulling back 2 minutes on the last lap, not quite enough.

Oh well all things considered got to be happy with 4Th place which should give me enough points to take out the Series.

Not bad for an old bloke.

Thanks again to MTB IMAGES & ANDY from KAOS for prepping the machine.

Live to ride, ride to live.

Troy

Chase the Sun Rnd 4

What a day "Hui"(mother nature) had install for us, with 100+km winds delaying the start by an hour, with the echo of chain saws across the park, whilst the full gas crew frantically went to work to clear the felled trees & debris from the course,

We were all wishing we had our surf boards as there were descent 1 footers in the lake to be had,

With the Gale forced winds subsiding a little, it was time to shift the focus from surfing & a parma at the pub & put the game face on.

Going for the whole shot in the cattle grid mass start.


Tucking into the lead bunch to avoid getting blown off the damn wall in the prologue

As you can see no shortage of talent, with our XC Olympian D'mac just a couple of wheels up & Murrey Spinks is certainly no slouch with at least a couple of Vic.Elite XC titles to his name & Scotty L Felt Racing.

Hold that wheel.......Chew that stem......Gggrrr


Showing a clean pair of heals

Pardon the pun as they didn't stay that way for long,

It was time for Hui's next instalment to well & truly releive himself with bucketing rain, turning the trails to a similar consistency of him eating far too many prunes.

Joel putting in the yards in the worst of it,

Whilst the guns on paper fell by the way side, one by one, leaving the BMC boys to bring home the bacon.

Happy after my last lap to be informed we had won!!!!


Thank you linesmen, thank you ball boys,

The win creating another surprise at presentation with the announcement of us finishing 2nd overall for the series, Behind the Felt racing team & sneaking ahead on points of the Giant boys of Murrey Spink & James Williamson.

Thanks must go out to Joel for making the trip down from Canberra for the series, the win was especially pleasing for Joel, making the regular trips south that little bit more worth while.

A huge thanks again to MTB IMAGES for braving the condition to produce these great pics, to Andy, Captain KAOS for keeping my bikes going in these muddy winter months, to BMC/DIRTWORKS for their ongoing support & to DEFEET apparel for keeping the body at an optimum temperature during & between laps.


Hats off to this man

Kaos Dave still smiling despite the adverse conditions on his way to finishing his debut Solo 6hr, Picking up 3rd in the over 50's at just 58 years young, well done mate.

More racing news coming soon.

Live to ride, ride to live,

Troy

Surviving Winter

DEFEET technical active apparel, keeping you toastie!


A great range of super comfy & very Stylish socks & gloves, varying lengths, designs & materials catering for all conditions, my faves at the moment would have to be the high cut woollies, toastie & very breathable as the day warms up yet still nice & thin so no shoe adjustments needed.



Technical first layers, perfect for keeping your core temperature just right,
Seamless Arm & leg warmers, very comfortable, keeps the wind out & breathable when you start to heat up, great blend of materials.



Over shoe sock, for those cool winter mornings for keeping the toes toasty & as the day warms up they are breathable, so no sweaty boots, bonus! Very Bling, available in a range of colours as well as black if blings not your thing.
Shell still necessary if raining.


PLANET BIKE lights for staying alive.


Super Styley, Light & Bright & super quick mounting, great if your running out the door to meet a bunch.



Light & Bright with adjustable mounting angles & super quick as above.



Super Bright, the brightest around without hooking up the Rechargables,
great for those late night training rides, available in 1/2 & 1 Watt with amazing magnification making them seem as bright as 10 watts from a distance.


In other news I've come across some new products that really seem to be the goods,

PORTLAND Designworks


Great range of very cool & very different grips & chucks for your CO2 with a valve that actually works & has held air for 9 weeks since the seal was broken, Impressive! Keep your eye on this company, It's quality & I have a feeling there range will continue to grow!
I'll be sure to let you know how the grips feel & if the chucks all it's cracked up to be.

In racing news, plenty coming up so stay tuned.

Live to ride, ride to live,

Troy

FTF winter series XC Chum Creek

Thanks to MTB IMAGES I'm going to let the pictures do the talking.



