The morning stage was an individual time trial where riders would leave the start 30 sec apart. Fast technical riding is not my strength and I struggled with the rocky terrain. I was happy to finish not too far behind the top 4 girls for a 5^th place. Jenny Fay proved she can dominate over any distance and smashed the female field for the win with Rowena Fry for 2^nd and Kelly Bartlet showed what a skillful rider she is coming in  3^rd.

The men’s race was taken out by Andy Blair with team mate Shaun Lewis for 2^nd and Ben Hogarth for 3^rd.

The night stage was a mass start and began at 6.30pm. I was nervous to ride in the dark as I struggled enough with the course in the day time. Not in a million years did I expect to get wiped out and submerge in a puddle not even  100m into the race. Whilst trying to get up I kept on being pushed down by fellow competitors passing me. It felt like a lifetime before I finally got on my feet again, my body was shaking and I didn’t know quite what to do. I decided to put the pressure on and try to race my way back to the front. I was passing people on the outside of the track picking crazy lines whilst praying I would not get a flat. Held up on the single track I knew this was not going to happen. I ended up in no man’s land after getting through the first bit of single track and decided to relax. I was dreaming if I would think I could make up the time lost. My heart sank when I saw Jenny Fay on the side with a broken chain, not a good evening for her either. It was a spectacular experience racing in the dark, seeing all the little lights zig zagging through the night was magical. What an awesome race.

I ended up coming in 6^th female which wasn’t too bad considering my swimming start but I lost the 6 and a bit minute time advantage I had on the 5^th placed girl Kelly Bartlet, which was a bit disappointing. Rowena Fry took the win, a great ride from Terri Rhodes for 2^nd and Kelly Bartlet for 3^rd.

In the men’s race it was a sprint to the finish with Shaun taking the win over team mate Andy Blair and my roomie Kyle Ward for 3^rd. Impressive ride for Kyle since his leg was about to fall off after a nasty crash on Monday.

I managed to make the Rapid Ascent  video footage, unfortunately not for the right reasons but at least I will be able to laugh about it for many years to come, all part of gaining experience!!

You can find me in the middle of the puddle…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2kEuFke83I&feature=youtu.be

Since starting mountain biking, I have gone from flats, toe-clips and straps, early Shimano models (M535), Time ATAC, Crank Bros Eggbeaters, Crank Bros Candy, VP, and then back to possibly the best Shimano pedal, the M970. I was on the one set of those for 4 years. I stuck with Shimano for cleat and pedal durability, weight that was low enough, and a pedal that was reliable enough in mud and wet sand. The Time ATAC pedals had a great feel, but I never enjoyed the feeling of your feet pushing to the outside of the pedal. Other pedals I tried didn’t manage to stay together for long enough.

The latest range of Shimano pedals, such as the XT and XTR editions, just don’t have the durability of their past designs. Thankfully, they are serviceable. But you need to stay on top of your servicing of the bearings to keep them free from play and the damage that can cause – not only to your knees but to the pedals themselves.

Time have redesigned their pedals numerous times since I was riding some bright red ATAC’s almost 10 years ago. They still have a lot of float – and depending which way you set the cleats up you can have either 13 or 17 degrees of float. After flailing around with 17, I went back to 13 degrees. As I favour a secure placement in the right position, as opposed to lots of float to allow my pedal stroke to shift around, I much preferred the 13 degree setting.

And a few months on – the Time ATAC XC 8 Carbon pedals still kick and click on.

The XC 8 pedals are also a lot lighter than my ATAC pedals. When the Eggbeater hit the market in 2002 the low weight benchmark was reset. The XC 8 Carbon pedals are 288grams, and there is a slightly lighter but much more expensive Titanium axles model available too. The chromoly axle, carbonate body and simple retention system help keep the weight low.

Beyond the float options that are set via cleat orientation, you can adjust the release tension. There are two flat blade screwdriver slots on the side of the pedal, one for each side you can clip into. Tightening this up will increase the release tension. Small adjustments make a big difference! I put about two turns in to get the higher tension I prefer.

Fitting was easy, with an 8mm allen key on the back side of the pedal. With grease on the threads, they were easy to get on and off with a moderate length allen key, when travelling with my bike or swapping from hard tail, to dual suspension, or to my ‘cross bike.

