Hard Day At the Office MTB XC & crits

After the anticipation, comes the event itself. The Hard Day At The Office, 8 hour MTB XC event @ Eildon was looking to shape up to be a hot dusty one if last years swealter-fest was anything to go by. A short 7kms course in/around Eildon sounds too-easy but with virtually no flats, just climbs & descents it was a slog & a half. Entered in mens’ pairs both Paulie & I approached the kick off with much caution, him for coming out arse up at a MTB ride @ Toolangi 2 weeks before with a sore back & busted helmet, & me with my “just don’t feel like turning the pedals in anger today” headspace.
I had major performance anxiety issues with the climbs, bailing on the 2x biggies & walking up every lap. Sure, as with any self respecting racer I tried to make up time on the descents but boy did they chop out through the day & made slamming down them feel like you were on the edge of breaking the bike in two.
As the day rolled on, we both sat out a lap – think it was mine – were I chose to sit down & eat my pasta. Still that last laps I did @ 3:30 was a fun one & I came across all racer-boy like with my elbows out & constantly out of the saddle ready for anything, past a few people too.
Apart from that the other Goombah Vipers entries that day were in mens pairs, Bonar/Stu & Dave/Huw who rocked the lap sheet with top 6 placing in a field of 27. We managed a 20th, but lets not dwell on yesterday, when there's always tomorrow.

Dirt cirts the following Thursday evening (21/02/08) saw some long overdue improvement for this little black duck. Even though it was a 14th place, it was a race full of place changing & balls to the wall MTB crit racing just like the good ole days in C grade. I was astride the Specialized Stumpjumper hardtail as the Anthem was still in last-lap trim from the HDATO weekend. I flipped the stem on the Stumpjumper to bring the ride posie lower at the ‘bars to place more weight over the front, seems to work, placed me more in a ‘attack mode’. Also ran my tyres pressures @ 35psi. The introduction of some bunted track through loose dirt was not a crowd pleaser, but it did make things intresting - I made a real neat pass there on one lap. I faded again through the 2nd half of the race but my consitancy is building.

This coming weekend is the Otway Odyssey – 100km MTB point-to-point event starting @ Apollo Bay to Forrest in the Otways. I haven’t entered, but I was looking at riding up there on the Hornet for the town's main street start & catch up with a few blokes I know riding it. Saturday night is a cocktail benefit for Motor Neuron @ St Kilda & Sunday it’s the Sydney Rd festival where we’ve got a friend on a belly dance show we had looking at catching up on.