Paul van der Ploeg: Travelling Adventures and Racing Stories.

3rd in Super D, All Mountain Cup (Race 1):

2012-02-10T17:35:00.002-05:00

Race 1 of the three race weekend is done and thankfully I had a trouble free run and got from the top to the bottom of the Super D safely and smoothly.

I managed to slot into 3rd place after the mud and dust had settled from the Elite mens race runs. Here is a photo that Russ Baker captured near the top of the run. It is a classic shot with the contrast of the white clean top and the filthy muddy puddle roosting out the side of the bike.

Lets hope the weather holds off today with a high chance of more random and sudden showers forecast like we had yesterday just as racing was scheduled to start.

Keep it clean :-)

Getting Wild @ Wildside... Pumping some life into the legs and website!

2012-02-01T18:28:00.000-05:00

The Wildside MTB has been run and won for 2012 and it did not disappoint. I will post a full stage report summary when I get a second, but know that for all involved it was an absolute blast with typical Tassie weather from scorching hot to bitterly cold! We had our ups and downs in the racing also, but luckily for the most part I was on the ups.

These photos are from each stage @ Wildside. I managed to win 2 stages in the overall and all 7 in the u23 category.

Stage one sprint finish with 'Team mate' Andy Blair with Sid Taberlay getting a face full of dust coming across the line. A very hectic finish to a tough first stage.

Stage 4 and the rain came rolling in off the west coast... THis was coming out of the 'spray tunnel' and onto the filthy false flat fire road climb.

The beach section of stage 7 is Famous in Australia riding through Hells Gates and back into the coastal town of Straun.

Completing the Wildside MTB how I started with a stage win! Only just slipping past Max Plaxton in the final 50m... Little did I know that Sid Taberlay had a Flat Tyre and I almost stole the overall win from the Local Favourite. Sid won by just 2 seconds after 6 hours and 7 stages of racing!

Thanks to Christine and Mum for being such a well oiled support krew. Thanks to the Felt-Oetztal-X-Bionic world cup team and associate sponsors. Also to my new sponsor Fox Suspension for the Amazingly smooth forks and shock!

Thats all for now but I will try and upload some more reports from the race when I get a min....

Breathing some life into the website after some time away from the keyboard feels good. I just need to get into the groove of updating again.

Cheers :-)

Stepping it up to the Elite level in 2012!

2012-01-25T03:19:00.002-05:00

Here is a bit of a run down of what I have been up to for the start of 2012. This report is thanks to the Kiewa Valley Observer and the good work by Scott Anderson. It is good to be back up and racing. I will try to keep on top of the race reports from now on.... more photos possibly to come.

Cheers, Paul van der Ploeg.

LIMBC stage 4: The King of the Mountain is....Dan McConnell!!!

2011-10-20T23:24:00.001-05:00

With an early start of 9am for stage 4 and all competitors taking on the course at the same time chaos was all part of the fun of the 14km of rolling hills before the main 14km climb.

Dan asked if I wanted to go on the attack with him before the hill and with the legs that I had strapped on this was probably a good idea. Dan and I had been violently ill on stage 1 and have been in full recovery mode since then. So we both thought 'what the hell' and I followed Dan's move off the front.

We had a sneaky disguised helper of Andrew Mock slowing the bunch up a little for us which was very appreciated as Dan and I swapped off to get a gap on the main bunch of MTb riders and a guest appearance from Chris Froome. We managed to sneak away to a handy lead by the 14km mark and then we hit the hill...

I instantly knew that the legs didn't have the go in them required to fend off the chasers and told Dan to give it what he had and see if he could snatch the stage away from the big boys.

I was caught at around 8km to go after riding to my heart rate and keeping it under control. I then tapped up the last 7km or so to save the legs for the short track tomorrow. As I crossed the line I herd that Dan had got the stage by 30seconds and the KOM Jersey. Another successful day in the Aussie camp showing that we would have had some real GC contenders if the sickness and mechanicals hadn't plagued our camp.

So that is the latest from Langkawi. Lach stayed in the main bunch and had a few attempts to get off the front but Karl Platt and Burry Stander were all over him. Karl got 2nd and Burry got 3rd on the stage in the end.

Ciao for now, I hope the Aussie crew can light it up again tomorrow :-)

LIMBC Stage 3: Lach goes for the win!!!!

2011-10-20T03:56:00.000-05:00

Today Lachlan Norris managed to attack off the front with a little assistance from my shell of a body. The idea was to hit the other main contenders and make the race tough so Lach could try and get some time back on 4th overall. I sacrificed my own race in a hope that Lach had what it took to hold off the challengers which included cape epic champion's Karl Plat and Burry Stander (Also 6th ranked in the world UCI rankings). It worked well at the start and the gap started to open...

Lach rode strongly after I popped on the 3rd of 8 laps! The body was pretty much running on empty and I ddi what I could then just rode to the finish rolling in just in the top 20. Lach on the other hand kept the pedal to the metal and rode off to victory over the fast finishing chasing pack!

It was a good result to get an Aussie on the podium for the first time in the tour of Langkawi and the top step is oh so much sweeter.

Tomorrow is the Hill Climb stage which is only 30km long but with a 13km steep road climb. Hopefully Lachie can back it up tomorrow after he has tuned his legs up in the warm up 'Sun tour' ;-).

Stay tuned for tomorrows report....

LIMBC Stage 2: XCO

2011-10-19T04:41:00.001-05:00

Stage two is complete and I was just lined up so I could get pulled out after one lap on the 80% rule. My stomach sickness was still effecting me and I hadn't eaten anything for 24hrs. I tried a little bit of breakfast and it didn't sit too well, but I needed to line up today so I could start in the following stages when I will hopefully be feeling good.

Up at the front of the race Karl Plat and Burry Stander had a head to head battle with Karl turning on the afterburners and kicking away to almost a 2 min lead at the finish over Burry. Lach Norris rode well again today and finished 4th with Ben Hendo making up for his epic flat tyre and finishing 8th.

Tomorrow has been changed from a 6hr to a 2hr race on a 4km course that is meant to be relatively flat... I hope that I can fuel up the body and be ready to push myself again.

Fingers crossed.

Langkawi MTB Challenge stage 1:

2011-10-18T22:32:00.002-05:00

On the morning of stage 1 I woke up at 6.30am am felt very sick in the stomach and then soon after I vomited!

This was the start of a very long day which involved vomiting all day until I was convinced by Dan McConnell at 2pm to go to the Hospital (Dan had also come down with food poisoning at 2am and visited the hospital that morning). I made the trip to the Langkawi Hospital and was hooked up to the IV dripper and injected with anti nausea and vomiting medication.

I still continued to vomit until around 6pm and counted my 14th spew for the day! I obviously was unable to race the first stage....

Today is stage 2 and the plan is to start the race and get lapped out so I can race in the later stages of the tour. If I don't start today then I won't be able to compete in the last 3 stages.

So it was a very frustrating and long day of feeling horrible yesterday, but today I woke up feeling a lot better. Andrew Mock was sick last night with similar issues. So the food poisoning is getting around and I will be very careful on what I'm eating over the next few days.

In the racing side of things the Aussies in General had a very unlucky day. Lach Norris was flying, but had his wings clipped with two flat tyres. He still managed to minimise his losses to 5min and finish 6th. Ben Hendo had two flat's also and had to walk 13km to the feed zone! Many riders were effected by the heat and blew up with no water at feed station 2! Kyle Ward was selected for random drug testing and was so dehydrated that he had to wait 7hrs to get enough of a sample out for testing!!!

So it has been interesting so far here in Langkawi and I guess things can only be on the up and up from here. Oh and I also lost 4 games of Backgammon this morning over breakfast which was very crushing ;-)

I hope I can upload some positive stories and photos tomorrow.

cheers.

