VSS XC Rd3 Forrest

Well my first DNS for me, woke up this morning at 6am and after nearly a month off the bike with another niggling knee problem I decided that it wasnt worth risking further damage to my knee, so more painfull than the physical pain in my knee was the decision not to go to the race today but it is more important to get my knee sorted especially with Otway Odyssey coming up and a big training ride for that coming up in 2 weeks, so I will do a light ride from my place in Port Melbourne now to the SKCC Crits down the road, what better way to cheer a girl up than watching 60 male A grade cyclists getting all hot and sweaty!

VSS XC Round 2 @ Beaconsfield

Day started ok, got out there early today to make sure I was properly prepared for the race, all was well, tyres pumped up, chain lubed, had all my gear, made my way down to the start to warm up the legs a bit before the race and just rolled around the first section of the track, chatted to the usual suspects and had my usual nervous toilet breaks before the race.

It was about 5 minutes to the start of the race and I realised I hadn't checked out how many laps we had to do in our sports class, just figured it would be 2 as I rode the track the day before and knew 3 laps would be way too much. So we are discussing it on the start line and Megan tells me it is in fact 3 laps, so I am not too happy with this as it is a XC race and I can expect to race pretty hard for 1 -1 & 1/2 hours maximum but knowing it would be easily 45 minute laps for a sports class rider was figuring it would be about 2 & 1/4 race for me at least! Turns out you could add another 15 minutes to my guess, in the end I clocked up 2 hours 31 minutes which is double what the MTBA states the average for Sports class should be.
Top was unzipped a little too far here, someone remind me of this next time please!
Jane Ollernshaw and I decided to speak up and voice our opinions/concerns on the matter to which the race organiser agreed it was a good idea to drop a lap, only to be told that their timing system couldn't handle it???? Anyway, nothing to do but to just get on with it and try and do the best I can, we take off for the the first lap and I am behind Sharon but in front of Megan, got to the first steep downhill bit and Megan rode down it where I was a bit nervous and decided to walk, this gave her the advantage and she got in front, I pushed hard to get back to her and luckily the practice I had done out there the day before as Megan mucked up over the rocky section and I got in front of her again when she stopped to go over a log, this was right before a killer climb, well first lap was not that bad but next 2 were almost unbearable for me, I knew this is where I could make my get away and just pushed up the hill, I caught a glimpse of her on the downhill section as I was climbing the next hill and that was the last I had seen of her for the rest of the race, I was sure she was right behind me all the time so was pushing as much as I could, before the end of the first lap I had gone through all my water, shit!!! what rider with as much experience as I have now goes in to a race on a 30 degree day with only one bottle of water??? IDIOT! I took off for my second lap and was really feeling it, I was going to pull out once I got through the first half that leads you back to the car park, although I knew I was still in front of Megan so didn't want to but knowing I had 2 laps left and no water I knew I would do more damage than was worth to be able to say I finally beat my arch nemesis, so resigned myself to the fact that I couldn't go on without water and the race was lost, I came through the first section of the track and was heading towards the part of the track that leads to my car, literally 200 metres from my car and ready for a DNF and Ed, Jenni King's partner was there cheering me on and I stated that I couldn't go on as I had no water to which he quickly filled my bottle with his water and sent me on my way, at this stage I was already pretty dehydrated but made me feel better after having a few gulps, I got through that lap ok and finished that bottle again before the end of the lap, luckily Ed was waiting again to fill my bottle for me on way past for my last lap, I honestly couldn't have got through the lap without it and if it wasn't for him I wouldn't have finished the race, I definitely learnt my lesson there and will be better prepared next time, although if I rock up to another XC race and it looks like being more of an Enduro I will probably think twice about doing it, I want to do XC racing and not Enduro's and I can say that putting myself through 2 and half hours of racing at that intensity was not enjoyable at all an lets face it, as much as I want to win, I am really in it for the fun as much as the competitive side and if that is taken away then what's the point?
At least one of us was doing the right thing

So apart from a couple of little stacks I managed to get through the race with no major off's and 26 minutes behind first place getter Sharon and 22 minutes ahead of my friendly rival Megan, now that Megan is off the radar it's time to hunt Sharon down! :)

Struggling up a pinch climb, made it!

I can say that this was the toughest race I have done as far as the conditions, I have raced in hotter weather before but was better prepared and was 1 hour shorter than this race with less climbing, I spoke to a lot of the riders after and we were all in the same boat and looking at the amount of DNF's on the results page it definitely reflects how tough the conditions were, granted some of them were mechanicals I am sure the majority of them were physical.

