CORC 3hr Series – Team TLC Cycles - Pairs Male Winners

Paired Team Racing

I have a good friend named Hamish, he is 34yrs old, over 6ft, has a big chest, a big heart and only knows one way to race, absolutely flat out and at 100%. He is super aggressive in corners and will opt for logs and stumps in order to get passed a slower rider. Hamish showed me his HR monitor after one of the CORC club rounds and he averaged 175bpm for 70mins and maxed at 189bpm. Comparing to my stats, I go lactic at 175bpm and can only hold above this threshold for about 2mins, and I have never seen my HR above 185bpm. For MTB racing I nickname him “The Beast” and naturally we teamed up this year to race the final two rounds of the CORC 3hr Series.

Hamish dropping in to Old Duffy Descent at Stromlo

Team 3hr racing is an interesting concept and presents different challenges when compared to doing it solo. The laps are 15min-25min long, meaning there is just enough time between stints to hydrate, get some carbs on board, stretch warm down/up. If all these things are not perfectly balanced then you’re in trouble when your HR maxes out in the first 5mins of the next lap.

I'm hoping Dan McConnel & Bec Henderson rub off on me at the final rnd of the CORC 3hr series

Racing with a mate and for a mate, brings new found commitment to my performance on the track. As it turns out it also brings new found rewards. Hamish and I got 3rd and 2nd in the two races that we entered that was enough to give us the overall and the take home bright red "Top of Podium" jersey.

Massive thanks to Hamish for giving it everything on the track, and ongoing thanks to TLC Cycles in Phillip for maintaining my bike and wheels.

Stay tuned for some video of the race that Hamish captured on the GoPro.

Podium Jersey, better then a trophy!

CORC 

Everyone wants good value for money, there’s no argument about that. The time, effort and money put into any sport should be rewarded with ample time performing on the track or field. The CORC 3hr Series has the best fun to cost ratio I have ever come across. CORC races are very cheap to enter, usually $10 per rider if you’re organised with a licence, $20 if you need a day licence and juniors race for free making it viable for the entire family to join in on the fun. Again this outlines how fantastic the club mountain bike scene is and the great job CORC continues to do in maintaining the largest mountain bike club in Australia. In saying this there are thousands of people riding mountain bikes in the ACT, but we get 100 – 200 riders registered at any given club day. Either the club is set to boom or CORC needs to look closely at what we need to do in order to attract more of the casual riders into the race scene.

I have the following ideas:

- get coffee at the races
- provide prize money for podium finishers, King of Mountain etc.
- new race formats and race day activities for kids
- have novelty events with sponsor prizes, knock off’s or wheelie comps, stoppy comps, pogo comps, barrel racing comp etc
- include spectator sections in the course layout to attract families and friends (and sponsors). The section of trail at Stromlo, Double Dissolution is a prime example where some seating can be setup and presents plenty of action.
- get some local entertainment at the races, eg. a start-up band/DJ looking for exposure
- ask local clubs to provide demonstrations, eg Trials motor biking or the Uni cycle crew.
- present the lap times and placing on a large screen so people can keep track of the race progress

Some of these ideas will work at the club level, some of these will work at the National level. Either way I plan to join the CORC committee to try and execute at least one of these ideas in 2013.

Ride On

Dave

2012 Scott 24hr - Team "Thrown Together"

Catch up blog on the Scott 24hr that was held in October

A packed start line full of nerves and lycra

The trails at Stromlo are testing at the best of times but throw the odd 'axle deep' rut in there and you have some serious challenges. My favourite laps were my first lap and my last lap. I had a little traffic on the first red lap but got passed a couple of riders at the bridge on Skyline and was able to hook into the Luge with a free run, only to find more traffic on the DH section.

Me enjoying the conditions of the first 6 hours

The night laps were very tough, it was wet, it was cold and the challenge was keeping the rear derailleur out of the mud so you had some gears left by the end.

Entering the night

Back into the day light and my last run on the Blue lap was wild but being on the demo Scott Genius freshened things up for me, plenty of paddock bashing on the grass to get around those muddy sections, unlocked 200mm of travel on Party Line, passed my family cheering at the bottom of the 4 cross track and had a great clear run into transition.

On the Scott Genius demo bike

Simon - got us off to a brilliant start, the way he jumped on his bike after the lemans start, elbows out, looking very angry, showed nothing short of pure aggression and commitment. Even with 3km of riding on a flat in true hardcore downhiller style, Simon finished in under 49mins and had us in 25th place. There is no doubt this would have been the fastest lap of the team had luck been on his side.

Ed - Red lap Ed, obviously Ed loves the steep stuff and it was awesome to catch his style at the end of his first lap, loose, sideways and airborne, doesn't get much better. Ed kept it super consistent and obviously gave it everything on his last lap to keep his lap time nice and low. Massive thanks for entering us and setting up the tarp in the rain on Thursday, it was a great spot and proved to be a well organised site.

Jimmy - anyone that rides a Scott is cool with me. Jimmy showed some great riding, he closed some serious gaps including taking about 20mins out of 15th place on his night double lap. Massive effort and great lap times considering you're new to the Stromlo trails.

Sam - Quiet achiever Sam CAN ride an MTB, with a yellow bandanna flying, in trying conditions he stomped out the laps, in taking 7 places for the team he must have some good passing strats. Great effort in bringing us within less then a minute of doing a 30th lap. I know how much that last lap can hurt.

Pete - I've raced with Pete for a few years now and he always brings a great attitude and 100% commitment on the track , both of which rained true. Pete's first lap was a flyer and gained us a place, and having endured the rain on his night lap he mustered up the courage and stamina to punch out 2 great laps on the sunrise shift.

There was lots of this stuff on the track

All in all a great throw together and I don't think we could have arranged a team with closer lap times and better dynamics if we tried. We finished in a creditable 14th place in the hotly contended category Men’s Team of 6.

Tent city

CORC XCO Rnd 8 - 4th place

CORC XCO Rnd 7 - 3rd Place