Chase The Sun # 2

What an apt name for the second race in the Chase The Sun Series! Upon arriving at Lysterfield it was a chilly 8 degrees, the whole area was engulfed by a thick damp fog, and as the day progressed it only seemed to get colder! Finally the sun burned off the fog around 2 o’clock giving us all a much needed lift and a warm fuzzy feeling!
The conditions made for an ideal surface out on the course though, it was super tacky and real grippy! The course itself was great, it had a much higher fun factor than the course used for the last race. There was only one main fire road section in the middle of the course and the rest was predominately fast flowing single track with sweeping bends, and gradual climbs. There were a number of log hops/launchers which were quite fun 

also!

A very cool warm up!

Felt had a good representation for the day, I had teamed up with Bec Locke, a contact from the initial Dirt Roads to London Trials, as Jaci Low was unable to make this race. The two girls, Jarrod and Nik, raced together on the very pink matching felt bikes, Jack and Scott the old faithfuls, and Rob Eva came back for more and teamed with Mark Macdougall. We also had our trusty mechanic/photographer Gerrald for support!

In our race the strong combination of Tory and Katherine again set the pace and led for the day, the ever consistent Jenni King and Nikki Fisher followed not far behind in second. We decided that our best fit for the day was looking after third place. We both rode consistently, coming through with similar lap times for the day. We were so excited to receive our trophy, consisting of the subtle overtones of fine outdoor decking!!!

Thanks again to the team at Full Gas Promotions and also the old mates at Felt for supporting nurturing me for the day, (Nik without your warm words of encouragement I’m not quite sure that I would have pulled through!!! Oh and where’s my pink bike, is that coming for Christmas?

Just look at the hurt, dripping off me!!!!

Bendigo 12 Hour of Hard Knocks

Our local club's 12 hour which was initially scheduled for March was run on the weekend. It was initially postponed due to extreme heat and fire ban issues, this weekend was a totally different kettle of fish, clear crisp skies, frost and bonfires all round!

The event was organised as a fundraiser to help get our local boy, Robbie Hucker over to Italy for the 

world Championships in July. 

It was a really fun weekend and felt had a huge presence at the race, Matt Wallace and Josh 

Fleming teamed with local gun Trevor Watchman to take out the men's pro 3's, Jaci Low rode a com

mendable 12 laps solo, and myself along with the city 

SLACKER'S, Nik and Muz made up the numbers in the mixed fours category! 

The course was great as a home track always is. Lots of rocks, fast flowing descents, and short punchy climbs, I take my hat off to all the solo riders as it was 

really quite a demanding course to ride repetitively.

Felt City was set up and we had a had huge presence for the day. The racks were chock a block full of felt bikes.

A big thanks to Muz and Nik for making the trip to the country and helping get the felt name out and about, we must definitely do it again sometime!

Chase The Sun # 1

Sunday was the first of the Chase the Sun Enduro Series, for me it was the first enduro event that I had raced with the support of the Felt crew. It was great to touch base with everyone again and to also meet some new faces.

Jaci Low and myself were entered to do the Elite Female Pro Pairs, which I was looking forward to, having only ever raced against Jaci. It was nice to be able to combine our skills in a teams event.

I started the ball rolling with a couple of laps off the start line. There were pile ups and congestion a plenty, lucky there was a decent amount of fire road to sort us all out quite quickly! After coming off our initial set of doubles were we found that we had lost contact a little with the other girls, Jaci also came in off her second lap with a deraliuer that decided it didn't want to work, lucky Rob Eva of SRAM got her back up and running in no time with a replacement!

After a couple of hours we had slotted our selves into second place behind the Torq team of Kath O'Shea and Tory Thomas,  but with the King and Fisher Duo very close behind! It was tight racing from here on in, with minutes separating 2nd and 3rd place. Niki Fisher allegedly flatted on the course which gave us a little breathing space but the inform Jenni King soon managed to close the gap and put some time into us.

At the days end we rolled into transition in 3rd place just a couple of minutes off second. The winning combination of Kath and Tory from Torq was just too hard to beat, both recently returning from a stint of fast World Cup races in Europe.

It was a nice change having 4 competitive women's teams at an Enduro, it actually became all about racing, whereas usually there is only one strong combination and the guess work and excitement is taken out of the race. So well done girls, women's mtbing is coming together quite nicely.

Big thanks to the Felt Team for supporting Jaci and I and also big ups to Full Gas Promotions for organising another fun event. Look forward to seeing you all at #2 on the 1st of June!

State Championships – Upper Beaconsfield

Result – 2nd - Elite Women

Overall State Series Winner


The last round of the Summer State Series, was more like a mid winter race, cold and wet under ominous and threatening skies. The weather didn’t put any of us hardened mountain biker types off though, we were all out in force to contest the Title of State Champion!



In the end the weather was kind to us, we didn’t get any rain and the track actually dried up nicely throughout the race. Going out for my warm up lap, I was quite impressed with the tightness and techi-ness of the course. It looked to be a lot of fun, but also potentially very fatiguing with numerous logs to hop over and a very tight steep switchback climb to negotiate.