Brett Henderson in action

Well done to fellow Croydon Cycleworkers Jenni King and Brett Henderson for top spot on the podium in their classes.

Thank you's for today

Ed, Ed, Ed wouldnt have done it if not for him being there at that time, and to all the riders that kept telling me that Megan was not that far off to keep me going.

Until next time Happy Biking

Kat

Kona 24 hour

Saturday 29th of November was the start date of 24 hours of pain to be concluded on the 30th, luckily for me it actually didn't involve any pain, considering it is the longest enduro I have been involved in that was quite surprising.

So Saturday morning Andrew Liu comes to collect me and my bike and 24 hours of food supplies and we head off for the sleepy town known as Forrest, arrive there and it is all very relaxed, had a chat to a few people before getting ready to ride and make our decision as to who in our team of would go first, Andrew myself and Caleb all decided Brenton should go first and considering he was not there to defend the decision it was locked in and he was to do the first lap, adding another kilometer or so to the distance of the first lap, I was second in line, I took off up the short climb at the start line and made it about half way before having to get off to walk, it became the challenge of the weekend for everyone to try and get up it without having to walk it, so the second lap I took off hard at the start to gt a good run up and change gears as I got to the steep part, well I was in too high a gear and went to change gears and a bit of chain suck ruined my effort and came to an embarrassing end on the first corner of the climb, if front of all the riders lining up at transition and the small crowd that had gathered there to watch.

So anyway the day laps went smoothly and I was feeling good, time for the night laps, this was my first time really riding at night, the only other time was when Andrew and I did a short night ride along a bike trail, hardly the same as riding the tight singletrack at Forrest, so I took off for my lap and went ok for the first part of the track that I had previously ridden in my day laps but quickly started losing confidence as I was veering all over the track, the lap seemed to take me a long time, I had no idea how long I had been out there for but it seemed like hours, I made it out on to the fire trail and was going along for a little while and accidently took a wrong turn as only I could do, anyway luckily a few riders came past and I noticed their lights going in the opposite direction to me so I turned around and got back on track, I reallyy had the sooks at this stage, I didnt like riding in the dark and the lap seemed to be taking ages, I was going along again on my own for a while and thought I had taken another wrong turn so just stopped and waited, a minute or so later I saw a light heading towards me so knew I was on the right track still so took of for the home stretch and made it to the finish about 10 minutes later, pulled in to transition and was not a happy camper, Andrew Wade and Brenton were there to welcome me back, I didnt say too much, just that I didint like it and I took off back to the tent, turns out it was an hour twenty lap so not quite as long as I thought it had taken me but still a long time out there in the dark. Caleb had pulled out and I knew there would be a few more night laps ahead for me, got back to the tent and had already decided I didnt want to do any more night laps but was still going to go ahead with it, once Brenton came back in, he had told me that Andrew's knee was not feeling too good so thought I might be in with a chance that we might pull the pin on the night laps, once Andrew came in I said I was not too keen to do another night lap and he was the same, so off to bed for me, bed being the back of Andrew's car that is, froze my butt off just walking from the tent which actually had the luxury of a heater in it, grabbed my trackies and headed straight to the showers, usually I would be a bit shy about nuding up in front of other people but there was no room for modesty in these showers so had to walk out of the shower starkers and there was another chick in there who started up a casual convo with me about random stuff with me, had a bit of a chat then headed for the comfort of the 35 buck sleeping bag purchased in a mad rush the night before and the back seat of an Alfa Romeo, was laying there wide awake and wondering whether I should go back to the tent and enjoy the atmosphere that comes with 24 hour racing, mmmm nah, the sleeping bag is nice and warm and all clean now, I will just get up early I tell myself, so try to get some sleep, just not going to happen, break out the mobile to play some solitaire and hopefully that will get me tired enough to sleep, still no go, so just layed there until I eventually fell asleep, i reckon it was 4.55 am when I finally managed to fall asleep and it was 5.01 when I woke up again! I was pretty excited about the day laps today as Marriners run was among the tracks used for today so got out and put my gear on, went and grabbed a toasted sandwich and a coffee, (the best coffee ever by the way) not the best pre race food but filled the hole anyway. Got to the tent and unlocked my bike and took it upon myself to nominate myself for the first morning lap, no arguments there, Marriners run was awesome as to be expected seemed to be a long lap again, turned out it was, I was really taking my time on this lap, after the last climb I headed back in to transition one hour and 40 minutes after I took off, Brenton took off for his lap followed by Andrew, I was hoping Andrew would not get back in till after 11am then I wouldn't go out for another, still an hour before cut off but that was crazy mixed up rule I had, a few of the other riders around were hounding me to go out and I told them my cut off time and that if Andrew didn't come in before that I would not go out, I was waiting with nervous anticipation and staring at my watch every 2 seconds, well, 10.28, 2 minutes before my suggested 'cut off time' Andrew rolls in to transition, to delay it even more I rode via the toilets for a quick pit stop and to decide whether I really wanted to go out for one more lap, yep just go for it, so took off for my final lap and got back in with 2 minutes to spare so the annoucers were hounding me to go out for one more lap, no amount of convincing would get me out there again, had really had enough, ended up 20 minutes quicker than my first lap, passed a solo rider that had ridden right through, as if that is not tough enough he was on a singlespeed, he really looked like was doing it tough, pretty inspirational really, when you take my 5 laps for the whole 24 hours and look at what he had put his body through it certainly doesnt make you feel like you have acheived much that's for sure, ut for my first 24 hour race I was pretty happy with my performance and apart from the night lap I think I did ok.

