Brisbane River: Will (bro-in-law, rider leaning against the railing) and I went for a ride around the Brisbane River yesterday and I took a few shots.  This shot is actually 5 photo’s stitched together.

Congrats to the Full Gas team for another well run event and to Trailmix for awesome coffee!

Check out the images I took over at my photo site here

While I was on course I met fellow photographer Tim Arch.  He’s also an avid mountain biker/photographer and his images are amazing.  Check them out here.

After I got home and started going through the images I took during the day I came across this one of James Maebus and immediately though “Cover-shot!” (yes, yes, delusions of grandeur I know) so I thought I’d have a bit of fun with it.  Thankfully James is ok with it!

I’m heading up to Brisbane this afternoon to compete in the Merida 24 at Old Hidden Vale this weekend.  I’ll be racing in a team of 4 so I hope to get some good shots in between laps and should have a full wrap-up and images up by this time next week.  Stay tuned!

It still needs a bit of polish but the site is fully functional  – http://sfphoto.photomerchant.net

If you have any tips or suggestions feel free to email me.

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The course was fantastic!  It was pretty technical with rocks and slippery pine roots covering a good majority of the track with some steep pinch climbs and twisting descents making it tricky to negotiate if you didn’t have your eye in – a real mountain bikers course.  You had to have your wits about you or else you’d end up over the bars.

The Race: After starting strongly and feeling OK on the first climb I hit the first bit of single track in 2nd and managed to put considerable time between myself and the rest of the bunch (after watching the guy in front quickly disappear).  About 3 km’s in however the lactic acid started kicking in and the cold air was ripping at my throat and lungs and fatigue started to hit me.  Not having ridden this style of event in years I didn’t know how to pace myself and got carried away with all the adrenaline of the start.  I’d gone out too hard too early and I’d “blown up”.  Halfway through the first lap my ability to concentrate and control my bike left and I ended up going over the bars into on a slippery descent which put my bike and myself into a fat pine tree.  After picking myself up, brushing off the mud and making sure both bike and body were all intact I continued to amble around for the rest of the race having a somewhat deflated ego and managed to roll across the line in 11th place.

I drove up with Ben who absolutely smashed C grade, winning by a good couple of minutes.  It was his first race of this kind ever!  Even though we drove for longer than we rode it was an awesome day riding fun new and unfamiliar trails.

Check out the photo’s HERE

Don’t forget – If you see any images in this section that you wish to purchase, please copy the URL(s) of the image(s) and paste it into the body of an email with the heading “Nice Photo – can I have a copy?” and I will send you the high quality JPEG for just $5 each (I was only shooting in JPEG today – sorry, no RAW files).

Check out the photo’s here

After getting up way too early for a Sunday morning I packed the remainder of what I thought I might need for the race then hit the road.  I was surprised at how little time it took on the Eastlink freeway and got to the race in less time than expected.  I bumped into Rik and Anna from ORCA while I was at registration and decided to set up camp with them at about the halfway point.

This was the first time I had ridden at Upper Beaconsfield and I was fairly impressed by the course and how technical it was in sections.  The track terrain was varied due to the fact that it dipped in and out of gully’s then up to the tops of the surrounding hills.  One moment you were in a rain forest style gully with moss on every rock, ferns, soft soil under your wheels and small creeks trickling quietly underneath the log bridges, then once you climbed out you were faced with sand, granite boulders of various shapes and sizes which were pretty tricky to negotiate if you didn’t have your eye in (I left my eye at home).  Some sections of the course looked as though it had only recently been cut in but whoever is building the trails out there is doing an awesome job!

I wouldn’t say the course was too hard but the lack of training leading up to this race made it hard enough for me.  I started to feel the all too familiar aches in the lower back and knee and I just didn’t feel like pushing through the pain barrier today.  When I got back to camp after a lap and a half I stopped, thought about continuing for a split second then thought better of it.  I had a rest and some food then grabbed my camera bag and went for a leisurely ride.

The weather was overcast today making capturing the action a bit harder.  I also used my wireless flash trigger for the first time with limited success.  You can see a few of the images I managed to snap HERE

I didn’t end up staying for the whole day but congrats to all those who slogged it out and managed to finish and thanks to Anna and Rik for support!  Big-ups to the Dirt Riders club for putting on a well run event in a great location – Awesome course!

It started raining heavily just before the Elite guys started their race runs so I didn’t get as many images as I would have liked.  Camera’s and rain don’t belong in the same sentence let alone the same place – next time I won’t leave the umbrella in the car!

Check out a small selection of what I shot HERE.