Day 1 in Langkawi tropical island...

2011-10-16T19:55:00.001-05:00

So yesterday was the first day of the Langkawi island holiday and 5 day MTB stage race.

Andrew Mock (cross country skiing friend) and myself decided to start. The trip by doing a full lip of the island in style...scooter style that is. For just $10 we hired a scooter each and set off to find the sights of the island.

It was unbelievable to be racing mountain bikes on the tropical island and something that I struggled to come to grips with all day. I found myself laughing out loud and smiling uncontrollably for most of the day :-)

Racing starts tomorrow with a 65 km marathon. There are some big names here like south African Burry Stander and Chris Froome from the roadie world so racing will be hard and fast. I'm trying to enjoy the calm before the storm :-) I chucked up some more photos bellow and hopefully they work :-) internet here is a little sketchy.

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Typical island gateway to paradise

2011-10-16T19:41:00.001-05:00

This was the stop overwe had while on the tour of the island, scooter style. Awesome view and amazing banana zest smoothie :)

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The waterfall....

2011-10-16T19:34:00.001-05:00

So we managed to stumble into the waterfall and the water was amazing temperature. Later we saw this sign though...

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Don't swim in fresh water with cuts or you could die!

2011-10-16T19:33:00.001-05:00

I'm still alive so should be sweet...

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Sandown Raceway twilight criterium:

2011-10-12T17:03:00.000-05:00

Tuesday night was my first Carnegie Caulfield Cycling Club Criterium at the Sandown raceway. It was a windy and chilly night for the 6.30pm start. I was shivering on the start ramp and many riders were still in line for registration...

In the first few laps the A grade field was trying to warm up the legs and after rolling around the attacks started to come. I was in good position and followed a few moves over the first 15min. Late rego riders jumped in a few laps in and the bunch grew to 70 strong riders.

The wind played a major roll in stringing out the bunch in one long line and with around 30min left of racing I surged off the front of the strung out peloton. I was accompanied by a few riders at first then they disappeared when I picked up the pace to hold off the chasing pack.

I was solo for a few Km's then a group of three kicked over to me and we started to work together efficiently. The tempo was high with a strong head/cross wind on the start/finish straight and a roaring tail wind on the back straight and slight climb...

Our break away group was under pressure for the next 20min with the chase group hunting us down. I tried to keep the pace high and encourage the others in the group to work together. With 3 laps to go our gap went from 100m to 400m+ and we seemed to have cracked the others behind.

Coming into the final lap I was cautious of attacks from the fellow riders and sure enough on the tail wind climb a big attack came from behind catching me off guard and forcing a big effort to chase down the gap. The other two riders were sitting on using me up for all I was worth and at that point I almost lost hope as I caught and passed the defeated rider.

I hit the last corner first and was watching out for the final kick hoping that I could jump on the wheel of a rider that kicked too early. Luckily for me the BMC rider went hard and fast and I jumped into his slipstream and managed to do a second kick over the top for the finish.

So my first win in Sandown tuesday night crit and I was very happy that my legs were feeling strong after Tassie.

On Saturday morning I fly out to Langkawi for a 5 day MTB stage race. It should be awesome as the weather is meant to be warm and nice. Follow the updates on www.cyclingnews.com or www.mtbmalaysia.com

Hope that it goes well. Should be good to catch up with everyone on a Tropical Island.

Getting pinned down by the local paper:

2011-10-09T18:08:00.001-05:00

The local newspaper of the Alpine shire caught up with me last week and got all of the latest news on my adventures...

The article is well written and Scott seems to know a thing or two about Mountain biking.

Recovering in the nice sunny weather of Melbourne.

2011-10-08T23:36:00.003-05:00

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stage 10: Gutter, Gutter, Gutter...Climb! Gutter, Gutter, Gutter...Climb!

2011-10-08T23:36:00.001-05:00

Tour of tasmania final stage done! Luke and I managed to hold into the front bunch and we spent 90% of the 50 km race in the gutter with string cross winds on the sea side of Devenport.

I'm happy to finish and this week has been a really good learning experience :-)

I have one week rest then off to langkawi for a MTB stage race.

I might get some more updates on the go this week but can't promise anything...

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stage 9: Gutter action!

2011-10-08T02:26:00.001-05:00

Summary of stage 9... the pace was full on from the start and I held on for as long as possible. I ended up getting popped once again and had to let the print bunch go after chasing for several k's. This Chase was ended when the rider I was with grabbed a sticky bison and was towed up to the front group.

Tomorrow is the last stage with 12 laps if the 4k hilly course. Hopefully I can pull something out of the bag but after today I'm pretty cooked :-) should be fun no matter what.

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Getting the ugly mug out! And crit stage 8.

2011-10-08T02:21:00.001-05:00

Search2retain makes the paper once again stared is all papers in Tasmania.

The morning stage was once again full on! We averaged 46.5km/h on a tight 800m city criterium... I was active early then the pro teams lined the whole bunch out and I was caught out the back! James Mo man rolled in top 10 and luckily avoided the crash after the line.

We all hope Bernie is Ok after a massive hit into the road after the line.

Should be an exciting final road stage with some more climbs to mess up the legs. I hope we have a few search riders in the final selection.

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Stage 7: Holly Climb! Fetchamon Domination into 2nd!!!

2011-10-07T00:49:00.000-05:00

The afternoon stage was super hard with climbing as soon as the flag dropped. I was happy to see search2retain colours in all of the early breaks.

Luke Fetch, Jake and I were counter attacking off the front of the race with some good success. I managed to get a small gap with a few other riders which made the climbing much easier early on as the bunch smashed it up the rolling hills.

When we hit the main climb it ramped up to 20% and my legs did not have the required go in them to hold the front group of GC riders. I was again in the second group and we just rolled over towards the finish.

Luke Fetch on the other hand had what it took to climb into the front group and then attack the GC riders with 20k to go!

He was with a super strong Russian and another rider. Fetchy managed to hold off the peleton and sprint into 2nd at the end of the 'Queen' stage of the tour.

It was another fantastic result for the team and we proved we have what to takes in all forms of the National road series.

More criterium action tomorrow morning which should be fun and another road stage in the afternoon which should mess with my legs and mind once again.

Peace out for another day over in Sunny Tasmania.

Stage 6... Crit 2: ATTACK!

2011-10-06T20:30:00.001-05:00

This morning was the second criterium of the tour of Tas and I sat near the front and attempted to get into a move if one was going.

I managed to get off the front a few times and one of the moves was looking pretty good, but the big teams wanted it to come down to a bunch kick.

In the final few laps I was in pretty good position and was able to lead James Mowatt out until he got boxed out. I rolled in somewhere in the top 10 which was not too bad, but it was a bit late to get a good result.

THis afternoon is going to be full on with a super steep 4k climb! IT should be interesting considering I seem to have lost my climbing legs in Timor somewhere :-)

Hope to have a positive update this evening.

Ohh yeah and check out this photo that we found on the back page of the Tasmania newspaper...

stage 4 and 5 compressed.

2011-10-06T01:09:00.001-05:00

Updates from the tour of Tasmania...

The morning stage was the first criterium of the tour and it was balls to the wall from the gun! Attacks were coming quick and fast. I tried to get away a few times but missed the main move.

The break went out to 20sec before fly v got an express train firmed at the front and bridged the gap in 4 laps! With 3 laps to go I blew a tyre and took a lap out, then I snuck in on the last lap and rolled in top 10. This didn't count and I was relegated to second bunch :-(

For the arvo stage I tried to bed borrow and steal a tyre from other teams with no luck. Brodie gave me his Zipp well and it was game on again.

