Techy bit of kit

For those occasions when you have to wear a hydrapak in a race, CamelBak have introduced the Flow Meter, a digital water gauge that measures how much water you drink and how much is left in your reservoir. Now, you’ll never have to wonder, “how much water do I have left in there?” And you won’t need to take your pack off to find out.

The Flow Meter is programmable to monitor fluid consumption for your personal hydration needs. It calculates the estimated time until your reservoir will be empty, so you can plan future water refills. It can be integrated with any CamelBak hydration reservoir.

Mulbrooks Madness- Report

Where to begin... as you can guess the whole day turned into a complete disaster. I have never had so many thing go wrong in a single race before, the only thing I didn't do was puncture!

Pre-Race
The drive over from Canberra was good I always enjoy the last 30k to the coast seeing how hard I push the car through the corners...it always brings a smile to my face and much yelling from the wife to slow down if she's in the car!
The directions were kinda straight forward but also a bit vague...2k out of Mogo turn into Mulbrook Road then another 6k. I found the right into Mulbrooks Road then started counting the 6k. It's always a bit disconcerting when the road goes from seal to gravel to single lane.... and you know that there is no way you can move over if another car comes flying around one of the downhill corners.
About 1/2 way a couple of signs started appearing so I didn't shot off down one of the side tracks. About 1k on the gravel and I was thinking "I've ridden this road before....oh shit it's that bitch of a hill at the 65k mark on the course!!"
Nearing the top of the hill I spotted the start area, a small clearing to the right. Looking around I was surprised at how few cars there seemed to be...oh well should be some good riding at least if not much racing.
Rego, put the bike together, can of creamed rice, powerbar, throw the kit on and it’s time to line up.

The Race
We get told we are starting down the fire road about halfway…..get there and there is no flat. So uphill start, no flat, out of the Dog and onto the middle-ring.
We get the go and it’s all very chill up the fire road, hard left through timing and onto the single track. I’m sitting fourth at this stage, just following wheels waiting to see when one of the lead riders lays the lead down….nothing.

Me...about as good as it got all day copyright Russell Baker


So we cruise through the first couple of single track sections and into the third. Over one of the small jumps and my saddle bag goes flying off the back of the seat. Shit have to stop, it’s got the car keys, multi-tool, tube, and CO2 inflator. I’m think it’s just come off the clip, and easy fix. Oh no the clips come off with the bag! So undo the
zip and the whole mess spills out as I’m trying to fish the multi-tool out to reattach the clip.
Riders are streaming past as I’m standing there fiddling trying to get this thing back under the seat. Finally it’s back on, and I make sure it’s tight this time. Mentally it feels like I have been standing there forever but it’s probably only 3 minutes. Off and going again trying to smash it but keep a steady tempo to try and make time back up.
I catch up to a slower rider and try to flick out to get past through what seemed like a reasonably open section of track and the front wheel slips/ grabs on the wheel track and I’m suddenly being flung sideways at …..The trees I didn’t notice before. Shit! The way I’m going over it’s going to be face first into the trunk, I manage to get my left arm up to protect my face as I go in.
Normally I try to keep my hands on the bars when I can but in this case I figured protecting the face was a good idea which I did. However I managed to run the forearm right across the face of the tree taking skin off my forearm, upper arm, shoulder, left side and back…but hey my face is alright ;)
Picking myself up cursing at how stupid that was, I jump back on the bike and start the chase all over again. The arms stinging and I can see blood slowly leaking from under the sleeve but I just ignore it and concentrate on riding and mentally accessing the rest of the body… seems as OK as it’s likely to be after a close encounter with a tree.
I roll through timing for a 47min lap, not much I can do about it but keep going and keep pushing. I make the second lap in 45min, halfway I picked off about 5-6 riders through the lap. Coming into lap 3 and my back starts to go, initially it’s a slight pain and I think I’ve probably tweaked it going into tree…but it steadily get’s worse. So I’m in and go of the seat trying to stretch it, then up the long fire road climb I start getting cramping. So I try backing off the pedals, but the twinges keep coming then at the top of the climb my right leg locks. I haven’t cramped in ages, but when it happens I know it’s bad. I get it through the tendon running down the inside of my leg and it just goes into total lock.
Now on a road bike you can kind of coast and try and stretch it out, unclip but at least keep some momentum. On a MTB doesn’t work like that, so I jump off and start walking. Slowly the leg unlocks and back on the bike again. Another lock up and I’m off. After doing this 4 times I know that there is no way I’m going to make another lap. Combined with my back going into spasm every few minutes its game over for the day. Rolling the granny up the remaining climbs before the rundown to timing, I keep going straight instead of hooking hard left for another lap.
So all up for the day 2.25hrs riding and a fair bit of fun. I’m a bit gutted about not being able to do the final lap, but I have a feeling if I tried things would have gone really pear-shaped.

