My Niner One 9 RDO

This is my Niner One 9 RDO, the beastly bike which I've been riding for the entirety of this season. It's served me through rain, hail and shine, never having had a problem or any signs of breaking (which the previous bike I had tended to do a lot of).

No matter what I do to this bike, it has always survived and it still looks pretty damn good. It's made it through the harsh Tasmanian winter which is genuinely known for ruining bikes, it's survived downhill tracks which probably aren't recommended for hard tails (okay, definitely not recommended), and it's even survived me, which most people I know are genuinely surprised about. 

What I have to say I love most about this bike, besides the ability to ride pretty much anything and anywhere without fault, is its clean, smooth-lookin' aesthetics. This particular model comes with Niner's 'Blaze Yellow' paint colour, a personal favourite. Not only does this allow the bike to give off a florescent green colour in certain lighting (Not many bikes change colour, so that's cool), but it matches the Cyclingo shop kit and looks lightening fast on the trails.

If we get deep into the specifics of the bike, you'll notice that I run a Kenda Small Block 8' on the rear, and a Maxxis Ardent Race on the front. These tyres provide me with all the grip I need to hook into corners at blazing speed (If I've got my tyre pressure set correctly anyway...), much needed rear-wheel traction whilst climbing, but they also are created to allow for less rolling-resistance, allowing me to put the power down on any firetrails I come across. 

I'm also running a set of Mavic SLR's which I acquired second hand. These wheels are sturdy, and also apparently resistant to buckling (I've tried, believe me). The thing which is so cool about these though, is their weight, weighing lighter than a set of carbon wheels that I came across and weighed a few weeks ago.

Gearing wise, I'm running the SRAM XX1 groupset, which was a rather substantial upgrade to the SRAM XO1 (apparently there's some weight difference or something, but the price was a bit much so again, I got it second hand with minimal wear). The internal cabling of the frame is again, a nice touch which adds aesthetically. Although it might take a little while to get it in there and through the other side, I believe it's worth it. Alternatively, for those no interested in internal cabling, the option to run it external still exists on the frame.

Gearing wise, I'm only running a 30T chain ring on the front, but I do have a 32T for when I'm feeling good. One of the problems with living in Tasmania is the abundance of really quite steep hills everywhere you go (this could be seen a blessing for training), but it means that you simply can't have a big gear on and expect to make it all the way to the top of some of the climbs without having to get off because of the huge (but in reality, small) gear your pushing. This could potentially be an issue on flat races or rides, but that's uncommon in Tasmania, and the large selection of gears at the rear allows for a zone of safety.

When I swapped the groupset from XO1 to XX1, I lost the old brakes too. The Avid XX brakes took a bit to get used to, as they seemed to be considerably less touchy than the Avid XO trails. Now that I'm used to them though, they do the job exceptionally well, not that there was anything wrong with what I had before.

As the XX stuff is all integrated, I had to change everything, so what I was hoping was just a fork swap turned out to be swapping pretty much everything on the bike, which is why I've got the full XX groupset. Pictured above is the fork lockout which came with the swap. I keep getting it all mixed up though with what's locked and what isn't, because it's the other way around to what I think it should be. 

Above is one of the personal touches I've added, although I can't show you for reasons I cannot say (mainly due to forgetting to take a good photo of it...). Niner's 'Pedal Damn It' is a great motivator if ever you find yourself eating stem, wondering if you're legs are going to make it to the destination. Below that, being the sticker I put on, is one of the Aficionadi's own. What more could you ask for than a mountain bike riding pirate? 

Finally, the forks I picked up are pretty alright. The cleaning hasn't been immaculate for the photo, but i'll blame that on riding it over to the destination (gets pretty rowdy in the backyard sometimes). These forks (SID World Cup) are really damn good, and that's about all I have to say about them. They also look really nice and are really quite smooth to touch, not that what the forks feel like has really anything to do with anything.

Overall, this Niner One 9 RDO is a superb bike. It does everything I need, want, and more! And most of all, I'm stoked with it!

Geard Cycles 4 Hour

Wearing one of Sid's Kits instead of the Cyclingo one. Sufferin' a plenty.

