A couple of months ago, I got a call from my mate, Stu, asking me if I wanted to do the Port to Port MTB Race. When I’d bought my MTB in advance of the move to Brisbane, I’d looked around for some events and this had grabbed my eye, but I’d put it down for next year as I hadn’t been riding much. However, Gareth had suggested it to Stu, who suggested it to me, so with two mates keen it was an easy decision to do it this year, despite the lack of training.

Last week saw me fly down to Newcastle to meet up with the guys for my first MTB event. I was underprepared, but the rough outline was that Stu was the fittest but with the least MTB experience, Gareth had the most MTB experience, having ridden the Scott 24hr many years ago, but possibly the least endurance, and I was somewhere in between. We had four stages to ride, with varying amounts of single track, and we had to maintain 10-12km/h average pace. On my local singeltrack I was getting 13km/h, but that was at a pace that I couldn’t sustain for four hours, so there was some apprehension about how thing would pan out.

Day 1

This looked like the easiest stage on paper. 48km of minimal single track, so the pace should be fine. One large climb near the start, then a rolling out-and-back course before the descent to the finish. Oh how wrong we were! The climb was on a steep, rocky 4WD road, so the pace was super slow. As expected, Stu was quickest up the climb, being able to stop to answer work emails while waiting for us! Once we had the main climb out of the way, we were faced with more rollers with a bias towards climbing, a brief bit of singletrack before a technical descent just after half way. The climb back out was ridiculously steep, with most people walking significant parts of it. Not what I was hoping for and I was getting annoyed. We finally made the top and looked forward to some descending back to the start, but things rapidly went wrong as Stu crashed hard as his front wheel washed out on a descent.

That was race over for him, with a 4WD ambulance coming to take him off the mountain. Eventual diagnosis was a broken shoulder blade and a few scrapes. Thankfully nothing more serious. Myself and Gareth continued on after the ambulance had left, but the downhills weren’t as plentiful as we’d hoped, there were a few more hard uphills requiring more walking and we eventually crossed the finish a man down and completely wrecked. Between Stu’s crash and the stage being way harder than anticipated, we weren’t off to a great start.

Day 2

Lots of singletrack on the second stage, so we were really looking forward to it. Stu had checked himself out of hospital and got an Uber to the start to have a pre-race coffee with us. We were so slow yesterday we’d been added to the final group to start, which didn’t really bother us as we had extra time to get organised in the morning. We’d had a 45min wait after Stu’s crash the day before, which the organisers had subtracted from our overall finish time, but we hadn’t asked them to change our start group. As it turned out, this meant we’d be riding the singletrack with all the slow and inexperienced people, so it took a while to get through the traffic and to be able to ride without interruption. This was definitely the highlight of the event, with almost the full 46km being singletrack, starting with the Killingworth trails and finishing off on the Holmesville network. Another four hours in the saddle, but chalk and cheese compared to yesterday.

Day 3

The longest stage of the race, coming in at 58km, with another huge climb to face. After about 8km of farm tracks we got to the Awaba trail network for some more fantastic singletrack. Fun trails which are really well looked after put smiles on faces and got everyone in a good mood to tackle the 5km climb immediately afterwards. I was slightly quicker than Gareth, so I’d ride a kilometre, stop and wait for him and repeat. Although the claimed gradient was 8%, it felt steeper than that and it was a long slog to the water station at the top. After a quick refuel we took off on the rollers across the top, with 17km to go before the second water station and the long descent to the finish. It quickly became apparent that Gareth was struggling, with his stomach staging a revolt, so we had no choice but to slow down to a sustainable pace. We made the second water station only to be told we were too slow and would be diverted to a shorter finish, so the fun downhill section got replaced with a fairly normal road ride back to the start. Not much we could do about it - part of the challenge of these events is being able to eat and exercise at the same time and sometimes your stomach just gives up.

Day 4

The final day, the shortest at 40km and also a point-to-point stage meaning we’d have to do some car shuffling. Stu waved us off in the morning as he was heading back to Sydney, and Gareth’s partner, Kirsten, got roped in to meet us at the finish. This was another day of mainly singletrack with some nice trails around Whitebridge to start off and the well-known Glenrock trails to finish. Whitebridge was enjoyable, but again, we were constantly getting held up behind riders who were forced to stop at anything technical. Glenrock was OK. I suspect we were sent down some of the easier trails as the organisers figured everyone would be exhausted and prone to mistakes after four hard days. Once off the trails it was a quick road downhill and across the finish line at Dixon Park Beach to a well-deserved burger and beer!

Summary

Overall a really enjoyable event and well run. Trails were very well signposted, so it was always clear where you should be going. I’d definitely do more training before doing another one as you definitely work harder on the MTB than you do on the road. I was pretty shattered but he end of it, despite being able to ride at my own pace all the time. Looking forward to the next one!

Myself, Tom, Kevin, Marc, Billy and Lisa made plans to go mountain biking on Sunday in the Blue Mountains. This was before the torrential rain that’s been dousing Sydney for the last week had arrived, so there was a little apprehension as to whether the day would go ahead or not. A decision was made on Saturday night that we were going regardless, though after a night of the worst rain I’ve yet encountered in Sydney, Billy & Lisa decided to pull out.

