Puffer Lite 2011- Quickie

It was a successful night for VCM at the 2011 Strathpuffer Lite, Gordymac riding in mixed trios with Highland Fire fighters CT duo of Donnie Macdonald and Cherie Pumphrey won their race and placed second overall in trios. Meanwhile Chris Marquis kept it steady throughout the night and was rewarded with the solo singlespeed crown and a fine third placed solo ride.

Puffer Lite Albino Midge Snow Globe!

I will get a more in depth write up later in the week once I've had some sleep!

NZSS10

Tristan models a daring blue vintage number with matching dodgy tash and tats...

Lots more images from the Queenstown MTB Club gallery

Well, since cross doesn't really happen here in NZ, we've been occupying ourselves with a little bit of single speeding. NZ held our national single speed race in a spot called Queenstown. Better known for perfect postcard scenery and having earned the title of NZ's adventure capital, Queenstown was a welcome choice of venue. Although the day itself was a less than perfect - actually it was pretty yuck, as it dawned cold and drizzled right up to the race start. My specially purchased mid-calf-length pure white socks were stained before I even hit the race track.

Anyway, it was bad... In a good way. But also in an evil way. The track was squashed into a peninsula on Lake Wakatipu called 7 Mile. Somewhow they managed to jam 330 verticle meters of climbing into the 6km loop and then forced us to ride it 5 times. Add it up - that's a shade over a mile of vert. On a single speed.

Anyway, the outcome was favourable for me, but part way through the last lap I started worrying about where I was going to put the winner's tattoo...

Above two images courtesy of Scott Kennedy of Adventureskope.com

We've also written a bit about the race for the NZ importer of my lovely Ibis Tranny - Hyperformance Hardaware. Although, to understand it, non NZer and non-squash-enthusiasts might need to do a little prior research to understand it: wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Devoy

back and fat

January is well and truly underway and riding seems to have slowed right down for me, the end of season finale of Mull left me somewhat depleted and need of a rest as well as catching up with my family and life outside of cycling (the horror). My sorry mountainbike lay in a very tired looking state untouched since the last kiss of summer, my road bike hung clean likewise. Funny the different regards we have for each bike. Now liberated from the Yeti and cross season, I could start to think about riding for fun once more. First up was getting my SS into a ridable state, that poor bike has had nothing but a hard life but still it keeps coming back for more, a quick sponge down with a bucket of hot and soapy, a blast of GT-85 here and there, add some heavyweight no brainer tyres and away I went. Having been riding solely the cross bike for months it was a pretty cathartic ride back on the Curtis I was over at Laggan and went for a gentlemanly ride around the red trails there. I must admit every time I ride Laggan I remember how much I love the flow and crispness of the trails. It was cold and fairly wet but those guys have done a lot of work to make sure the trails drain well and they do. The ride hurt, having been off the bike pretty much since Mull, I was glad to be running a leisurely 32-18 gearing and cruised my way around without a care in the world. (well for the hour or so I was there) Unfortunately my ankle is still playing up and I am wondering if it is too late to get some specialist attention on it? Other than that the ride was good which was kinda what I needed to blow away the winter break and clear the head for 2009.

A couple of riders up at Strathpuffer this weekend, I don't envy them, it was howling here last night so I can only imagine what it is like up there. Good luck to them all.

Apology, I was late getting the team affiliation payment made so if you have applied for a license you may have got a knock-back, I apologise, they should have the payment by now and I will try and clear it up next week, my head kinda switched off over the festive break.

SSUK 08

This weekend sees the first outing for the team colours, SSUK 08

Team riders Jac Strachan, Anja McDonald and Chris Duncan will be there to fly the flag and share some Grimbergen love around.

Full preview to follow.