The Geard Cycles 4 Hour is one of Launceston's largest races, attracting a fair proportion of the northern riders, and also a few from down south. The course had just been refurbished which led me to believe it would be nice and smooth sailing from here on. Unfortunately for me and the hardtail, the course had actually been refurbished and aimed more towards a dual-suspension, as a good 6km of the 10km loop felt like rocks. It did not bode well for me in the solo category... 

Luckily though, I got myself into a team at the last minute, with Sam Fox, of whom I competed in the lat 4 Hour with.

 Kaine Cannan riding for Rocky Mountain, lookin' fast as always.

The time had come and Sam Fox was off! We had estimated that the fastest laps would be around 30 minutes, but we weren't actually that sure. Anyways, I was busy waiting and chattin' away, and before we knew it, the fastest riders had come in to make the transition! No one was really ready for it, as they came in what was five minutes earlier than expectations. 

 Tom Goddard before he flatted.

Firstly came in Tom Goddard, of 4Shaw, and made the switch with young gun Alex Lack. Closely followed (by maybe, you know, one second) was Ben Mather ready to make his switch. Mather had succumbed to bad luck at the start of the race, as they started the race without him, and it was maybe a few minutes before someone told him. He then had to scramble and somehow passed every rider to not only get back into the top few riders, but to take the lead!

After these two, came in Kaine Cannan to make the switch with my future Hellfire Cup partner Dan de Groot. The word on the street from Dan for the brief moment I had to talk to him was that the course sucked big time. He was panting and puffing, sweat pouring down his face, salt and sweat stained on his helmet straps.

I was ready.

After one or two more riders came in Sam Fox lookin' a bit destroyed. Then off I went.

I wasn't ready.

 Ben Mather with a fine lead.

The first 3km of the course was smooth and flowing. Amongst the suffering, legs feeling like lead and borderline cardiac arrest panting, it was beautiful. The next 7km made me realise something I have never realised before, the hills were wonderful. Unlike any race I had ever done before, I hated the descents and cherished every moment of the climbs. 

The descents destroyed everything in my body. I struggled to hold onto the bike because of the rocks and bumps and bouncing. It hurt so much I wanted to let go but I couldn't or else I'd crash. The climbs gave me the opportunity to rest my fingers, hands and arms from the pain. It turns out that this seemed to be the story with everyone I talked to. 

Alex Lack showin' everyone how it's done.

Anyways, I came in, Fox went out, I went out, he went out, I did, he did, I did, he did and finally I did for the last time. The last laps destroyed everyone a bit which was evident in the lap times. 

Goddard had flatted on the course in the last two or three laps, and had gone from 1st to securing 3rd. Mather and his team mate had won while de Groot and Cannan had taken out 2nd. Fox and I had managed to come out with 7th overall, so we were happy-ish I guess.

Partner Sam Fox

CCMBC 4 Hour

Smiles all 'round... mostly... 

This weekend saw the CCMBC 4 Hour up at Stubbs Road, at Turners Beach. It was a 4 hour drive from our house and started at 10 a.m., so we chose to drive up the day before and stay the night. 

My MTB Coach had paid for my teams entry (we had been entered in pairs), and I was with Sam Fox, another athlete coached by Phil at Mymtbcoach.com. After arriving at the race venue and meeting up with Fox and the rest of the gang, we got our warm-up in and lined up. As it was pairs racing, obviously one person had to go first, so we settled it with ye olde 'rock, paper, scissors' - I was victorious and Fox was out first.

  Waiting in transition for our partners to make the tag.

We started off with a 2 lap on, 2 lap off approach, as the laps were predicted to be around the 20 minute mark and we thought it would be relatively okay. Before long we realised very quickly that because the course was both physically and mentally demanding, as well as the hot weather, we had to change our plan to a 1 lap on, 1 lap off system. 

While we had the U19 category down-pat, we still wanted to do our best and achieve a good result overall. Currently, the top 3 teams were well ahead of us (maybe about 5 minutes by this point), but we were pretty close to the team in 4th, consisting of Young Gun Ewan Ferrier and Racin' Rocket Jamie Kulhanek. We were neck and neck for the first hour of the race, but for the second and third hour we were consistently 40-80s behind. 

Making the tag with partner, Sam Fox. 

