1st Anniversary Ride
Thanks to everyone who came out to support us on our 1st Anniversary ride in Glenrock on Sunday. Celebrating 1 year since we moved from our City location of 8 years. With 34 riders in attendance it was a reflection of the growing support for DRIFT BIKES in our region without which we would not succeed.
Thanks again to everyone who rode with us.
Josh & Robbie
Nicola Hogan’s NRS Race Report
I have decided to concentrate more on Road Racing rather than Mountain Biking this year. To race at the National level with the best girls and teams in Australia means you have to be at your best come race day. For me, this meant I had to be 100% dedicated and focused on my training. Most of the national rounds consist of an individual Time Trial, 2 or 3 consecutive days of long road races, normally around 100kms or more, and a criterium race which is at very high intensity (30mins + 3 laps after the bell) around a 1km circuit.
Unable to race in the first round of the Women’s NRS in Tasmania, Round 2 was held on the Gold Coast in Tweed Heads. This race is known as the “Battle on the Border”.
We flew out of Newcastle on Friday afternoon – almost missing our plane (Michael’s fault). We arrived around 5pm and registered at the Mantra Hotel on Salt. We met up with some fellow Novocastrians who were doing the support races and had a tasty meal at a local Italian restaurant. Following the race briefing, we went back to our lovely accommodation (Cotton Beach – Casuarina) which was just a small walk to the beach to prepare for the following day.
The first day consisted of a 7.6km Individual Time Trial with me having an 8.20am start time. We left our accommodation at 6.20am, arriving at Murwillumbah Show Ground at 7am to allow a solid warm up on the rollers and also to sign on the big board (I felt like I was a pro at the Tour de France). It was quite warm and to be honest, I was pretty intimidated with all the girls in their teams and their TT bikes and aero helmets etc. Not having ever raced a Time Trial before, I just focused on what my coach had told me. I crossed the Start/Finish in 11mins.58secs, 1min.40secs down on the leader and 59th out of 67 starters so not too bad considering.
The first road race for the weekend was not long after the TT at 11.00am and started from Murwillumbah. It was a hilly 97km race (2 x laps of a 48.5km circuit). Not having ever raced at National level on the road before, I was extremely nervous. The line-up of 70 odd girls, mainly consisting of teams with 6 girls in each, made for a pretty intense start. There was a lot of fighting for position at the front of the peloton. A lead car and motorbike led us safely out of town under neutral conditions onto the open (but closed) road. At around 3kms, we were “released”. The pace picked up and there were attacks being made immediately at the front. I was positioned in the middle of the peloton with eyes peeled for any sudden movement. The pace soon steadied and I was feeling more comfortable, until around 15km in, a girl suddenly came in between myself and another girl on my right, brushing me and my handle bars. I moved to the left and she completely lost her balance hitting the deck hard and taking 3 other girls down while forcing me to crash on the grass. I got up frantically but not hurt and rode fast and hard with the 3 other girls back up to the main group. Petrified at this stage, I just decided to stay at the back of the peloton and get my confidence back. As we hit the hills I was climbing really well and passing a lot of girls. Quite a few riders were dropped and the descents were very fast and flowy. 76km/hr in fact. I began to feel more comfortable as we came in to town to start the 2nd and final lap. There were 2 more crashes within this lap, the worst one only 10km out from the Start/Finish which I narrowly avoided. Shaking my head I just wicked up the pace and got on the back of the main group finishing 28th.
Sunday’s road race started from Salt Park, only a 10 minute ride from our accommodation. We had more good weather and this race was 85kms (2 x laps of a 42.5km circuit). Unfortunately, I still felt really nervous going into this race after Saturday’s crash fest. Having to back up after a Time Trial and a 97km road race, I wondered how my legs would feel. The pace was not as frantic as Saturday and any attacks made were quickly shut down as we headed out into the scenic country side – it seemed no-one was getting away today. I found myself dropping off a bit on the climbs today and having to work very hard to get back on to the group on the descents. There was one section of road that was super bumpy and the down hills were quite technical with some hairpin corners (a lot of girls over shooting these corners). Again, a lot of girls had already been dropped. Approaching the 2nd lap I went to swap over my water bottles and to my horror, my second Drift water bottle (I need a new one Robbie & Josh) was not in the cage. NOooooo!. It must have popped out on the bumpy road section. I began to panic, wondering whether I would even finish the race with at least 40kms to go. As hard as I tried, I began to lose touch with the peloton. I was having an anxiety attack. Fortunately, a Suzuki Team car could see my distress, came up alongside me and filled up my water bottle. Being calmer now I absolutely stomped on it to bridge the gap. No sooner had I made contact, I was dropped again as we climbed the main hill. At this stage there were a number of women dropping off the back and I feared we would not be able to re-join the group. After crossing the top, I used all my mountain bike skills down the fast descent in hope of getting back on to the peloton. Myself and 3 other girls worked together, picking up about 10 other riders who had been spat out the back of the main group along the way. The pace was not fast enough for my liking so I drove it hard on the front for about 6km, finally reaching the main group with about 10km to go until the finish. I was pretty much cooked at this stage so I just made sure I stayed in the main group, crossing the line in 39th. I was happy with that considering at one stage Ithought I would not even make it to the finish.
