Felt As Far As The Eye Can See

The Beechworth Chain Gangs Six Hours In The Saddle was run this past Saturday at the magnificent Beechworth MTB Park just out of town. This is always a great race and this years didn't disappoint, the track was good, the turnout was huge and the racing was fast. We welcomed back to the fold out little Rocket ship Paul for this race so we where able to run two teams of two, Ash and Paul, and Jack and Jason.

The day started early with a quick trip to the race site to get ourselves a good spot before the crowds arrived, and did they come! Then it was back to our nice cosy cottage to get ready for the race.

Felt Racing track side HQ for the day

For the first time Paul wasn't the last to show up to a race, and I was left wondering where Jason way for a while. He made it and we where ready to go. Jason and Paul where sent out on first lap duties while Ash and I tried to have a better warm up than the week before.

Paul going out hard on the first lap

Jason close behind

The race plan was to do double laps due to the short lap times expected of under half an hour. Paul had a flying first lap along with Brendan Sharratt from the Ballarat Cyclecity - Felt team, with Jason not far behind. A flat tire for Paul at the start of his second lap meant a good chase for Ash to catch Jason.

Smooth change over

Early on it was close between the top four teams which also included the Specialized guys, two flats in one lap cost them a lot of time and put them out of the race for a podium finish. Our two teams managed to put in some consistent lap times as the day went on which gave us a bit of a gap to the Ballarat Felt team.

Ash enjoying the single track

The race continued like clock work after the small hick up at the start. Gerald was keeping our bike running nicely while we had a ball riding such a fun track which had a little bit of everything. There was fast flowing single track, slow tight corners, rocks, berms, roots, climbing, fast descents and a set of really good jumps which the Virtue One's loved (so did the riders). The Virtue bikes and the Hutchinson Piranha tires where a great combo for the course, with the light weight, endless travel and predictable grip it made riding much easier for us.

The traffic was thick but everyone was playing nice

Paul down low and loving it

Is it a bird?

Paul on another berm

After six hours of racing it was time to decide the winner, and it was the job of Ash and myself to ride the last lap. Ash had a couple of minutes lead, and I had a gel and a can of coke in me that was telling me I could catch him. It lied.

Felt Racing 1 and 2, not bad day out

It was a great result for Felt Racing, with Ash and Paul taking the win and Jack and Jason second. The podium was finished off by the Ballarat Cyclecity - Felt team, so a Felt lined podium and 13 of the 20 fastest laps on Felt bikes is a very nice result. It was also good to see quite a few other riders getting around on Felts.

A big thanks to the Beechworth Chain Gang who put on another great race. Thanks also to Gerald for setting up, packing up and fixing any problems with our bikes, and Em and Tessa for helping with food and drinks.

Some of us where quite tired by the end of the race

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