VES Round 4: Blores Hill

Blores Hill is rad. I knew this in advance thanks to a sneaky tour a week out with a good mate Craig. The trails are fast and flowy but with plenty of technical sections; a perfect balance. The new descent in particular (not included in the race) is an absolute cracker. To top it off they drain incredibly well and track maintenance is A1. Go #VESMTB and Gippsland MTB!

A photo posted by Chris Burke (@burkesmtb) on Jul 23, 2016 at 2:20am PDT

Slapping on the layers, 'realfeel' of minus 3 according to the BOM

Me and Chris's race strategy was simple this round: keep the tyres inflated and go fast. With that decided I almost missed the start, rolling around chatting with Bret Murray of the Commonaeros; we made it to the start line  with under a minute to go! A bit flustered I picked a terrible position on the outside, missed clipping in again and then nearly got taken out by a guy who decided he wanted the inside line after all...

A video posted by Bicycle pics by Mark 🚵 📷 📹 (@ogaram) on Jul 23, 2016 at 5:21am PDT

After picking my way through the pack and getting some clear track ahead I hit #fullgas and pulled out about a one and a half minute gap on the opening lap. Tagging Chris in with clear track, he put the pedal to the metal and managed to eek out even more time; on his first ever lap of Blores Hill! As Chris came into transition the weather was going from bad to absolutely filthy. I smashed out the fasted lap of the race as wind, rain and hail lashed the field. By this stage we virtually just had to keep it upright which was no mean feat on the rapidly deteriorating track. Riders were coming through transition looking like mud people and the valley section of the track was becoming more like cyclocross than MTB.


Chris charging on the drying track. Note: He's not wearing lower leg-warmers... he's just that muddy!

At around the 5 hour mark Laura and Jess (our amazing wives/pitcrew/dietitians/timekeepers/morale-boosters) pointed out that one of the riders from the OCS team was making a dent in our lead. I pulled out the stops and restored our lead on the following lap, a move which meant we made the final lap cut by 30 seconds. This gave Chris a chance to head out on a victory lap of the rapidly drying track and also put us a lap up on the entire field.
A big thanks needs to go to Ben @benthebiketech and Thad @connectbikefit for their awesome work in getting the new #norcorevolver bikes so dialled. With great equipment and a clean run we were really able to dominate in the testing conditions


Top step again!

Congratulations also to team OCS and the Commonearos for the solid race in some proper winter conditions.