In use, there was a brief period of getting adjusted to the feel of the Time pedals. They did have a slight ‘walking on ice’ feel with the greater amount of float at first. This feeling dissipated quite quickly as I became accustomed to their action and feel both for clipping in, riding, and releasing. With the 13 degree release angle, it is a larger movement to release, but one that feels more consistent and not the ‘dead stop’ that you hit with a Shimano pedal.

The bars of the Time pedal that hold the cleat in place are now notched, which greatly prevents the lateral migration of the earlier ATAC models. If you’re a little bit ‘Princess and the Pea’ about your fit like I am, this is a fantastic improvement – and one that was introduced at one of their previous design updates. Of note, the pedal body is a little taller than the current Shimano M980 pedal, so you’re not quite so close to the pedal axle. It’s just about the same as XT though.

With the testing period covering use in a variety of areas, maintenance on the pedals came to the fore. The very dry conditions experience in the early stages of the ABSA Cape Epic created a lot of noise from the pedals. Repeated use of s teflon spray lube, and then a heavy chain lube on the springs daily did reduce this.

There was lots of sand and dry conditions in South Africa. The lead bunch during stage 2 of the 2013 Absa Cape Epic
Photo by Greg Beadle/Cape Epic/SPORTZPICS

A trip to Taree in wet conditions proved the Time ATAC XC 8′s abilities to clip in well despite a high load of mud – but the trick of tapping the sole of your shoes against the side of your pedal still does more to clear excess trail crap from your shoe and cleat than the design does. It’s hard to expect miracles when your shoe is double the weight due to clay based mud. The next month involved three prominent Marathon races along the East Coast of Australia – and little more can be said about the pedals save for the fact that I didn’t need to think about them. Their action was consistent, there was no more noise from them, and only after 3 months use was there a barely noticeable amount of play in one of the pedals. And this is quite an easy thing to service with the right tools.

What was noticeable was the play of my shoe in the pedal – when clipped in, my shoes were starting to rattle around. Although the soles aren’t new, they are not heavily worn out. With 1-2mm more material on the outer sole of my shoe this may have not occurred. Unfortunately, this play did prevent me from running cleat protection plates under the cleats, which prevent the bars of the pedal biting into the sole of your shoes.

With and without the cleat, you can see the damage done to the carbon sole.

This damage is avoidable with the use of a plastic or brass plate underneath the cleat, but this may drastically change the stability of your shoe/pedal interface.

I really enjoyed the action and ease of adjustment with the Time ATAC XC 8 Carbon pedals – but before investing in a set I would look at how well they would work with my shoes, to make sure they have the right feel. They work very well in a range of conditions, and spare parts are available for servicing them. With some pedals priced as ‘use, wear out  and replace’ it’s nice to know you don’t need to contribute to the local land fill.

Look at the website for all Time products for further details, or contact your local bikeshop.

There are always a lot of stories after a Mountain bike race, about the terrain, the course, the tactics, lines being taken, lines being missed. Sometimes you wonder if it is the same race they are talking about. The talk of yesterday’s stage was Kyle Ward finishing the last 30km without being able to sit down. His powerful behind was too hot for his saddle to handle and disintegrated underneath him. In the lead at the time this must have been very disappointing and many would have pulled out. But not Kyle. He made a lot of friends and gained a lot of respect continuing the race at a leisurely pace making conversation with fellow competitors carrying his broken seat with him. For finishing without a saddle he even got a prize awarded! His popularity is now exceeding his reputation with pictures all over Facebook and Twitter. Great exposure for sponsors,  sometimes it really is not all about winning.

There are always plenty of stories after racing a marathon. Although stage 4 of the ICME, an 88km point to point race mainly over fire roads and double tracks made for the most straight forward marathon I have ever raced. To the point that it became mentally challenging to stay focussed! Again the terrain was spectacular and very unique, the legs got a bit of a hiding racing through, sand, sticky mud and rocks.

The day started very early having to leave our hotel at 5am for an hour and half bus ride to Santa Teresa where the start line was. Another unreal experience, I don’t think I have ever been anywhere more remote. My aim today was to try and stick with the front pack as long as possible. I had a bad day yesterday so I really wanted to do better today.

I was lucky enough to find a good bunch to ride with which included 3^rd placed female Terry Rhodes. This was probably the least lonely marathon I have ridden so far. I normally struggle with the fast starts and end up riding by myself most of the way. It was nice to work together in a bunch for a change, I found it mentally and physically a much easier way of racing!!

