37degrees, dry & it was a handicap ‘pairs’ event (where the fastest rider is matched with the slowest, then the next fastest with the next slowest etc). I’m not the biggest fan of these because it turns out I end up doing less laps (riding) & the starts are usually later because of the extra organisation etc. Total laps is 5 , usually the fastest rider does the 3 leaving the 2 for the slower of the team, I did 2x laps.
Mass start, my fella was out first to punch out his 3x laps (a top 10 placing B grader). The track has been developing a lot of loose sandy corners & straights with all this dry summer racing . My Specialized Stumpjumper hardtail runs RockShox SID Team forks with 80mm travel, this set up seems to result in a lower overall front-end ride height compared to my Giant Anthem that runs Fox FL100 (100mm travel) forks. This in turn tightens up the steering (rake?) & some of the tighter corners with loose sandy berms the Stumpjumper tends to want to tuck-in. It’s great on hardpacked technical corners, it feels real sharp, but it sometimes catches me out on the loose stuff. Holding the ‘bars tight & showing it who’s boss seems to help the tuck-in thing.
As Dan came ‘round on his 3rd to hand over, we had to switch the race number between the bikes which was lots of fumbling. I just stuffed it under my jersey & elected to flash it as I rode past the start/finish. Out on the course it was great to ride straight-up without the argy bargy of your usual dirt crit start. These handicap races can be good at the end as you near the final lap the riders start to bunch up again, catching the slower riders & faster guns coming up on your wheel.
In the end, not sure how we placed but for me it was a good run.
Seems that there was a motorbike out on course, tearing up some of the trail during the tail end of the race, Snozza & some others took chase, Snoz copped a rock intentionally thrown by the m’cycle rider & this bloke also played ‘chicken’ with another MTBer who was in pursuit. Got away in the end though.
Ride home: jumped on the ‘bus’ for the tow into Docklands.
Mass start, my fella was out first to punch out his 3x laps (a top 10 placing B grader). The track has been developing a lot of loose sandy corners & straights with all this dry summer racing . My Specialized Stumpjumper hardtail runs RockShox SID Team forks with 80mm travel, this set up seems to result in a lower overall front-end ride height compared to my Giant Anthem that runs Fox FL100 (100mm travel) forks. This in turn tightens up the steering (rake?) & some of the tighter corners with loose sandy berms the Stumpjumper tends to want to tuck-in. It’s great on hardpacked technical corners, it feels real sharp, but it sometimes catches me out on the loose stuff. Holding the ‘bars tight & showing it who’s boss seems to help the tuck-in thing.
As Dan came ‘round on his 3rd to hand over, we had to switch the race number between the bikes which was lots of fumbling. I just stuffed it under my jersey & elected to flash it as I rode past the start/finish. Out on the course it was great to ride straight-up without the argy bargy of your usual dirt crit start. These handicap races can be good at the end as you near the final lap the riders start to bunch up again, catching the slower riders & faster guns coming up on your wheel.
In the end, not sure how we placed but for me it was a good run.
Seems that there was a motorbike out on course, tearing up some of the trail during the tail end of the race, Snozza & some others took chase, Snoz copped a rock intentionally thrown by the m’cycle rider & this bloke also played ‘chicken’ with another MTBer who was in pursuit. Got away in the end though.
Ride home: jumped on the ‘bus’ for the tow into Docklands.
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