RIP XC?

Labcanary

Labcanary

One potato, two potato, click
leitch said:
Looks like the Buxton turnout was pretty good, maybe @Mattyp is right and it’s just a Ballarat thing ;)

https://instagram.com/stories/bighillevents/2715987703821141755
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Poor Ballarat. Always getting mistaken for Bendigo, and being all cold and shit.

In all honesty the trails here aren't as well known as Buxton. The Black Hill trails are short and not really conducive to big XC or adventure events. There's a few trails in surrounding bushland but I think they are not sanctioned trails (with the exception of Mt Clear Crit track). Correct me if I'm wrong @moorey.
 
cammas

cammas

Seamstress
I use to travel everywhere for my son and his mates to race XC back when “Chase the Sun” at Lysterfield use to be a thing and the VIC XC rounds use to be packed, had to get there early to get good parking spot or walk a mile carrying drinks etc. We travelled to Adelaide for the dirty weekend we both raced him in school team, we went to Canberra for the Scott with his school which they won there age category. He went back to Adelaide the following year, I was working and it pissed rain and they pissed off some older guys as they raced in the open men’s and either won or placed it was long time ago. He then got sick from that event then switched to downhill for a while till he got girlfriend who’s now his wife, he just enjoys a shuttle day occasionally at Maldon that’s about it.

These days the Geelong club do a bit and get good numbers but that was pre-Covid not sure now. I use to race there a fair bit, every Friday night then do the 3 hour races but it’s been a while for me, as I got into doing long days out and a little bit of bike packing. Occasionally I will go back and do one, it’s fun especially when I rock up on the rigid backpacking rig.
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beeb

beeb

Dr. Beebenson, PhD HA, ST, Offset (hons)
cammas said:
These days the Geelong club do a bit and get good numbers but that was pre-Covid not sure now. I use to race there a fair bit, every Friday night...
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Can confirm the Geelong MTB club had good numbers to their Friday night race last night. @fjohn860 and I had started at Stockyards with a nearly empty carpark, gone up, over and down (Junction), through plantation and around the hill. Back up the Cressy road and across and down Lactic. Went to head towards Rockwell from Lactic, only to encounter I don't even know how many riders. We waited while probably 25 or so went past, then picked the gaps between the stragglers (leaving plenty of room and letting them have right-of-way as they were obviously doing an event ride) and eventually made it round to the bottom of Rockwell but the was still plenty more coming up Dam View toward the inner loop. By the time we'd made it up Rockwell and down Cressy they were just finishing their race and the Stockyards carpark was about 3/4's full.
 
cammas

cammas

Seamstress
@beeb they use to do from the new year to March on the stockyards side but noticed the numbers drop significantly, so now they alternate the week by week. So if you want the points you have to turn up, good to hear they are getting good numbers still. It’s always a fun night with heaps of banter, once you get to know everyone. At one stage we had a race within the race but was only for the single speeders with beer as the entry fee and who ever placed the best took home all the beer :D
 
Lazmo

Lazmo

Old and hopeless
cammas said:
I use to travel everywhere for my son and his mates to race XC back when “Chase the Sun” at Lysterfield use to be a thing and the VIC XC rounds use to be packed,
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Our first duallies were Merida 96's and we did the Chase The Sun series and it was fun. We both much preferred the solos but my wife and I teamed for a few 12 hours up in the high country somewhere, can't for the life of me, remember where. We were much younger then, but we were both much better at riding 5, 6 or 7 hours constantly on the bike, than we were when we teamed up... do one lap, just get into the swing of it, stop, get cold, endorphins wear off, then having to get into the next lap and repeat. But we loved our solos. When we rode solo, we'd start at the back, and ride together, just keeping a steady pace. It took a few laps before the whippets would come flying past, but by that stage the field was so spread out, it wasn't an issue. We enjoyed it. It was real hare and turtle stuff, but Sue got a couple of podiums in her age group, and I only missed out a few times by a gnats whisker.

But I'd rather gnaw my arm off than ride an XC bike these daze, and neither of us have any intention of racing anywhere.