Stage 5 was comparatively flat with one climb 5k from the finish. My legs were rubbish, but I still tried to launch off the faint and Gilbert it off the print for a sneaky break away. I went too early and blew mid way up the climb confirming my suspicions of crappy legs.

I almost didn't tuck back in with the bunch but held on to finish with the main peleton.

The stage was easier with fly v controlling the pace after a break got away.

Hopefully I can get something happening in one if the up and coming crits :-) should be fun anyway.

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stage 3: Enter the hurt box!

2011-10-05T01:45:00.001-05:00

Stage 3 was full of pain and suffering from my perspective, but Jay Burke managed to climb his ultra lean body over the 1400m of climbing and get search2retain onto the 2nd spot of the podium!!! This is an awesome result for him considering the caliber of the competition.

Jay managed to catch out the conti-pro teams napping when he launched off the front of the lead group with 1.5k to the finish :-) super stoke as Jay is a very nice guy and a good mate.

I had horrible legs and was forced to grovel up the climbs to finish in the back group in a hope I saved energy for up and coming stages.

That's the latest from the center of Tasmania ;-) look out for more updates tomorrow.

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stage 2: New Norfolk to Hamilton 60k in the hurt box!

2011-10-04T21:12:00.001-05:00

Just finished stage 2 which was a traditional road race with a hilly 60k course.

I ended up finishing in the bunch but git dropped on the main climb when I was caught in the gutter and then blew up trying to bridge the gap. The search2retain team was well represented in all of the attacks off The front of the peleton...

Stage three starts in 50min! It is going to be harder than this morning so I hope my body adapts quickly to the above threshold efforts on the climbs ;-)

Cheers.

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Stage 1: Mt. Wellington team time trial hill climb.

2011-10-04T00:32:00.001-05:00

Today was the first stage if the tour of Tasmania. It was probably the hardest possible way to start a tour with a team time trial from hobart to the top of Mt. Wellington! The stage was only 18k long but climbed 1200 vertical meters of climbing.

The serch2retain team rode strong and finished in 6th overall behind some super strong teams. Jayco 2XU also riding on felt bikes won the stage.

Tomorrow will be very hard and the event organisers have said that the 2nd and 3rd stages will be the hardest in the history of the tour of tasmania...

Wish us all luck and hopefully we can pull something out of the bag :-)

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Australian Mountain bike article on the Vandy Brothers:

2011-09-29T19:20:00.000-05:00

So I just got my hands on a digital copy of the AMB article.... If you know Neil or i this will be a entertaining piece. Thanks to Mick Ross for putting the photo of me falling off the back of the mono! Haha... Click on the article to read :-)

Heading over to Tasmania on Monday for my first NRS (National road series) tour. Should be interesting since I haven't had a road bike since before the world champs! :-)

Should be sweet.

Tour de TImor (TDT): How it unfolded...

2011-09-26T08:44:00.001-05:00

There is so much I could write about the time that I spent in Timor. It was the first time I had been to such an underdeveloped country and it was truly a unique life experience for me. I have spent the last week back in AUS trying to settle back into some form of normality, but with loads of people I haven't seen in almost half a year things have got quite out of hand.

I will have to restrict myself to only reporting on the race and the bare minimum detail while keeping the important content at the forefront of the report.

So lets jump straight into stage one: Dili to Laclubar 110km and 2163 vertical climbing.

We rolled out of Dili after some inspirational words from Hose Aka President of East Timor. The pace was on from the gun with an Indonesian attacking in the first Km! His lead was short lived as we hit the first climb of the day. My hear race went from recovery to MAX in no time as I was very fresh going into stage one after a week of travel. SO sitting on 190bpm I felt like I was in over my head, but luckily as we hit the flat lands the pace slowed up to an almost embarrassingly slow pace.

At around the 20km mark Neil van der Ploeg (Brother and fellow search2retain-Felt rider) Launched the first effective attack off the front. We hit a dirt section and Sean Hurley (Most aggressive rider of the tour) jumped across to Neil's move. Then the legend himself Tinker Juarez kicked away from the pack and bridged to the two out the front.

Neil's move was semi planned and with him off the front it took the pressure off search2retain to control the race. We just tucked in the pack and waited till the final climb....

It was a hot stage 1 and drinking played a big factor. I was trying to drink a lot and was able to stay fairly hydrated, but others suffered (Neil hit the wall just before the climb and hunger bonked on the climb big time).

Adrian Jackson (AJ) hit the front and started to drive the pace when the climb got tough and Luke Fetch (Fellow team mate) and myself tried to hold his wheel, but AJ was climbing too strong. Luke tried to stay with him as I attempted to settle into my own rhythm. Luke popped soon after me then it was a grovel to the finish. We caught Tinka near the top of the climb and I got a gap and tried to minimise losses to AJ.

In the hurt box..Deep.

Stage 1 results:

1	Adrian Jackson	4:12:59
2	Paul van der Ploeg	0:04:26
3	Luke Fetch	0:05:38
4	Tinker Juarez	0:06:42
5	Ben Mather	0:09:39
6	Scott Liston	0:12:11
7	Alex Denham	0:12:21
8	Christopher Hanson	0:17:54
9	Matt King	0:17:55
10	Shahrin Amir	0:19:27

Stage 2: Laclubar to Beacu 117km 1685 meters vertical

After a short delay with the start due to rough roads slowing the convoy the controlled roll out turned into a full on race thanks to Nelson (Timor national team coach) and Ben Mather. Soon a select group of 6 riders was formed with Luke Fetch and myself in the front group. We watched to race and made sure not to push the pace as there was 120km of racing ahead.

At around 25km AJ Flatted his rear tyre and he and Ben (AJ's Team mate) stopped to fix it. Luke and I stayed at the same pace for the next section of surprisingly challenging terrain (The profile made it look down hill!) I managed to pick up full King of the Mountain points (KOM) with Luke in second and KOM leader Tinker in 3rd. Then we hit the long rough flat section...

Luke and I swapped off turns for the last 70km and got into a good rhythm. Tinker payed the price for his massive effort the day before in the break and the General classification was changed after AJ suffered two flat tyres as well as Ben getting two as well. Mechanicals had played a strong hand on stage two with Luke and I also having to stop and fix his front mech at one point.

When the dust cleared for the epic stage I had found myself in the lead of the tour less than two min in front of Luke but around 8min in front of AJ. We were very lucky not to be on the receiving end of the flat tyres.

Luke and I crossing the line... Destroyed.

Stage 2 Results:

1	Luke Fetch	4:12:10
2	Paul van der Ploeg	0:00:01
3	Tinker Juarez	0:11:20
4	Rohin Adams	0:12:48
5	Scott Liston	0:12:49
6	Adrian Jackson	0:13:35
7	Alex Denham	0:28:50
8	Andrew Bell	0:33:48
9	Mohd Razif Mohd Salleh	0:33:49
10	Kel Boers	0:33:51

Stage 3: Beacu to Illomar 70km 715 meters vertical

Team tactics came into play on the way to Illomar. With the overall lead the search2retain-Felt work horses in the form of Scott and Neil showed everyone how to control the bunch as they proceeded to set a solid pace along the flat but rough roads. A break went containing John Groves (Apollo), Sean Hurley and Ash Hayat (Fitzroy Revolution), but flat tyres yet again played a massive roll in the outcome of the race. Grover and Ash flatted and Sean sacrificed his rear wheel for Ash. The main bunch caught up at the base of the main climb and Neil bowed out having done his job for the day.

Scott Liston was staying with the pace even after swapping off on the front. At the steepest part of the climb the terrain got loose and Luke and I broke away from our competitors and powered to the finish. Luke was onboard his new 29er and it motored through the rough and loose stones. We crossed the line together managing to put more time into AJ and Tinker. Things were going well and it was happy days in the search2retain camp. That night I started to get some 'gastro' symptoms which was not part of the game plan.