Other News
I was supposed to be doing the national Masters Champs this weekend but someone screwed up the dates…I’m blaming Cycling Australia, as I know when I registered the road race was the Saturday. But when I got the information this week it’s now the Friday.
Given that Friday is my last day with my current company before I start my new job Tuesday I’ve been put in the position where I just can’t race so I’m a bit bummed about that.

But something to cheer me up
But on the bright side I got a couple of boxes from overseas yesterday including a new front wheel from hope built up with their Pro 3 hub. Notice the funky rotor.
Also an order of new tires from Schwalbe.

Box of goodies

Mulbrooks Madness

This sums up the race today....

Report to follow....

Angry Doctor

So the Angry Doctor...how angry? I think mildly annoyed to tell you the true.
Well it's over and done with for the year and I can cross it off my list of things.

Pre-race
Having never done the race before or ridden in the area I was expecting something like the Oteway Odyssey course, a sh!t load of climb and little respite but what I got once out there was a lot easier and dare I say it...enjoyable.
Prior to the race I made the decision to race the hardtail rather then El Salt due to the amount of climbing. Word also came out 2 days prior that there had been some rain and trails had packed down....to who said that you were WRONG! I made my choice to swap the tires over to a Raven/ Crow combo.
I was also keeping an eye on the weather forecasts, with the temps predicted to hit about 30ish I decided to use 3x 500ml bottles figuring that worse case I would be taking 3hrs to complete each 50k loop.

Race Day
A nice early 3am wake up and choking down some breakfast to get on the road saw me out the door about 3.30ish. Only saw 2 lots of Kangaroos on the road so was pretty happy about that. Arriving at Mogo about 5.30 and with enough time to stuff down my first can of creamed rice before rolling over to rego and signing in and getting my numberplate and back to the car. Time for a 20min kip, more creamed rice and change into my gear load the pockets up.

-500ml bottle with Clif salty lemonade mix
-3x packs of Clif shot blok margaritta
-1x Clif Bar
-2x 500ml bottles on the bike

ready to rock

Start Time
I got over to the start area early sat down and watched people roll in. There was kind of a subdued buzz about the place as the weight of what was about to happen became a reality. I also like bike watching to spot the latest toys, though was a bit disappointed as there was nothing really flash that jumped out on the day.
At this stage I still hadn't made up my mind as to whether to start in Group 1 or 2, with Group 1 being under 5.45hrs. My mind was made up after I saw Big Jase and Kevin lining up in the front group.
We line up and get the kind of a race briefing and then we're off! Left on the seal, left again then onto the forestry road and into the first hill. At this stage it's a swarm with people going left, right, and centre. I try to just the keep the pace high and start moving up through the other riders. Out onto the main fire road, and I can see the front group about 150m up the road it's looking like about 20 riders at this stage. An I make the decision to not try and jump across and just ride my own pace. Up up up down and into the first single track section and it's here that I realise how badly I have stuffed up my tire selection for the day. The tracks are all loose over hardpack, with probably about 5-7mms of loose through the corners. Immediately my sense of being competitive goes out the window and starts to become OK how can I do this without dealing myself?

