Ben's brain works in strange and wonderful ways. (Ben = El Presidente of COGS). What I thought would be a short casual spin around the twin mountains of Ainslie and Majura, turned out to be a little more than that; it actually hurt and a great race was had by all.
From the site: "Race two will be held on the morning of Saturday the 26th of February. It will be a self guided, point to point race in and around Mt Majura and Mt Ainslie including parts of Majura Pines."
There were three check points cunningly situated so that there were numerous routes one could take to reach them. Of course there were mountains in the way so every route was bound to hurt a little.
I chose to ride the Mount Cross as I envisaged much soft roading. Turned out to be the perfect weapon.
There was a good show of people, maybe 20 or 25, all on mountain bikes except me. The race started from Ainslie and to be quite honest I didn't see a person once I headed off; I was a little faster than those on fat tyres with low gear inches. Once I reached the forest I found the Mount Cross, with its flat bars, great on the single track. I eventually found two of the three check points, then it all happened. I could see a man in a woman's shirt in the distance behind me as I climbed out of Majura, it was Ed, and I was scared. As far as I knew I was in front, I would have been very surprised to see anyone make the distance I had without the ratio I was running. It seems Ed had out smarted Ben and predicted precisely where the check points were, I wasn't that smart and this saw me overtaken by Ed as I walked up the rise between Majura and Ainslie. He commented that it was now a war of gear inches and he was right.
Ed was well in front as we hit the saddle to the North of Mt Ainslie, it was a long downhill stretch before it flattened out. I pushed the skinny tyres at speed to catch him on the descent. Once we reached the bottom he cautiously peered over his shoulder to see how much gap he still had; I smiled from just behind his rear wheel, then left him in Tom Ritchey's finest handmade dust!
From the site: "Race two will be held on the morning of Saturday the 26th of February. It will be a self guided, point to point race in and around Mt Majura and Mt Ainslie including parts of Majura Pines."
There were three check points cunningly situated so that there were numerous routes one could take to reach them. Of course there were mountains in the way so every route was bound to hurt a little.
I chose to ride the Mount Cross as I envisaged much soft roading. Turned out to be the perfect weapon.
There was a good show of people, maybe 20 or 25, all on mountain bikes except me. The race started from Ainslie and to be quite honest I didn't see a person once I headed off; I was a little faster than those on fat tyres with low gear inches. Once I reached the forest I found the Mount Cross, with its flat bars, great on the single track. I eventually found two of the three check points, then it all happened. I could see a man in a woman's shirt in the distance behind me as I climbed out of Majura, it was Ed, and I was scared. As far as I knew I was in front, I would have been very surprised to see anyone make the distance I had without the ratio I was running. It seems Ed had out smarted Ben and predicted precisely where the check points were, I wasn't that smart and this saw me overtaken by Ed as I walked up the rise between Majura and Ainslie. He commented that it was now a war of gear inches and he was right.
Ed was well in front as we hit the saddle to the North of Mt Ainslie, it was a long downhill stretch before it flattened out. I pushed the skinny tyres at speed to catch him on the descent. Once we reached the bottom he cautiously peered over his shoulder to see how much gap he still had; I smiled from just behind his rear wheel, then left him in Tom Ritchey's finest handmade dust!
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