FTF MTB XC Wandong. Me & Paulie made the scoot up. Even though we’ve been riding for ages neither of us has actually completed a FTF XC event before (Paulie out @ Ballarat 06 with a collarbone & me @ officer 06 with mech & mud) so we signed up Sport B 2 laps just to make sure we would get this one behind us.
Cold & damp in the early morning but after the 2nd lap the trail was getting really nicely bedding in with good lines & tacky(er) mud. A couple of pinch climbs which I fuffed when I couldn’t get onto granny at the base of 2, still no real shame in hot shoeing it. One climb at the last third of the course I couldn’t ride up at all, even though the experts etc looked like they were riding up it at a different gradient than I was walking it up in. I took a real bad line into the deepest of two-track puddles which left me with unpleasant icy damp toes for 2nd lap.
Even though I may have led the charge in sport B off the start I was to bring it home from behind at the end. It was a good course that I reckon would have been more fun another extra lap around as it improved through the day.
Still coming back from my ambulance ride in Feb I was constantly on the brakes, to the point that I was losing a lot of precious momentum in key areas. But every muddy, bumpy, dusty km under my wheels is an extra km further along the trail from that.
I’m not sure if I need to wash my bike, the drivetrain & chain is OK, some mud built up around the front derailleur, but I reckon if I let it dry & flick off the lumpy stuff tomorrow it should be OK, the mud wasn’t sloppy & its thrown up on the bike in chucks. Sometimes washing a bike after each ride may not be the best thing for it [methinx].
Cold & damp in the early morning but after the 2nd lap the trail was getting really nicely bedding in with good lines & tacky(er) mud. A couple of pinch climbs which I fuffed when I couldn’t get onto granny at the base of 2, still no real shame in hot shoeing it. One climb at the last third of the course I couldn’t ride up at all, even though the experts etc looked like they were riding up it at a different gradient than I was walking it up in. I took a real bad line into the deepest of two-track puddles which left me with unpleasant icy damp toes for 2nd lap.
Even though I may have led the charge in sport B off the start I was to bring it home from behind at the end. It was a good course that I reckon would have been more fun another extra lap around as it improved through the day.
Still coming back from my ambulance ride in Feb I was constantly on the brakes, to the point that I was losing a lot of precious momentum in key areas. But every muddy, bumpy, dusty km under my wheels is an extra km further along the trail from that.
I’m not sure if I need to wash my bike, the drivetrain & chain is OK, some mud built up around the front derailleur, but I reckon if I let it dry & flick off the lumpy stuff tomorrow it should be OK, the mud wasn’t sloppy & its thrown up on the bike in chucks. Sometimes washing a bike after each ride may not be the best thing for it [methinx].
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