Neil giving the locals something to cheer about :-)

Stage 3 results:

1	Paul van der Ploeg	2:33:34
2	Luke Fetch	0:00:01
3	Adrian Jackson	0:01:28
4	Tinker Juarez	0:02:54
5	Ben Mather	0:03:10
6	Rohin Adams	0:06:46
7	Scott Liston	0:07:43
8	Christopher Hanson	0:09:25
9	Alex Denham	0:09:28
10	Matt King	0:09:34

Stage 4: Illomar to Com 70km 664 meters vertical

Heading out of the picturesque village of Illimar and down towards the cost involved some challenging climbing from the gun. The pace was high as AJ light it up allowing Ben to Launch a solo attack when everyone was in the 'hurt box'. We knew Ben was going for stage glory and we just needed to watch our main rivals and didn't cook ourselves.

I managed to get some more KOM points which would be enough to steal the Jersey off Tinker. We got over the rough terrain and the hills became less harsh and more rolling on better quality roads. We turned left and the roads turned rough again with less than 20km to the finish. At around 12km to go I herd my rear tyre start to loose air and my heart sank. I changed the flat as quickly as possible and to my shock I only had one 16grm canister.

It was not enough to fill up the conti race king 2.2 and after a big chase to get back the lost time I hit the rough downhill into the finish and flatted again. Things had gone from bad to worse and the 2min I lost blew out to 6! I got a tube off Rohan Adams but it was a dud with holes in it so I had to ride the flat tyre the final 6km to the finish!

Not all was lost as Luke moved into the lead and I held onto second overall ad 1st in the KOM comp. Scott had a tough day riding alone but held onto 5th overall also.

Sprint finish for 2nd place with Luke managing to roll AJ and Alex.

Getting low and aero on the beach of Com.

Stage 4 results:

1	Ben Mather	2:31:48
2	Luke Fetch	0:04:05
3	Alex Denham	0:04:06
4	Adrian Jackson	0:04:07
5	Tinker Juarez	0:04:28
6	Nelson Silva	0:05:33
7	Muhammad Fauzan Ahmad Lutfi	0:06:21
8	Rohin Adams	0:06:23
9	Paul van der Ploeg	0:10:06
10	Scott Liston	0:10:45

Stage 5: Com to Manatuto 140km 1425 meters vertical

The longest day in the tour but with the best roads. Mostly sealed with some rough sections. Scott and Neil took charge at the front of the race for the first 70km where the major 12km climb was located. I knew it was going to be a good opportunity for AJ to make up time so Scott was in charge of setting the tempo up the climb. He rode like a mad man keeping the pace high and stopped other riders attacking over the top until the final few km. AJ hit it on the outside and unfortunately for him had a big gear crunch so we got onto his wheel. With nothing to loose he hit it again and Luke and I just tried to mark the surge.

I was surprised that we held onto his wheel and actually managed to sprint for the KOM points at the top... over the top and a select group formed including Scott, Luke and myself from search2retain. Scott somehow stayed with us to the finish even after setting the pace in the wind for most of the day. We let a break go with a Malaysian, Matt King Ash Hayat and Ben Mather. It was a little risky but after 10km of chasing we started to cook ourselves and left ourselves open for counter attacks.

Up the second KOM AJ attacked and got a bit of a gap, but we closed it down and he admitted that the race was over for another day. the group of about 8 riders rolled turns to complete another tough and long day of the tour.

Finishing the longest stage of the tour with a sprint finish for the top of the u23 podium against Alex.

Stage 5 Results:

1	Muhammad Fauzan Ahmad Lutfi	4:11:23
2	Matt King	0:01:24
3	Ashley Hayat	0:01:27
4	Ben Mather	0:01:31
5	Paul van der Ploeg	0:05:23
6	Alex Denham	0:05:24
7	Adrian Jackson	0:05:26
8	Luke Fetch	0:05:27
9	Christopher Hanson	0:05:28
10	Rohin Adams	0:05:29

Stage 6: Manatuto to Dili 90km 560 meters vertical

Tired legs were served up for breakfast on the final stage. I really struggled to get my body working for the first few km leading up to the first KOM. I was very worried that I would loose my 2nd place on GC with how I was feeling. As a last resort I smashed an energy gel and my body pulled itself together. AJ attacked and I was slow to react, but I managed to roll them for the KOM cementing my lead in the KOM.

We hit the flat and attacks were flying from riders keen for a break and stage glory. We were watched too closely and I really didn't have the legs to get away. Luckily Neil found some flying legs and got into a potentially winning move before the final KOM into Dili.

The bunch was big coming up to the final climb and AJ hit the front once again, this time more to whittle down the group coming into Dili. We rolled over the final KOM and with much relief the pace slowed up. We had a good group with the top 6 GC riders all accounted for. We swapped off turns through the massive swarms of local Timorese fans. It was a very special finish to a incredibly challenging tour.

Neil managed to get 2nd on the final stage with a Malaysian going solo up the final climb before Dili and wasn't seen until the finish line
.

Neil getting interviewed after stage 6 in front of the Presidents Palace.

Luke Fetch Held onto the top spot of the podium and the Search2retain-Felt team won the overall teams category with 3 riders in the top 5.

Luke and Scott crossing the Final finish line together. Scott and Neil worked there legs off to control the race and we are very thankful for all of their hard work and efforts.

I somehow won the KOM competition and Luke finished 2nd.

KOM Podium Overall

Teams Overall.

Elite Men Overall.

Stage 6 Results:

1	Muhammad Fauzan Ahmad Lutfi	2:37:34
2	Neil van der Ploeg	0:02:08
3	Ashley Hayat	0:02:09
4	Nelson Silva	0:04:34
5	John Groves	0:07:14
6	Wan Mohammed Najmee Wan Mohammed	0:09:01
7	Paul van der Ploeg	0:15:15
8	Mohd Razif Mohd Salleh	0:15:16
9	Luke Fetch	0:15:17
10	Scott Liston	0:15:18

Overall Results:

1	Luke Fetch (Serch2retain-Felt)	20:49:56
2	Paul van der Ploeg	0:04:43
3	Adrian Jackson	0:09:37
4	Tinker Juarez	0:15:48
5	Scott Liston	0:33:48
6	Muhammad Fauzan Ahmad Lutfi	0:41:23
7	Rohin Adams	0:42:39
8	Alex Denham	0:45:01
9	Ben Mather	0:55:01
10	Nelson Silva	0:59:24

Thanks to search2retain-Felt cycling team for the suport over the Tour De Timor. All of the organisers, Mechanics and CSU Physio crew. It was an unforgettable event and hopefully we can come back in 2012 and defend the title :-)

Sorry for the delayed report, Things have been a little crazy back in Melbourne town... Next Monday (3rd of October) I head for the Island of Tasmania to race a National road series event, so look out for stage reports during next week. I can't imagine finding time for more updates until then.

Ciao for now.

TDT from Cycling News:

2011-09-22T00:04:00.000-05:00

Just to keep everyone in the loop with results from the Tour de Timor and the official race reports:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/tour-de-timor-2011

I will try to punch out the adventure from my perspective in the next 24hrs!????!?!

Just trying to recover from a mild chest infection. Hold tight because it is a hectic tale of highs and lows and in true Timor style things didn't always go to plan :-)

Tour De Tmor 2011: 2nd overall, 1st in King of the mountains competition and 1st Team overall.

2011-09-21T07:41:00.000-05:00

What a race.

Full report to come now that I'm back in Melbourne and back online.

Just to let people know that I haven't forgotten about the blag and to expect a fairly sizeable post about the crazy vent that was Tour de Timor.

Tour de Timor 2011 Prelude.....

