Back with a Vengeance

I've been a terribly poor blogger. Completely crap really. But I intend to change all that. I intend to actually pay attention to this blog and get people to read it and maybe even comment on the ramblings etched herein. 

So I'm back, with a vengeance according to the title of this piece. Not that I'm particularly angry, but that just seemed a snappy title.

I figure that I should probably run you through my credentials. That way, when I write something controversial you can actually look at all the stuff I've done in my thirty four and a half years and make your own decision as to whether I actually know what I'm talking about. I intend to only write stuff that is:

1. Not controversial; 
2. Controversial, but well within my sphere of knowledge; or
3. Controversial, but clearly just my opinion (in which case I'll try to make that clear).

Anyway, I do believe I'm digressing.

My credentials are as follows. Regarding bikes, I had my first race in 1992, at the tender age of 18. Prior to that I'd ridden mountain bikes a little, but mostly just as a means of escaping into the bush and getting away from the angst of teenage life. I actually remember seeing a mountain bike magazine in a newsagent and being amazed that mountain biking was a sport. I'd never imagined anything so cool, although it took me a while to come around to the tight lycra outfits (not to mention the bright flouro colours that were in vogue at the time). 

That first race was at Gembrook, in the Dandenong Ranges, near Melbourne. I came second in the novice category. Little did I know at the time that it would be possibly the best result of my mountain biking life...

It hooked me. From that point on I became a mountain biker. Since then I've raced over a hundred races (I know this because I used to keep a journal with all my race results, but when it became too painful to look at, I burned it) - mostly Olympic distance cross-country, some dirt crits, lots of enduro/marathon type events, a handful of downhill races and even some road races (yes, I know I'm supposed to be a mtb'er and we're supposed to hate roadies, but then again, I'm not a narrow minded idiot and to me, bikes are bikes are bikes).

As a young mtb'er living in the Dandenongs I prided myself on knowing every trail in them there hills. At the time I would have challenged anyone to show me a trail I didn't know. Back then we were a new thing in parks and there were very few restrictions on where we could ride. As I got older I actively sought out and explored new trails. I've now ridden all over this country and even in a handful of spots overseas (US, NZ, Switzerland, France, Wales).

Around 2000 I got a new job (I'll detail my work experience in another post, cause it's definitely relevant too) that required me to move to the Mt Buller/Mansfield region. Around that time a group of local Mansfield mtb'ers were discussing starting a club. I attended the inaugural meeting of the (then) Mansfield Mountain Cyclists. I ended up on the committee right from the start and became president a couple of years later. 

While I was president we obtained permission from three separate land managers to build a 7km race loop from scratch near Lake Eildon (the Pines at Gough's Bay to be precise), on which we ran a couple of state mtb rounds. I was the main architect of that course and I spilt plenty of my own blood and sweat to make it happen. I was really proud of it. In the dry it was an amazing course and we received high praise from the competitors. In the wet it was horrid - the soil turned to a sticky brown slurry axle deep in places. It taught me a few things about how to drain a trail.

That was probably the real turning point that led me to this career. Certainly my work history and university education helped bring me to this point, but I'll go into those next time.