Cardy George
Piercing rural members since 1981
The first pic could've been taken here. Soft and dusty all around here too. Get 50 bikes over it on a calm morning and anything below knee height disappears.Raced it last Sunday at the first round of the Shifty Fifty series. Trails were super dry and blown out but lots of fun single-track intermingled with crazy step fireroad accents and descents.
Ended up being 1500m of elevation over 50kms of mountain biking and all out a bit tougher than the organisers intended. Out of the 200+ entrants only 105 finished the race.
This was my first time racing this bike and also first race of the season. The bike itself performed exceptionally minus some loud creaks and groans from the lower DW link after some really sandy dusty sections. For myself, I was happy to cross the finish line at the end, that's for sure.
I felt really great up until the 42km mark were we hit the step fireroad climbs for the last time and had to hike a bike the last bit. When I got back on I had to fight a cramp for the next 2kms but after that it was ok and the pace was back to normal for the final stretch. I ended up finishing 20th in the open men's.
Oh and operating with a broken left index finger, that was a little painful every time I needed the rear brake
All covered in dust after the race
The offending lower DW link
Also lost the cable guide somewhere along the trail
The Barzo/Mezcal tyres options worked a treat. No complaints with grip front or rear especially considering it was very dry and loose on course. There was obviously enough knob depth to penetrate the top layer as I had no front end wash out feeling.
Example of the trail conditions. Surface was like moon dust.
Also really happy with the 32 front and 9-46 cassette. On all but the very steepest of pinch climbs the 46t chainring could keep me below my lactate threshold wattage so I could pace the day very well and pick when I burnt matches.
Overall a positive experience. The day was tough but fun to be racing again. Pretty sure I'm going to try and get to the second round in Woodend next month
Oh and so far, no rear triangle breakage from running boost wheels
Well done on the top 20