So the question is now, will I do another and the answer, well I dont know that yet, ask me next year.

I did have a great weekend though and was actually pretty relaxing, the atmosphere there is fantastic and had great company for the weekend.

Thank yous for the weekend

Thanks to my race pals, Andrew, Caleb and Brenton, race competiton and tent buddies Marissa, Ben Andrew and Stephen, official photographer Sandy and all the race goers there that offered encouragement throughout the weekend.

As always Croydon Cycleworks for their continued support.

Until next time happy biking!

Kat

Rd 1 VSS State XC Bendigo

The first round of the State XC series was held out at Bendigo this past weekend, I went in to the race very excited for a few different reasons, firstly because I enjoyed the series so much last season and could hardly wait to get back in to it again, then just cos I really enjoyed that track last year and the fact that I could test out my new bike on a track I have raced on before and hopefully after a years riding under my belt I will have drastically improved my times from last year. It was not to be, I knew at least one rider that was to be me competition for the race before I got there so knew I would struggle to beat her, turns out Sharon was to be my only competition for the race, we were started at the back of the field which suited me, Sharon and I took off and I stayed close through the first bit of single track, Sharon was not too far away and I was pushing hard to stay with her, I ended up feeling pretty crook pushing too hard to keep with her so backed off and decided to just go at my pace , next I saw of Sharon she was a fair way off and any idea I had of perhaps beating her were out the window.

Went through the end of the first lap with 2 more to go and with some familiar faces at transition cheering me on this managed to spur me on a bit, at least within seeing distance of them anyway, I knew I had no chance of winning or even coming close to it and it was really getting me down, the fact that I knew my lap times were similar to last year was really getting me down too, yes the track was a bit different to last years race but pretty much the same, so I thought I should have done a lot better than that.

Brett Henderson in action

Jenni King, 2nd Elite female
Brett is so good he can do it with his eyes closed!
My lap times were pretty woefull, first lap was 33 mins, second and third both 39 minutes, the extra 6 minutes per lap being the time I wasted stopping to let riders past, I GOTTA STOP DOING THAT!!!!! Sharon finished with lap times of 27, 28 and 29 minutes, a total of 26 minutes faster than me over the entire race

To be continued............................

On second thoughts thats all I have to say about the race, have to do the write up for the Kona and honestly cant be bothered with this one anymore, you get the idea anyway, race was run and I came last, pretty simple really.

Happy biking

Kat

Officer 6 Hour

1st place for me and my mixed 4's team, unfortunately we were the only team of that kind so cant take any credit for 1st place there.

Awesome course except for the killer hill I now know is also known as heartbreak hill and for good reason, was a toughy, didn't make it up it once but I was not the only one doing the walk of shame so dont feel too bad about it. The course had some pretty tough downhill sections that I have no doubt that if I were still riding my shitty GT I would never had made it down or perhaps would have but would have done it by going over the bars that's for sure, the new bike handles so well, it's amazing the difference it has made, my times were 8 minutes slower than the riders I am usually 15 minutes slower than so I guess if I look at it that way I am 7 minutes faster based on the new bike and I guess the training on the roadie can take some credit for it too.