Launching pad to start the lap,
Note: the regeneration in the trees, Great to see.



Burnt silhouettes,



Tech section #1


#2


#3


#4

The Course:
Based on private property, this race was the only chance to cut a lap on this prestigious loop, A lot of work has been done to clear this course in readiness for this race because of the recent fires that devastated the area, So a big thankyou to the Amos family & Joel from FTF for making it happen.

A challenging yet traditional XC course of around 6km long. There is plenty of ups, downs and off camber action, "Its one of the best XC courses around"!

Great Day, even the sun was present.....Too Good!

Live to ride, ride to live.

Troy

Jason Wins

Jase in his finest moment!

Directly after taking line honors to become World Champion!

Congratulations, well done mate!........ Of course he couldn't have done it without his pair of BMC carbon Four stroke 01's.

Read all about it at http://24wsc.com

Give him a day or so & I'm sure Jase with have his take on how it all went down here.

Also well done to fellow Aussie Andy Fellows, managing to get himself on the podium taking 3rd & Jess Douglas running a commendable 4th in the Ladies.

Live to ride, ride to live,

Troy

World 24hr

Speaking of Aussie Battlers, here's Jase 14hrs into the world 24hr Champs, currently in 2nd place, just 6 minutes down, with a 7 minute gap back to 3rd,
Knowing Jase like I do, he would be right in his element, as he likes a close race to keep his head in the game during the witching hours,
Then smack it home when the sun comes up,

So hears hoping when we, back in OZ wake in the morning, find it has all gone according to plan.

In news on the home front, I was joined by Joel to again take on the XC wippets for round 3 of Chase the sun,
Again finishing just out of the money in 4th palce by just a mear matter of minutes,
A big plus for the day was we all managed to catch the Sun, as it was an absolute ripper of a day!

Some other news which has just been announced, Australia with Officially host the World 24hr Champs in 2010,
More on this later.

Live to ride, Ride to live

Troy

Bit of a run down

With a small gap in the Enduro race calander Since the Forrest 6hr 2 weeks ago, Ive taken the opportunity to have a bit of a break & get reaquainted with the road bike to help bring the form back up for Rnd 3
Word on the street, Entries are filling fast, so get em in.



Whilst I haven't raced for 2 weeks, there's been 2 little Aussie battlers in particular that have impressed me on the world stage.


Mark Webber getting a champers shower, fair to say he was pretty stoked after many years chasing victory.


Heinrich Haussler, Just 25 Born & bread in the little NSW country town of Inveral, Crossing the line with emotion getting the better of him, sheading a tear whilst taking Victory in the hilly 200km Stage 13 of the tour.
He managed to gap the other riders in the breakaway on a very fast tech descent in the pouring rain "RESPECT"


With the tour heading into the Alps tonight, things are about to get interesting.

Live to ride, ride to live,

Troy

FORREST 6hr Champs Wrap up

I'll start my wrap up of the Event with a small quote from the Forrest home page.

We had one of the best 6 hour Mens and Womens solo races in recent times. Dan McConnell, Jason English and Troy Bailey kept the crowd entertained for almost the whole 6 hours. Dan McConnell came out the victor with Jason English second and Troy Bailey finishing out a world class top 3.

Must say it was quite the privilege, to be standing on the podium along side this pair of absolute guns at opposite spectrum's of the sport,
Both heading to Canada next week, Dan for some XC world cups chasing UCI points for this years World Champs on home turf & Jase for the World 24hr Champs......... Go Gett'm Boy's!

Even though they well & truly handed it too me & daylight should've been awarded third, thanks for helping break the rest of the competition though,

As I had a fair ding dong battle with Jarrod Moroni & Phil Orr until the going got to tuff for them in the tricky conditions, both pulling the pin about 4hrs in.

With a good gap on the rest of the field it was just a matter of bringing it home to grab my spot on the box.

As you can see by the number, I was entered in a team with a last minute decision to race solo as I was feeling pretty good, glad i did.

Big Thanks to -Norm & the Forrest crew,

-BMC, couldn't think of a better suited bike than the Fourstroke 01 for these trails

-Dirtworks & Kaos for your greatly appretiated on going support.

