Sneak preview

It's always good to see a course before you race it, it's even better when the trails flow like the ones at Woodend.

Sunday morning with too few hours sleep and a belly full of dodgy servo food I met a group of riders at the Wombat trail car park. As the seconds ticked by the group grew and grew, eventually we had ~20 blokes astride their bikes rolling down the fire road.

In the three and a half hours we rode my tyres never once touched single track I'd seen before. Some of it was ridiculously fresh cut, some of it was like old hidden treasure, but it was all a blast.



It was great to see everyone put some elbow grease (sweat) into fixing up a bridge broken by moto riders on their heavy bikes. The result was an awesome, hard-wearing surface.



Here now at the end of this post I must now take a moment to say that I completely chickened out of the gap jump. I Neil Robinson, chickened out of the easy gap jump that only required a moderate speed.... because I was a little scaredy cat. There, I've said it, I hope you're all happy!

It never rains it pours

Steve and I managed to sneak a few hours on the Yarra trails on Sunday morning. Much needed rain had added puddles to the normally dry trails and meant concentration was needed over the slippery roots.



The smell of fresh wet earth being brought up by side knobs filled the nose. Conversations came and went, dictated by the trail and the seemingly tiny store of oxygen in my lungs.



By the end of the trails the sun had peeked out of the clouds and warmed our bodies. Concerned that solar power wouldn't be enough we ended the ride with a hot coffee.... just to make sure we'd make it through the day.

The Mont 2009

We have put together a team for the Mont this year (April 4,5 at Sparrow Hill, ACT). We plan to arrive Friday afternoon and race Saturday midday to Sunday midday. We will have plenty of Baum MTBs around, so come and visit us if you are in the area.

The Mont web site is:

http://www.mont24.com.au/

Hope to see you there!