This report by MarathonMTB.com Race Team rider Justin Morris was first published here on the Team Website.
Sunday brought another edition to the growing trend of endurance mountain biking in NSW, Australia with the latest round of the well established and well run Chocolate Foot SRAM Singletrack Mind series. The superbly smooth and flowy trails of the Southern Highlands MTB club played host to another weekend of XC racing. True to the conditions that have greeted most MTB events in Australia this year, the preceding Saturday brought upon a dump of rain to slicken up and muddy down the trails used for the race. It ended up being a great idea to hold the race regardless of the conditions. Contrary to many expectations, Sunday was dry but cold. The trail started out been as slippery as a banana peel wrapping a frosty fruit. However, as the event unfolded the trails became well packed, tacky and perfect for super grippy MTB racing.
MarathonMTB.com was represented by myself in the male pairs category with Australian XC stalwart Nick Both in team Swell-Redshift/MarathonMTB.com. We travelled in style behind the wheel of the trustworthy David ‘Romeo’ Rome. However, due to the precarious driving of an unidentified Holden Jackaroo, our appearance at the event was delayed as we arrived in the car as riders were lined up on the start. Thanks to the organisers for allowing our tardy registration. We were ready to roll approximately 15minutes after the race had actually begun. Bringing our race to a less than ideal start. Nick worked hard for the first 3 laps, before we exchanged double lap trips. During racing events, sometimes it is hard to remember to enjoy the experience. This was easy to do at Wingello, the trail was sweeeet! The many other riders were all super friendly and the now iconic Chocolate Foot “NO dickhead” rule was well adhered to by all accounts.
Our race began to improve as myself and Nick knocked off consistent lap times, chasing back from last to within striking distance of the podium. We passed the KOM duo of Tim ‘TK’ Kerle and Stu ‘Disco’ Ferguson with about 3 laps to go. Managing to hold thid gap but unable to chase down the well rolling Ashfield cycles duo, eventual winners were the well-drilled Stevens Bikes unit. Other categories all had their own battle royales eventuating. The mens solo category including many single speeders such as the highly credentialed Rod McGee had a particularly close battle.
Another great weekend of racing. A big thanks to Pete Figg who was trusty soigneur and tent provider for our team on the day. Race support is a really well appreciated and beneficial asset to anyone entering such events and can make such a difference. Having raced with and without support in the past, Im sure many would agree that often the soigneurs are known to work much harder than the riders themselves at multi-day events such as at the upcoming Crocodile Trophy at which MarathonMTB.com will be represented by team Subaru/MarathonMTB.com. With more racing on the horizon, next weekend a return to traditional Olympic style XC racing with the NSW XC championships in Nowra, before the next round of the Real Insurance XCM series, the Bottlebutt 100 in Port Macquarie on the 10th of September.