NSW STATE DOWNHILL CHAMPS - LITHGOW

Mat Dodd and I took a drive to Lithgow, NSW to compete in the NSW State Downhill Champs over the weekend 27-29 September 2013. We arrived in Lithgow late Friday evening and caught up with Phil Piazza and checked into our accommodation. On Saturday we were greeted by howling winds and low temperatures, not exactly ideal but I guess we have to deal with whatever is served up on the day. We practised all day Saturday and from the outset I knew I was going to have a tough time of the track! It was a short but relatively flat track with only a couple of steep sections which lasted all of 10 seconds on the bike and required a lot of pedal. The track pretty much traversed across the gradient with lots of right turns (my least favourite turning angle!) and I just found that pedalling through rocks was near impossible with my suspension set up! The good thing is that the Santa Cruz V10 performed without any issues and I met up with lots of old mates and had clean if not, slow runs! Race day came around on Sunday and the weather was much the same so we did a couple of practice runs before our Seeding race. I had an ordinary run and placed 22nd which I was disappointed with but not surprised. Come race time I tried as best I could but at the end of the day, the track just did not suit my style of racing and I could only manage to finish 17th overall in Elite Male. Mat had an awesome race and made the podium in 4th place which just goes to prove, he is a better at pedalling than I am having touched me up a couple of times recently but my turn will come, hahaha!! Phil finished a respectable 19th overall considering he has not got a bike to ride at the moment and has been borrowing one which he has not had the chance to train on as yet - hopefully, that will change for him in the near future! Anyway, after Lithgow the 3 of us headed into the big smoke of Sydney to hit up some riding around the City for a day before we headed back to Brisbane and Phil to Canberra. We managed to catch up with Mathew Whitmore, CTN Imports and Elka distributor for a brief chat during our time in the CBD. Back into training mode at Illinbah and selected other tracks before heading to Awaba for the final round of the NSW Red Ass DH Series in November after which a further update will be posted. Thanks to my Supporters including NS Dynamics, CTN Imports (Elka Suspension), Santa Cruz Bikes, Maxxis and Mavic Components.