So the day started off with me rocking up to the race with the new bike to show off to anyone that wanted to see it or otherwise, nobody had any choice in the matter really, I was like a proud parent showing off a new bub, so anyway first pit stop was Duncan, Dave and Rowan, Duncan felt my tire and it was pretty much dead flat and in true Kat style I had no idea about it until he pointed it out, dropped the bike off to Mick and pointed out my flat tyre and pretty much left him to it, I am so spoilt, whenever Croydon Cycleworks have the tent there I don't have to worry about anything, just rock up and race, Mick always makes sure my bike is ready to go, I can do what I do best, socialise, but there was a race on and I was very serious today and wanted to do really well on the new bike, my team consisted of Nick, Jamie Tom and myself, the guys quickly decided that I should do the first lap, yeah thanks guys! this meant that I would probably end up doing the most laps, as it turned out lap times were pretty quick and we all managed 3 laps for the day, so we take off at the start line and head up the fire trail to the first little pinch climb and here we have a huge traffic jam, very slow going here, up the climb and in to a fast downhill section followed another climb back up past the car park and down to a very step downhill run, there are alot of people watching so didn't even hesitate and hit it as fast as I could, was a bit scary but was so stoked that I made it down, my other bike would have not got me down it or might have but would have not pulled me up on the end of it that's for sure, gotta love disk brakes! After here it was off in to some sweet singletrack and that killer climb, first lap here I nearly threw up, I had a conversation with a friend the night before and his voice was in my head the whole time just telling me to go hard, so I pushed as hard as I could until it was just too steep for my wimpy legs and my lungs were just about bursting, I jumped off and walked along with the 20 other riders that were just ahead of me nearly throwing up just trying to breathe, after this section it was on to a fire trail along the dam wall and on to a very sketchy downhill bit, no point trying to do this bit half arsed, just hit Iit and hung on managing to stay upright over the loose rocks down through some more sweet singletrack and over some tough pinch climbs on to another couple of killer hills and then to my favourite part of the track, not too sure if it is so good cos you know you just have to finish this downhill bit then have one last little climb to the finish or if it really is that enjoyable,anyway it is a really fast flowy downhill section with a few little jumps and a whole lotta fun! I completed my first lap in about 38 minutes, not very fast but great for me considering I would usually be about 45 minutes on a track like that, hard to compare as I have not ridden that exact course but just know from what I would usually do compared to the others.

I had a great day and not one crash for the day, would have to be a first for me, although I had a few close calls that really would have hurt had I not managed to keep it together, I loved the course and my teammates were alot of fun, we have a new member to the Croydon Cycleworks team, Jenni King raced in a mixed pair with the very fast Brett Henderson, together they came away with the top spot for today and an awesome effort on both the parts to do as many laps as they did on that course and as quick as they did it.

The day ended with me being roped in to being the trophy giver outer at presentations, not exactly my style but helped out none the less, relaxing at home now before my first day at my new job tomorrow, after having 2 weeks off I am not at all excited about my new job, would love another 2 off! 2 weeks of shopping too so there are some big decisions to be made tonight, what to wear, what to wear????

Well that's enough of my ramblings for one night.

Thankyou's for today

Croydon Cycleworks, Mick Jamison for all his help, my team mates Nick, Jamie and Tom oh and Steve Clausen for letting me take his brand spanking new titanium Baum bike for a spin, very nice bike indeed, although not as good as the Trek Elite 9.7 of course :)

Until next time Happy Biking

Kat

I am in love!

With the new bike that is, picked it up today and took it for a spin out at Lysterfield, ah, such a dream to ride, straight away I could notice the difference in speed getting up the climbs and being able to get out of the saddle and pedal over roots which was one thing I just couldnt do on the GT, with front forks that dont work and trying to get a heavy metal bike over roots just didnt work, the Trek just glides over the top of it all and I always thought that I couldnt lift my front wheel over rocks and logs just cos I didnt have the technical skills to do it, I guess having a bike that has front forks that actually work is all I needed, was easily lifting my front wheel and bunny hopping over everything, oh, the brakes on this thing are pretty touchy too, having gone from V brakes to the disk brakes is a huge difference, nearly went over the bars the first time I really had to use them, cant wait to race this thing and see how it goes, have the Katmandu Adventure race this Saturday then the Officer 6 hour Enduro Sunday so will get plenty of racing hours in on it before the first round of the State XC at Bendigo, can hardly wait for that one!

Just want to say thanks to everyone that has helped me along the way, especially the guys at Croydon Cycleworks, I am so lucky to have their support, I have made alot of friends from being involved in this sport, they know who they are and I really appreciate their support and interest in me and my racing.