2011-09-10T06:52:00.000-05:00

So just letting everyone know that I arrived in East Timor safe and sound and have been adapting and overcoming the fatigue of travelling.

The 2011 Tour de Timor starts tomorrow and it is going to be a very interesting race. I don't think I have ever been to a more underdeveloped country and it is a massive eye opener for me.

We head into the wild tomorrow with stage one and from now on I wont have internet (Internet in Dili is very limited and slow). So don't expect and regular updates or anything.

Hopefully the media sites like cyclingnews.com will have results and for stage profiles visit http://www.tourdetimor.com/.

It's time for bed now and hopefully we have some exciting racing to report on over the next 6 days :-)

5 months packed into two small bags!

2011-09-06T11:23:00.001-05:00

After an epic two days of solid packing I'm finally on my way in the direction of home! I packed the hardcover tail in the trusty bike bag and once again I'm pushing the limit of what you can carry on the plane with :-).

You may be asking why I have so little after so much time!?!?! I packed two bike boxes full of bike kit, the edict, my roadie, shied etc. The boxes will hopefully make their way to Aus some time in the next month ;-)

I fly from Frankfurt at 11.40pm tonight and land in Singapore at 6pm tomorrow. I'll stay over night then fry direct to Dill with AirTimor (the lovely people at AirTimor helped me out with the flight costs a bit so make sure you get on board next time you fly ;-) seamless plug Haha). That's is for now. I say goodbye to the hippy house for 2011 and Offenburg! It has been a sweet time in Germany this season.

Ciao for now.

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2011 World Championships: The full story.

2011-09-05T01:56:00.000-05:00

You could cut the tension with a knife on the start line of the World champs in Champery, Switzerland. The countless hours of training and meticulous preparation on the bike and body had all been building to this race at 5pm in the afternoon on a Friday in the first weekend in September. The late start increased the nerves for most riders as we had to wait all day to see if we had what it took to mix it with the worlds best...

I was called to the second row and as fait played it's hand I was directly behind fellow team mate and race favourite Thomas Listcher. This was a positive sign for the race because the start was going to be super important.....

15seconds to start and I was read to light it up because if I wasn't in the top 20 by the top of the first climb I would be walking the single track downhill because of the massive bottle neck.

The Whistle blew and I got off the line clean and in the top 10 riders, onto the start loop I held my position and tried to get a sit to save energy for the first of 7 climbs up the super steep climb (it reached 29%!!). Up the climb I pushed hard and held my spot in the top 20, this was lucky as I herd behind me the unclipping of pedals and the sounds of riders running up the last part of the hill, phew!

I hit the first downhill completely in 'the box' and tried to keep it in control. This was super hard with riders crashing and un-clipping in front of me and ruining the flow of the track. I got to the steep rooty drop and was a little cautious, with low speed my bike disappeared from underneath me and I found myself running down the hill and my bike was left behind. Luckily the bike landed on its side and blocked the track :-) I didn't loose any spots, but I lost the lead group!!

I tucked into the middle of my group so I could save energy and not blow up on lap 1. The lap was very technical with heaps of rooty single track and a few steep sketchy drop ins. Hitting the big drop on the first lap was a nervous moment and as there was a huge crowd the adrenaline was pumping more than ever.

Second time up the climb I made sure I got into a good rhythm and was surprised that my legs were strong and I was able to power up the hill. Picking off some of the riders that had already blown up really made me think about pacing myself.

I was struggling to ride the technical sections as I was so deep in 'the hurt box' holding onto the bike and riding my lines was a big issue. A Ukraine rider flipped over the bars in front of me and I ran into his bike then snuck past without hitting the deck myself. I was unclipping a lot in the race due to slipping on roots, I think it was also because I was nervous and twitchy in the single track. I was getting a little frustrated at my inability to ride the single track fast, but I was really happy to be climbing well (maybe the European lifestyle has made me ride like a Euro!?!).

With two laps to go I grabbed another bottle and as I was putting it in the cage I ran into the back of another rider who was stopped on the race line straightening his bars post crash. I flipped and rolled luckily not popping my shoulder out, collecting my bike off the ground I was pretty annoyed but couldn't do anything to change the situation. My left leg was pretty banged up with a bruised calf and banged knee. Luckily I didn't fall on the chicken wire that was laying on the ground in the feed zone to increase traction if it was wet.

I tried to get back into a rhythm but lost a few places in the process of collecting myself. Before I knew it I was on the final lap and I dug deep to give it everything I had left. On the final climb I was hurting and the pistons were starting to cramp! I held it together on the final downhill and was surprised to see that I had finished 15th and Thomas had won.

Crossing the line one position ahead of my number plate! YEWW

It was a crazy race with no real problems, I was really happy to finish at the front end of the field and put down my best cross country Olympic result of the year. Everyone was at their peak form for the World Championships and it is good to know that with a clean race I can finish near the front of the race. I later found out that I was also the first non-European to finish! Pretty stoked to better my result from 2009 worlds especially because the fields are noticeably stronger in Europe, because of the depth of riders over here.

As this was my last race in Europe for 2011 I need to say a massive thank you to All of the Felt-OtztalX-Bionic sponsors and staff. Especially Anna + Joerg, Geri, Robbie, Andi, Uwe for all of the work they have done to help me get to races and get my bike and body working perfectly. I really appreciate everything that the team has done for me this season and I hope we can continue to improve in 2012. It's hard to believe that Felt-Otztal-X-Bionic is ranked 3rd in the teams ranking, what an achievement.

I'm pretty tired so I hope that the report made sense. I will be packing up my life in Europe today and boxing up bikes to send home. I'm flying to Singapore tomorrow night and then I will continue onto Timor!

15th at world Championships and first non European rider!!!

2011-09-03T04:52:00.000-05:00

Well the world champs are over for another year. All of the pressure is off and the nerves have died down. This years worlds provided me with my best result of the season which involved a lot of pain and suffering, but it all paid off in the end.

I only have time to upload the photos of me deeply in the 'hurt box', I will try to add the full story later. Now I have to scream my lungs out for the Elite crew....

On the main climb willing my body to chase down the mountain goats!

Dropping in over the slippery roots. On the first lap I jumped over the bars and found myself running down the root/rock garden.

Attacking on the climb and trying to roll the euro's into the technical down hill. A few riders went over the bars in front of me and I almost crashed due to their inability to hold onto their bikes...

Crossing over the bridge heading out for another lap... At one stage the side wall of the bridge was taken out by a Ukraine rider and an army dude was holding the fence up :-)

Smashing myself to try and hold my own on the hills... I was surprisingly strong on the berg for a big unit.

Pre start race face. The only time you will catch me with a serious expression, world champs.

Crossing the line in 15th and happy that the pain was over. Super happy to finish without any problems as I passed so many riders with flat tyres or broken bike parts. I was really lucky to be finishing without any major technical dramas. I did manage to do a 'over the bars' rag doll in the tech zone when a rider was getting his bars straitened and I was putting my bottle in my bike! I looked up to see a rider stopped in front of me and I had no option but to get thrown off my bike! This was with two laps to go and I was not super happy to have bruised my calf and quad in the process.

So that is all for now but I will need to write up a full report as the race was packed with exciting moments like the feed zone crash....

Just like to say thanks to The Felt-Otztal-X-Bionic world cup team for all of their support over the whole season and it has been an awesome experience.

I'm just super happy to be able to finish a clean race in the biggest event of the year :-)

Lets hope the elite crew can light up the track this arvo. Fingers crossed.

Quick Photo Update from Muttenz:

2011-08-30T06:42:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately no time to do a full race report for Muttenz and no internet at the hotel. I just had time to put a photo report for your viewing pleasure ;-)....

