Ay Up! for the Mont

Just ordered some neu Ay Up! lights for the upcoming Canberra experience. After a bit of tossing around options, the Ay Ups seemed to be the best balance of reliability, function, economy, light weight (for the weight weenie I am) and fuck me, they're 'Astrayan made!!! Ridgey didge, dinky di.
More winter MTB? You bet!

1 week 'til the Mont bus leaves... woohoo!!!

Change of plan

It was decided by the 'Neenan Eckbo Confederacy' members that a 4.30am rise, 7hrs of driving and a return time of around 9pm for 2hrs of racing per rider was, well...... not on.

So the alternative was a crack'n urban epic Mullum Mullum loop. I had only riden parts of it in the past so following B.Dickey and C.Wells for the route was the call for the day. 80k's of pretty good riding with some excellent flowing sections and a few climbs. Gee the older bloke in the group can hook into that single track better than most, not bad at 58. Post ride, the legs were feeling it (not that good at only 40, harden the fuck up !!!). An bike unrelated highlight was Bruce's spotting of a couple of powerful owls near Heidleberg, them is big intense look'n birds them is.

I'll be out there again to try and retrace the tricky route (since it does come very close to work and the other end is home) but a GPS or Mullum loop experienced rider would help as there is quite a few track switches.

The team is looking strong for Canberra in 2 weeks as I got to ride with 4 of the other 5 riders over the weekend. (even if one M.Moxon is now a roady)

Get out there, the trails are great after a bit of precipitation over the last coupla weeks.

Mt Beauty 6 hour enduro

2 weeks off the bike??? hardly a break after over-training, but more a result of too many other stuffs going on. Anyway, with an invite to join the star studded (Cam Wells & Bruce Dickey) 'Neenan-Eckbo Confederacy' team for this coming weekends race, I will be turning the legs over again this week in an effort to help propel our mighty team to victory!!! Hopefully.
I always love racing at Mt Beauty and don't mind making the 3.5 hr trip to do so.
My erratic Summer of racing with little training continues.
So I think I'll go out on the fat tyres tonight for a bit of fun and skills honing.

Yay! the Mont is coming up in 3 weeks and our 'ol' fellas' team should be up there to back up our victory in the Scott. Which will prove nothing and only inflate our already healthy egos (wankers).

Roll on...

Golden Plains - festival of munters

Back in the real world (or is it?) after a fine, leisurely weekend spent with 'the First Lady of Pizza' . Firstly down the coast for a surf and then off to Meredith for tunes n beers.
Saturday night, Black Mountain kicked it off for us and set the bar high, early with their 70's inspired prog rock noise, and harmony. A consistently good You am I show also.
Sunday's highlight for us was The Old Crow Medicine Show, great country/bluegrass fun. The Drones, who I reckon should write a more appropriate 'Astrayan' national anthem, were also rock'n. Gary Numan? well, hmmm, gee Woody, don't know about that one, but it's all about variety I suppose. Good to have a few slurred words (and drinks) late with a couple of blokes who do it best (Max & Wayno, cheeers!).
A slow exit on Monday for an epic car journey to retrieve 'Pickle', getting home way too late.
Back to work...

Golden Shower Festival?

No, I don't think so. It is looking like it will be fine for the 3rd Golden Plains Music Festival, unlike last Decembers MMF which was a mud bath (glad I skipped that one).

Looking forward to soaking up the sounds with the Baroness of Northcote by my side, yeah!!!
With a few must see acts i.e. Mogwai, The Drones, Old Crow Medicine Show, Brant Bjork, You Am I, The Church, Tony Allen, Gary Numan??? and the band I'm bust'n to see live, Black Mountain from Canada, oh joy!!! No doubt there will be some great surprises, as there always is, with the lesser known acts (to me anyway).

So it's a bike free weekend (WHAT!!!) with a surf Saturday morn'n and music n beers for the rest. Looking forward to catching up with many munted mates that I don't get to see that often (what with being bike obsessed, parenting young Pickle and work).

If you're off to Golden Plains, Black Mountain'd be my pick I reckons.

HHCCC - another great event!!!

Firstly, thanks to Bruce and Steve for another slick event!
Great, well supported route and the weather was ideal (perhaps a lil' smokey but whadaya want?).
I may be actually learning to ride a little more cleverly by not getting sucked into the wrong surges or breaks (I know it's an event, not a race, but seriously, everyone at the pointy end is racing).
Taking it easy and riding tempo for the first 58k stage was the plan and was adhered to, great warm up.
12.30pm saw the start to the Mansfield to Mt Buller stage and the lead bunch rolled out to Merrijig relatively slowly (excellent). The surges and breaks came from there on in. A break of 4 was let go first, then the Sram boys (Rob and Dan) went. I had a crack at Pinacle Valley with no takers and by Changue Rd decided it was pointless and sat back in the bunch. Mirimbah servo was time to go and 3 of us chased. I settled into solid climbing tempo and felt pretty good, catching the Sram boys about half way up. There was no looking back now, no cramps, no dehydration, I crossed the line in 5th place. Gez Mc Hugh apparently not to far behind, and the strong riding Tim Ross also up there, top work chaps.
A quick massage, chat a few buddies, load up with new biddons and back down the mountain at a rate of knots (much to a few riders surprise on their way up) into a bit of a smokey head wind back to Mansfield.
Unfortunately no staying on the mountain this year to ham it up and no Sunday stage as Coco was waiting for her Dad in Melbourne (thanks Nanny Dee).

Again, an event not to be missed!

A no-bike weekend coming up as Golden Plains is next weekend and probably a few waves on Saturday as there should be a pretty solid swell on the way.

Lets hope all goes well and there are no more lives or property loss due to the predicted extreme weather tonight/tomoz. Shit! I'm flying to Sydney in the morning...