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D

Daniel Hale

She fid, he fid, I fidn't
yep, xc and road cycling [not to mention track] are dead disciplines, for the majority..rapid ascent saw this 5 yrs ago and it’s why they got out of events like wombat100

‘’auscycling have to keep pumping xc as that is where the majority of govt coin will come from due to it being olympic sport

gravel is it now, give it 5yrs max and it will decline also

i see even hux at bux gave a discount code so you didn’t have to pay late entry fee as numbers were so low, looked to me like they only had 50 entered 2-3 days out

strava kom’s is where it’s at.lol even jpez has jumped on board this train, or zwift racing, no wasted time for travel, can fit in any schedule. #wwbhdd
 
Cardy George

Cardy George

Piercing rural members since 1981
Daniel Hale said:
yep, xc and road cycling [not to mention track] are dead disciplines, for the majority..rapid ascent saw this 5 yrs ago and it’s why they got out of events like wombat100

‘’auscycling have to keep pumping xc as that is where the majority of govt coin will come from due to it being olympic sport

gravel is it now, give it 5yrs max and it will decline also

i see even hux at bux gave a discount code so you didn’t have to pay late entry fee as numbers were so low, looked to me like they only had 50 entered 2-3 days out

strava kom’s is where it’s at.lol even jpez has jumped on board this train, or zwift racing, no wasted time for travel, can fit in any schedule. #wwbhdd
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Well, shit. The Daniel has spoken.

Any one want to buy an 18 month old Procaliber with 3 year old components?
 
pink poodle

pink poodle

気が狂っている男
Mattyp said:
And it was mostly legible...
I don't agree that road is dead, you just need to get out of bed earlier to see them out and about.
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If sunrise mamil siting is too hard, catch them fucking up everyone else's morning in one of your local cafes.




Maybe it is time for an xc+road+cx cross over? Time to fly into one of those lovely South American cities for a sister event to their urban dh races!
 
pink poodle

pink poodle

気が狂っている男
Mattyp said:
Imagine all the latte's that wouldn't get sold if there were no roadies, surely they're keeping most cafe's afloat in these tough economic times.
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That is a conplex question indeed! To tackle the easy part first, anecdotally it is mostly a large cappuccino.

As for the sales aspect, which is more important? To definitely sell 1 coffee per stinky loud cyclist who will take up a lot of space and sit there for a long time and rarely make any additional purchases? Average sale $5. While also acting as repellent for other potential customers (by either taking up a lot of space or because sitting near these obnoxious pricks is painful) who may want to buy coffee+breakfast+coffee the ping off to Bunnings or Westfield or whatever it is conventional people do with their time? Average (lost) sale $25. I don't know the answer, but I do know that nobody likes the 2 large groups of cyclists that come in on Friday mornings. Fuck they don't even like each other! It's quite funny watching them try to out manoeuvre each other for dominant space.

And fuck me they hate using the bike rack that was specifically installed for them to stop them cluttering their bikes up on the windows and entry!
 
Asininedrivel

Asininedrivel

caviar connoisseur
pink poodle said:
That is a conplex question indeed! To tackle the easy part first, anecdotally it is mostly a large cappuccino.

As for the sales aspect, which is more important? To definitely sell 1 coffee per stinky loud cyclist who will take up a lot of space and sit there for a long time and rarely make any additional purchases? Average sale $5. While also acting as repellent for other potential customers (by either taking up a lot of space or because sitting near these obnoxious pricks is painful) who may want to buy coffee+breakfast+coffee the ping off to Bunnings or Westfield or whatever it is conventional people do with their time? Average (lost) sale $25. I don't know the answer, but I do know that nobody likes the 2 large groups of cyclists that come in on Friday mornings. Fuck they don't even like each other! It's quite funny watching them try to out manoeuvre each other for dominant space.

And fuck me they hate using the bike rack that was specifically installed for them to stop them cluttering their bikes up on the windows and entry!
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In summary: roadie culture sucks.

(which is a shame as even a half decent road bike is a heap of fun to ride)
 
silentbutdeadly

silentbutdeadly

has some good things to say
The death of XC depends entirely on where you live. In most parts of Oz, there simply is no other option given the lack of sufficient topography.

Where there is an option then the most tracks are still (arguably) XC anyway but the ones being built now are at the technical and flow end of the scale which will require more bike for most punters to manage.

Most new bikes are not pointy small travel hardtails so very few are going to try to race them to win...

Main thing though is I don't reckon the population is quite as ready to go out and have serious fun on a bike as the rest of us would like them to be...
 
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