Woods Point Killer ARST

Thanks must go to Dan for inviting Adele and I on this little jaunt! Adele was suitably worried about it from the get go but I underestimated how hard it would be.

Don't get me wrong, it was amazing. But the heat, the weight of the bikes (yes, I'll blame that because I can't exactly blame my legs can I?) AND the extreme roughness of some of the roads really took its toll.

Dan has an alternate career with Florence if he ever wants to... he was an absolute Machine. But always happy to wait for us with Andy who invariably arrived shortly after.

The adage "it doesn't have to fun to be fun" was employed on many occasions. I'm very proud of Adele. She was well out of her comfort zone (think tenderloins) and although she wanted to curtail and/or quit the trip she HTFU'd and did herself proud.

Day two certainly tested me with several punctures, dodgy patches and steep hills late in the day. It certainly tests the will more than the legs and I must say I like that. We both had a couple of minor meltdowns but there was nothing to be done but keep going. Arrived at least 90mins late into Woods Points to the amusement (if not fanfare) of the locals.

Maybe it was because we were homeward bound or we were just into the rhythm but the last day was much easier - mentally at least. We were rewarded with an incredible stretch of sealed road between Matlock and Cambarville that defied belief. It was like rolling into a dream... your own stretch of beautiful smooth tarmac rolling through the forest and not a car in sight.

Already daydreaming about the next one... on lighter bikes of course!!

upDave & del break in the new ARST bikes

Phase one of our Euro Tour 09 plans. We've got the bikes and we're almost set. Did a sweet 60km from Avonsleigh - Cockatoo - Gembrook - Hoddles Creek - Launching Place - Woori Yallock - Yellingbo - Avonsleigh.

The weight and pace of the bikes will take some getting used to but they performed faultlessly. All credit to our bike whisperer Dan Hale @ Shifterbikes.

Next up is our 4 day fully loaded camping tour of Victoria's High Country... stay tuned!

About me and what I've been doing sort of...

upDave. I upgraded myself. This is the new and improved Dave hence... upDave. Well no, it was my mate Spider who upgraded Daves and dubbed me thus but anyway...

Well this blog will be random musings and ramblings centred around my addiction to bikes and riding.

I've raced road and track on and off for 21 years now. Through Spider I found a love of getting off road on the road bikes. It was only a small step from there to cyclocross bikes and a little dirt touring and not quite 4 weeks ago I took the plunge and got a mountain bike. Like a lot of people I wonder "why haven't I done this before now?" The answer is "I haven't needed to". I was burned out and sick of the stress (and boredom) of track racing. You try sitting around all day and getting in only 20 mins of racing! I'm built for track but I'm over it for now. Got a silver and bronze at the '07 Aussie Masters Titles with an all time pb in the kilo 1:08.4... that's satisfying enough I guess. Just after the Aussies, Spider and I did a ripper tour of the Victorian High Country I'll do a seperate post re this.

I'd done a fair bit of dirt riding on my Kona Jake the Snake and had ridden Lysterfield and Yarra flats on it. I thought mountain biking would be pretty easy and that I already had some skills. Not so!

My first race at the Kona Dirt Crits in Port Melbourne was a teams race and I was paired up with one Jack Lamshed (http://www.feltracing.blogspot.com/) and he set it up perfectly giving me a great lead. All I had to do was a two lap TT for the win. Nice intro to get a win first up. Then came Anaconda Chase the Sun 2 at Lysterfield. Didn't bin it but used my brakes far too much. Happy with fairly quick first two laps (17 then 18.5km/h) and was then forced by my teammate Shaky Jimmy to do a double lap. So 4, 5 were done consecutively and I completely, cracked, cramped, saw stars... Fucking love it!!

Last night, Dirt Crits solo. Rode B grade and within 3 mins binned it! Way off the back... chased, nearly blew up, passed a few.. next lap a huge fucking tree jumped out and pushed me off the bike! More cursing and dusting down... binned it again a few mins later. Eventually settled down and worked my way up to 5th place. Not bad.

So, heading out to Wombat Trail this weekend and maybe do the 6 hr Rockhop at Upper Beaconsfield next weekend. Yes, I'm getting obsessive but that's me...