The rest of us packed all our warm clothes and hit the road for the two hour drive to Blackheath. After some coffee and choc-chip cookies to prepare, we drove to the start of the trail and set about getting the bikes ready. It was still raining lightly, so there was no doubt we were going to get absolutely soaked, however, as Marc had never been MTBing before, and his relatively new bike still looked very nice and shiny, this was a good thing. It would be a proper introduction to dirt!

We’d deliberately chosen a relatively easy ride which led to Hanging Rock, a picturesque lookout over the Blue Mountains featuring a huge rock which looks like it could fall off at any minute. The ride out there was good fun, with lots of water bars to launch ourselves off, though doing so got me a puncture, so there was a brief outage while I got that fixed. Marc was enjoying himself, and his regular bike commute to work meant he had no problems on the fitness front. Indeed, he was fitter than the rest of us since we’d only recently started riding again.

Once out at the lookout, myself and Kev elected to make the jump across to the rock itself. Tom was the photogrpaher, and Marc decided that he would skip the jump since he’s the only one of us with the responsibilites of fatherhood. The jump itself is only about a metre wide and you could easily cross it with a single large stride, but while facing the gap you can see a drop of a few hundred metres into the valley on either side. It’s this drop, coupled with the fact that the point you’re aiming for isn’t flat, which tends to concentrate the mind and make the task a good deal harder than it really is.

Once across, you can walk out to the tip of the rock for a photo opportunity, but here’s the thing: the rock itself is roughly triangular in shape, so as you move towards the tip, you get closer and closer to the massive drop on either side. The result of this is that you reach a point (well I did anyway) where your legs refuse to go any further – they literally start buckling to force you to stop moving – without any concious decision on your part. Clearly my subsconcious mind had mutinied. It’s quite a funny experience!

Back on solid land we retraced our steps back to the car, arriving cold and wet. We’d another short ride planned, so we quickly packed up, stopped in Blackheath for a brief, warming lunch, then continued on to Linden. The ride to Hanging Rock was entirely on fire trail, but the Linden ride had quite a bit of singletrack which was the reason for its inclusion – to give Marc a taste of the real thing.

Torrential rain on the way to Linden almost had myself and Tom pulling the plug, but it had passed by the time we got there. Once back out on the bikes we warmed up again and, after some short fire trail, were soon enjoying ourselves on overgrown singletrack. The other three missed the benefits of my long tights as their legs got whipped by the undergrowth, but that wasn’t going to curtail the fun. We rode for about 40 minutes before deciding that we’d better turn back so we’d make it home to Sydney at a reasonble hour. Once back at the car we deemed Marc’s bike to be an official mountain bike, and took a photo of it covered in mud to prove the point. All in all, a bloody good day despite the crap weather ;-)

Photos

That was another good week in Canberra. Myself and Tom went back up to Majura for another two hour ride on Wednesday night with Paul. I took Thursday off exercise to give my legs a break, and went out to watch V for Vendetta instead. Good movie, very political, really drilled home the “fight for your rights before they’re gone” theme. Followed that up with some Belgian beers in Debacle.

Friday morning saw me out for a 7.5km (45mins) run before checking out of the hotel. John offered to put us up on Friday night, so we headed over to his place after work to drag him out for his first proper MTB ride. Tom had him worried with tales of going over the handlebars, but I explained that that was a skill Tom and Kev were nurturing, whereas myself and Niall preferred not to fall off.

Majura was the logical place to take John for his first outing, both because it was close to home and because it’s bloody good, so off we went around 5pm. John was a bit worried that his bike wouldn’t be up to scratch but we assured him it would be fine, and sure enough, once we got to the trails he had a great time. It was pretty easy to tell, since about half way through the evening’s riding he was talking about getting “a good bike” and giving his current one to Sarah! Time will tell. Made it home around 7.30, then did the take-out and DVD thing.

Our plan for Saturday morning was to get up early and head out to ride the MONT 24hr course at Kowen Forest. We finally got going at 10.30, not really as early as planned, but the weather was a bit iffy anyway. It had all cleared up by the time we got there, to be greeted by a bloody big climb to start the 6km ride to even get to the trail. It was soon apparent that we were almost the only people out there, and also that the course doesn’t get a whole lot of use, since there was very little signposting. We soon regretted our laziness in not printing off a trail map as we couldn’t find it anywhere, and after an hour of riding around (still having fun though) we decided to call it a day.

So, we managed to get around 8hrs of MTBing in over the week which was pretty good. The clocks went forward as we went out of daylight savings this morning, so the next time we’re in Canberra the early sunsets will rob us of decent riding time… unless I shell out $500 for a set of HID lights to turn night into day!

B: 95.2km – R: 18km

I’m down in Canberra again this week, and have had a good start to the week. Got up for a run on Tuesday morning. Canberra’s a bit cooler than Sydney in the mornings, but not so cold that I had to rug up (yet), so it was nice to get out and not be dripping sweat like an evening run. Cruised around for ~5.5km in 33mins.

