Tinker in Australia - meeting a legend!

Tinker Juarez was in Australia last weekend to race the "Otway Odyssey". A 100km Mountainbike race, held in the beautiful Otway ranges near the Great Ocean Road.
We started Saturday morning at 7am in Apollo Bay and finished in Forrest some 7 hours later.

Tinker is a three-time U.S. National Champion, a two-time U.S. Olympian, a Pan Am Games Gold Medalist, and a World Championships Silver Medallist. He was inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 2001.
And I was hugged by him....
More about the hard and cruelling, but fantastic race:
http://www.rapidascent.com.au/asp/Main.asp

I had an awesome day and finished 8th in a very competitive field of Australias best female riders, I am very happy!
Race report to follow soon...

Hard Day At The Office 8 hr Enduro

The first Enduro race of the year and one that I didn't missed out on doing during the last 3 or 4 years. Unfortunately the number of participants a bit cut down due to the busy race calendar and the Otway Odyssey coming up the weekend after.
On Saturday night everybody went up to the pub in town to register for the race and to have the much needed pre-race meal. Thumbs down for the pub not being able to care for the number of people and for the worst Raviolis I had for a long time after waiting for 1.5 hours....!
Ahead of us 8 hours of combination of heat, dust and challenging race tracks. Unfortunately I saw myself more or less without competition, as only one other female rider entered the female solo category. Hard to keep motivated when there is really no point, but I my goal was to race for 7 hours and to use the race as a race preparation for the 24hr National race coming up in Easter. Admittedly my mind was more challenged than my body. I felt a bit bored by the lack of race excitement in my category and even sat down for 'afternoon tea'.
After 12 laps and 7.5 hours, I decided to call it a day and to leave work earlier. I could have pushed it harder and spent less time in transition cooling down under a so longed for ice-water shower. But racing in extreme heat and facing the technical, switch back single tracks and sometimes demoralizing climbs and fast descents was a fair demand on the rider’s concentration and energy. And I was never really challenged which was little bit boring.
Well done to everybody out there!
The best was still to come that afternoon - jumping into the cold river afterwards with Katie, Tom, Ali and Vinca ........ ah, I forgot to mention that I won the race.

YOU YANGS VSS#3 XC RACE

I shouldn't have raced....I should have stayed in bed instead and have crunchy, yummy bacon and eggs for breaky........as easy as that!
But what do you do if social events clash with the race calendar, I refuse to become a social retarded bike nerd!
I am not 19 anymore, which I had to realize that day feeling a little bit sick with my Extraordinary race preparation(see picture).









My body and mind didn't want to wake up until late afternoon, when -after the race- we rode some additionally 2hrs of sweet single track with a few 'race left overs', as there were Tory Thomas, Rohin Adams, Jack Lamshed, Ben Rendall and his girl Mel....I am sure there were more of us, but can't remember.

Looks like I had a pretty good night and a pretty cool and long day!

But next time, I stay in bed..........Prost!

Four days, 140km of competition and 60km of cruising at Tasmania's Wilde Westcoast

I raced in the women veterans class, here is a shortlist of what happened to me during the 4days:

Stage 1 Cradle Mountain: the weather is good giving that there are only 10 days of sunshine a year in this area. - 2nd place Stage 2 Que River: flat tyre, which goes down to 18psi again, after 'fixing' the puncher...In my distress I forgot to check the tyre for thorns....yep! - 3rd place

Stage 3 Stirling Valley: great downhill!! I forget to unlock my fork and riding down with 50psi in my tyres(still pumped up from last cruise stage on bitumen) - 2nd place

Stage 4 Montezuma Falls: 1 flat tyre + 1 tyre that went down to 18psi + 1 lost cleat of shoe on top of best single track(Montezuma Falls), I wasn't very happy to see my podium place going after losing so much time to mechanical. - 6th place...bugger! That day my teammate Craig finished the last 15km on a bare rim

Stage 5 Spray Tunnel: 5km Time trail, due to my lost time from the last stage, my start is within a group of people that are significantly slower than myself. Therefore I am constantly passing at the tide single track, the guy that didn't let me pass, crashes right in front of me and I do have to walk around him at the downhill section. But still - 1st place! YAY!... and no mechanics!

Stage 6 Granville Harbour: absolute fantastic tracks and riding, I have a blast and race head on head with Naomi Hanson, which eventually wins having the better climbing legs. Awesome, fun riding! YAY - 2nd place

Stage 7 Hell's Gate: mostly flat, fast and furious. Exciting drafting if you manage to catch a group of riders. The beach section offers some great view if you have the time to look. Finish here! 2nd place Even that misfortune, I still managed to come 4th place over all in Vets and gained some new experiences in my old days.... in how to change tryres or better maybe using reall tubeless tyres, fixing cleats to shoes and checking your equipment more often.

I had lots of fun with my team Sam Maffett, Craig Findlow, Chris and our Team suppot Justin Riedy, those guys made my days really enjoyable!

Justin Riedy from 'bike beyond' took care of us and did an awesome job...I didn't even need to clean my bike...very much like a princess...

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008

I hope you all had a nice and relaxing break over Christmas and new year.
I am looking forward to an exciting season with lots of riding and some hard racing!

I still have to work on my climbing an overall strength to face the growing group of very talented and fit female endurane racers.

See you out there!