Last & so far from least my on course Cheer squad :-}

Live to ride, ride to live,

Troy

FORREST 6hr Champs

What a Beauty!........ Click on the logo for results & brief race report.

Mine to follow shortly,

Live to ride, ride to live,

Troy

Pics a plenty

Thanks to mtb images once again for these great pics,


Had some fun with a few to mix it up a bit.



Sequence of a descent

"1"

"2"

"3"

The boys have been building


Lets not forget the climbing, making you see all sorts of pretty colours.

Live to ride, ride to live.

Troy

Rnd 5 Dirtriders 6hr Rock Hop race report

You can't win them all!

A tough day in more ways than one!

Got off to a good start, holding the lead for two & half laps,

Then the Gremlins came out causing some drive train mechanicals costing me big chunks of time.

I think it was caused by grazing the rear derailleur on a rock in a very tight section.

With the amount of steep climbing on this course, approx 350m per lap, smooth shifting gears was quite important to say the least, wheels don't turn real fast with a chain wedged in between the cluster & the spokes..........Boo

A couple of laps later throwing a chain on a smooth slight downhill???............Hiss

I ended up completing 9 laps, 5th or 6th place, with over 3000m of climbing & due to the early fast pace & spasmodic chasing between mechanicals feeling like a spat out half chew unwanted anchovy from a Pizza.

Great course & should be some good pics to come.

Live to ride, ride to live,

Troy

Rnd 5 Dirtriders 6hr Rock Hop

Headed out today for a practice lap & set up the Kaos camp.

If I'm to restrict myself to one comment!

Bring your climbing legs!

How can you ever stop at one,

With rewards a plenty of sweet trails!

Rnd 5 Dirtriders 6hr Rock Hop

Click it


It's on this Sunday, with the weather promised to stay good right through until Monday,

Therefore the course should be tip top,

Bit of a call, as we have so many good trails down here in Vic, but I'm calling it & pretty sure I wont be disappointed, well it's damn high on the list anyhow of my favourite trails.

So if you're not entered, get on it.

See you there,

Live to ride, ride to live,

Troy

Geelong 6hr Rnd 4 Vic Enduro series

GMBC & the You Yangs we solute you!

Again we lucked out with the weather, choosing to rain the night before, leaving the course fast & tacky, leaving us to enjoy the You Yangs Mtb park at it best, whilst it threatened to rain a couple of times, it remained cool & dry all day.

The course it self, with the main descent, needing special mention, was such a buzz, with perfectly apexed bermed corners to rail requiring no brakes at 50k an hr, for me that's where it's at, full noise bombing descents with confidence...........The main advantage to riding this course solo, is I got to ride this descent 13 times including the practise lap................. Toooooooo much fun!

Oh ye there was a race on as well, with one absolute BIATCHE pinch climb which also had to be done 13 times, which evidently I was the 1st to the top of on lap 1, helping Paulie Van D, Willo, Adam Gibson & myself get away to an early lead,

Then lady luck chose not to shine on us, instead sending us to the bottom of the fire road right over the back of the park, resulting in a costly 9-10min detour all due to some local punks moving some bunting & some red mist not having the presence of mind to call wrong way earlier.

From there on, it was all about the chase, grabbing the 2nd fastest lap (teams included) of the day on the 2nd lap & finishing up 3rd in the end behind Evan & Phil respectively.

Lady luck choosing to look the other way on Kev(Team Kaos) in his 1st ever Mtb race, taking a nasty tumble, fracturing #3,4&5 vertibrae in his upper back, word is they are minor fractures &
he will be ok! Here's to a speedy recovery mate!

The 4stroke was again the weapon of choice, simply supurb!

Thanks again to all concerned.

Live to ride, ride to live,

Troy

Chase the Sun Rnd 2

Chase the sun was on like Donkey kong,



Thanks to mtb-images


With Joel coming down again to help me take on the star studded field as long as a Van der plog arm, of XC wippets in the Pro pairs,

Finishing up just out of the money in 4th.

Results & Pics a plenty here

Like everyone we did manage to catch the sun,

Smashing day in more ways than one,


Live to ride, ride to live,

Troy