We had entered the last 40 minutes and were still about 45s behind. We still had hope that we could beat the team and get 4th, but needed to decrease our lap times are fair bit, as we only had 2, maybe 3 laps left. If we both managed to get lap times under 20 minutes, it meant we would 'just' get enough time to complete a third lap. 

Fox went out, and came back within the 20 minute mark, which meant that if I got around 19 minutes we were still good for a third lap. After a very stressful and hard lap, I managed to come in on my fastest lap time, of approximately 19:03. We'd also made up time and decreased the gap, to about 10s behind the other group. 

After a nervous 20 minutes(ish) of waiting, Fox came in before Kulhanek! We'd done it! Kulhanek reportedly cracked under pressure, crashing off on of the final descents and having Fox pass.

I was stoked to take out 4th overall, and 1st in U19 pairs with Sam Fox. It was a great day, and I really enjoyed the trail. Thanks again to all the sponsors and supporters, I'll see you soon Northern Tasmania! 

2014 Cyclocross State Championships

On Sunday we traveled up to the north of the state to compete in the 2014 Cyclocross State Championships, yes, even though it was Father's Day (We figured we could make a day of it). 

After much debate and confusion over where we were actually driving to for the race, and figuring out how long it would take to drive up there for what seemed to be longer than the actual drive itself, we woke up super early, did a bit of Fathers Day stuff and then got in the car, off for a good couple of hours drive to Grindlewald. 

Once we had arrived at the race venue (a bit later then we had hoped for, even with all of the planning), I got into my warm-up and had a good chat with the other fellow juniors from up north. I also had a good talk to my new coach, Phil, from over at http://www.mymtbcoach.com/, as it was the first time we had formally met each other in person. 

The warm-up had been completed, the pre-race bantering had been had and we were on the start line. I'd entered Elite Men, even though U19 was still viable for me, but the other guys my age had done the same so I thought that would be poor of me to not do it too.

The gun went off, and very quickly it was evident that the race had already divided into its different groups. I was with Lack, Gregory and Kemp, closely followed by the other LMBC Pathway boys and Phil. However, after the first couple of laps, the second group caught up to us, with Lack riding off the front and breaking away.

I should also note that the Cyclocross State Champs in Tasmania did not have a restriction on the type of bike being used, so a lot of the bikes were actually mountain bikes rather then being true CX bikes.

Before long, something happened. As we rode along at a steady (enough) pace, we saw Lack in the distance, walking back to the line with a flat. All of a sudden, everyone realised what had actually happened, and now everyone wanted a chance at the win. We sped up. Quite substantially at that. Both Ferrier and I had dropped off the back as the pace proved too much and we feared risking blowing up. 

After a good 30 minutes in, it became evident that fatigue was setting in and it was becoming much harder to jump the obstacles. Ferrier however, was still flying high, as seen above.

The leading group had long left us, and we no longer had visibility of them - we had no idea how far in front they actually were. This led to a constant battle between both Ferrier and I, as neither one of us could drop the other, or when they could, couldn't hold the gap. 

It came down to the final lap, and we were still battling it out. It came down to a sprint finish, where Ferrier got me by a mighty 11 milliseconds. Fox took out Elite Men, who managed to stay in the leading group the whole time. 

In the end for the Elite Men Cyclocross State Champs, it was Sam Fox in 1st, Ewan Ferrier in 2nd and James Goodsell in 3rd. I was pretty stoked for my first State Championship event. 

Regardless of this being my first true state result, i'm really proud of achieving 3rd in the State Championships. A huge thank you goes out to everyone for all the support, being Cyclingo, Rowney Sports, Niner Oz and the VeloWear Cycling Team.

See you next year!

Killed to Death at Pickles Hill

Pickles Hill.

What can I say.

In the words of Dad post-race 'I got myself into a bit of a pickle' (note the joke) pretty much summed it up for me, as well as the other 144 entrants.

Yet again, I had underestimated the difficulty of this race, shrugging it off as a relatively easy roll (completely ignoring the fact that it was a 60km endurance race), and also had the idea in my head that it was going to be flat (yet again, ignoring that the race even has the word 'hill' in it).

With 1,600m of elevation over the 60km, it was brutal. 

