SCUM 30/60/90 December 12: Nowra

[anthem x1 girl]

Yes, a clean break of the collarbone and yes, it did happen at that A-line before transition... I turned into the plank too early and my front wheel slipped off on the other side-bingo!
Part of the highs and lows of the sport... The highs, may I mention, are always meeting people who are willing to stop, help and sacrifice their own race for others.
Thank you to all who did that for me yesterday, and thank you also to the local young guy who rode with me- he was super friendly and very polite.
The mosquitos and weather were a bit extreme, so thank you also to all the organizers and support crew for withstanding such conditions and also re-scheduling the event in true club spirit.

 

[neil thompson]

Hi, I was the guy chatting to you on the start line from Townsville.

Had a great ride. Really enjoyed the trails, even found the funny side of a huge OTB at the top of the skinny over the big tree, just after the check point close to the finish. Was loving the fear rush that came from comitting to an A line, all the while having no clue what to expect.

Think that was where the girl broke her collarbone.

Big thumbs up to the organisers for a great way to finish my riding holiday.

I though I was the only one that did that ,tired this not thicking right big tree skinny ramp just after a corner neary home no crashes (just) good speed up the ramp oops missed the ramp the other side of the tree,big fall for a 52 year old but soft dirt other side got up everything still right place orrr my wife wont kill me.
Great track ,huge mozzies, friendly officials ,well organised,I had to force riders to pass me and even got 1st in 30km only rider in my group haha.
Thanks Neil

 

[outtacontrol]

up the ramp oops missed the ramp the other side of the tree,big fall for a 52 year old but soft dirt other side

Probably landed in the indentation of me

I think the issue with that skinny was that I think it is meant to be ridden from the other direction. Was really hard to get a straight line into after the fast section just before it. The tight right turn onto it meant that riders needed to slow down to get a straight run up and over.

In my situation I made it up, but by the time i made it to the top, momentum forced me to the left and nowhere to go.

All good though, thats biking.

 

[Rambler]

I have never had so many "offs" in a race! One minor stack and two over the bars with the last being particularly nasty. I had just made contact with the lead riders when I found myself being flung through the air coming to rest on some rather large rocks. It was at the top of a firetrail descent about 10km from the finish. Large amounts of skin missing down the right hand side of my body and a possible broken finger. So after hitting the deck 3 times on the opening lap I was rather pleased to make the second lap incident free and plug home for a top 3 placing in the 60km or shall I say the 61km event after completing an extra kilometre after missing a turn. Great way to start the year and blow out the Christmas and new year cobwebs. Thanks to all involved. $15 for entry and drinks/subway was fantastic value.

 

[fullyloaded]

being a scum member, it was great to see so many out of towners make the trip down to have a crack at our event! The feedback seems to be very positive and I'm sure all at scum were stoked with the turnout and glad to see so many enjoyed our trails which included two of our club tracks, being "superbowl" and "butterfly". Why not come back down on the 23rd of jan and have a crack at the coondoo track. After a disasterous year last year due to weather, scum are keen to make up for it, I heard there are plans in the wings for more cheap enduros, cant guarantee the free subway and softdrinks though. Keep an eye on the scum website in the next couple of weeks! A huge thanks to Duncan, Kel, the Wakefords and of course the Whittos, without these guys, such smoothly run events couldn't happen!
Heres to a great 2011!!!!!!!

 

[neil thompson]

Probably landed in the indentation of me

I think the issue with that skinny was that I think it is meant to be ridden from the other direction. Was really hard to get a straight line into after the fast section just before it. The tight right turn onto it meant that riders needed to slow down to get a straight run up and over.

In my situation I made it up, but by the time i made it to the top, momentum forced me to the left and nowhere to go.

All good though, thats biking.

Mate thats exactly what happen plus poor riding.

Be down there again for sure.

 

[crank1979]

Hi, I was the guy chatting to you on the start line from Townsville.

Had a great ride. Really enjoyed the trails, even found the funny side of a huge OTB at the top of the skinny over the big tree, just after the check point close to the finish. Was loving the fear rush that came from comitting to an A line, all the while having no clue what to expect.

Cool. Always good to put a face to a name.

I was right behind a bloke who nearly went OTB on that ramp. As he rode off the left side of it he managed to pull up and save himself. It was pretty well done so I congratulated him on the save!

 

[tomacropod]

being a scum member, it was great to see so many out of towners make the trip down to have a crack at our event! The feedback seems to be very positive and I'm sure all at scum were stoked with the turnout and glad to see so many enjoyed our trails which included two of our club tracks, being "superbowl" and "butterfly". Why not come back down on the 23rd of jan and have a crack at the coondoo track. After a disasterous year last year due to weather, scum are keen to make up for it, I heard there are plans in the wings for more cheap enduros, cant guarantee the free subway and softdrinks though. Keep an eye on the scum website in the next couple of weeks! A huge thanks to Duncan, Kel, the Wakefords and of course the Whittos, without these guys, such smoothly run events couldn't happen!
Heres to a great 2011!!!!!!!

Always good to have food and/or drink at the finish line. I think everyone attending races is happy for the entry fee to be $5 more to cover such a nice finishing gift.

- Joel

 

[Bermshot]

Unfortunately I couldn't make due to family reasons.

So lunch and drink after the race eh? Sounds like everyone raced for free! Hope I'm not out of line here but I think other promoters/organisers could take a leaf here.

 

[jarv]

Once again a well organised race from Scum.It was my missus first mtb race and well worth the trip down from Sydney.She had a great time and commented on how friendly everyone was.Is it me or was each lap more like 35kms.Once again thankyou to the organisers,volenteers and riders for a great day out.

 

[gixer7]

A huge thanks to Duncan, Kel, the Wakefords and of course the Whittos, without these guys, such smoothly run events couldn't happen!
Heres to a great 2011!!!!!!!

