Castlemaine Rocky Riders Mountain Bike Club

Conditions for the 2011 Garmin 24 Hour at Redesdale were perfect – for bike shops. New chain or brake-pads anyone? Moments before the starting gun a large downpour left the trails wet but “not too bad”. With steady showers all afternoon the trails couldn’t cope and it officially became a mud-fest.

By night my team were contemplating third helpings of a home-made lasagne but our sibling team Better Out Than In were scheduling their ride to get through the night. I wasn’t sure whether to envy or pity them. I decided on pity. As we climbed into goose down sleeping bags, they headed out on their team lap. Two hours 15 minutes later they returned after a set of lights went dead and a puncture. But on and on they went and by morning the rain had gone and the sun was shining. The trails were dry and fun. It couldn’t be anymore different from yesterday. Was it the same race?

By 12pm Better Out Than In had ridden to 2nd place in the Men’s Super-Six category. Top effort gents.

In the Solo Single Speed category Al Gribble rode to 3rd place and is now officially the Rocky Riders’ hardman’s hardman. How he stayed the course in such challenging conditions is anyone’s guess? Congrats to Al and hopefully his post-race recovery is going well.

In the Threesomes Open Mike Back with this team took out first place with an impressive 23 laps. Congrats to Mike and his team mates.

We’ll be back next year. Hopefully the rain won’t be.

Go to the FGP website for a full listing of results.

Castlemaine local Courtney Shinn recently won the solo female category at the 2011 Scott Australian 24 Hours Mountain Bike Championships in Canberra. Congrats to Courtney and her support crew on her win. We caught up with Courtney to hear from her about the race.

How did your recovery go (physically and mentally)?
I recovered a lot better than my previous two 24’s, I was back on the bike after 2 days rest however soon realised that was a bit keen and had a few more rest days!! I am having 3 weeks of just easy recovery rides and then I’ll get back into it with some harder rides and a few races. Mentally it has been hard to not ride my bike and to take it easy! I spent March – July injured. I wasn’t able to do one single ride in 5 months and ended up having hip surgery. Having that massive break I came to appreciate just how much riding is a massive part of my life. Not being able to ride and then having only 12 weeks of training under my belt I guess this race didn’t have a toll on me mentally. Physically it took a few days for my hands, wrists, back, butt, thumbs, shoulders and feet to recover!! The course was so rocky that it was more my upper body that copped a hammering in the race.

During the race what thoughts are going through your head at 3am?
The only time I remember feeling a bit low was very briefly at 2am, I was starting to feel really tired and began to worry that I was going to fall asleep riding and have a massive stack. It was during that 1 lap that things started to feel a bit “slow-mo” and I started to think how nice it would be to be tucked up in bed. Those thoughts didn’t last long however when I remembered my support crew were probably doing it tougher than me; at least I got to ride my bike!! I knew that Dave, Loki and Al had put in serious time, effort and belief in me and I couldn’t let them down. That was my slowest lap and when I came in to the pit my support crew decided I needed a 15 minute recharge break, so I sat down and had a big bowl of gnocchi, a neck massage and a no-doz. After that I was wide awake and loving it again.

How did you feel at first light?
First light’s always a good time. I absolutely love riding at night but I guess you do start to look forward to first light when you’ve been riding in darkness for close to 12 hours. I guess first light was also a bit nerve wracking in that my race plan was to feel good at 6am and then up the tempo and go harder. I knew I still had 6 hours of racing left and that’s really when the race began. I figured I was going to have to put myself in the hurt box for those last 6 hours!

In your mountain biking future is The Tour Divide still a possibility (4400km race across Canada and the USA)?
Absolutely! The plans are already starting to be made for that race, we were planning on racing it next year however in light of winning tickets over to Italy we’re going to do Ride the Divide possibly the year after. Our training for Ride the Divide has already started as we have been heading out on overnight bike packing trips. We are going on a bike packing 3 week trip over Summer in New Zealand and in July myself, my husband and a close friend are going to ride from Adelaide to Darwin in 15 days to raise money and awareness for Bicycles for Humanity, an organisation that sends bikes over to Africa to help people become more self sufficient. I guess those trips involve spending lots of hours in the saddle which will help towards getting prepared for Ride the Divide.