The story of the day was the front group missing a turn and riding for an extra 10km before being turned back by race organizers which made for an interesting finish. We also rode the wrong way but not too any extend of that of the leaders which meant Terry and I didn’t finish too far behind Jenny and Rowena. I don’t believe it had too much impact on the women’s field but in the men’s where seconds count it ended up a slightly disappointing end to a tough day. Jenny Fay got the win today over Rowena Fry for second, I unexpectedly managed to hold of Terry Rhodes in a sprint finish for 3^rd. Official results are still pending after having to deal with an unplanned  orientering leg of the race.

After 3 days of racing in tough rocky terrain my Bianchi Methanol FS is still working perfectly and the MAXXIS IKON EXC tyres have handled the trails better than I have!!! I have also been very impressed with the Ozriders foam grips making this intense riding much easier on my hands. A Big thank you to all the sponsors involved with Subaru-MarathonMTB.

As I am writing this rain is bucketing from the sky. I must say this is the wettest desert I have ever been to!!

During a drunken night out post Convict 100 I happily offered to share my free accommodation for the ICME stage race to Micheal Crosby who probably wouldn’t have been able to afford coming up otherwise. When later that same night Kyle Ward asked me if he could come also, I enthusiastically babbled drunkenly,  yes of course the more the merrier!!

Sharing a room with two 21 year old boys. Back in a sober state I wondered if this was such a good idea, but the promise was made and plans started to develop. No turning back now.

Being new to this world of mountain bike racing, I must say this was probably one of the better things I decided to do whilst drunk, both boys have been absolutely awesome, even though young, their experience racing bikes exceeds most people’s here. It has been a delightful adventure so far and I believe I have made friends for life.

Waking up this morning I knew this was going to be a hard day for me, although my legs were ok, I felt tired. The course being predominantly rocky single track didn’t suit me that well and I did not manage to feel the flow which according to the boys there was heaps of.

Again an awesome day out, and the sun finally made an appearance!! The terrain was very tough but when finding a few seconds to look around whilst racing the views were absolutely spectacular, what a remote part of the world. It was a buzzing feeling to be here racing bikes.

In the women’s race it was once again Rowena Fry who dominated, Jenny Fay wasn’t far behind though and the marathon queen will enjoy the length of the 88km stage tomorrow. Terry Rhodes rode in for 3^rd . I was battling it out with Kelly Bartlet for 4^th but she was simply riding to well today so I had be happy with 5^th. I was sad to see Jenny King on the side of the track today, shows even the best athletes have bad days and that in order to race the top girls who are here you just have to be at your game.

In the men’s race it was no one less than my roomie Michael Crosby who took the stage win. The Swell boys Sean Lewis and Andy Blair came in 2^nd and 3^rd.

Time to recover and prepare for the longer stage of the week tomorrow.

A big congrats to Rapid Ascent for organizing such an awesome race, I am having a ball

http://www.multisportaustralia.com.au/Home/QuickResults?clientId=1&raceId=871

From my previous posts, you may already have gathered my “racer image”; how I view myself when it comes to racing bikes. It is not a view of a high-octane sports car, all fast starts and sprinting for corners. Nope, I am definitely a ragged old diesel (age being foremost in my mind as I approach my 31st anniversary), no good at the short, hard efforts that increasingly characterise XC races, and to a slightly lesser extent even marathons. I am purely an FTP rider, make me go much above 300W and I wither pretty fast. Comparisons with other number-obsessed friends confirms this, I am reasonably competitive when it comes to FTP/Kg, but go deeper into the red and I choke; I have the classic Time Triallist profile, perhaps proof that you can take a chap out of the fens, but you can’t take the fens out of the chap!

Chris Pedder prefers the velour comfort of Stage Race start towns than the concrete of a crit circuit.

With this in mind, I reckon throwing myself into a few hour-long adrenaline smashfests is probably not a bad plan; give me an ultimatum (hit 800W now, or get dropped) and I’ll be interested to see what my body can really do. Riding a bike is such a fascinating interplay of the physical and the psychological, I wonder if “out of context” and out of my usual comfort zone, I might not even surprise myself. Obviously, to make my test very scientific and double-blind, I’ll not only put a piece of highly sophisticated opaque sticky-backed plastic (read electrical tape) over my bike computer, but I’ll also refrain from asking other riders what their stats are during the jockeying for corners. Have to do it right, after all!

My first roadie outing is in a little under a week, as an added bonus it’d be nice to get rid of the taint that no one sees – that little number “4″ on my license, but for now, I’ll take a bunch of fast people to remind me how hard it feels to be at your breaking point for an hour.

