A very familiar line from a familiar song, to most. The jungle of Australian mountain biking, with it’s thick canopy of events will be a difficult one to negotiate this year with the Subaru-MarathonMTB.com. There is just so much racing that hand picking a calendar of events for the year has been a daunting task. Although if this wet weather keeps up there won’t be any racing!
Switching to a marathon and stage race team, I’ve already had the question several times “Are you retiring from XCO racing?” Excuse me…? XCO is one of the most fun formats of riding a bike! I’m actually really surprised that more marathon, stage race and 24hr competitors or even 8hr and 100km participants don’t give it a try. It is the basis of everything you do on a mountain bike and might explain why there are lots of people going fast in a straight line, but not many going fast around corners. So no, I won’t be retiring from XCO, thanks for asking.
BUT I am looking forward to the “fun and games” of a horribly wet winter, with many bike destroying marathons, fun stage races and good times with good people. The cycling community is tight, mountain biking in particular. With this at each event, regardless of rider caliber, come many great people who are happy to have a chat about their experience of the days events, be it triumph or failure. This is what we’ll be chasing in 2012…and a few good results too!
My weapon of choice for the year will be a Scott Scale 29r Expert and I’m hoping to have an ongoing diary of what I’m doing to this bike and why. I’ve already got some ideas to be shared in good time.
Why the big wheels? One of the biggest debates currently raging in mountain bike circles (wheels, circles….hehe) For myself it’s about getting some time in on this type of bike as I’ve not extensively ridden one of these big wheeled monsters and I’m looking to find the pros and cons. I’m going to answer some of my own queries quite quickly I think, such as “Is the big wheel easier to maintain speed with?” and “Does it suffer on steeper climbs?” and “Do I look like a should be in a circus?”
So stay tuned for race updates, quotes, tech (lots of tech, for all the geeks, you know who you are) excitement, tales of woe, coffee and sore legs!