Disc brakes legal for road races!
It's taken a while but disc brakes are finally going to be legal to use in road races - 2016 for the pros and 2017 for the rest of us. Which begs an interesting question... which year does Darren Bakker start using them? He's 'pro' as bro but doesn't have time to ride with GreenEDGE 'cause he enjoys being a plumber so much.
Here's an article from Cycling Tips explaining the rule change a bit more.
Catching up on a couple of Dirt Crits
Delatite Dash, Monday 16 Nov.
Monday 16th November saw the mountain bike crew traveling out to Sawmill for the second running of the Delatite Dash.
Each rider was to complete two individual time trials up the awesome Delatitie River Trail (also the final part of the Epic Loop) from Sawmill to Mirimbah. Rather than the rider with the fastest times it was decided that the rider with the most consistent times over the two runs would be declared the winner.
After exciting riding and unfortunate delays in timing calculations Cam Dobson and Harry Retief were declared equal winners with a time difference of only 4 seconds between each run.
Rider Run #1 Run #2 Time Diff Ranking
Cameron Dobson 10.39 10.43 0.04 1
Harry Retief 9.39 9.43 0.04 1
Fastest overall time on the night went to Kian Lerch-McKinnon with a very quick 7min14sec. Detailed results of all racers can be found here.
The racing was enjoyed by all!
Enduro, Monday 23 Nov.
A great night of downhilling and thanks to Shannon for organising a really fun course. And it was great to see Mitch Greenway; thanks for the assistance with the timing.
Dave Moore smashed his runs and came away with both the fastest individual run and the fastest overall combined time of two runs. Awesome job Dave! Notable mention should also be made of the second fastest hardtail on the night, Damian Grundy. Well done Damian. (Kian was the fastest on a hardtail but beaten by Dave by 10 seconds overall for the win and so not really worth mentioning).
In B Grade Harry Retief stayed upright (as far as we're aware) and won comfortably. Detailed results here.
See you all next week.
Handicap Race on Howes Creek Road - 26 Nov.
An enthusiastic field of 24 cyclists gathered at the Lords Ground last Thursday for the second Howes Creek Handicap of the season. In blustery conditions the first three lone starters, Dave Clark, Tony Morris and Cherie Worthington, found the conditions tough. The group of John Eisner, Craig Wilson, Rod Manning, Tim Hall and Geoff Jones similarly found the wind disconcerting and it wasn’t long before Hall and Wilson rode off the front to form their own more efficient pair.
Cherie picked up Manning and Eisner and rode well until the turnaround at Cummins road.
The turnaround saw a mass of riders converging with Steve Flew jumping off the front of David Bock, Belinda Cipa and David Jagger.
With the wind behind, a fast single-file echelon formed for most of the trip home. Alex Green, Christine Hopkins, Will MacDonald, Anthony Plummer and Jason Parker joined the pack and in his first race, Joel Marrison did well to jump on from the two-minute group.
Wilson and Hall continued to ride well out the front and it was only at the penultimate hill that Ross Hopkins and Josh Hopwood came from the pointy end to overtake them and contest a sprint finish. With a little extra left in the tank, Josh edged out Ross to take the win (and fastest time of 38’59” for the 25km). Tim came third with Joel and Christine rounding off the top five.
Thanks again to our crew of marshals, the Delatite Hotel and the motorists of Howes Creek for their courteous driving.
The points for the season make interesting reading too; here are the top ten. Belinda Cipa currently leads on 38 points from Rod Manning on 34 and Geoff Jones on 30. Then comes Josh Hopwood on 29, Di Condie 27, Craig Wilson 23, Tony Morris 22, Louise Hopwood 21, then Lucy Clapham and Rob Skinner both on 20.
Road bike tyres
An interesting article on VeloNews about what makes a tyre fast; and a test on which ones are fastest.
Finally
... here are a few videos from the Global Cycling Network.
This is a good one on mountain bike tyres.
This one is 'How much faster is an aerodynamic position?'
And this one is 'How to improve your bike handling skills.'
And with the warmer months coming, one on climbing rhythm.