More Podium action, happy to be up there with two of the top u23 riders of 2011 :-)

Race start..... I'm on the far side near the front.

Team Relay tomorrow so need to rest the legs and prepare.

wish me luck and hopefully the legs have some power and the single track rooty brain is switched on!.

2nd in Muttenz Racer Bikes cup Final!

2011-08-28T15:43:00.000-05:00

Today was the final test before the world championships and after a bad start I rode into a good position. I was 40th after lap one and thanks to some quick laps mid race I worked up into a respectable 2nd in the u23 and 12th overall just over 2min behind the one and only Julian Absolon.

It's bed time now, but hopefully we have internet in Champery so I can put up a full report and hunt down some photos.

Just keeping everyone up to date, really tired and unable to write properly :-)

I'm out.

The Sands of Time for Europe Adventures 2011 have almost run out...

2011-08-27T03:14:00.000-05:00

I just looked back in the Blog archive to my first post from the 2011 Euro trip. There was one thing I wrote that couldn't be more true... "there will be highs, and there may be some lows". This was posted while I was sitting in the airport in Melbourne moments before I boarded the plane.

With just over a week left in Europe I have one big challenge left in front of me, The biggest race of the year actually, the World mountain bike championships! I depart to Switzerland tomorrow and plan on stopping in at Muttenz for one last hit out, before moving deeper into the heart of Switzerland to Champery.

This week has involved some hard training and some time to re-collect myself before the final challenge of the trip. I have finally had time to sort out the Tour de Timor plan with the rest of the team and hopefully lock in my flights to get back to Australia on the 20th of September.

Since I have worked out how to access the team photos I'm able to find shots from the earlier world cups....

The below photos are ones that I haven't posted yet and are interesting to upload as it reminds me of moments from the earlier parts of the trip.

The start in South Africa world cup 1. I had a ripper start and slotted into the top ten.

The super steep and slippers first climb out of the feed zone in South africa.

One of the fast and flowing down hill sections on the South African world cup track

In the box from race one :-)

Post crash in South Africa.... Losing confidence and momentum in the last few laps.

Standing on the top step of the podium and the World cup sprint Eliminator Pickering, England.

Winding down through the luscious green gully in Dalby forrest world cup 2.

Slightly mud splatted face in Dalby forest.

No one could wipe the smile off my face in England after the sprint race :-) I may not have backed up as strongly in the XC, but it was a successful weekend for me in the end.

Sucking wheels in England world cup trying to hold onto the fresher riders in the race.

Start of world cup 3 Offenburg, Germany. I had a good line into the first corner on the inside and moved up well to get a top 15 start. As most would know things didn't go so well after the first lap disaster.

Just riding the race after the mechanical... I was just happy to be riding such a fun track.

Still a little in the box, as per usual for the world cup races.

Dropping into 'Wolfs Drop' over the roots and onto the road. Such an impressive section to watch from the bottom.

The start of the Olympic test event.

One of the heats in the Nove Mesto, Sprint Eliminator. With Fumic on my wheel...

That is the short update I have for now. I enjoyed hunting down a few photos from the earlier races. It brings back a lot of memories and also seems like a long time ago when I was back in South Africa at the start of my Adventure.

So Muttenz Racer Bikes cup tomorrow on a relatively flat course (only 90 high meters compared to 240m in Italy last weekend!). Wish me luck as I need a confidence booster going into World champs week.

Keep shredding the trails!

The view from behind the camera

2011-08-22T16:14:00.000-05:00

here are a few shots from last weekend at Italy. All of the high quality photos are from Armin the team photographer and Ego Promotions. He knows how to capture the moment in the race and it is safe to assume that any photo that looks good is from him or his team :-) Thanks for all of the sweet photos throughout the season...

On the loose open downhill before the first feed zone. It was really sketchy in some of the corners with no banking or real line it was more hope that the track didn't fall away from under the wheels.

Coming down the rock section was no problem on the full suspension EDICT LTD. it almost felt like I was cheating as I could bridge gaps to other riders on the downhill without trying....

A happy face before the start of the XC.... This guy didn't know what was about to happen. Future Paul would not be as happy after the DNF.

Dropping in off the rock line... One of the Full suspension only lines :-)

Well that is all the photos from my race. One week of training here in Offenburg then Geri and I head to Switzerland for the final Assault on the European season.

Cheers big ears ;-)

XC-BATTLE KAPRUN 2011

2011-08-21T14:23:00.000-05:00

Val di sole world cup: The love – Hate relationship of Mountain bike racing.

2011-08-20T05:02:00.000-05:00

As everyone knows I’m a little abnormal when it comes to you typical Mountain biker, sometimes it plays in my favour and other times it works against me in a big way....

Today was the final world cup and I was hoping to end the season on a high coming into the world champs in two week. This did not go to plan and I was forced to pull out due to mechanical problems after two laps of hard racing.

I started out strong coming in 25^th after the start loop chaos and the first lap madness. In the start loop there was two massive pile-ups and I was luckily on the clean line for both of them as I herd carbon-hitting ground and yells of anger as riders hit the deck.

The lap in Val di sole didn’t suit me as there was 220+ high meters of climbing per lap and it was only 4.5km! It was fair to say it was going to be tough, but with a good preparation I was hoping to have the form to outlast the climbers on board the Edict as a test for the World in two weeks.

On the second lap I was feeling strong and holding position around 25^th while measuring my effort levels to make sure I didn’t blow up before the final lap. It was on the second lap that I had major technical problems that forced me to stop racing. I was totally devastated and now only 1hr after the finish this devastation hasn’t really lifted. I love racing the world cup series but it is a wild ride and I seem to be consistently running into technical problems or other issues. It was a really good week of preparation and without the sprint race to fatigue my legs I was looking forward to a solid hit out.

I now have to re-shift my focus to the world championships in Switzerland where I hope that everything falls into place for the biggest race of the season. I get to pull on the Green and Gold Jersey once again and this is a fairly big motivator as national pride is on the line J.

That’s all for now. Maybe a few photos to prove I was there will be uploaded when I return. I’m off to watch the end of the girls race and the Elite me cook themselves in the 35 degree weather J

Sorry I couldn’t get the result everyone was hoping for. One more opportunity and then I will start to move back to the homeland with a week or so in the small island of Timor!

Ciao ciao for now.

World cup Nove Mesto (Czech):

2011-08-17T14:39:00.000-05:00

Firstly I have to start this report on a sad note. This race was always going to be dedicated to my Uncle Eddy after he took a turn for the worse in his fight against cancer last week. Since the race he unexpectedly and suddenly passed away. Being overseas is really hard when all of my family has been going through a really tough time. I guess one thing I can do is try and bring them some happiness by, giving everything I have to the world cup races. On Friday I gave it everything (turned out to be just short of enough for the win!) and I suffered for it in the XC race on Saturday. Here is how last week’s events unfolded….

It was Friday night and the nerves and excitement were building. I was sitting in the Felt team area and trying to go through the motions of preparing myself to ride smart and fast in the up and coming world cup sprint eliminator. I was feeling a little flat and struggling to ‘get my head in the game’ so I decided to fuel up the body with a banana sliced onto a bread roll with Nutella J This was a winning combo and I headed into the stadium for the warm up. You may wonder what sport I’m talking about when I write stadium?!?!? The Czech world cup was based in the cross country skiing stadium and was transformed into a really special MTB event location.