After Sunday’s race I had climbed to 31st in the General Classification (GC). I knew I had to race well in the Crit on Monday to try and move further up or risk dropping down the standings. Even though I was exhausted going into this race, I felt nervous once again. Having only ever raced 2 crits I knew the pace was going to be intense at the least. I had a great position from the start but the pace was so fast, the girl in front of me began to drop the wheel in front of her. There were so many attacks off the front of the race which kept the speed of the 1st group very high and there was nothing I could do about it. Not having a lot of sleep Sunday night was definitely a contributor. I was in the hurt box and a hip injury I was carrying into this race was not helping. The group was split into about 5, me being in the 2nd group. The tempo allowed me to find a race rhythm, and I was starting to enjoy the sweeping, undulating circuit, entering and exiting corners a bit faster than the girls in my group. Unfortunately our pace was not enough and with a minute to go, they pulled us from the race, therefore finishing 3 minutes down on the leaders and coming in at 27th position. I was bitterly disappointed with my performance but knew I just didn’t have it in me today.
My General Classification at the end of the 3 days was 24th out of 67 riders and only 5min.55secs down on the leader. Not bad for my first National Road Race. In fact I’m ecstatic!
The experience was amazing and I have learnt a lot over the weekend, especially in the crit race. I will take this experience with me to my next NRS round – The Santos North Western Tour in June.
- Nicola Hogan
Trenton Day – Convict 100 Report
Image source The Roost
Only a few years ago back in 2008, I had the opportunity to compete in the Dirtworks event held in St Albans. I was only 16 and competing in the 50km event. Upon completion, I remember sitting on my own at the finish line, primarily waiting for my father to finish the 100km event, but in the mean time, watching the elite guys cross the line looking fit and fresh! I was so envious of Hamish Elliott who won that year, in a time of 4hours and 9 minutes. Four years later, with a few more k’s in the legs, I set out to find myself a late entry and give the 100km a good go.
Image source The Roost
I’m not going to lie, I was stressing on the Friday. It came down to a number of things. Worrying that I had forgot to pack something, how my legs felt on my roll in the morning, but most importantly how I was going to cope with the distance. I was confident in my ability leading into the race yet concerned, considering that I had never ridden 100km on a mtb before. I had plenty of road k’s in the legs and was just hoping it would convert to the mtb just fine..
Before spending the night in the back of the car, I was able to give myself a rough race plan. It wasnt too hard to come up with. Conserve as much energy as possible early, whilst not letting the front runners out of sight. Last as long as possible.. On the cold morning of the event, the gun went off and the lead group of 40 or so elites took off. It was a cruisy pace for the first 12km on the bitumen/gravel road until we reached the first climb which also doubled as the KOM. I made sure I was positioned near the front and sat in fourth, following Andy Blair’s wheel. Ahead of him were Adrian Jackson and Ben Mather who had already started to pick up the pace for the KOM points. I was riding within myself and decided to save some energy by not contesting for the points and crossing the top in 3rd. As it turned out, our group of four riders had managed to get a gap on the main group and there was no looking back. The brutal climb had split the race early and we decided to capitalise on our advantage by swapping off to increase the gap. Just before the 28km feed zone, Jason English managed to bridge over to us solo until he (apparently) crashed not long after. We rode as a group until the halfway mark at 50km and I was feeling good. Right after the feed zone I dropped my bottle which I was pretty bummed about so instead, made sure I was eating as much as possible until the next feed zone. Ben Mather was forced to stop here to fix his seat and unfortunately for him, never saw the front of the race again. It was now Blair, AJ and myself riding at a nice tempo. After about 10km, Blairy got a bit of a gap on a technical section and hit the gas. I was following AJ’s wheel and when out of nowhere, a big stick flung from his rear wheel and went straight through my front! An over the bars and head butt the ground all happened within the second and I got up feeling pretty groggy! Thankfully the bike was fine and I was just telling myself to get going before the gap got too big! I knocked my seat back to a ‘level’ position and sprinted off, running on pure adrenaline. I got to AJ just as he had to stop on a technical section before I went by with Blairy on my mind. I thought he had made the winning move a few km earlier but to my absolute suprise, I saw those bright pink 4Shaw socks up ahead somewhere in bush, and I put my head down to finally shut the move down. Still feeling ok, I sucked in some big air while I sat on Blair’s wheel for a while, before we started working together. We crossed the canoe bridge and started climbing again. This time it was hurting just a little more than it did a few hours ago! My chain was sucking a bit causing me to lose ground. Unfortunately I was having to dig into my reserves to get back on the wheel. With the final kilometers of climbing approaching, Blairy made the winning before the huge decent back down towards the event centre. At this point in the race, my S-works epic was really shining, cleaning up my little mistakes that are always caused by that point in fatigue. The legs were definitely in a bad way by now and all I could do was watch Blair ride off into the distance for the win. I have to say, crossing the line was such a great feeling.