I am not a sprinter, not even close, I can actually say I dont even know how to do it, something I dont train for and have no experience in, so for me it was going to be a new challenge to ride off into the unknown of Anzac hill as fast as my lungs, heart and legs could take me… turned out this wasn’t very fast.

The athmosphere on the hill was awesome, it finally stopped raining and people were cheering each other on, the view at the top was spectacular, even though a short stage, a cool part of the race.

We were set of in reversed GC order which meant the best were left for last… In the womens it was Rowena Fry who had her sprinting climbing legs on, followed by Jenny King and Jenny Fay for 3rd.

In the mens race it was Andy Blair for the win, Ben Hogarth for 2nd and Sean Lewis in third place…

Time to eat, recover and do it all over again tomorrow.

Having packed for desert weather and being warned about learning how to ride in the sand I was surprised (together with all of Alice Springs) to wake up to a very wet Sunday morning…  and it didn’t look like it was going to get dry anytime soon…I have raced a few races organized by Rapid Ascent before, including multisport races, and I have never been disappointed with any of them. These guys really know how to organize an adventure and I was looking forward to hard week of racing. Rain or no rain

Race day arrived and it was time to turn race face on, the women’s field as well as the men’s was stacked with Australia’s best riders, this race was going to test the legs and the mind… Stage 1 was a 40km combination of 4WD roads and fast rocky single track. Really unique riding, I can’t compare it to anything I have ridden before, although I was happy to have practiced handling rocky terrain in preparation for the Convict the last few weeks. It was wet, foggy and cold… not really desert weather… but it didnt stop people from smiling. I lined up with the top girls slightly nervous and wondering if I belonged there. After having ridden a few marathons the race was over before I knew it, pretty spectacular course and I was happy to come in 5^th not far behind the top girls which would make for an interesting remainder of the week.

Rowena Fry led the whole way for the win with Jenny Fay only seconds behind in 2^nd place, Jenny King was 3^rd, Terry Rhodes 4^th and I came in 5^th place.

The men’s was won by Andy Blair, Sean Lewis for 2^nd , Ben Mather for 3^rd, Ben Hogarth in 4^th place and roomie Kyle Ward for 5^t

Hill TT climb this afternoon… hope the legs will have something left to give…

Full Results of Stage 1 Find Below

http://www.multisportaustralia.com.au/Home/QuickResults?clientId=1&raceId=871

The ICME is running for it’s sixth year, and is a great reason to visit Central Australia. The local mountain bike club are passionate about their trails, and the ability to race in short sleeves under blue skies in mid May is welcomed by those from cooler climates. The men’s field has gained strength in 2013. 2011 and 2012 winner Andrew Blair is returning to defend his title, and is taking Swell-Specialized team mate Shaun Lewis along. These two have their team dynamic down to an art form – and one will happily race for the others victory, depending on the in race scenario. The recent Convict 100 is testament to that.

Andy Blair gives Alice Springs his ‘thumbs up’ of approval.

Ben Mather is also racing, as is Kyle Ward and Ben Hogarth. Long time ICME fan Nick Both won’t be racing this year. The first day may provide the key gaps in the field, as it has done in previous years. Firstly with the technical approach to the velodrome, and then the hill climb at night. But in Alice Springs, it is as much about racing hard as it is about managing flat tyres, night racing, and time trialling. A complete skill set is required.

Jenny Fay (Swell-Specialized) is returning to Alice Springs, and along with newly crowned Australian XCM Champion Jenni King (Target Trek), Rowena Fry, Nienke Oostra (Subaru-MarathonMTB) and Jess Harries – the women’s elite field is not out done by the mens.

Riders line up at the Chifley for the start of the 2012 ICME

Over the five days of racing, we will have daily reports online from Niene Oostra. You can also follow us on twitter (use the hashtag #ICME) and Facebook for extra insights into the race.

I started my season in Australia with the Kona Odyssey in Forrest, Victoria. Amazing race, well known and loved by many mountain bikers all over Australia. A 100km event with over 50 km of amazing flowing singletrack and some long, steep climbs that left many gasping for air. I finished somewhere around 100th position, not a great result but not bad considering I left freezing cold Europe only a few weeks before the Kona. Two things I learned from this event; first, I need to work on my technical skills. In a 100km race, you need to save your energy for when it really matters but I was wasting too much energy making up for all my mistakes on the single track. Second; my fitness level was good. I felt pretty strong and kept on feeling like that all through the race, I just needed a few more big days on the bike to prepare myself for the second event, Bike Buller.

