Rubena Tyres CORC XCO 2013 - Round 1 - Stromlo

It's been a crazy week of riding. I've been trying hard to get the Scott 920 dialed in with some suspension and tyre setups. I've ended up with the Fox Evolution forks at 90psi, 12psi over the recommended for a rider of 78kg, and I've backed off the rebound 2 notches. This seems to have reduced the fork diving mid corner and has maintained some good small bump action. I'm running the Rubena Scylla tubeless tyres both front and rear. I've also been trying really hard to get myself dialed in to the new bike. There is no doubt that it is a quick bike, but I have had some real trouble and have ended up with a series of front wheel wash outs. Even on a soft pedal hit out the day before the race, with the new rubber, I still laid it over twice. Having narrowly avoided busting my knee open again from the weekend before, I was in two minds about racing the next day. In summary I've had the bike for 2 weeks, in about 200kms have crashed it 4 times and raced it once.

The morning of the race I gave Cathy a kiss goodbye and promised that I was just going out for some fun, main goal to keep it rubber side down. With a dressing on my knee I fronted up for the race. First thing I noticed was a massive queue at sign on, it wasn't computer issues either, it was 180 riders all trying to sign on at once. What a turn out, lucky the organisers set a 9.5km loop because passing would have been a nightmare on anything shorter.

Start line with JB in full power wheelie

Knowing it was going to be close to 2hours of racing I started slowly. But a couple of kilometers into it, sitting in 6th I could see the front runners making a gap. In the effort not to lose sight of them I made a move on a fire road pinch and to my surprise, planted myself into 2nd place behind my good old racing mate, John Bridge. The two of us toured around until the 3rd lap, I led for a short period but John made it clear that he wanted to dominate the strats and retook the lead twice within a couple of kms. I was happy to sit back and plan my attack, which could happen on any number of fire trails or even on the last 100m sprint. John was showing massive strength on the climbs and fire trails  but I was able to reel him back on the descents and stuck with him.

JB led for most of the race

Before we knew it Hamish had caught us, I can't help but feel that John and I fell into a comfort zone and let Hamish climb back on. But I'm sure Hamish just gritted his teeth and pulled us back, one corner at a time. Keen to win at least one lap Hamish battled with John on a number of occasions, making some really aggressive passes and providing me with a great show while I was sitting back in 3rd. John denied him of the lap win and completed the 3rd lap in 1st place. Hamish was pushing hard, and I could tell he had lost the punch from his legs, but I was still feeling good and still happy to be watching these two dog fight in front of me. I really had no idea how this was going to pan out.

Then disaster struck for John and he lost his chain off his chain wheel, luckily I was on his wheel and I was able to sneak passed with Hamish close behind me. With only about 2kms to the finish line I literally put my head down and gave it everything. I tucked in and blasted the fire trail into a head wind,  slid through Holdens Creek, and brought it home for the win with a 20 second gap.

What a great feeling, 18 months ago I came last, one by one I've improved my finishing position to eventually end up in 1st in the Veterans class (30-39yr olds). I would have taken the contents of the race any day with so much action but to top it off with a win was a great sweetener.  The other great feeling is that I'm finally comfortable with the bike, it almost seemed like the tyres hooked up better after scrubbing in. I did away with the carbon seat and my hips/lower back are thanking me. I had no pains or niggles the entire race and would be happy to enter a 100km the way the bike is setup.

About a month until the next one, I hope to improve my strength a little between now and then as I'm positive the other guys in the class will be doing the same.

Ride on,
Dave