My first Adventure race....Anaconda in Lorne

1.9km Ocean Swim
13km Ocean Kayak
11.2km Trail Run
23 km Mountainbike
2.8km Beach Run
= > 6 hours of pain


It was going to be a " just for fun experience" at the end of the year after a long year of successful Mountainbike racing.
The swim was uncomfortable to start with: I was wedged in a tide wetsuit and could barely move my arms.
After overcoming the first panic finding myself in the midst of hundreds of moving legs and arms, my own legs started to cramp one after another and my lower back started to ache. Boy, was I happy when I saw the beach coming closer and closer...
After a 500m beach run to get to the kayak transition, we had to take the wetsuit off, take the kayak and paddle through the braking waves into the ocean... something I had never done before... except of a 20 min crash lesson with Liam the day before(thanks!), which assured me that I will be able to make it somehow. And here you go, I only fell in once but it took me around 45-60 minutes longer than most of the other competitors.
Finally I could put my feet on land! And I love running in the bush. But I wasn't used to jumping big rocks climbing up boulders and swimming across rivers... Overall my most preferred leg(at least before the rock section). I tried to avoid getting wet over and over again, being aware that I wasn't over my cold quiet yet, but here and there we had to swim underneath a bridge or jump into a river...crazy Adventure racers!

By the time I finally jumped on my Mountainbike, the first woman finisher got announced through the loud speaker ... it didn't bother me - I took my time in transition and wasn't worried about the fact that I was probably one of the last to leave for the last but not least leg.
I was a little bit tired by now and it started to rain, which made the tracks quiet sticky and slippery and my clothes wet again!... I was happy to pass a couple of other competitors, but the course offered a lack of excitement.
After a bit more than 6 hours(mostly in wet clothes) I was looking forward to finish with the final beach run. Over all it was a nice weekend with great people and good food and lot lots of sun and water.... I don't know if I 'd like to do it again, I should probably practice the kayak a little bit more...
Now I am very, very sore in every part of my body and have trouble walking stairs .......

A good finish off to my Mountainbike racing season 2007

Kona 24hr - too sick to race...

The Kona 24hr race was a pretty awesome event in a very relaxed atmosphere and great weather at the Forrest footy oval within the Great Otway National Park.
The 3 different trails were fantastic but maybe a little too long for a 24hr race, especially for the solo competitor.
Comparing to all the other 24hr races I have done so far, it was surprisingly easy on the body because it was less technical and less bumpy.

You may ask, why did I go and start after all - having being sick all week?
Maybe because I was looking forward to THIS race and had saved my mind for it by doing less solo and more team racing lately.
And I honestly thought the cold would clear off after a couple of hours of riding.... I just thought I will be fine...
However I wasn't going to be as fit as I wanted and should have been anyway - during the last couple of months I was too busy in other parts of my life.
One thing always seems to happen before all my 24hr races - a deadline at work, that recquires me to work long hours. The same again the week! Leading up to the Kona I just wasn't able to recover from my cold in time as we had a deadline just the day before the race...
The week was anything but ideal for a high performance race and 24 hours of racing needs a little more respect.

Well, after only three laps I had to realize that my body and my mind weren't ticking together and that my body was sending out signals I couldn't ignore.
While I was sweating in the heat, I started to get cold at the same time and to hyperventilate. Trying to ignore it and to calming myself down did only help little.
I had to make a teary and difficult decision to stop and let the race go. I was relieved on one side and frustrated and embarrassed on the other.

For the first time during a solo race, I had the afternoon off and did lots of walking around the Event site and was pleased to be able to socialize so much. Everybody told me that I did the right move.
At some stage I was doubting my decision to stop as I seemed to still have so much Energy. As the hours passed by I felt like I really wanted to go out again and did a very relaxed lap with a friend. Also I couldn't resist to go out later and do two nightlaps because I love the peaceful riding at nighttime. And I wanted to pay tribute to my new sponsor "Ay up" lights. After a warm nice shower I went into the cosy tent where Andy(my moral support) was already deep asleep for a couple of hours.
After a good morning coffee and breakfast I headed out for my last two and final laps and finished second with an embarrassing number of 8 laps.

Jessica Douglas was riding her own race, having no competion behind she still kept going and going and took out Women's solo with a good number of 15 laps. Turi Berg finished third with the same amount of laps as I did. Both of us had a good night sleep!
In the mens race John Claxton smashed out 20 laps and underlined that he is not only fit, but fast. Karri Golding followed with 19 laps and Troy Bailey finished 3rd with 17 laps.
Over all I will look back at a nice and very relaxed, enjoyable event but at the same time at a race where I had to call myself defeated by something that I had no control over.

Great support from the Kona guys, pitching my transition tent up and taking it down again. Thanks to Ay up lights making my nightlaps so enjoyable.

good timing for a cold/flu

Only days to go until the Kona 24 hour race I am brought down by a very nasty cold and had to rest in bed.
It's a bit of a worry and my start at the Kona is still to be confirmed at this stage... bummer!

New sponsor!!! Ay up lights

I picked up a new sponsor 'Ay up' lights - the finest LED Mountainbike Lights on the market.

Awsome lightweight, small and very powerful. Forget the heavy stuff that makes your helmet bounce around. For more infos check this out http://www.ayup.com.au/

Thanks to Andrew for his trust in me!

Gravity 12hr - Rosewhite near Mt Beauty VIC

A popular event not to be missed in the most beautiful setting near Beechworth.

It was lovely to race in a not-so-hotly-contested Female-6 and to just hang out and socialize, let the mind recover from solo racing....nooooooice!!

Good to catch up with so many people and still ride some

decent laps in between.
Our winning team TORQ Bar were the 5 of us - Tori, Vinca, Turi, Gen and myself.
While my team mates were all showered and relaxed watching the last hours of the race, I took on the final shift and got back into my solo rhythm and did lap by lap to finish at 9pm.
Thanks to Torq for support and free entry.

(pic by Juliet Morris)