pay dirt

Been making an effort to get my wheels back to the dirt, and strangely enough it is not much of an effort.  In fact, it is completely full of awesome.  Three hours flew by largely due to the excellent company.


The Koiled Dirt Krew were pretty much all present and accounted for, however it appears Miff didn't get the wheel size memo. As I looked through the pics from the morning it occurred to me there are some CRAZY BLINGING NICE bikes in our bunch.

Jim was so awed by the line up of bikes that he was to forced to stop and adjust is sock height.  In fact he got to spend the morning on a Santa Cruz Tallboy loaner from TR.  Who gets a TALLBOY LOANER!!!! (unless you are Prof in Sedona....another story.)....

 Nick opted for hardman status and left the Form Ti HT and gears at home, schlepping it on his SS Niner.

 Truck wheeled out his beautiful steel Blacksheep SS 29er.... man that is one nice looking bike.  Note the perfection in grip to paint job matching, 

Not to be outdone, TR rolled his blinged out custom BlackSheep 29er HT - pretty similiar to the highlight for those up on their Blacksheeps.

I got to roll my new 2012 racing wheels - my koiled carbon HT 29er, tricked out with Industry Nine custom pink wheels. Careful matching to my Santa Cruz from a geo point of view meant she was pretty much point and shoot out of the box.  Stupid light, manouevrable, and slick looking.  This bike is going to be fun.  I think I will name her the 'hell bitch'.

Never one to shy away from Pink, Shan rolled his Koiled 29er too.
These were to be our Mawson bikes ...and who knows maybe one day they still will be.  The race cancellation still cuts me deep!!!

 Miff rolled to the beat of her own drum with her Santa Cruz superlight baby. 

I guess we can let her sneak into this 29er heavy crowd because it is a blinging Santa Cruz, and because we love her crazy ways.

Till next time.....   Ride what ya brung!!!!!








* thanks to Miff for the insanely fine mobile phone photography.

making plans

My morning rolls have been consumed with thinking, planning and promising.

2012 will see the return of the 24hour solo MTB worlds.  After some deliberation I have decided I am willing to go round again.  After a year spent largely on the roadie due to MTB race cancellations and no 24hr worlds it appears I have some serious work to do to regain my MTB licence-to-race.   I might be rolling my roadie faster than ever but the price is that my dirt action is rusty as hell!

So it is time to go back to basics.  Each time I come back and work hard, I think I do get better than I was the previous season.  I know that I still have a lot to learn which is both exhausting and hopeful.  The best thing about having a lot to learn means there are still significant chunks of time on the table that can be stolen through hard earned improvement.  I don't think I am at that elite style ceiling common in many sports, when you have nailed your skills, got as fit as you can be and you are looking for that tiny, tiny improvement that often takes mammoth effort. So that is cool, and it is motivating.

As always, there is a core bunch willing to rock up to my place and roll with me no matter what. They put up with it all, and while I suspect my awesome husbands cooking has something to do with that I will give them the benefit of the doubt. These guys are a massive part of my strength to get up and get stuck in.  At the risk of sounding, well, like a chick ..... love you guys, couldn't do it without you, in fact I probably wouldn't want to!  Ok, enough of that....

The road ahead looks....... like dirt!

Toowoomba Be Better Psychology Criterium

Toowoomba recently invested in a fantasic cycling facility - a purpose built 1.7km criterium track, with club house and full facilities.  What a top notch course it is, and a great change up from the few flat courses I have experienced locally in Brisbane.

After a reasonable training week, including rediscovering coot-tha, racing a club crit stupidly the day before, and staying out late for the Club Presentations night I was more than a little cooked going into the Crit.  Still a few sessions of legs in the pool, eating anything I could find and committing some serious fashion crimes by 24 x7 compression gear I was recovered enough to head for Toowoomba and atleast join in.

The new CQ registered Koiled / UQ kit was order of the day, and we certainly stood out in the bunch.  It was nice, safe racing though we did seem to lose a few from the bunch as the race progressed and people were shelled on the hills.

Despite my reservations it turned out to be my day with a course that probably suited me the most out of our Koiled team.  With three climbs and an uphill sprint into the line, there were plenty of pain faces on display.

I had a dig at the Prime, just as a measuring stick for the finish...... I discovered it is significantly harder to recover even hiding in the bunch on that hilly little course.  How Shannon rode a 3/4 lap solo attack for the prime and didn't die I will never know.  He would have been in the hurt box for sure, but I am starting to suspect that might be his home address.....

Managed to get back out of the red zone in time for the finish.  Katrin had tried hard to get herself into the break, and I made sure I stayed up where I could go if it looked like she might do it.  Then I think time had run out and she rolled back. I knew the girls were sitting on me so I backed off to see what was what.  Katrin came around and attacked hard on a hill.  Good hill legs there!  Coming up the final turn she went hard again on the small hill and gapped me.  I could see her starting her sprint and she had a reasonable gap. Never know, if you don't go - so I did. I managed to peg her back and came over her for the line.  Great racing!

All in all a good day out for Koiled.

Next up HPRW twilights....