The relief of finishing, but also with a podium result felt phenomenal. The top 4 riders went sub 4 hours, myself at 3h 49min and my garmin read an average speed of 26.2km/h. Moving! Again it goes without saying, DRIFT BIKES/SPECIALIZED- the best team to be working with, could not be asking for better service and equipment, thanks a lot!
Hopefully see you at the next one!
Cheers!
- Trenton Day
1ST ANNIVERSARY CARPARK EXTRAVAGANZA SALE
Bring ya truck, bring ya trailer. It’s the 1st Anniversary of our move to our Kotara store from our old King st location and we want “Pump up the Volume” on the savings for biggest and hopefully most memorable SALE ever!
For 1 day only Saturday May 12th 9am – 4pm DRIFT BIKES KOTARA is having the mother of all sales.
We have some of Australia’s biggest wholesalers on board including JETBLACK, DIRT WORKS, MAXXIS & SOLA SPORT who will have a mile of stock at prices you wont get anywhere else.
But remember, its For 1 Day only so lock it into your calendar.
More info on specials and competitions occurring on the day still to come as we get closer to the sale date.
DRIFT BIKES
LEST WE FORGET
Our KOTARA & MAITLAND stores will be closed on ANZAC DAY Wednesday April 25th.
For those of you not sure what ANZAC DAY is all about check out the link here
DRIFT BIKES online survey. The results are in…
We would like to thank everyone who took the time to complete the online survey that we recently posted on our website and facebook page.
We really appreciate our customers’ feedback and have already started implementing several of your suggestions. Including improvements to our workshop service, online info, up coming event suggestions, additional services and in store presentation. Hopefully you will see some of your suggestions come to life over the coming months.
We had promised that one lucky person who took the time to complete our survey would win a free service and cables to the value of $220.
Congratulations Scott Buchanan WINNING!
Go Pro in store
If you’ve wanted to get hold of a great simple and compact filming system for you bike, board or camel, head in store as we have Surf, Outdoor and Motorsport cameras back in stock.
Disclaimer: DRIFT BIKES does not sell camels. They smell too bad to keep in the store.
BG FIT Studio
The Body Geometry Fit Integration Technology (BG FIT) studio at DRIFT BIKES Kotara is up and running!
It has been a busy week for our BG FIT Technician Wade Budden, with all sessions being booked out well in advance.
To show our appreciation for their enthusiasm and support, the first four people to book a BG FIT at DRIFT Kotara received a free pair of S- WORKS shoes. Thank you to Jackie Bower, Jeremy Creaser, Warren Homer and Tim Nelson.
The BG FIT process enables us to custom fit your bicycle to your natural anatomy; NOT the other way around. Read more about our BG FIT studio and its services here.
To make enquiries about BG FIT or to book a session, please phone DRIFT BIKES Kotara 02 4924 2600 or email Wade directly.
HIGH FIVE! The Easter Long Weekend is coming up soon…
DRIFT BIKES Kotara & Maitland trading hours
Good Friday 6th April 2012 CLOSED
Easter Saturday 7th April 2012 10:00am – 2:00pm
Easter Sunday 8th April 2012 CLOSED
Easter Monday 9th April 2012 CLOSED
We wish everyone a happy and safe Easter Long Weekend. Happy riding!
