• Cyclocross Race: PACC No. 1, 2011

    I raced my first cyclocross race, and it turns out, the first cyclocross race held in Adelaide . The race was hosted by the Port Adelaide Cycling Club (PACC), and held in the Adelaide park lands just south of the CBD.

    The early morning weather was cool and rainy, though my ride into the city was mostly dry. The weather was sunny and cool by race time, and the track was dry to slightly damp. I entered the ‘A grade’ with the elite roadies and such (I fall into the ‘and such’ category). The ‘A grade’ race was short at around 40-45 minutes. The lower ‘B grade’ only went for 25 minutes, and that seemed quite short.

    Photo Credit: Jeremy Miller, Eternity Cycling

    There were 25 racing in the ‘A grade’, and I started near the back. The race was fun, and felt much like the ‘dirt crits‘ that the AMTBC used to run in the summer. The Gunnar performed well, and the only change I’d consider making is either lowing the tyre pressures (currently 65/75psi F/R), or perhaps switching to something wider and taller than the 32/30mm Speedmax combo I’m using.

    Anyway, I held out and was lapped by the top four finishers a couple hundred meters from the finish. I finished 14th out of 25, total time 43:32, and missed being on the lead lap by 14 seconds. Overall, I’m very happy with my result. The full results are posted on the PACC CX blog.

    More photos and video:

    Another Video… I believe there may have been more cameras than bicycles at the race.

    adelaide cyclocross. from Sam Roberts on Vimeo.

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  • iPhone/iPad 3G Tracking

    And I thought the iPad didn’t get out much…

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  • AMTBC Cromer 6hr Enduro

    Last weekend I helped build some new singletrack for the AMTBC Cromer 6hr Enduro, and yesterday I raced it in the solo singlespeed class on the rigid Kona 29er.  The course was well-suited for a singlespeed, though only five of the 85+ entries were in the singlespeed class.  I used a 32×20 gear, while most of the others I talked to were on taller gears.  Most of the track would have been faster with taller gearing, and I think I could have gone with a 34×20 or a 32×18/19 without too much difficulty.  On the other hand, I was quite happy with the 32×20 gearing towards the end of the race.

    I was much more careful with fluids, gels and food, and as a result, my lap times were much more consistent than on the Foxy 1000.  As far as the bike went, it had no mechanical issues; no flats, no dropped chains, nothing.  The Ignitor 29×2.1″ tyres were very grippy, predictable, fast, and I’m still very happy with them.  Also, I’m beginning to see some of the benefits of hydraulic brakes.  Even after six hours, braking with the Elixir CR Carbon brakes was easy and I had none of the fatigue that the old Paul’s rim brakes, and to a lesser extent the BB7s caused.

    The rigid fork was great for the first four laps/3.4 hours–  the last three laps/2.9 hours were less than comfortable.  Most of the discomfort was in my fingers and arms, and it made some of the choppy/rocky sections in the last few laps a little difficult.  On the other hand, my wrists were fine.  Could this be due to the super-cork wrist-saving Ergon grips?

    In the end, I completed seven ~13.5km laps, for a total of around 94.5km in 6:13:46.  I did manage a top-five finish, but as I previously mentioned, there were only five in my class.  Even so, I’m very happy with my lap times, and will be racing in more enduros this autumn/winter.

    My lap times:

    Lap1234567
    Time00:44:0400:49:5700:54:2300:53:1600:58:5000:57:5900:55:18

    Complete results: Cromer Race 1, April 3

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