Josh Carlson: Cycling Tribe Blog

Hi guys,

 

It has been a bit quiet on the racing front lately, but that came to life on the weekend just gone with me having 2 enduro races near my home town over the weekend.

 

On Saturday, up at the warmth challenged fitsroy falls, I participated in the 4hour Fun ride for Camp quality held at the Twin Falls bush cottages at fitsroy falls in the southern highlands of NSW. Riders were greeted with lovely sub 5deg C temps but the sun did come out to play all day and left everyone with an amazing day of weather and no excuse not to enjoy the fun event being put on.

 

It was run by Camp quality and the Southern highlands cycling club, with loads of volunteers and awesome cooks to make the day that much better. The track was a 5.6k circuit in and around the Twin Falls bush cottages themselves and had its mix of tight twisty single-track that rewarded momentum and good line selection and a few fire road sections to spin the legs out and get a quick spectacular view of Fitsroy falls themselves.

 

About a hundred or so riders took part in the event and hopefully raised a good whack of money for such a great organisation like Camp Quality. It was a 4 hour and I had entered as solo with the attitude of having some fun, a good hit out training wise and having the opportunity to ride some different trails and maybe a quick chat along the way.

 

The 5.6km long track had lots of tight twisty single-track, and the lap times were around the 18-19min mark. I kept my lap times sub 20minutes for the whole 4 hours and got 13laps out on the fun packed course.

 

Along the way I got to see heaps of riders that were new to the sport and having a ball doing laps which was awesome to see. It also made the fun atmosphere and mood highly contagious and I couldn't help myself but have a few laughs and quick chats with most of the riders I passed, during the ride.

 

With 4hours on the clock already and another enduro race on the Sunday, I was feeling good and excited about Sunday’s race.

 

Sunday was rd 2 of the Chocolate foot NSW Enduro series held at the S.C.U.M.'s coondoo rd course. I was back racing with my team-mate Pete and with a few more weeks of solid training under our belts, I was anxious to see the outcome.

 

We sorted our pit area and collected our rego from the silky smooth operations of the Chocolate foot crew, and started to get ready for another 8 hours of fun filled madness!

 

This round there was a few more familiar faces of the NSW enduro scene with the rock star racing boys making an appearance and the YETI/GU boys back for another piece of the action.

 

I started the day off for us and got us into a close 2nd behind rock star’s big unit, troy Glennan. Pete then smashed out the 2nd lap and so on was the order for the day. During my 2nd and 3rd laps, I managed to knock out the top 2 quickest lap times of the day. I was stoked!!!

 

With the quality of rider attending this round, like rock stars Glennan and his team mate Craig Gordon, as well as the driver duo of Mitty Potter and Perren Delacour of YETI, I was well pleased to come out with fastest lap honours on not one but 2 laps!! YIEW!! It was a good sign that the training from FTPtraining.com is going great guns and things are looking up in my prep for euro land in July.

 

The track was in optimums prime condition and the SCUM club should hold their heads up high in pride for how well the track was groomed and prepped... man it was awesome!!!

Even after I was in the box big-time come the 7hour mark, I was still having awesome fun ripping round the flowie fast track.

 

We were able to hold on to 2nd place for most of the day thanks to Pete's super consistent lap times, but as the 6, 7, and 8 hour mark approached, the effects from Saturdays 4 hour and not enough food for me after Saturday, the box started to knock at the door and I slipped deeper and deeper into that dreaded mountain bike riders enemy.......THE BOX!!!

 

With my lap times slipping and YETI/GU's getting quicker, 2nd place slipped out of our hands and 3rd place it was to be. W e finished the day with 16 laps of the 10km course in 3rd place behind YETI/GU and Rock star racing. All reports from the riders and crew were positive and me and Pete couldn't say better things about the event and venue.

 

My fantastic Giant Anthem advanced was awesome all day and didn't miss a beat over the 80k's I completed over the course of the race. Thankyou to Chocolate foot for another top notch event and all the event sponsors and helpers which made the day such a success.

 

With 2 days of awesome riding and one massive hunger flat to quench, where else was the fitting place to top the weekend off in style, no other then MCDONALDS!!!!! Giddy up!!!!!

Nothing beats a cheeseburger and a coke after a massive days riding. Smashing one of those down your neck makes all the sweat and hurt disappear... maybe don;t tell mark fenner, my coach, bout the cheeseburger incident..But it was so worth it!!

 

Next on the agenda is the capital punishment in Canberra, then a trip to Victoria to race the Chase the Sun series held at the Melbourne common wealth games mountain bike venue, Lysterfield.

Hope all you guys are riding lots and getting amongst it whenever you can. Love your work!

 

Till next time, ride lots!

 

Thanks,

JC.