Cows With Guns – Race 1 – GNaTPACK

Post date: Apr 4, 2012 10:10:33 PM

What a track! Where do we start .......

Last year we were greeted by a little moisture and some slick corners. This year - dry, fast and flowing.

So what was new? Berms and berms and more berms – Someone ...... or should I say a large army had been very busy. And how many solidly constructed berms were there? I don’t think I would be exaggerating to state at least 50 of these masterpieces had been constructed on all tight bends.

My initial lap was a little scary, as I hadn’t grasped the concept of flow and had not obtained the confidence that at every significant corner there was definitely going to be another one of those stunning berms. So my first lap approach was accelerating after each corner and then brake with the full force the Avids could dish out. Not surprisingly this was not the most efficient or fun way to transcend these winding rainforest sections, so this approach left me very exhausted by the time I finally popped out onto the fire trail.

While I’m mentioning the first lap I would like to thank the local who gave me a very helpful running commentary on what was around the next corner; tree on the left, sharp pitch etc.

For the second lap I changed my tack by aiming to flow and stop fighting these wonderful sections of track. This worked like a dream with similar lap times and not being so knocked up.

Another nice mod this year was the removal of the very eventful opposite camber turn onto a fire trail that managed to catch a few of us out in 2011. This year the track crossed cleanly over the fire trail and used the adjacent hill as one huge berm – nice!!

So all in all the NEMTB crew that headed down to Coffs Harbour were spoilt with one serious labour-of-love! Well done to the Coffs Harbour Cycle Club crew who have lifted the bar this year for the first of the 7 GNaTPACK races.

Check out the up and coming GNaTPACK Series dates and line up some great racing and riding. The next race will be on the 5 & 6 May at Kempsey. At this double header there will be a Super D on the Saturday and a cross country race on the Sunday.

Check out these link to the results and photos.