|   Lookin' for the scoop on the 03 SSWC. Anyone? (nm) | whoopicat
Nov 12, 2003 6:33 PM | | |
| Went off..... | Velophile
Nov 12, 2003 10:27 PM | | I had an awesome time at Castlemaine. Great course. Very simular to the Aussie SS Nats course used in March this year. A little more singletrack & it's had more traffic to run it in.
There was a short-cut option that cut out a tech decent & climb. At the end of the short-cut was a beer tent. Take the short route, get handed an ice cold beer, mmm beer. Tequila shots at the start too.... |
| Some SSWC03 Pics | hippy
Nov 13, 2003 5:22 AM | | These are mostly pics from the Sat night party..
I was too busy drinking.. err I mean racing to take
pics during the.. err race :)
WARNING!!! - CONTAINS NUDITY!!!
http://www.openwindows.com.au/hippy/sswc03/
Damn this was a fun event!!!! :D
I know there were other people there with cameras so come on...
Cough up your photos! Don't be shy! :) |
| re: Lookin' for the scoop on the 03 SSWC. Anyone? (nm) | Shwinboy
Nov 13, 2003 3:52 PM | | Yep we did the ss worlds on the week end and what a uber fun weekend it was. We had perfect weather. All sun and cool 20 something temperatures. There was a social ride on Saturday where something like 150 ssers pedaled out of the small country town of Castlemain to hit the trails. I've never been on a group ride like it. With that many riders it was best to try stay up front to avoid sucking in all the dust. The whole convoy cruised along and for the first time on a group ride in ages I didn't stall on a climb because some gearie wanted to shift into granny in front of me. Every one was in sync and this combined with the great fast flowy trails proved to be one hell of a zen biking experience. I've got to go back there. Some of the trails are unreal. They mainly follow old gold mining tracks and causeways so they can be super smooth to dippy and rough as guts but all fun.
The race or event really was held at the same place the ss nats were heald which is a great track if a bit rough in places. It's the kind of track where you have to commit to it 100% to muscle through the turns and up the climbs. You can't sit down much and you can't try to take it easy because you just get hammered. Its smoother to go faster and you relax on the fire road climbs. There was a short cut section where you could skip the hardest decent and climb but to do so you had to finish a can of Castlemain xxxx beer,( The Qld stuff was originally from Castlemain Vic.) crush the can and then you could go. In reality it wasn't much of a short cut but it was a great day for drinking beer so we had to indulge our selves. It was a lemans start of course but while we were waiting for the start they had rearranged all the bikes. I fell victim to this as did every owner of a white ON-One bike. They were all placed in a pile together and you had to find your own bike amongst about 20 other identical looking bikes. Did I mention that every one had the same 03 number plate.
I spent most of my ride riding with a guy named Evan Jeferies. Now if you haven't heard of him that's ok but this guy is a gun. A machine who'll ride 100km on his road bike to a race and then win a pro elite xc then ride home again. A legend in these parts. So how was I keeping up I hear you ask. Well Evan doesn't own a ss so he had to borrow one..from his little sister. He was riding a 12" wheeled rusty Malvern star girls bike with a rattling mudguard ape hanger bars and back pedal brake. His 4 laps on this thing definitively proved to me that it's defiantly not the bike but the rider. He descended on this thing like he was falling and I could barely hold his wheel as he took full advantage of his low center of gravity. The only time I could pass him was on the climbs because his gearing was too tall. In the end He over took Duan and I on our final lap as we drank beer. There was no way we could catch him on the dh sections so he ended up besting us. It was hard not to laugh riding with him as he caught slower guys he'd be yelling Get out of the way you big wheeled bastard.'
An awesome weekend. Some chick from Calafornia and a dude from NZ won but I think they were the only ones taking it seriously.
Celeberaty aperances were made by Paul Rowney who had single speeds are gay' written on his top and Cadel Evans but I have no Idea what happened to them because they didn't stick around. I heard Cadel had a bit of an off and those who passed him were very happy. I think his collar bone was OK. |
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