The Track:

The sprint eliminator track was roughly 700m in length and started on the grass parallel to the hot mix finishing straight. 100m after the start there were two log jumps, which required bunny-hopping skills at high speed. It then merged onto the fast hot mix surface and went over a bridge. The next section lead into a forest with multiple lines and a smattering of tree roots. This was on a climb and then it turned left onto hot mix and then crossed into loose gravel and went under a temporary bridge. It then did a loop back to the temp bridge and dropped into three log jumps. It then proceeded under the original overpass and did a sharp right with the aid of a burm that guided you onto the final 150m on hot mix to the finish. On the final straight there was also two sand mounds that required more bunny-hopping skills J

The format:

As the Sprint eliminator is still a new format I will explain how the event works for those who don’t understand. Riders start with an individual time trial and complete one lap of the course. Riders are seeded according to their time and 32 riders proceed into the heats. Riders are assorted into groups of 4 and race ‘head to head’ on one lap of the course with the last two riders getting ‘Eliminated’. This process continues until there are only 4 riders left. The 4 riders race head to head in the final and the winner of the race.

The race:

After a short warm up I lined up to destroy the course in the time trial. I was near the end of the starting order, as u23 riders were placed at the end. I qualified 10^th overall in the end and was happy to be in the top 32 (only 32 qualify) after I panicked a little heading into the rooty forest climb. The rest of the run was pretty clean.

In the first round of the heat I got off to a quick start and took control of the heat. I defended well and held on for the win. In the Quarterfinals I had a little more drama with Manual Fumic (Connondale Factory Team) who was the 2^nd fastest qualifier! We both started fast and I got into the first spot, but Fumic was going hard and rolled me into the forest. I followed for the rest of the lap and rolled in second trying to ride smart. In the semi finals there was an extra challenge with Fellow teammate Thomas (Felt-Otztal-X-Bionic) in with Fumic and I. Tom and I obviously wanted to go through together and after a very fast start and a smooth clip in (Thanks to the new shimano shoes and XTR pedals), we roled into the forest 1^st and second. I heard Thomas from behind yelling but couldn’t look back. When I did look he was no longer there and Fumic was in second. It turned out that the Belgium rider chopped Thomas and took him out!

So I had made it into the finals again at the world cup sprint eliminator and this time it was being broadcast live to Czech television! The call up involved a camera zooming around and the grandstand full of spectators screaming in anticipation of the big final. I was very nervous and I tried to hide this by amping up the crowd. This time I was introduced as ‘THE BEAST’! The final consisted of Fumic, Naf (Merida Multivan) and Stefan Peters (Swiss national team u23).

I felt out of my depth once again with multiple world champions lined up next to me, but I was there and ready to fight….

(This was during my introduction as I tried to win the crowd over)

The gun went and I nervously went to clip in but was a little bit off. I corrected my foot position and clipped in properly. Now able to put down full power I moved up and slotted into 3^rd wheel behind Naf and in front of Fumic. We flew into the forest and then coming onto the road Naf lost traction on the slightly damp road, I had no time to react and pulled on the breaks, both wheels started to slide out but the Continental race kings held on for dear life! Phew, I stayed up right. I hear chaos behind and sense that Fumic was no longer on my wheel. I looked forward and a gap had opened between the young Swiss rider and myself. I got to the log jumps and we were closer and I hoped I had enough kick in the final straight. I was head down and sprinting full power to the line. With 75m to go I went over the last two sand humps on the Swiss riders wheel but my legs locked for a millisecond! I blocked out the pain and tried to kick around…. I lunged for the line with the momentum but fell short by half a wheel. 1 meter after the line I was in front, but it was over.

I was very happy to stay up right with a super crazy final. Naf and Fumic rolled in with road rash and dirt on them and I was thanking my lucky start not to have joined them on the hot mix road. Thanks to all of the support from the Felt-Otztal-X-Bionic team. It was very special to be on the world cup podium for the second time this year. As an added bonus Thomas got some revenge on the stupid Belgium rider and destroyed the small final to take 5^th and the final spot on the podium. I look forwarded to next year when there is a full world cup sprint series and the first ever Sprint Eliminator World Championships!!!!

Well after the excitement of Friday night Saturday was always going to be tough. My XC race was at 2pm in the afternoon so I was hoping this was enough time to recover…. It wasn’t! The start gun went and I had a smooth line into the top 20, into the first climb I was feeling OK and held position trying not to cook myself, the next climb I seemed to be loosing places and I kicked out of the saddle to go with the flurry of movement. It was at this point less than 10min into the 1hr 40min race that I felt the first signs of bad legs. Oh Boy!

At the end of the start loop I was in roughly 40^th, not really what I was hoping for. I then tried to move up, but again my legs had other ideas. I felt tired and on this course my weakness on the climbs was amplified. There were 220m vertical per lap, which was only 4.5km. There was also 5 short and very steep climbs with technical rooty downhill’s linking them up. In the training on the course I felt that the SIX LTD hard tail was quicker, but during the 6 lap race I realized that fatigue played a big roll and the dual suspension EDICT would have been a better option. In the end nothing would have saved me from the torture I was about to put myself through.

It literally felt like I was dragging a fridge through sand around the course. My legs were dead from lap one and they didn’t wake up for the whole race. I hovered between 35 to 40^th the whole race because other riders were blowing up in front of me and were going even slower. I didn’t want to pull out because it was still a good hard training session if nothing else J

I rolled into the finish a little disappointed but happy with myself for keeping on pushing around the track even with the world’s heaviest and lifeless legs. I had to put it into perspective that the up and coming weekend is another world cup in Val di Sole (Italy) and with no sprint eliminator on the day before I can have a proper race preparation and hopefully ride strong.

Sunday was the Elite men’s race with mixed results within the team and with fellow Aussie friends. Thomas got two flat tires and snapped his seat post in the rock section. Charlie rode his lungs out into 20^th after a horrible start. Blaza, Sebrina and Adle all rode strong races with Blaza finishing in 16^th, not what she hoped for but it was super tough racing. Bec had a shocker and after a good start blew up and limped home. Dan managed to hold his start position for once after the start loop and was looking good at getting his best result for the season until he snapped his frame at the bottom bracket?!?!?! (He had been racing the same frame for nearly 2 full seasons). Sid Flew over from the US and landed on Thursday before the race but rode strong with a horrible start number to almost crack the top 60. In the end probably a more disappointing weekend for the team besides Thomas and I being on the podium for the Sprint Eliminator (2^nd and 5^th).

Monday we drove the 1000km epic to Val di Sole (Italy). It has been 3 years since I participated in the 2008 World Championships here. I raced sick and was pulled out on 80% with one or two laps to go. Lets hope that this weekend runs a little smoother. I will be racing at 9.30am (5.30pm AUS time), as all XC racing is on Saturday with the downhill on the Sunday.

I have written this post up while offline because there is little to no Internet at the hotel. Hope I can post it up soon when I find a connection. Sorry it is so long, I had to distract myself so I didn’t eat before dinner J

Ciao ciao

2nd at world cup sprint Eliminator Nove Mesto Czech!

2011-08-12T16:00:00.000-05:00

Another crazy night of sprint racing with ups and downs! Luckily for me I was able to stay out of trouble and make it to the final! It was an unbelievable race and I was only beaten by half a wheel after a big chase due to Ralf Naff coming down on the greasy road....

To stand on the podium at a world cup twice in one year is ridiculous. The hairs on the back of my neck are standing on end just typing the words. I just hope I can get some sleep tonight so I'm ready for tomorrows Olympic distance race :-)

When I find photos and video coverage I will upload them and type up a raw recollection of another unexpectedly successful world cup sprint eliminator. It has been a crazy year so far and to be able to write another story about getting results on a world level is so unexpected I can't even believe it,

Tonight I didn't expect to even make it into the finals, as the level of competition was incredibly high.... I was lined up next to two world champions which is a little intimidating!

I'm now forcing myself to leave you with this taste of the the full blow by blow race report that will come tomorrow or the next day :-)

(The start of the final with the grand stand in the background. What a race and once again in electric atmosphere. A really well organised race with live TV coverage throughout Czech :-)).

