Due to popular opinion...

The music has been removed...

Happy days for some, a sad day for us...

Got drift????

National Series short track @ You Yangs

Whilst its not really our game, I thought I'd post up some pics from GVRaceTech from Sunday's short track at the slightly damp You Yangs!














The VDPloeg dynasty carries on....!!

Tickle me, Elmo

For your viewing pleasure...

Chase the crit, round two.

Cam and I set off early to hit some local trails before heading to the crit. The bike of choice this week was the Felt Virtue 1, *mental sound made while riding*, Brrrruuup.



Lap one.

The pace was on from the start. James set a very nice first lap, “warm up lap” he called it.



Lap two.

Feeling "well rested" from last week, I decided to have a crack and see if the old guy (me) might be able to break his winning streak.


Not a chance!

Lap three.

Passed by a single speed, which is a super effort on that course.

Laps four to six

Ride to survive…

If only this was my back yard!

Big thanks must go to the Peacock family for putting on the event and supporting not only Fat Tyre Flyers but mountain biking in general.

See you next week. Check here for race details
PS: Have you wondered why some people have been acting alittle strange? Look no further.

2009 Felt MTBA Australian Marathon Championships & Marathon Challenge - Entries now open!

Mountain Bike Australia (MTBA) and Big Hill Events are pleased to announce that entries to the 2009 Felt MTBA Australian Marathon Championships and Felt Marathon Challenge are now open.
The 2009 Felt MTBA Australian Marathon Championships will be run in conjunction with the 2009 Felt Marathon Challenge (previously known as The Gut Full) on Sunday 29 March in Wandong and Mt Disappointment State Forest, Victoria.
Riders will chose from 100km, 69km and 38km course distance options ensuring that the event is challenging yet achievable for riders of all levels. Those who enter the 100km course will be riding amongst Australia’s top mountain bike riders in the 2009 Felt MTBA Australian Marathon Championships.
Only one hour from Melbourne, this event offers everything you want plus a little more… European-style feed stations, on-course bike servicing, a huge prize pool, supportive and friendly event staff, affordable race entry, a compressive event website…. and more to come!
With a mix of 4WD tracks, fire roads and great single track the 2009 Felt MTBA Australian Marathon Championships and 2009 Felt Marathon Challenge is set to reward, thrill and excite!
Riders are encouraged to enter early as the event will be limited to a field of 750 riders. Enter online at www.bighillevents.com.au.

Ash and I will be riding the course on Sunday so stay tuned for some pics and hopefully some footage. Check here for all the race details.

Chase the crit, round one.

Last night I headed down with Cam to check out the FTF Chase the crit. With the event location practically at my front door there is no excuses not to attend. After reading the below spiel I did think this sounds too good to be true, to that I say I was most definitely wrong!

(Attached Spiel)

Here is the ultimate in single track mountain bike crits; only 4 minutes from the Warrandyte Bridge.
Course Profile ‐ all condensed into 1,000metres of beautiful single track:
• Berms
• Switchbacks
• Singletrack
• Fire road
• Rock garden
• Logs
• Climbing (50m per lap)
• 4 to 5 minutes per lap

The loop had it all. I was told before the start that is was 1.2km and thought, easy... (not). It felt like at least 4 but that was because there is more than enough to keep one amused and wanting more. Mind you I was riding the Black Stallion.

Craig Peacock taking the big $5 to boost the global economy.

One can see how Craig and James get their bike skills with this 3m gap jump! Lucky for us we rode past it and not over.

Sweet private singletrack.

I have been riding with Cam now for around a year and never seen this side of the man,**GAME ON**.
B and C class giving their all and loving it.

For the full details of the event check here. I hope to see you there next week.

Jason Jackson

Elmo

We've got a new toy!!

After a very brief test, the capacity is there so look out for some serious POV camera work!

Sorry there isn't more, but this weekend should change that!

Getting dusty.

I headed out with Cam for some local soul searching on the Felt SS.

I didn't want to tell Cam that its not a tire problem, its a wheel size issue! But keep pumping mate...

Hmmmm, the little people have been busy!

Yep, its always exciting hitting new dirt for the first time ;)...

Later...

Ascend starter packs.

Ascend have just released their two new protein starter packs. Check out the links and get more bang for your buck. I have been told the muscle bars and recovery bars are about a week away from hitting the shelves so stay tuned.

Muscle Starter Pack.

Recovery Starter Pack.

Winter series memories...

Ponying up at dawn o'clock, all too silly to suggest its to wet/cold, saw us rolling down the road at 6.30am. Jason was ready to rip after a festive evening, not altogether unhappy at the prospect of a shorter local ride, having driven through one of the many storms just to meet up.



Singlespeeds were the decision at 10.30pm last night, a concession to the weather.



