The Mont 24 wrap up

What a crack'n weekend of racing and laughs!
The trip up took in such high (and low) lights as The Holbrook Settler, the noisiest motel ever (so no sleep there) and the Coffee at Niagra Cafe in Gundagai (2x *%#'n strong coffee, off me chops was I).
Straight out to the track Friday with a coupla bonding practice laps with 5/6ths of the motley crew that was the 'Optical Illusion' (sans Chris H). The course was seriously the greatest enduro track ever (especially if you don't like the climbing bits of MTBing). At 18km's long our reasonably paced laps took around 55mins, ish. Lighly undulating, well routed, smooth pine forrest floor mostly but not much tech, unless travelling at top speeds.
Blah, blah, blah, Friday night pizza and beer with much bike/race verbal crapola flowing (love it!)
Rain overnight.
Arrival at the track on Saturday was met with a bit of dampness underfoot but a warm-up roll around revealled perfect track conditions.
Tim had a crack'n first lap (including run) and put us right up there and we never looked back. Great to see Malachi back on the fat tyres, let's hope to see more of his experience & smoooth lines on the dirt.
Bruce Dickey was solid and consistent as ever. Cam Wells and Chris Haydon both in great form.
Many laughs were had, many fast laps on an ideal course (the best ever enduro course in my opinion) and the result we were after, finishing a full 3 laps ahead of the competition.
We also would have finished 6th or 7th in open which is a fair effort for a team with an average age of 48. Blah, blah, blah.

I am in for next year.... no doubt at all.

Looking forward to the BMC 100k marathon at Woodend on the 19th April.

Keep peddling! (and breathing)

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...

Holden High Country Cycle Challenge

Get on board this one as it is the best run bike event with a great format in the beautiful high country around Mansfield. The 2nd stage from Mansfield to the Mt Buller village, is a good opportunity to put to bed any arguments over who is the strongest climber amongst ya mates.
Saturday night on the mountain is a cracker!

Otway Odyssey - more wash up

Oops! Well done to all the other MMBCC members that raced Tom and Dan McMunn that supported each other and finished together in 103rd and 104th overall. Also Richard Eisner in 339th place, I think that's all. Good work lads!!!

Otway Odyssey - the wash up.

What a buzz it is to be one of 1750 MTBers willing to test themselves on what is a pretty hard day on the bike, no matter what the conditions. I truely marvell at the wide variety of riders and skills that take this one on. Yeah, yeah, there's the elite riders that train for it and finish sub 5 hours but it's also the riders that are average recreational cyclists that can spend 9 or 10 hours out there, I dips me lid to all of ya!
Yes, it wasn't as hard a slog as last year in the mud but still, well..... hard! And what a race of many parts it is, a significant bitumen climb, steep 4wd climbs, fast water rutted descents, sweeet singletrack climbs and descents, sand, just about everything except rocks I suppose.
My race started probably a bit slow (for a change) but probably too slow and lost a bit of time on the initial climbs (ya really gotta train on climbs to blitz the climbs but anyways). The pace was pretty hard from the get go and I decided to hold back and save for the true MTBing, the singletrack. Cramping is not something that usually affects me much but *#%! me, it did on Saturday, from the 35k - 60k I had to nurse the legs through but after the first transition at the 65k mark, it was game on, trying to peg back some riders I wasn't feeling too bad and the caffeine kept me pretty wired. The final 13k section climb seemed to never end and I was weary of going over the bars on the final descent as was the case last year. Not before time, I raced to the end with no idea of time or position, releived. 5hours 51mins 45secs, 71st position overall and 9th in vets catagory. I'm pretty happy with that considering I would be lucky to get 100 -150k's in for a week and certainly haven't been doing any MTB marathon stuff. (...but we've all got our excuses).
Deano Bravo cruised in, all smiles, in 388th posi overall, in a time of 7:31:00, great work bruva considering the bike has taken a distant back seat of late.
Gezza arrived in 238th posi, 6:51:23 after the start, and after throwing down the challenge last year to beat the Kellett boys, ya gunna have to get on the programme now for next years race.
As predicted, Jongers smoked it again, in 4:30:46, confirming that yes he is a robot but I hear he did put on his granny ring for the race (perhaps I should have also, doh!).
Great day, great race, I'll be back next year, well done to all fellow riders, just finishing is a considerable achievement in my books.
Great to have Mum, Dad, Becko, Sassy & Nina Jean there for support, thanks muchly it was greatly appreciated.
Holden High Country Cycle Challenge next Saturday, (it's an event and not a race you know).
Bruce and Steve run a stellar event, get on board the Buller train Saturday arvo and hit the tins on Saturday night, beer and bikes, a match made in heaven. Always love going up to ride with my cycling country cousins (fellow club members), let's just hope for weather under 30degrees.

Otway Odyssey... again getting on board the train o painnnnn

In 2 days time the heart rate will be up, up and away yet again in what is a cracker of a test of ones mettle. 999 others munters and I will tackle the 100km's of extremely varied terrain of this Otway race and another 750 riders covering shorter distance versions. With a strong drive to perform better than 51st place last year and this year cracking into the 40 - 49yr old bracket, my expectations are high, even though I've probably been training less than last year but we'll just have to see ay.
Deano Bravo is back and has a date with the monster that is the Odyssey after crashing out last year on an extremely slippy descent. Gez has been training hard (lots o secret miles working for Worldtrail me thinks) and has put out the challenge to smash the Kellett lads, good luck with that.
Weather should be spot on, low 20s and possible morning showers. I reckon the winning elite time's gunna be &*%k'n quick, under 5hours me thinks and I just can't see anyone beating Jongers for the honour (and $$$), he's is a robot you know.
Lots to organise still.
Preparation is paramount.
All the best to all competitors.
Look out nemisis (you know who you are)