You’re entitled to compete at the 24 Hour World Champs in Italy. Will you go and if so what are your ambitions?
I think I’d be silly not to make the most of that fantastic opportunity. We’ll head over in May, they have the solo race followed by a team’s race the next weekend which I’d love to do with my support crew. In terms of ambitions I’ll be seeing how the next few months pan out and be a lot smarter with my training to ensure I don’t get injured.

What are your words of advice for anyone contemplating a solo 24 hour?
For anyone contemplating doing a 24hour solo my advice would be JUST DO IT!! The nature of the race is great in that you can stop and have a break for as long or as little as you like, you’ve really got nothing to lose and everything to gain by having a go! If you want to do well in a 24 hour all you need to do is PACE yourself and get the right amount of energy in! It all comes down to hydration, nutrition and pacing yourself. Its crazy the number of people who go nuts for the first 6 hours and then are passed out in their tent for hours!! Even if you go 10 minutes slower each lap you’re going to do a hell of a lot more laps if you’re out there riding most of the time. Also, having recharge breaks whether they’re 5minutes or 30 minutes will help. At the end of the day it depends on what your goals are as to how you’ll ride or race but just get out there and have a crack!!

What races are you next competing in?
I’m heading up to do the Gravity 12 hour in two weeks, not sure if I’ll race it solo or in a pair. At the end of January I’m racing Wildside in Tasmania, and then Otway Odyssey and I’m keen to do as many of the Victorian State Enduro Series as possible. Looking at the race calendar for next year there’s so many races including 100km’s, enduro’s and stage races there’s loads to choose from so I can’t wait!!

What’s your favourite trail in Castlemaine and when will be see you next?
That’s a hard question, there are SO many AWESOME trails in Castlemaine. My parents live about 100m from the water race trail so I ride that a lot, and love doing the GDT to the chocolate factory in Daylesford. However Jubbaland certainly holds a special place, I have spent a lot of time practicing my skills there. I remember trying to go up a rocky climb and it took my 27 goes before I finally got up without unclipping! Also, going over the A line drop off there is still one of my greatest achievements on a mountain bike! It took me nearly 12 months to build up the courage to go off the thing!! The Baco trails and the Pineys are wicked fun also; pretty much any ride with Rocky Riders crew is awesome fun! I’m taking a group of students on the Great Victorian Bike Ride so will be in town for the finish of that at the start of December, but will only have the roadie. As soon as the school term is over (22/12) I’ll be straight back home and hitting the trails!

By day you’re a secondary school teacher. How was the news of your win received by your students?
Yeah they were pretty pumped, some of them had seen the interview with abc on telly so were excited to know “someone famous.” Orbost doesn’t have many cyclists so they don’t really get what it’s about. I went and spoke to students at the School for Student Leadership which is an outdoor ed school in Marlo where we live and they were pretty impressed, the girls had loads of questions and seemed really motivated afterwards which was great to see.

If you’re in town on a Thursday will you come and join us at a Dirt Crit?
When I see the Dirt Crits posted on facebook every Thursday I get sad that I’m not in Castlemaine. I really miss not being there and being able to ride and race on such amazing tracks with such awesome people. (We are trying our hardest to get our butts back there in the near future to live). Living in a town where there’s no cycling club, trails and it’s not really valued has made us appreciate how wonderful Castlemaine is!

Some quick stats about Courtney’s race:

• Completed 24 laps, 2nd place did 23 laps and 3rd place did 18 laps
• Covered 336km’s which included 6km of vertical climbing
• Stopped for 5 mins at 8pm, then 15 mins at 3am
• Didn’t hit the lead until 6.30am

Read more about Courtney’s race on her blog.

Six Rocky Riders were at the start line of the 2011 You Yangs Yowie. Well over 200 competitors showed up to test the newly re-opened You Yangs trails and we can report that they’re awesome.