Wish me luck for the XC race tomorrow..... Thanks for all of the support.

Kaprun city sprint Photo collection.

2011-08-08T14:15:00.000-05:00

I have located some more photos of the Kaprun Sprint race and thought I would upload them to give more insight into the race that was.

I have also tried to use google translate to get the Austrian website into English and if you click HERE it might work :-) (fingers crossed).

This was the final drag race up to the finish line. Nic and I have got our pain faces on after the 6 lap epic sprint.

The start of the Semi finals just before I pulled both feet out of the pedals! There was a super slippery metal gate to try not to ace yourself on as a few guys did.

Daniel Federspiel leading over the water jump in the final.

The tangle up after the line, moments before I decked it and slid along the cobbles.

Another classic podium shot with Nic in the 'King of Kaprun' cape and crown :-)

I have arrived safe and sound in Nove Mesto, Czech. Andi and I met up with the rest of the team who are all recovering from the assault on the European champs. Blaza finished 5th in the elite women and Adle finished 10th. Thomas had multiple seat post issues and lost his seat in the final lap! He held on for 3rd and the bronze. Charlie was riding strong and pulled out another stella effort to get 13th. Well done to all of the FELT OTZTAL X-BIONIC Team. We are all looking forward to getting on the course tomorrow and seeing what we are up against here in Czech.

I'll try and get a few photos and everything if the weather is good. Today was raining and 10degrees when we arrived!

Austrian City Sprint Cup: Kaprun Night Sprint Full Report.

2011-08-07T14:40:00.001-05:00

Night time approached as the clouds engulfed the valley surrounding the city of Kaprun. I found out that the 2nd sprint in the City sprint cup was in full night time with my first heat at around 9pm. There were flood lights illuminating the obstacles, but I had never raced at night without personal lights and let alone when it was raining cats and dogs on the cobble stone filled course! It was filled with firsts and not in a good way.

I luckily had my AR roadie on the wind trainer for warming up otherwise I would have been drenched before I started. The race organisers used the times from St. Johann's Sprint race to work out the starting positions for the first heat. I was in heat five which was good to see how the race was unfolding. The course was around 400+m, but it was a 4 lap race in the heats and a 6 lap race in the finals! Tactics would play a more significant part in the results than normal. It was a more measured effort than an all out smash fest.

In the first heat I managed to take control from the gun and get into the stair section first. I calculated my effort so I didn't cook my legs too early and held off the other competitors.

The course was full of challenges including, log hopping, a very slippery wooden bridge (think Sasafrass creek trail in the Dandenongs), muddy grass, stairs, a hectic log pile like the day before (I was very cautious not to crash on this feature) and a water jump that ended up landing in water! There was also multiple sketchy cobble stone corners! So the course was full of demanding features which tested the skills.

In the Semi finals I managed to pull both feet out of the pedals in the first 10m and watched as the other riders rode away from me! I clipped back in then worked hard to get back into the top 2 so I could battle in the grand final. I sprinted hard and got back in the lead and the crowed loved the Aussie come back! I was lucky that I had good legs and the sprint was 4 laps so I could make back the lost time.

Nerves were building as first place would take home 2000 euro! I was warming up near Nicola who was smashing some caffeine and I quickly did the same... It was about 11pm at this stage :-). We were all called up to the start grid and I was introduced as 'the boxing kangaroo' after my semi final battle. The gate dropped and I opted for the safe option of starting slow and picking off positions as it was a 6 lap final....

(Photo thanks to Kaprun Rentals)
I tucked in 4th out of 5 finalists. The pace was high and I was regretting not starting faster, but on the 2nd lap I took back another place and was in 3rd. Into the third lap I pulled into 2nd and was sitting on the winner from the day before. I was happy to sit in as the next three laps were the crucial laps. Into the 4th lap I took the lead and opened up a small gap. I tried to stay calm and coming into the last lap I was still clear, but at the top of the course I slipped on the top bridge and was like Bambi on ice! I managed to get a foot out and re-balance myself. I had lost my gap, but managed to hold onto the lead into the stairs.....

I kicked out of the last corner and hit the gas, I was cautious on the log's which cost me some ground and with tired legs I gave everything over the water jump and Nicola and I hit it at the same time! I put in what I had left and lunged for the line and Nicola and I got tangled and on the very wet cobbles, If you can imagine 'cool runnings' when the bobsled tipped on it's side and they were helplessly sliding on the ice, well that is how I felt sliding for 10m on cobble stones! To rub salt into the wounds it was the same side as 24hrs before! I was unfathomably OK. I expected to be very hurt, but I just re-opened the very fresh wound on my hip. Other than this I was just a little disappointed to lose the sprint in the final meter of the race and by a tyre width!

It was a good result and Nicola deserved the win after he had so many troubles with his bike the day before and he spent 6hrs fixing it during the day!

The podium presentations were held in an underground car park which was really cool and Nic got to wear 'the King of Kaprun' crown! I also managed to get 2nd overall in the Austrian City sprint cup which was a bonus!

After a 6hr drive home in some hectic and confusing traffic, I made it back to Offenburg and said goodbye to the trusty Passat after tripling the odometer reading :-).

Heading to Czech tomorrow with Andi (Team masseur), should take around 7 hours and the final phase of the world cup assault will commence. This weekend, Nove Mesto (Czech) and the following weekend Val di Sole (Italy) where I can have some revenge on my worlds 08 disaster race.

I better get organised as I leave in the morning.

Kaprun City Sprint race: midnight update

2011-08-05T18:02:00.000-05:00

The heavens opened and rain dumped into the city of Kaprun....

It's almost 1am and I just got in from the presentations. I can't justify staying up for a full report, but I will give a brief report.

In the end I was out lunged by new friend Nicola Rohrbach by a tyre width!!! But all was in good fun and the 2nd tonight got me 2nd overall in the Austrian city sprint series :-)

No time for more detail, but it will follow when I arrive back in Offenburg. Sorry for the random post. Pretty much cooked right now and my bed is calling me.

There is a really good story to go with the result. I just don't have the energy to tell it ;-)

The podium from the overall for the Austrian Sprint series...Daniel Federspiel proved that consistency was key in the end.

I'm totally out of here...good breakfast in the morning then taking the Passat through it's passes again.

Extra sprint race photos :-)

2011-08-05T05:20:00.001-05:00

Back onto the net in Kaprun! Course here looks wild. there are water jumps, stair and the personal favourite....LOGS! haha. Full report to go up after the race tonight. Stay tuned.

The internet is via the cable port...I didn't know that they made that anymore :-)

Smiles all round.... well more relief from my end of the hand shake! Haha

Putting on an awkward face in the time trial. I was pretty much trying not to poo my pants while getting around the track at speed for the first time.

Head to head heat 1 with Nic and I showing the crowd how to cruze through.

Getting some hang time in the small final. Riding with a bit more confidence when I realised how to race the course.

Podium shot of a higher quality. My camera doesn't have as much detail as this one. In this photo you can clearly see that I have shaved my head again. BUSTED. Got bored on Friday and gave the clippers a run :-). Time to get serious.

Pre race rider briefing. I was just standing there and didn't understand what was happening. Pretty standard...

Heat one start. This is my favourite photo as it shows the crowed, and the gate is moments away from dropping. Fun times....

1. Mountainbike City Cross in St. Johann in Tirol - Highlights 2011

2011-08-05T03:26:00.000-05:00

Not bad at all.

2011-08-05T02:20:00.001-05:00

Make your own breakfast....awesome. Good result for the morning.

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morning ride with a view!

2011-08-05T02:18:00.001-05:00

Snuck out for a pre breakfast spin. A little stiff and sore from last night :-) hope to loosen up during the day, ready for tonight...

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