I'll second that.

The sandy section from about the 25km mark was brutal but the rest of the track more than made up for that. The single track sections were in awesome condition.

Had an interesting 2nd lap. Twice I had to try and redirect some young riders who had got hopelessly lost. Then I had a brain meltdown and blindly followed a single speeder the wrong way for an interesting 10min detour. The 1st 5min was a fun downhill section, the next 5min back up not so much.

Finally, about 5km from the end, had to help another young rider who plain just fell off his bike with massive leg cramps. Gave him the rest of my pitiful water supply and told him to stop grinding up hills in the big cog and he just looked at me like I was crazy.

Great way to start off the year I think.

Oh and congrats to all the winners of the club XC & DH series. Those trophies were pretty cool!

 

[Jackstack]

being a scum member, it was great to see so many out of towners make the trip down to have a crack at our event! The feedback seems to be very positive and I'm sure all at scum were stoked with the turnout and glad to see so many enjoyed our trails which included two of our club tracks, being "superbowl" and "butterfly". Why not come back down on the 23rd of jan and have a crack at the coondoo track. After a disasterous year last year due to weather, scum are keen to make up for it, I heard there are plans in the wings for more cheap enduros, cant guarantee the free subway and softdrinks though. Keep an eye on the scum website in the next couple of weeks! A huge thanks to Duncan, Kel, the Wakefords and of course the Whittos, without these guys, such smoothly run events couldn't happen!
Heres to a great 2011!!!!!!!

fullyloaded, I wish I could get down there more often to race and am always tellin the folks back home how cool it is racing with the SCUM crew. More enduros sounds cool 'cos it makes the trip down a little more worthwhile and at 15 bucks an entry it makes it easier to get past the Ministry of Fun & Finance, just make sure the Coolendel weekend gets slotted into the calender again.
Love your work SCUM

 

[outtacontrol]

Cool. Always good to put a face to a name.

I was right behind a bloke who nearly went OTB on that ramp. As he rode off the left side of it he managed to pull up and save himself. It was pretty well done so I congratulated him on the save!

Likewise
Yeah, i realised I was in trouble at the top and tried to huck off, but was going too slow, so all I did was drive myself a little harder into the ground.

I think the organisers must have almost have run the race at cost, with the post race goodies. Cheers for that.

In regards to some of the directional issues, maybe some could have been allayed with a riders breifing. Coming from up north, I found it quite unusual that there was no breifing.

Don't get me wrong, I had no dramas following the arrows. I think the course was well marked, but when people get tired and put their heads down, sometimes they get missed. So the breifing wouldn't help that, but I spoke to a couple of 15km riders that were struggling and unsure if theirs was the same course.

Had a laugh about the dude that crashed and had to drag himself through to settle for 3rd. I think on my best day, I would not even be close to third.

 

[DunkMan]

To clear up the track length thing

The 30km was more like 32km (somewhere between 31.5 and 32.5 depending on measuring tools). It was always just a bit longer and then marking it out changed a couple of things in the second 'half'.

The 15km was actually 17km, it was approx 15.5km to the checkpoint before the run home. I might add that anyone who did the 15km should be very pleased with themselves. It was not a beginners course, so you had a good course to build your skills on. Well done.

We were lucky to have re-scheduled to such a great day. Even had the course been ok the original day was nowhere near a good as Sunday was, and despite some of the trails having little use because of the recent weather they were in good condition. Another plus was the big waterholes had dried out a lot too.

It was great to see people from all over having a ride and we hope the course gave you all a good look at the variety of riding in the forest here. While SCUM is about running events etc it is primarily about encouraging mountain biking in our local area and what riders on the weekend got was a guided tour of some of the tracks and trails pretty much as they are at any time you choose to come and ride them.

Re-scheduling was not without hassles, mainly many people who help with these things were on holidays or had other things planned. No to mention toilets and coffee van and food all presented additional challenges on a long weekend after one of the busiest times of the year.

I'd like to thank the members of the trails team (Geoff, Dave, Groots and Craig Hockings) who were involved in the getting the tracks ready and marking etc, Henry, Jude, Whitto, Rachel for getting rego, entries and timing sorted on the day. Alan, Linda and Matt Ryan for manning the track check points. Groots for his help setting and marking the track, and Kel Hockey who did most of the background work (and sorted most of the above mentioned hassles) and brought it all together and most importantly found a coffee van at the last minute.

A lot of people mentioned the great trophies the club presented for it's xc series. They looked great and were made by Whitto and Kane Barrett.

 

[tomacropod]

attn: Pizzaz,

Your name comes up numerous times in my webcam commentary of the first lap of the Nowra race! You would have made our singlespeed class truly diverse.

- Joel

 

[outtacontrol]

Bringing the thread back from the dead, but does anyone know how the dude on the cyclocross went on this course.

I would have thought some of the techy stuff wouldn't have been bundles of fun???

 

[tomacropod]

Bringing the thread back from the dead, but does anyone know how the dude on the cyclocross went on this course.

I would have thought some of the techy stuff wouldn't have been bundles of fun???

He didn't, despite being gifted a perfectly excellent 42/13 singlespeed gear after a start line shifter failure.

- Joel

 

[outtacontrol]

He didn't, despite being gifted a perfectly excellent 42/13 singlespeed gear after a start line shifter failure.

- Joel

Wow, that's a bit soft

I think the only time I would/could use 42/13, would be on some steep fireroad downhills.

 

[Pizzaz]

Wow, that's a bit soft

I think the only time I would/could use 42/13, would be on some steep fireroad downhills.

Yup.... soft.... although I spent the day before pottering around the area (link here) on these and it went ok the terrain is pretty friendly - not too many big rocks