Rocky Trail MTB Grand Prix Series

On Saturday 3rd July 2010 the Rocky Trail MTB Grand Prix Series kicked off at the Awaba MTB Park. The race was started under blue skies and in a packed event centre with more than 200 riders and their support crews in the “pit lane”. Two race options were offered – a 4Hour and 8Hour race length with the Bike Bug Team of Gavin Storey and I opting to do the latter as a male pair’s team.

Gavin & I arrived with sufficient time to setup our base camp, register and complete a warm up, prior to the race briefing.

The race commenced at 9:00am with two waves of solo riders being released straight into the single track. The team riders were release about 5 minutes later. I completed the opening lap in heavy traffic and managed to overtake a handful of riders. I was happy to pass the baton to Gavin for the next two laps, as he managed to sneak past a few more riders and gained clearer track by the 3rd lap as competitor’s spread out.

By the forth lap with the track clearing up i was able to open up smash out a couple of quick laps and really got to appreciate the amazing single track that Awaba has on offer. I managed to complete the fastest lap of the day with a 23:13 and back straight up with another sub 24 minute lap with a crash in the dark forest section.

While Gavin was flying around the track, i noticed that my front wheel had a server buckle. The event bike mechanic had a hard time straightening the wheel and made the wheel safe to continue racing.

The track was predominantly silky smooth single track, with corners that could be railed with absolute confidence. I would especially like to thank the Hunter Valley Mountain Bike Association, for building and maintaining such an amazing track.

Both Gavin & I continued to do consistently quick lap times for the remaining of the race and lapped 2nd place team to be the only team to completed 18 laps (approx 162km) in under 7 hours and 50 minutes.


The Bike Bug team convincingly won the male pairs category and came 2nd overall in the GP8 hour race. A special thanks for the awesome event put on by race organisers and to Bike Bug for finely tuning Gavin’s Merida FLX and my super quick Merida Ninety Six.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT 2010

Capital Punishment was held on Saturday 30th May 2010 in Canberra and took in some of the best tracks that Canberra have on offer. I was predicting a wet race, but nether expected the mud fest that prevailed.

Due to poor planning, we underestimated the time required to travel to the get start line (i.e. getting lost) and missed our race start slot by over 10 minutes. I started the race in the 4th wave and soon realised that forgetting my glasses was a crucial error, as mud was flicking up into my eyes, making visibility extremely difficult. After the 3km of fire road, we soon discovered how hammered the tracks truly were.



The next 30km was a battle, with the previous 300 plus riders turning the track into slop and the front wheel drifting through corners and the rear wheel sliding across the track from left to right. Overtaking other riders was made difficult by the poor track conditions and sheer volume of single track. I worked hard on the fire road sections to overtake as many people before re-entering the single track where patience was essential.

Half way through the first section, I had worn through my rear brake pads and was using the front brakes cautiously to ensure I would have some brakes for the rest of the race.





On arrival at the first 30km check point I literally had no vision, I was squinting to prevent any further mud going into my eyes and trying to make out the fast approaching check point. On arrival at the check point, I quickly grabbed a cup of premixed Endura and threw it into my eyes, to try and wash the dirt out.

I pushed on through the miles of paddocks that followed on my way towards Majura pines. At this point I was feeling strong and managed to make up some lost time. My expectations of the Majura track was not high, but the trail was in much worse condition and I found my self hugging a number trees and walking the steeper climbs.

At the 60km mark I stopped and had some food, attempted to wash eyes out again, but unknowingly over stayed my welcome by thinking that this section was untimed.

I was ecstatic on reaching the untimed section another 15km’s later, as I desperately need to go to the toilet and had been holding on from the start.


The last section before entering into Stromlo was painful, the track felt like I was riding through wet concrete, with large sections in an unrideable condition. The trails at Stromlo were the complete opposite and had held up really well.

This may sound like blasphemy, but I preferred the climb up Stromlo than the run down to finish, as I had absolutely no brakes left and the descent felt sketchy. With the finish line insight and the hum of the tyres rolling over the asphalt brought on a feeling of relief that it was all over. I ended up in a respectable 25th position overall and 16th in elite category.

Thanks to Bike Bug North Sydney for tuning my Merida FLX hardtrail for this event and to Steve who is going to help me strip clean the bike in the aftermath that was Capital Punishment.