Monday 7 Mar 2011
Another perfect weekend in Canberra - we had our fittest group ever head down on Saturday morning. I was on my new steed, the Cannondale RZ One Twenty-1 - to have a NO chain feeling all weekend was amazing! With Sram X9 (2x10) gearing I found myself never in the small chain ring and kept the bottom 3 clean all weekend ... an truly amazing bike! It was great that we had fit MTB'ers as at our first ride site, Sparrow and then the new Kowen Trail, was Ben Henderson. The weekend before Ben was racing at the National Champs down at Eagle Park down in Adelaide, to read about his 'experience' down there click here. Riding the trails at Sparrow Hill were as per usual great! Even with the road being built through the majority of the area there is still 12k of flowing single track ... don't forget that Manly Dam(b) has all of 10k!
After that 'warm-up' session we headed over the road to ride the new MTB Mont 24 Course, being run April 9-10. WHAT A TRACK - hats off to all the builders including Paul Cole, Alan Vogt and co! There is a little more climbing than at Sparrow but that also means there is PLENTY of flow! The final run is very reminiscent to the old Roller Coaster at Sparrow - the Kowen trail is now up there on the favourite MTB track 1st page.
From there lunch, coffee, check in at the Australian Institute of Sport and then back out on trail for some more entertainment ... now if you can't make fun of yourself then your taking yourself too seriously ... I had an accident - never before have I scratched my forearms! Not only one forearm but both! There will be footage soon of the crash ... I leave it at that.
For dinner we were joined by Ben, h is girlfriend Ali and Peter Dowse from Capital Bike Hire. It was a great opportunity to ask some questions to Ben about his training practices, nutrition and other regimens. Ali is a physio-theparist and masseuse and also gave us some insight how we can become better riders/athletes ... all while eating ALL YOU CAN EAT.
There were some tuckered out riders so off to bed early. Hats off to Simon and Michael for getting up early and hitting some more trails. Simon had forgotten his lights so he got to use my Chutta Radical-Lights, needless to say he was impressed at the amount of light that they threw out onto the trail!
Once we filled our stomachs at breakfast, plenty of bircher muesli, bacon and eggs etc etc we were off to Stromlo. The trail was in good condition after the Rocky Trail Entertainments race that was held the day before. I was impressed that our crew did so much riding after already having completed so much the day before (and morning). Simon Finch, one of our riders, is in training for Cape Epic in South Africa, rumoured to be one of the toughest MTB races, and seems to have the lungs and legs for the race - GOOD LUCK to Simon and we'll all be following him with much interest! It was three laps for him and the other Simon, nothing to sneeze at all!
Another big session of food eating followed then back to the AIS to shower before heading back to Sydney. Big thanks to Heinz and Simon for coming over from Adelaide for the trip, they were impressed with the trails down in Canberra and I look forward to heading back to Adelaide to ride some of those great single tracks that they have in Adelaide in the very near future.
What's next - we have a busy schedule coming up - we will be out at the Rocky Trail - Mt Annan race which is being held 26-27 March then we are sagging the Tour de Cure which is raising money for the fight against Cancer. The 70 riders will depart from Sydney and finish at the MCG in Melbourne - the riders departing Friday 1 and finishing Sunday 10 April. It will be great to be part of something so special.
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