Who is Monting this weekend?

[trailgumby]

I'm heading down to the Mont 24 tomorrow with TG junior to set up camp and meet up with some mates and their sons as a Brady Bunch Sixes team.

Who else from here is going down and what are you riding?

Junior is on my Kermit-green Cannondale Jekyll from last year, I'm on a silver Cannondale Rize with CrossMax SLR wheels. My mate Hans (of Hans and TG's Excellent Advanture fame )is on a bright orange Santa Cruze Tallboy 29er with lots of red bits.

If you spot us, come and say g'day.

[trailgumby]

<... crickets chirping ...>

[toolonglegs]

Not what it used to be mate .

[Jean]

Bring your winter woolies and sleeping bag, Canberra's forecast minimum for Saturday night is 4 degrees. Kowan was reportedly very soggy last Sunday (nearby Majura was a bog in many places on Monday, I found), so there's a good chance you'll get a wet behind too. Have fun though.

[Phill_B_34]

Yep, I'll be there, setting up today. I've spent the last week in Canberra acclimatising to the 'cool' weather; at least it’s not supposed to rain though.

I went for a ride over the track on Wednesday, only a very few short muddy/really wet spots but overall was mostly either dry or damp foliage under wheel.

Good luck everyone who's going.....!

[Mugglechops]

I am here now and its freezing. Riding a trek superfly al 29er ht.

[trailgumby]

Friday nite was ridiculously cold ... my youngster said the announcer claimed a minimum on site of 1 deg C. It certainly felt like it!

We elected to run transition from our campsite after 10pm. It was just too cold waiting down near tje lap counting station. I was feeling seriously underdressed riding back up the access road to the official start but had forgotten about that by the top of the first 4km.

Loved the Kowalskis Sideshow and Kowalskis Beer Garden in the late arvo when i had some light to see by. Just brilliant bit of trail design and the group of three i led were all grinning and hooting and calling out how good those sections were. But the Sideshow section especially showed how out of date my now 3yo Ayups are... i just couldn't see enough of the corner to feel safe committing myself like i did during the day.

I was a bit disappointed to miss out on a third lap as the guy before me missed the cut by 10 minutes... wanted to give K's Sideshow another run in the day... but i can't complain. My young bloke loved it and got through pretty much unscathed with his 3 laps, including his first ever night race lap.

Will spend some time tomorrow checking what tje chest cam caugjt and see if any is useful

[Mugglechops]

I got one lap out. With being crook the week before I started feeling bad just after my first lap which was a night lap.

I pulled the pin after that. Had a fun weekend though.

I like the video too

[trailgumby]

Sorry to hear you were crook. Smart move pulling the pin, it was seriously cold.

Here's the vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVSnw9bK ... tube_gdata

For some reason (longer than 10 minutes?) this first one only rendered at 480p, so I've cut out the boring bit (Green Mile) and am trying to re-load. WIll post a new link if that works.

Apologies for the crap spelling on the earlier post - my fat fingers and small phone screens don't mix very well, and editing your post is even harder than typing them!

[Mugglechops]

Sorry to hear you were crook. Smart move pulling the pin, it was seriously cold.

Here's the vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVSnw9bK ... tube_gdata

For some reason (longer than 10 minutes?) this first one only rendered at 480p, so I've cut out the boring bit (Green Mile) and am trying to re-load. WIll post a new link if that works.

Apologies for the crap spelling on the earlier post - my fat fingers and small phone screens don't mix very well, and editing your post is even harder than typing them!

Your first one worked in 720p for me.

[trailgumby]

Thanks. I think I just needed to be more patient... it just took longer to process.

[m@]

Nice, I normally don't ride anywhere that involves driving to the trailhead but might just head down this weekend and check it out

The weather wasn't bad down at the south coast last weekend Maybe next year...

[Jean]

I went out to Kowan East this morning and had a great ride I have to say, though it's a bit hillier than TG's video suggests . I did a 25km loop, a good part of which was in the Mont course according to my riding buddy. Given it's only a 20 minute drive from my place I'm a tad sheepish about not having been there before. I'll be back though and and I will also have to check out across the road at Sparrow Hill, but I don't know how the new road has affected it.

My Endomondo Android app went a bit berko for some reason though, and according to my phone this morning I did 67km in about 44 minutes, which made for an average speed of about 91km/h. No wonder I came off on one corner.

[trailgumby]

Kowen and Sparrow Hill are definitely worth the drive.

We were down for the last dry weekend before the race and rode both. Kowen is more climby than Sparrow. That long fast descent was a clue - gotta get to the top somehow

Last year the climbing didn't bother me, but I struggled with it more this time around due to lack of preparation. That showed up today at my local where I only managed a couple of 53's and had to walk the final pinch on Heartbreak Hill, when I'm fit I've done mid-41 minute laps and can do repeats on that nasty little climb.

Sparrow is deceptive - the climbs are very easy compared to Kowen. I never left the middle chainring.