State XCO Championships

This year Real Insurance have been supporting the NSW state XCO series which has consisted of four rounds of XCO racing at racing tracks within a few hours of Sydney. The last of the series also doubled as the NSW state championships and was hosted by the Central Coast Ourimbah club. I hadn't ridden any of the other rounds but Ourimbah is less than an hour from home.

Sizing each other up on the female start line

I'd never ridden the Ourimbah track until the Rocky Trail Entertainment MTB GP was moved there after the debacle with Appin back at the end of September. I couldn't believe I hadn't ridden the track more, only 50 minutes from our house it's the kind of track I love. It's nearly 100% single track with rocky techy dusty stuff and lots of fun descents and testing climbs. So after racing 12 laps there in the 7 hour and another 3 laps at a local CCOMTB club race I felt like it was the kind of track I could do well on. So I signed up for the state champs the moment entries opened.

Emily Parks on the drop-off

Unfortunately the women's elite race didn't attract any of the sponsored elite female riders. Apart from myself the field included Meaghan Stanton who was well placed in the series after consistent results, Clea O'Brien who had also had some podium finishes in previous rounds and Emily Parkes a Torq U19 rider from Port Macquarie who has had solid results in racing the national rounds earlier this year. Emily didn't have any U19 competition on the day so decided to race elite, and I'm pretty sure she'd be happy with her results.

All the women, elite and age group were started off together just a minute after the U17 boys. I had issues clipping in and was only 4th or 5th wheel into the single track, not ideal but some early passing saw me riding second wheel to Emily Parkes when we reached the drop off. The drop off is an intimidating roll down with a not so simple entry and a B-line off the left. Emily styled it with me on her wheel but not many of the girls behind us took the A-line.

I sat on her wheel until the sharp right turn onto sandy firetrail which heralds the start of a fairly sustained climb. I was lining up to overtake Emily on the inside on the turn and it was lucky I did because she turned a bit too sharply in the sand and ended up on the deck, I managed to miss her and continue on up the firetrail climb.


From that point on I pulled away from the other girls, even on the switch backs I lost sight of anyone else so I knew I had a bit of a gap. This is both good and bad as it's had to stay on the gas 100% without someone on your tail, yet obviously it's nice to be winning a race. I caught the back of the U17s boys field at some point during the lap and played leapfrog with one of them who was having mechanical issues.

Like I mentioned earlier I love the Ourimbah track, the descents and twisty turns suit me and lack of firetrail means that skill and line choice play a big role rather than just cardiovascular fitness. You know when you get to the top of rollercoaster you can turn off propedal and let it rip for one of the best descents ever.

NSW XCO Championships - Elite Women's Podium

As I came through for my second lap I was getting time splits and finding out I was 2 minutes up already, from my times I can see I backed off a little in the next two laps as it became obvious that I didn't need to completely max out to win this race. Not saying I didn't work for it, my average HR was still 173bpm for the entire race but my 2nd and 3rd laps were about a minute slower than my first and I didn't max out as much on the climbs.

Time splits at the end of lap 2 told me I had 4 minutes and in the end I brought it home with around a 6 minute gap back to Emily. Clea came in 3rd after Meaghan had mechanicals during the race. So that was it, I was NSW state XCO champion! Pretty stoked with that result.

I'd like to thank NSWMTB XC Coordinator Mark McInnes for all the organisation, all the clubs that hosted rounds and especially CCOMTB for hosting the champs. Also the sponsors of the series including REAL INSURANCE, CYCLENATION, NSWMTB, Capilano HONEYSHOTZ, DIYMTB, Maxxyz Tires & McGees Cycling for making it all happen.