Open Men 66km – 105 starters

• 16th – Mike Back, 3:26:02
• 24th – Andrew Bos, 3:35:16
• 26th – Ben Bailey, 3:37:48
• 29th – Aaron Davies, 3:42:23

Open Men 33km – 67 starters

• 36th – Ian McGuffie, 2:01.29
• 48th – Mordy Bromberg, 2:12:41

Photos on Geelong’s Flickr stream and a full listing of results are on their website.

Thanks to Geelong Mountain Bike Club for hosting an excellent event. Rocky Riders will be back next year. It was well worth the drive from Castlemaine.

For the sixth year running, the Rocky Riders delivered a ripper of a day for the Cycle Concepts Castlemaine 6-Hour Enduro.

A slighty more subdued Saturday night still saw around 80 or so campers enjoying the bush surrounds and Big Ted’s bonfire work. The 16-inches were out again, with lazarus Al Farley taking the coin for the second time in his 16-inch career.

Greeted by perfect conditions Sunday, around 300 riders took to the track. A huge pack of dirtmasters assembled under the Scott/Avanti arch for the 20 minute crit around the paddock. Some short cutting was observed, but no protests lodged, and all went home with some loot.

In the big peoples race, there were some dinky die battles between riders and the rocks, as well as between competing riders. Both the male and female solo winners, Adrian Jackson and Peta Mullens, had their opposition under control all day. AJ even pulled into transition to fix a puncture on lap two and didn’t loose his lead. David Rusden rode a calculated race to take the lead about 5 hours in to take the 40+ male solo category. Great to see Troy Bailey back with a race number on taking 3rd in the 40+ behind Tim Jamieson. Search2Retain smashed the opposition in the Male Pairs, even with Jack rolling into transition ready to hit the trail until his teammate Luke Fetch (who dominated the fastest lap leaderboard) pointed out Jack was sans helmet!

There was some hot to trot racing in the other teams categories. Melissa Anset and Erica Gurner closely chased KingFisher all day, while FitzMix’s Duncan & Amity took the mixed pairs by going out for an extra lap just before the 6 hour mark. The Men’s triples was a top battle between two local teams. The rocky rider team of Al “Lazarus” Farley, Darren “Boxer” Kruger and Jack “really, i’m only 15″ Nettleton held off Marty “Jubber” Dzioba and his woodend mates.

The fully riged 29er types slogged away all day, but will likely leave them at home and utilise the great advancement of gears and suspension next time round. Cam Winn may have no choice after his downtube sheared in half.

A huge thank-you to our sponsors, Cycle Concepts Castlemaine, Theatre Royal, Goldfields Track, Vaughan Springs Vineyard, Plaistow Homestead B&B, Henry of Harcourt, Hepburn Bathhouse & Spa and Scott/Avanti/Kenda.

Also a big thank-you to all the volunteers who gave up their weekend to make it happen, including MC Tim Sheedy who made the trek up from Northcote High t “Northcote North” for the sixth consecutive year.

Results are here.

Some photos from our marshalls can be found here and here.

Next round of the Goldcross Victorian Enduro Series is being hosted by the Dirtriders at Beaconsfield on Sunday 25th of September. Details available on the VES page.

Andrew Bos made the trip to the You Yangs for round 3 of the Interwinter Series. Here’s his race report.

A week after the official reopening of the Youies the third and final round of this year’s Interwinter series was hosted by GMBC at the Stockyards. In stark contrast to Rounds 1 and 2 the weather was ideal. Warm sunshine, a cool breeze and NO MUD!

Around 100 riders fronted up for a crack at the staged format. A, B and C grades would complete an ITT, XCO and XCC. In his first race back from injury (actually each ride tends to be a return from injury these days!) this rider signed up in B-grade and lined up at the back of the field for the ITT.