And the weather was truly crap, with hail, driving rain and one tiny, tiny glimpse of blue sky that whisked off on the wind.

Lysterfield loop was the order of the day, and was quite pleasant really. Nothing too mental, just lots of chatting on familiar trails and hammering around our old haunts. The trails seemed to hold up quite well to the weather, but a drought will do that now won't it.



So muddy as hell, we were looping back when the heavens opened once again. So cold was the rain, that we all got instant ice cream headaches!!



A full set of thrashed brake pads for all of us, thumbs up for my Innova tyres which were soldiering on through the mud we found, and big thumbs up for the Squirt chain lube in the crap conditions!



And to leave you, we have this...

You know you have crap timing when...

You are midway through planning your weekend and subsequent rides, and you read this...

***************

MELBOURNE is forecast to be soaked in a month's worth of rain this weekend as Gippsland braces itself for possibly devastating floods.

The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a flood warning and flood watches for East, West and South Gippsland catchments as a low pressure system developed in eastern Bass Strait.

Senior forecaster Richard Carlyon said the “East Coast Low” was looking very similar to the systems that developed for the June and November floods last year.

“Falls of more than 100mm are expected with gusty, squally wind,” he told the Weekly Times.

The floods in June killed about 600 livestock, destroyed thousands of kilometres of fencing and ruined roads, sheds, tanks and farm equipment.

Mr Carlyon said the slow moving system would bring rain from Saturday afternoon, through Sunday and clearing on Monday.

The State Emergency Service will meet today to prepare for possible widespread flooding.

Meanwhile, Melbourne is expected to receive close to its average rainfall for November in one weekend.

To read the full article...

Yarra Glen loop. (with new photos)

Finally getting over the WA slog we decided to rally the troops for a fun day out on the slicks.

We all met in Heidelberg and set off to Kinglake then on to Yarra Glen for some time in the saddle. One of the joys of this ride was the pace! No hearts rates recorded, no specific zones to be reached, just a punch of friends catching up on a Saturday morning out to enjoy the sport.



More photos of Grover goofin off. Easy to do when you are sporting some legs!

Old bar tape (John) vs tidy whitey (Jason)

In the big dog and that gear, nice and ready for the wild dog climb (NOT).

A new record was set on this loop. I have heard of it happening but never witnessed it in person. Six mountain bike riders rolling turns… yep I will say it again, rolling turns! For around about 30kms we rolled around in some sort of formation and didn’t shell each other in the process. It was a miracle.


As Grover is midway through explaining the merits of the shaken coke bottle, it blows the top off and sprays all in the vicinity with a nice fine coating of sticky...

It takes either a good pie, or a long ride to get Jason's eyes to do this little trick!

He may look confused but we know exactly what the sign means. Please don’t ever do it to yourself.

Just another pic of Ash smiling away and me suffering. Home by 11am and around 130km under the belt, and headed straight for the fridge *food*.

New products

Whilst over at the Cape to Cape, we were lucky enough to get our hands on some brand new chain lube.

Squirt Lube is a South African company that is now making chain lube which they claim to be sensational! Most companies would say that now wouldn't they, but when you have T.Brown, Ned 'the lung' Overend, Mike Kloser, Jaap Vergier (from the 'Croc' a few years back), and Anna Baylis all lending their name to the product...

It would be rude of us not to give it a thrashing!

My chain is totally clean at the moment, and it will solely be getting squirt lube on it for the duration of the container, and we'll see how we go!

Stand by...!

Photo dump from the Cape to Cape

I've found a few more stories and such about the net for your viewing pleasure, and I'm also going to hijack some of their photos as well, so photo credits are due to Ascend Sport and to Rohin.

More stories can be found here and here so be sure to check them out, but amuse yourself by scrolling through the photos below for a few moments. I'll endeavor to get through some of the cool stuff we found and used whilst over there, some time this week...





Looking (kinda) pretty with all the shiny new products on offer to the riders. To directly quote the Ascend boys,

"In answer to the many requests; the bars will be available online before the end of November; rolling out in select gyms, specialist cycling & triathlon stores soon after that. The drinks are scheduled for a similar roll-out, beginning before the end of 2008 – so look out for them!"

Also look out for a special offer that will be made available to readers of this blog when purchasing their Ascend products.




Bogged down in the sandy starts, after a team time trial to make the start. We soon sorted that out though, with Johnny and Willow smashing it out at the front.




The end of stage one, happy to have that out of the way!




Curiously, the tallest lighthouse on the mainland at 39m apparently...






Stage one - go!!



Its was a super fun week, sadly Johnny had already made it to the massage table and was in no mood to get up from it!






And finally, putting the hurt on the boys... Be sure to check out Rohin's take on the week as well, and let us know if you see any other stories around the web.