Until next time Happy biking, I know I certainly will have plenty of it on the new bike!

Kat

Round 1 MTB Nationals Adelaide

Thursday saw me and travel partner Duncan Murray head off to Adelaide for the first round of the Nationals at Eagle Mountain Bike Park, finished up my last day of work at my current job on the Thursday so after a few goodbye's I headed off to Northcote to pick up Duncan and by about 6 pm we were on the road and on our way to our first pit stop Nhill, we rocked up at the motel at about 11.30pm, was as dodgy in the room as it was from what we could see from the outside, was pretty tired from the drive so all I wanted was a nice shower and to jump in to bed, Duncan bagged the double bed and had the single, jumped in the shower only to have a light mist of water to stand under, was the worst shower ever! The curtains had cob webs all ver them and it was not all that clean, it's ok I told myself, only have to sleep and get outta here early, jumped in bed and pretty much sunk in the middle of it and that's where I stayed, could barely roll over the bed was that saggy, time to get some sleep, or so I thought, we were on the main highway with trucks roaring past every minute and the odd freight train, I reckon I managed 10 minutes of deep sleep for the whole night, could not get out of there quick enough in the morning.

So we headed off for Adelaide first thing and made it to the track for a pre ride of the course by about 11.30am, got the bikes out and took off for a spin around the track, a quick loop around the Short Course XC track then straight up in to some switchbacks, this is where I had my first stack for the weekend, nothing major but put me in one of my moods first up, Duncan made his way to the top pretty quickly and kept waiting for me to catch up to offer help over any technical stuff along the way, made it to the top and then came to my first rocky step up, mucked up again going over that and started having negative thoughts about doing the race and was wondering why I was even there, started cracking it with myself which just made me muck even more, so I had a bit of a hissy fit and just wanted to be left alone so told Duncan to go ahead and I would catch him at the end of the track, I took a few minutes to myself on the side of the track to get it together and after a bit of a climb the track led to an awesome fast section with some nice jumps and down through some really nice singletrack, this was enough to make me snap out of my mood and I really started to enjoy it from here on in. The track would actually be one my fav's now, it was alot fun and mixed with smooth and rocky sections with no massive climbs and nice downhill sections to recover.

Saturday morning comes around and it is one hour away from my race start, I am as nervous as ever and trying to calm my nerves by just hanging around watching the first race for the day and keeping myself hydrated, Duncan suggests I should head off and get changed in to my gear and go for a warm up ride, head off to get changed and the announcer starts calling all the female competitiors to the start line to get transponders fixed to their bikes, so big rush to get changed and get ready to go, get on the start line and we have about 20 minutes before our race is due to start, this is making my nerves even worse, I checked out the opposition and they looked pretty fit for Sport class, started playing the race over in my head and had a plan to try and stick behind them for the whole race then overtake if I could. We finally get called to the official start line and the gun goes off, nerves are in overdrive now, gotta stick with the bunch at least for the part where the crowd can see, found it easy to stay with them through the Short Course track and was braking most of the way through as I was too close to them so felt I could stick with them for the race if they kept that pace, that was until we hit the switchbacks, I went in to it in front of one other rider and was struggling to stay close to the other girls, had my first stack here which was what I was most worried about as there were quite a few people watching, so let the other rider in front and tried to stay with her, she got away up the climb and I caught her back on the descent, I passed her here and then she managed to catch me again on the next climb where she got back in front again, I rode my butt off throught the next downhill section and caught her again and passed her only to crash in front of her and let her get past again, washed off the dirt and blood with my water jumper back on and caught her yet again, past her again and it remained that way for the rest of the lap, I went through that lap about 3 minutes in front and was confident I could keep that lead, she caught me again on the next climb and I had another little stack and that was the end for me, I didnt catch her again after that, then the Elite women started coming through so spent alot of time pulling over to let them through.

I ended up with 3rd in Womens Sport at my first Nationals event, shame there were only 3 of us entered in the race! I heard them calling me for presentations but was too embarrassed to go up and collect my trophy for 3rd and last place so went up to collect it after, it is a cool trophy after all.

The next round of the Nat's I will be doing will be at the You Yang's so will be spending the next 6 weeks out there training when I can, hopefully will give me the home track advantage.

Overall I had a great weekend and was awesome to see the Elite guys and girls at it out there and just motivates me more to do better next time.

Kat