Here's the race report, being a bit more formal than last time:

The start of Pickles Hill was much better than expected. It was a nice and slow start, which was not what I was expecting. Pretty much everyone had decided to pace themselves on the first lap, which I was happy with. Once we got to the first major climb though, several groups quickly formed. I managed to plant myself in with the faster guys for the first few kms, but soon thought it would be beneficial not to blow up, so I slowed down a bit to save myself for later.

Dad racin' the big pickles hill.

The first lap saw a bit of confusion, as the track was freshly cut and every now and then the track shot off somewhere, seemingly disappearing, before all of a sudden finding yourself back on the course. For the first lap, I was in a good group of riders, including the likes of Hunnibell, Jenkins and Turner. 

Before long, I found myself on my own, 20km into the 60km race. Hunnibell, Jenkins and Turner had all but left me, and I found myself within a new group of riders. My lower back had started to hurt (a lot actually) and I was in the pain cave. Some people went past me, some people went behind me. At this point in time I had little idea as to what place I was coming, all I knew was that I was ahead of the other Junior riders.

During the 2nd and 3rd lap, I slowed and suffered, having bonked minorly. I was also witness to my sisters amazing ability to hand me food and drink during these laps, having dropped my food on the dirt and letting go of the drink bottles before I barely touch it. She's still getting used to it...

On my final lap, I was slow and steady at the start, almost too slow and steady actually. However, soon I was being chased down by someone I wanted to beat, Mr. Locke. It had been a very close battle between us too in the road racing scene over the last few months, and this was my first race against him on the mountain bike, but this was his preferred discipline, so I didn't know what to expect. As I saw him coming closer and closer, it got to a stage where he was a mere 10s behind me. I stressed, and gave more then I had to give on the last major climb.

I had managed to drop him, and in the process had caught up to Jenkins who I hadn't seen for the last 40km. I rode past him. I was stoked. I kept going at the strong pace, until I had overtaken a good few riders, having Turner in sight. The pace was on...

I crossed the line, 10s or so behind Turner. I didn't care too much though, as I had just taken out the Junior classification, and had parked myself a comfortable 18th overall, out of the 144 riders out on course. I was pretty stoked with myself, so much so, that I even gave a victory salute.

Not too long later, maybe about 20-30 minutes, came in Dad - also showing some style as he crossed the line. He too, was pretty stoked with his final position, especially given the strong lack of training for this style of racing.

Overall, Pickles Hill was a damn hard race. For anyone planning to do it next year or on the foreseeable future, take this seriously and don't shrug it off like I did, because really, it was hard.

A big thanks to Cyclingo, Rowney Sports, Niner Oz and the VeloWear Cycling Team for helping me out. I'd also like to thank Phil at MyMTBcoach.com for helping me out, even if it has only been a week or so since I started. 

Cyclocrossin' Race #3

Dad racin' around the track.

This Sunday saw the 3rd round of the DirtDevils Cyclocross Series, which was a lot of fun and involved good racing.

The Short Race Report:

I came 5th.

The Long Race Report:

Bradley and junior Gittus were off at the gun! Closely followed by senior Gittus and Goodsell, with the main group trailing behind. Senior Gittus and Goodsell had 10s on the main group while being 5s behind Bradley and junior Gittus. Chaos soon struck though, as riders began the off-camber, gravel descent after the obstacle course at the half way point throughout the race. A rogue group of Bandits had placed large tree branches over the track, had swapped over a 'left sign' to become a 'right sign', and had even left their partner in crime dog on course! Junior Gittus hadn't blown up yet, and was still with Bradley, both of whom remained relatively unaffected by the chaos. Next came Goodsell and senior Gittus, who after nearly were both taken out by the savage beast roaming the trail, managed to clear the branches. However, Goodsell fell for the sign swap, and after nearly crashing managed to give senior Gittus a lead of about 5s. The carnage ensured as the main group entered, having a large amount of riders having to stop and dismount to clear the branches. Not for Hunnibell and Burford though, as they cleared them with ease. However, they soon fell victim to the sign swap, following a trail which led away from the race course.

Would Hunnibell and Burford realise their mistake and re-join the race? Would junior Gittus pop from Bradleys pace? Would the Savage beast the dog was reappear later on to create havoc? Would Goodsell ever catch senior Gittus? Oh the excitement!

