Mountainless Mountain Bike Riding
First up it was Thursday yesterday, so dirt crit night. Russel Collett (Kona) made an appearance last night along with most of the regulars and managed to set a cracking pace early on which we where all forced to try to respond to. Some did, and some didn't. A small group formed up the front with Russel, Matt, myself and Erin who was dangling off the back but not far enough away to ignore. With a bit of hard riding and some thick lap traffic we made it a race of three which would stay together almost to the end. With less than 2km remaining on the last lap and less than a bike length between the three of us and myself leading into the last section of single track it was time for something desperate! We all got bunched up behind a slower rider which just happened to Matts Dad (chance for some Father/Son tactics on their part). I saw a small gap and went for it, just making it past Eric but not leaving enough room for the other two, I had a gap, now I just needed to hold it. So I gave it everything I had left and it was just enough to get me over the line for another win with Matt and Russ not far behind. It was one of the hardest but most enjoyable races I've had down there, hopefully there will be more of the same to come.
Sorry about the delay, but here you go. Last week I headed up to my home town of Mildura to run a skills clinic for the local Mountainless Bike Club. The club was set up a few years ago and runs club races and organised social rides around the district which is good to see people getting into Mountain Bike riding even if the Mountain part of the landscape is a little bit light on up there. The skills clinic was run on Saturday morning next to the Coomealla Golf Club right on the banks of the Murray River, also the site of the local XC track. The turn out was pretty good with a wide range of ages and skill levels. There was even rain which was a nice surprise, although not enough to make mud or break droughts.
We started out with some cornering skills through some witches hats and then moved on the biggest "mountain" on the course, yes I did hear it described as a mountain by someone who shall remain nameless, for some climbing practice. I was greeted with some shocked faces when I suggested we ride up this so called mountain.
Climbing Mt Coomealla
The log in the middle of the track made this little climb just a bit trickier but everyone gave it a crack.
The next Paul Van Der Ploeg in the making?
Some rolling mounds to give the arms and legs something to do. At race pace one of these turned into a very cool jump with the perfect down ramp.
And to finish off we all rode a lap of the course to have a practice on some of the other obstacles out there. One of which was a really nice drop off, the Virtue One was just begging for it with all its travel neatly tucked away, it almost got nasty with a dodgy landing (check out the rear tire on landing) but everything held up and I stayed upright.
Demonstrating the faster racing line over the log. This line was harder than it looked, a log hop right after a fast right hand corner with a tree that you had to duck, but a whole lot of fun.
I think everyone enjoyed the skills session, and hopefully learnt something which could be used the following day during the race which was held at the same location.
The turn out for the race was small by Melbourne standards, but we weren't in Melbourne. Race start was at 10am and with only a short drive from home it was nice to have a little bit of a sleep in before a race for a change. The course was also very different to anything we are normally used to, there was no climbing and no rocks but plenty of sand and clay, which was dry so it was just a different style of sand, the predictable grip and drift of the Hutchinson Tires was a nice thing to have beneath me. The course, while not very technical, had some really fun sections of single track and a couple of nice jumps in its 5km length. I had 5 laps to dispatch with, a number that is sometimes tricky to count to for Ash and myself, along with a few other people also in my category. After a short warm up it was time to race. I got out in front from the start and managed to stay there till the end. I finished off 5 mins ahead of second with a race time of around 56 mins and consistent 11ish min laps.
So thanks to Ian, Grant, Mike and everyone else from the Mountainless Bike Club for a fun weekend. If anyone is heading up to Mildura in the future, take your bike, it'll give you something to do in between all the wine tasting.
Sorry about the delay, but here you go. Last week I headed up to my home town of Mildura to run a skills clinic for the local Mountainless Bike Club. The club was set up a few years ago and runs club races and organised social rides around the district which is good to see people getting into Mountain Bike riding even if the Mountain part of the landscape is a little bit light on up there. The skills clinic was run on Saturday morning next to the Coomealla Golf Club right on the banks of the Murray River, also the site of the local XC track. The turn out was pretty good with a wide range of ages and skill levels. There was even rain which was a nice surprise, although not enough to make mud or break droughts.
We started out with some cornering skills through some witches hats and then moved on the biggest "mountain" on the course, yes I did hear it described as a mountain by someone who shall remain nameless, for some climbing practice. I was greeted with some shocked faces when I suggested we ride up this so called mountain.
Climbing Mt Coomealla
The log in the middle of the track made this little climb just a bit trickier but everyone gave it a crack.
The next Paul Van Der Ploeg in the making?
Some rolling mounds to give the arms and legs something to do. At race pace one of these turned into a very cool jump with the perfect down ramp.
And to finish off we all rode a lap of the course to have a practice on some of the other obstacles out there. One of which was a really nice drop off, the Virtue One was just begging for it with all its travel neatly tucked away, it almost got nasty with a dodgy landing (check out the rear tire on landing) but everything held up and I stayed upright.
Demonstrating the faster racing line over the log. This line was harder than it looked, a log hop right after a fast right hand corner with a tree that you had to duck, but a whole lot of fun.
I think everyone enjoyed the skills session, and hopefully learnt something which could be used the following day during the race which was held at the same location.
The turn out for the race was small by Melbourne standards, but we weren't in Melbourne. Race start was at 10am and with only a short drive from home it was nice to have a little bit of a sleep in before a race for a change. The course was also very different to anything we are normally used to, there was no climbing and no rocks but plenty of sand and clay, which was dry so it was just a different style of sand, the predictable grip and drift of the Hutchinson Tires was a nice thing to have beneath me. The course, while not very technical, had some really fun sections of single track and a couple of nice jumps in its 5km length. I had 5 laps to dispatch with, a number that is sometimes tricky to count to for Ash and myself, along with a few other people also in my category. After a short warm up it was time to race. I got out in front from the start and managed to stay there till the end. I finished off 5 mins ahead of second with a race time of around 56 mins and consistent 11ish min laps.
So thanks to Ian, Grant, Mike and everyone else from the Mountainless Bike Club for a fun weekend. If anyone is heading up to Mildura in the future, take your bike, it'll give you something to do in between all the wine tasting.
posted by Jack Lamshed at 7:03 pm
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