Officer that was....
(Firstly, apologies for the slight lack of pictorial evidence, but the rain put paid to too much spare time for GV Race Tech to gallop around capturing the moment. He was working 10 to the dozen maintaining 4 bikes in a exceptionally short space of time, tirelessly, and he is a SUPERSTAR- do you hear that- SUPERSTAR)
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Well wasn't that a special one!! All the shades of winter in one day!
At the Fat Tyre Flyers Officer 6 Hour, Felt Racing fielded 2 two man teams comprising of Ash and Jack, and in Felt 1 was Paul, with special guest Jamie Paisley who is also involved with the National Junior Program.
Dawning quite nicely, the day rapidly turned to hell, with a shower to start the race, and to herald the storms that followed.
Much like Ballan, the course suffered with the intermittant rain, wetting the top layer and turning it to clay, with a hard layer beneath. Mud tyre runners prospered! With a ridiculous situation of 1 toilet, little if any paper, and a pre-race jitters, the mens queue got silly, quickly, and the resulting warmup consisted of a run back to the tent to get geared up. I guess that the running was a good warmup in actual fact, as the Le Man start was a delicious uphill sprint to the bikes, coming within a bee's bits of being utterly ridiculous, and away we all went.
Paul Van Der Ploeg - Rocking the next generation Felt Uniform
With Felt 1's Paul Van Der Ploeg and Ash right in the mix, the two Felt teams punched out great out-laps in the slippery conditions, with finding traction difficult to climb, descend or corner. Bascially riding a bike was made quite difficult, and the constant lashings of mud served as a reminder of the season we are in...
All the results can be found in full on the Fatties site, in an easy to read format here but in summation, I'm proud to announce that the Felt Racing team finished a fantastic 3rd overall/in class, which further assists in the series points chase (2nd currently) and the Felt Racing 1 team of Paul and Jamie finished an incredible 2nd overall/ in class, a mere 6 minutes gap to the other Felt Team. So Felt Racing finished 2nd and 3rd on course, as well as in class, and along with Specialized were the only teams to complete 14 laps in the 6 hours!!
Exciting moments during the race that I can recall would be a good way to capture the race, as my recollection is hazy. I'm working to block it out as a muddy slush fest.
- Seeing Winny
out the back of the course was a highlight during a wet day, and I'm sure that the solo riders all enjoyed his comedic banter, through the traffic cone. I swear someone left the gate open to let him out some days. But to sweat the details, its good to see him rockin the Doper Suck tee!
-Some of the amazing axings that I noticed on the course; people centrepunching trees, sliding down the drops on hands/knees/bums/heads , one BSC rider haveing a great lose from a substantial height into a creek, a young rider climbing back out of the shrubs and onto the boardwalk having had a huge highside, and to cap it all off, Felt's own Jack pulling the full 'chippendale' knee slide down the hill, only to use his knees as an airbag against a substantial and immobile tree!
-The solo guys and girls- surely they must be getting sick of muddy races? Maybe, but it doesn't stop them having fun! Andy Bell's standard response of 'great, thanks for asking' at the top of his lungs, was always a winner! Congrats to all the racers, solo or otherwise, that finished! Your drivetrain hates you...
-Bad luck central? Felt 1's Jamie double flatting on the same rock? Thats gotta suck, lucky he had two cartridges! Joel Read exploding his derailleur was nasty, but I think that everyone suffered some form of difficulty out there!
And the cleanup doesn't stop! Monday back at HQ, all the stinky wet gear got a good wash, and how good was the sun?!? Sensational!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well wasn't that a special one!! All the shades of winter in one day!
At the Fat Tyre Flyers Officer 6 Hour, Felt Racing fielded 2 two man teams comprising of Ash and Jack, and in Felt 1 was Paul, with special guest Jamie Paisley who is also involved with the National Junior Program.
Dawning quite nicely, the day rapidly turned to hell, with a shower to start the race, and to herald the storms that followed.
Much like Ballan, the course suffered with the intermittant rain, wetting the top layer and turning it to clay, with a hard layer beneath. Mud tyre runners prospered! With a ridiculous situation of 1 toilet, little if any paper, and a pre-race jitters, the mens queue got silly, quickly, and the resulting warmup consisted of a run back to the tent to get geared up. I guess that the running was a good warmup in actual fact, as the Le Man start was a delicious uphill sprint to the bikes, coming within a bee's bits of being utterly ridiculous, and away we all went.
Paul Van Der Ploeg - Rocking the next generation Felt Uniform
With Felt 1's Paul Van Der Ploeg and Ash right in the mix, the two Felt teams punched out great out-laps in the slippery conditions, with finding traction difficult to climb, descend or corner. Bascially riding a bike was made quite difficult, and the constant lashings of mud served as a reminder of the season we are in...
All the results can be found in full on the Fatties site, in an easy to read format here but in summation, I'm proud to announce that the Felt Racing team finished a fantastic 3rd overall/in class, which further assists in the series points chase (2nd currently) and the Felt Racing 1 team of Paul and Jamie finished an incredible 2nd overall/ in class, a mere 6 minutes gap to the other Felt Team. So Felt Racing finished 2nd and 3rd on course, as well as in class, and along with Specialized were the only teams to complete 14 laps in the 6 hours!!
Exciting moments during the race that I can recall would be a good way to capture the race, as my recollection is hazy. I'm working to block it out as a muddy slush fest.
- Seeing Winny
out the back of the course was a highlight during a wet day, and I'm sure that the solo riders all enjoyed his comedic banter, through the traffic cone. I swear someone left the gate open to let him out some days. But to sweat the details, its good to see him rockin the Doper Suck tee!-Some of the amazing axings that I noticed on the course; people centrepunching trees, sliding down the drops on hands/knees/bums/heads , one BSC rider haveing a great lose from a substantial height into a creek, a young rider climbing back out of the shrubs and onto the boardwalk having had a huge highside, and to cap it all off, Felt's own Jack pulling the full 'chippendale' knee slide down the hill, only to use his knees as an airbag against a substantial and immobile tree!
-The solo guys and girls- surely they must be getting sick of muddy races? Maybe, but it doesn't stop them having fun! Andy Bell's standard response of 'great, thanks for asking' at the top of his lungs, was always a winner! Congrats to all the racers, solo or otherwise, that finished! Your drivetrain hates you...
-Bad luck central? Felt 1's Jamie double flatting on the same rock? Thats gotta suck, lucky he had two cartridges! Joel Read exploding his derailleur was nasty, but I think that everyone suffered some form of difficulty out there!
And the cleanup doesn't stop! Monday back at HQ, all the stinky wet gear got a good wash, and how good was the sun?!? Sensational!
posted by Ash Thomas at 7:18 pm
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