The Bike Buller MTB Festival is an event over three days with a 50km XC, a 6 hour brake burner enduro and a 20km XC on the last day. Needles to say the brake burner was my achilles’ heel with riders flying past me on the rough Buller downhill tracks. I did manage 21st in th 50km XC and if it wasn’t for a puncture in the last km’s of the 20km XC, I could’ve had a top 20 on the closing day.

In April the team had pointed out two big events, the Wombat 100 and the XCM Nationals. The Wombat 100 was a great race, I enjoyed every bit of it. My technical skills had gotten so much better since the Kona and a 20th place was a nice reward for all the training in the weeks coming up to the events. Only a week after the Wombat, I joined my teammates up in Tropical North Queensland to race the XCM National Championships. Atherton was a great location to see Australia’s top marathon riders battle for the green and gold jersey. Is was a hard race though, riding three laps of 34 km each in a tropical 34 degree heat. Unfortunately, the heat got to me and halfway I had to pull out when riding around 10th position. I had some mixed feelings after my first DNF. Sucks that I didn’t finish but I felt much more confident on the single track than ever before.

At this moment I’m training for the last race for a few months, the Dirty Gran Fondo here in Victoria. It’s a 90 km race on the dirt roads around Wandong. I’ll probably take a few weeks off the MTB after that one and start preparing for part 2 of 2013. As I write this, I’m planning my training and race schedule for June to December 2013. I know I will need to work harder on my skills over winter and I’ll need some big rides on the roadie to give me a good basic fitness. I also decided to start working with a coach again. I’m pretty good when it comes to making my own training schedules but I just need that little extra and a coach to motivate me when I need it most.

My key events for the rest of the year will be:

- The Tour of the Great South Coast road race in August

- The Flight Centre Epic and the Kowalski Classic in September

- The Melbourne to Warrnambool road race and the Surf Coast 100 in October

- The Highland Fling and the 12 Apostles MTB in November

The Tour of the Great South Coast is a five day stage race from Mount Gambier in SA to Melbourne. It should be a great way to boost my fitness levels and prepare me for the mountain bike events over the next months. I’ll also be racing at the Westgate Dirt Crits here in Melbourne and if I can get my hands on a cyclo cross bike, I might even give the Dirty Deeds Series a try!

Interesting then that there are still holes in what can be covered. You can insure your business, your income, your health, your life, your pet. Apparently the Australian tennis great, John Newcombe, had his moustache insured. Maybe Warney had his right wrist insured, not sure. Yet it is only recent history that cyclists could insure their bicycles independently of their home contents insurance, something of great import given that bicycles are at their best when away from the home. It is even more recent history that cyclists could be insured whilst on a riding holiday.

Is it covered if it isn’t in this room?

There are not many companies insuring bicycles and some are better than others. There are even fewer who offer personal travel insurance that covers you while riding a bicycle and to this correspondent’s knowledge there is only one that offers travel insurance while racing a bicycle. Given most readers of marathonmtb.com are racing cyclists and we are well and truly into the time of year where cyclists from the southern hemisphere venture north, we thought it would be prudent to pass on some news on the cycling specific travel insurance front.

Travel insurance is, generally, personal insurance. A select few insurers will let you extend the cover of your bicycle so that it is insured on an overseas holiday but, generally speaking, personal travel insurance would end as soon as you threw a leg over a rental in Amsterdam, toed the line at a ‘cross race in Belgium or raced the Downieville classic in the Sierras. Hit the ground in an overly damaging fashion and you’re on your own. More or less, travel policies cover – to varying degrees – things like cancellation of travel plans, emergency medical assistance, disability, personal liability, loss of luggage and personal effects etc. If you’re riding a bike though, most of these things are not covered. Certainly so if you are racing.

An Australian company, Velosure – who many MarathonMTB.com readers might have their bicycles insured with – recently started to offer a personal travel insurance product that not only covers you while riding a bicycle overseas but racing a bicycle as well. We’d be happy to get feedback from readers about other outfits doing this but our research indicates there are none. It’s a good feeling to read the features of a policy and know that the very reason you are travelling for – riding – doesn’t render them all null and void.

Whatever insurance you get, read the Product Description Statement (PDS). There’s a reason it is law that insurance companies have to provide you with one at the time of sale. There’s important stuff in there.