Last night, myself and Tom headed up to Majura Pines for two hours of quality MTBing, getting home just before dark, then it was up again this morning for another run. Felt a bit more tired today after the MTBing, but took a different route for a total of ~5km in 29mins. More MTBing to come tonight as well. ;-)

B: 24.8km – R: 10.5km

Myself, Niall, Kev and Tom drove out to the base of the Blue Mountains on Sunday morning to do some mountain biking around the Yarramundi Working Week Series (WWS) race track in Yellowmundi Regional Park. It was raining as we left the house, so we were prepared for the worst, but by the time we go to the track it was a lovely sunny day.

We had a couple of issues locating the track, but once on it we had a great time swooping around banked turns, in between trees and bushes and across creeks. The first loop was around 3km, after which there was a bit more searching for the other half of the lap. That turned out to be more technical, with some rocky descents requiring decent bike control. There was also a nice, steep downhill section onto a bridge over a creek which was tough, though myself and Niall backtracked to give it a second go and managed to complete it without having to put a foot down. After a little more rocky stuff we were back to banked turns through tall grass and a last little bit through the trees to finish the lap.

After a bit of a rest we decided to head out on another lap, and since we knew where to go this time, and everyone knew what to expect, we wouldn’t be stopping all the time comparing notes on the various sections. Everything seemed easier this time, particularly the rocky section, though I took three attempts to do the downhill/stream section properly, as I came in on the wrong line the first time, then couldn’t my shoes clipped in soon enough the second time. We still had one or two regroups stops, and managed to see a White-bellied Sea Eagle sitting in a tree watching us go by. I presume it must have have been hunting along the Hawkesbury river.

We were all pretty tired by the end of the second lap, and running out of water in the 30C+ heat, so we called it a day and headed home. It was an enjoyable course, with its own unique character and quite different from Sparrow Hill or Penrose. We now have to organise trips to Newcastle and Lithgow to ride the other two WWS courses. The lads are coming down to Canberra again in two weeks for another MTB extravaganza, so this time I’ll be sure to bring the video camera and get some footage.

B: 62.1km – R: 5.7km

When we all started going mountain biking together about two years ago, we used to head up to the Blue Mountains and ride the fire trails. It was good fun in a ‘great to be outdoors away from the city’ way, but it was fairly straightforward. After all, the trails are built so fire control vehicles can access forest fires, so other than being rough ground, they’re not exactly challenging on a bike.

Then myself and Tom started bringing our bikes down to Canberra on the weeks we were working there, we discovered singletrack and we haven’t looked back. Canberra is full of great singletrack through almost every forest in the region, built and maintained by the good folks at Canberra Off-Road Cyclists (CORC).

For those who’ve no idea what I’m on about, singletrack is like a one person wide path, weaving in and out amongst the trees, over logs & rocks, into and out of gullies, uphill, downhill, under branches and over jumps. In short, it’s great fun, requires constant attention and, depending on how fast you ride it, can be as difficult as you want to make it. It’s what MTBing is all about.

Myself and Tom have been going on about it to Kevin and Niall for months and months, telling them that they had to organise a weekend in Canberra. Well, last weekend it finally happened, and they joined myself and Tom for an MTB weekend in the capital. They arrived on Saturday morning, checked in to the hotel, got the bikes ready, then we all headed off to meet Paul for a ride around Majura Pines. We arrived back at the hotel 4.5 hours later exhilarated, thoroughly exhausted and with a couple of cuts and bruises spread throughout the group. After a shower and a short rest it was off to Debacle for some good food and quality Belgian beers. We were in bed shortly after 10 ;-)

Sunday morning saw us up early and off to Sparrow Hill, a 23km loop of twisting singletrack just outside Queanbeyan. We only managed to get half the loop done as we had to get back to the hotel in time to check out, but it certainly grabbed our attention and we’ll be heading back there asap to give the full lap a go.

We checked out of the hotel, grabbed some lunch and then headed back to Sydney, but not before Kev had locked his keys in the car! While waiting for the NRMA to rescue the keys, we checked out some bike porn at Mal Adjusted before finally getting on the road. Our last stop of the trip was Penrose State Forest just north of Marulan, about half-way between Canberra and Sydney. I’d seen the forest many a time on the way to Canberra and had wondered about riding around in it, but I thought it was just fire trails. It was only when Tom picked up a copy of Australian Mountain Bike mag which contained a trail map for the forest that we realised there was a lot more to it than met the eye.

It turns out that the forest hosts a round of the Working Week Series (five 8hr MTB races = 40hr week – geddit?), as does Sparrow Hill, so we decided to ride the competition trail. It was brilliant, and took us 1h15m, including a couple of regrouping stops and one or two detours where the trail was a bit ambiguous. By this time everyone’s legs were tired after almost 8 hours of MTBing spread over the two days, so it was time to call a halt to proceedings and head back to Sydney.

Needless to say, Kev & Niall are now total converts and there’ll be many more MTB trips in the future. Now all I need to do is convince them to enter an MTB enduro race as a team…

B: 114.7km – R: 19.5km