Junior Gittus soon popped, as Bradleys pace proved too great once he ramped it up. Gittus and Goodsell maintained a fair gap between one another, and the rest of the race happenings were unknown to the most of us. However, before long junior Gittus could be spotted on the far side of the oval… While Bradley was at the race start! Bradley had flatted, and was now sitting in 5^th position! All competitors tried to make the most of this situation, alas, Bradley soon had fixed his issue and was slowly but surely hunting us down. Goodsell caught. Senior Gittus caught. Junior Gittus caught. Bradley had a clear lead once again, and was sure to maintain it throughout the rest of the race. The race had calmed down, and with one lap to go, it looked as though it would stay that way. But what was this! Burford had returned from the grave, and was on a mission to finish before Goodsell! A quarter through the last lap, Goodsell in front. Half way through the last lap, Burford closing in! Three quarters through and BAM!, Burford had exploded past Goodsell, being sure that there was no chance he could latch onto his wheel. As Goodsell tried to catch Burford back up, and in doing so closing the gap to senior Gittus more so, the race was over.

Final Standings saw Bradley in First, Junior Gittus in Second, Senior Gittus in Third, Burford in Fourth and Goodsell in Fifth. As for Hunnibell, no one was quite sure what happened. Rumours have it that he was last spotted in a small wooden hut, cooking freshly caught fish in the race venue. Nothing has been confirmed as of yet.

Thank you to Rowney Sports, Niner Oz and Cyclingo for the support on the Mountain Bike, and the VeloWear Cycling Team for the support on the road! I'm not too sure what category Cyclocross falls under, so i'm giving thanks to both!

Cyclocrossin'

Cyclocrossin' on a mountain bike. That's pretty much how my weekend went down - with the first cyclocross race down in southern Tasmania. The good thing about this cyclocross race for me was that they allowed all bikes, because of the lower-than-normal cyclocross bike population down here with the lack of racing. 

Nonetheless, It was a good day! A few punters turned up, from both the road and mtb racing scene, so we all got to put our skills and fitness to the test against the other types of riders. It made for an exciting and closely rivaled day of racing!

 The starting sprint!

The start sprint was fast, and I wasn't sure if being on a mountain bike was an advantage or disadvantage on the long stretch of road, but I managed to get myself into 2nd spot before the single track, behind Ben Bradley, and we were able to get a significant gap on everyone by 10 minutes in. 

One of the hike-a-bike sections... or so they said, anyway.  

Ben started to lose me and then before I knew it, I was on my own. I seem to find that when I'm on my own I don't have the drive to keep going at 100%, and seem to drop down to 80-90% of where I should be at - but I'm working on fixing this, as it's a psychological thing. 

Ben Bradley choosing his lines carefully

I soon found myself being chased down by the 3rd and 4th currently placed riders, Josh Gittus and Todd Stanton. Josh normally races on the road but has started to get back onto the dirt a bit more, so it was good to race him. I found that he could quickly make up time on the uphills while I could get away from him on the descents. He caught up around the 20 minute mark, and managed to hold on before Todd caught back up as well. 

Todd Stanton chasing me down.

Todd got past Josh, and then tailed me for a while before overtaking me as well. After that he was always just that little bit in front (I could see him for the rest of the race, but just couldn't catch him without using up all of my energy).

You can almost see the pain on Josh Gittus' face

During all of my attacks trying to catch back up to Todd, I managed to lose Josh, and get a bit of a gap on him. I never saw him again for the entirety of the race, which was more than ideal.

So much finesse.

By the 40 minute mark, the barriers and run sections really took their toll on me. What turned out to be my favourite bits of the course quickly turned into the most despised and universally hated sections. 

Todd Stanton happy with the gap he has on me.

 Ben Bradley getting in a practice race, before the National Rounds next week.

Overall, this race on was of my most enjoyed and fun races that I've been in. I managed to take away 2nd in Open Male and 3rd Overall (because Todd decided he'd go in Veterans because he was worried he'd get beaten ;) ) Thanks again to the usual suspects, Cyclingo, Rowney Sports and Niner Oz! I can't wait for the next round!

Also a big thank you to Osborne Images and my Sister for taking the photos.