I led for the first 2 laps with Jenni King hot on my tail, as much as I tried to drop her, she was determined to stick on my wheel and watch for any signs of weakness. The third lap I started loosing speed on the climbs, and I was feeling the early onset of fatigue as a result of not getting great recovery after last weekends big ride at the BMC 100.



Jen put a decent gap on me and I found myself riding out the race in no man’s land, feeling like I was towing a bathtub and trying my best to ignore the screaming protest my legs were putting out!!



So Jenni deservedly took out the State Championship Title, and my second place secured the position of State Series leader. There is a first time for everything!!!!

The BMC 100k

A couple of months ago myself, Rob Eva and a couple members of the Woodend mtb club, went for a super trail ride in the Wombat State Forest. As this was the first time I had ridden in the area  I was blown away by the super quality of the single track  in these parts. I had to come back,  and so here it was that I found my self on the start line for the inaugural BMC 100km!

Myself and a few eligible veterans from the Bendigo mtb club, decided to make a real weekend of it, and went down to camp  on the Saturday night, It was a great way to soak in the atmosphere of the event and beat the early morning drive from home.

The 7 am start was rough! The sun was barely popping it's head up and the air was icy, very hard to get out of my sleeping bag. I aimed for a fast start so as I could get myself a bit of a gap to work with early on. This I achieved by employing some roadie tactics on the fire road,  and hanging out with a few of the fellas!

I hit the first section of single track with lots of piece and quiet and a clear trail ahead, it was awesome, easily the best single track I have ridden here in Australia! As the day progressed my nearest rival Bec Locke made contact with me twice, buzzing my rear tire on the long sustained fire road sections, but getting lost in my dust as soon as we hit the single track. It made for an exciting race where I was literally on the each of my seat, and my limits, the whole day. I was constantly glancing over my shoulder in a paranoid state to check if Bec was gaining on me!

By the time I hit the 80 km checkpoint I was well over done; feeling like I was towing a bathtub and getting thrown around like a sack of spuds through the rough ball breaking pine forest section. A lot of the climbing was done in this section and I can tell you it was very sloth-like!

I was so glad to get onto the wombat trail, must have been about 5 km of sweet flowing single tack all the way home to cross the finish line in a well earned 1st place. It was a superb way to finish off a super cool fun 100 km mtb race!

Thanks to all those involved for getting this event up and running and big, huge thanks to the dedication and passion of the Woodend mtb Club who are behind the construction of the very, very nice single track in the area!

A Wintery Weekend at Woodend!

I had to think twice about packing an undershirt for Sunday's race at Woodend, but commonsense and previous experience convinced me of the reality, of course it was going to be cold! 

The Rocky Riders club put on the 5th round of the State Series, and it went perfectly, they were so efficient that they conducted the presentations before we could all manage to get cleaned up! Thanks to all those involved in making the day happen, all went very well.

The sweet trails of the 'Wombat were not able to be used due to permit issues, but the replacement course was a blast. The track wound in and out of the pine forest with a good percentage of tight, fast, loamy,  single track, which made for great traction and exciting cornering. The fire road climbing was friendly and gave you a chance to see if your nearest challenger getting too close for comfort!

I started the race as I meant to finish, getting to the single track first and not handing the lead to any who would try and take it. I managed to put a decent gap on by the 4th lap and stretched this out a bit more in the 5th, rolling across the finish line in a clear first place. All in all it was a good old fashioned long race (2hrs) leaving me feeling like I had done some solid work for the day!

As I haven't managed to get some pictures of my self racing I recommend looking at the ones Stephen Rowe snapped on the day at www.rockyriders.com

The Big Hill Marathon

Well the morning was definitely crisp and clear for my first marathon MTB race, it even felt as though a light frost had crept in overnight, far too premature if you ask me!

The start was kind of novel lining up with all the punters, everyone trying to beat each other up the first climb without blowing each other up, very different to women's cross country races! 

It was nice to be able to work together, and chat to people throughout the day and interesting to read others signs of distress, hunger flats and fatigue! I was amazed by the amount of forest out there, at times it felt like I was riding through the middle of the Otways, it was lush and very beautiful!

So I just tapped away for the day, not having done a long race before I was conscious of eating, drinking and pacing myself to get through the day in a controlled and measured effort. I didn't see any of the other girls out there, except for Naomi whizzing past me on the first climb, so it was really just me and the many men!

I rolled across the line in second place and a quicker time than I had aimed for, so all in all it was a good day. I would have to say the hot shower at the end and the bananas and muffins at the food stations were definitely up there as highlights for the day!

Huge Thanks to Big Hill Events and everyone who was involved in making the day happen, and of course thank you to the team at Felt for getting me to my first long MTB race!

A Warm Welcome To The World of Felt!

As of March 2008, I have become one of the members of the 'Felt Family'! I would like to extend a huge thank you to the team for taking me on as one of their sponsored riders, exciting times ahead!