The organisers had prepared 3 separate ITT courses for each grade each starting in the vicinity of the main car park. The A-grade course looked like a hell climb followed by a hell descent, the C-grade course was on fairly flat flowing trails whilst the B-grade course was something in between. Having arrived at the Youies 30mins earlier than anticipated I had taken the opportunity to ride the B-grade course as a warm up and was glad I had. The extent of changes to the trails became apparent very quickly with many sections being completely rerouted. The first section of the ITT headed straight up Vomit Hill, no changes here with the legs and lungs screaming for respite by the top. A quick right onto Boulder Track and gravity took over.  The ‘gate’ near the top has been given a makeover and provides lesser riders (aka yours truly) the opportunity to pass without walking if hit with the correct line and speed. Having successfully negotiated this during my earlier warm up I was perhaps complacent when arriving for a second tilt. Of course I binned it, cost myself a good 15 seconds trying to extricate myself from my bike and traversed the remainder of the obstacle by foot. But I am happy to say that was to be the only involuntary dismount for the day. The descent (from here) was awesome. Big berms made by big machines provided super flow and massive rocky outcrops added to the roller coaster effect. Riders could be heard screaming with joy at various points along the descent which fed us back out near the start line. A somewhat more subdued lap of the quarry added another couple of kms to the course and it was all over in around 12mins. I was happy with 17^th out of 45 riders.

A 45min break allowed for some recovery before the XCO. All 3 grades would ride the same 5.5km course. A-grade would complete 4 laps, B-grade 3 laps and C-grade 2 laps. The B-graders headed out 30 secs after A-grade and with little ambition I trundled along at the rear of the field. The Inner Loop  single track started all too early and by the time we’d arrived at the base of Lactic Acid it was a car park. Anyway it was a lovely day to be stuck on the side of a hill taking in the scenery. From half way up Lactic Acid you can get a good appreciation for just how much damage the rain has caused. In some parts of the Stockyards area it appears as though whole sections of ground have simply slid down the hill. Massive erosion lines can be seen in all directions, particularly around the perimeter of the quarry pit where lack of vegetation has left the sandy base totally unstable.

After a few sections of hike-a-bike we reached the top of Lactic Acid and I was able to pick up a few places along Stockyards Rd across to Cressy Climb….which we descended. This descent was the highlight of the day. Cressy’s is basically Boulder on steroids. Much of the old trail has been retained but berms and jumps have been reshaped such that you simply don’t need to touch the brakes….oh except for the new drop offs. There are 2 successive step-downs not far into the run which require some close attention (ie. I nearly binned it again) but after this you can let fly. From the base of Cressy’s we shot straight across to Quarry Pit which has been completely rerouted. I didn’t really recognise much of this trail at all. This was previously one of the more difficult of the intermediate runs which climbed some distance up onto the hill alongside the quarry. From what I could tell it was shorter and easier with more flow and less technical climbing. The last 500m or so winds through dense woodland and at speed you must be on your game to avoid catching a branch on the bar ends. Great fun. Quarry Pit ends (or starts) back at the car park and as such we rejoined the Inner Loop for lap 2. A relatively clear track provided even more enjoyment on laps 2 and 3 and I was happy to pick up a few more places to finish in 20^th for the stage.

I am ashamed to say I didn’t stick around for the XCC. I wanted to get back home with some daylight left….but if the truth be told my lack of fitness had been exposed and I felt as though I should quit with fond memories of the day rather than hazy recollections of the inside of an ambulance.

The last round of this year’s Interwinter Series was a great success. Many thanks to the organisers for sticking with the staged format, it seemed to be very well received. The vibe about the place was excellent and again the organisers went out of their way to make everyone feel welcome. Thanks also to the land managers and trail fairies at the Youies for (re)creating such awesome singletrack. Even with a couple of trails yet to reopen there is still heaps of fun to be had in the Stockyards area. I’m keen to get back there asap. Look out for details of a Youies club ride sometime soon.

ps. The new club kit received quite a few compliments on the day. If you’re keen to pick up a jersey there are still sizes available at Cycle Concepts Castlemaine. Drop in and try one on!