Loop 1
Surprisingly I'm not getting passed my many people through this section, but I have turned into an annoying yo-yo. Anytime the trail points up or it's a fire trail I'm on the gas clawing back time and positions I loose through the single track. At this stage the climbs we're hitting aren't that long or hard so I'm quiet happy, I also have no idea where I am as I didn't bother to look at the map before the start. Glancing down at the powertap occasionally to check how I'm going for time against the kilometre markers I figure I'll have done the first 50 in about 2.30hrs.
And round and round we go, up, down, left, right it all becomes a bit of a blur at this stage...it's still fun and effort hasn't kicked in yet.
Into transition right on 2.27hrs, drain the last bottle. 3 off 3 on empty out the pockets fill 'em up again and out. I don't give myself time to think in and out again.

Second Loop
Some where about the 60k mark is where the body started to feel the full effects of my efforts so far. My back started killing me, I go from being able to stamp the pedals to turning them, all the flow goes out of my riding and it feels like I am hitting every bump on the trail. Out through the single track on the long fire road climb, and this is the part of the course where everyone is feeling it. The sun is finally out in full effect. Surviving the long grind to the top, followed by more single track and it's about now that I start looking at the distance on the powertap, comparing it to the course markers and just generally playing mindgames to keep myself amused. The final aid station takes forever to come into view. I stop and scull down a bottle of gu mix on offer refill again then back on the bike for the final 20k.

Are we there yet?
Title says it all another 3k and I'm just wanting it to be over. Even though there is some wicked singletrack through here the care value is 0. So I keep it together over the last few k's and roll in for a time of 5.33hrs.

Post-Race
Results are up now, the time was good enough for 50th place and 25th for the open category. Looking back over the decisions I made, I'm happy with the use of bottles rather then a hydra-pack. Food, maybe could have eaten a bt more, but didn't blow up. The hardtail I'm OK with as well, I got pretty beat up towards the end but thats to be expected. I think the tires were probably the biggie, lack of grip was just plain embarrassing at times....so anyway there is another race in a weeks time back at Mogo using the last 14k of the course so I can make so equipment changes and test my theories.

Energy burnt: 3685kJ
TSS:427
Np:241w
VI:1.31
HR:154bpm

Signing up to do dumb $hit

Signed up for a couple of "rides" for later this year and early next year.
First up is Fitz Challenge. I rode this last year and managed to finish in 7:15hr for the 207k so the goal this year is to crack the 7hr mark.

Course Profile- Fitz Challenge

The second ride I'm still not sure what I was thinking....it's the Alpine Challenge in Bright Victoria. And not only did I exceed my normal level of biting off more than I can chew but I signed up for the 260k loop which is new for next year.
If looking at that profile does scare you...you probably only weigh 63kg!



Powertap Joule Update
The cat escaped the bag a day early. The full pdf for the new headunit can be viewed here including all the new features....attitude, customizable, TSS, IF.
Though the price is sure to shock $US549 or $AU665...ouch

More Power options

SRM have just released to their sponsored pro's the PC VII. Details are that it will be smaller (62 mm x 65 mm x 20mm) with a glassfibre-reinforced case, built-in motion sensor start feature. It's also mini-USB rather than the proprietary SRM socket for downloading and charging. 120-hour battery and 130-hour memory at 1 second and only weigh 58g! Release date is spring of 2010...
Unfortunately it is wireless compatible only



Saris have also been busy...but very tight lipped about their new head unit. Pictures escaped last week but the full list of features is unknown till it's official release at inter-bike in the USA on Wednesday.





Onto the riding...
After attending a funeral in New Zealand and flying back on Friday I still haven't gotten back into the riding groove yet. I thought about riding the 8hr at Sparrow on Sunday but the head just wasn't in it. It's been a good month overall with 60hrs all up despite the interruptions and a couple of PB's posted two weeks back.

This weekend it'll be the Bakery Bunch on Saturday then weather dependent the family may cruise along for the Men's XC race at Stromlo. The weather forecast for this week is pretty rata$$, infact they couldn't have chosen a worse week if they tried.