Singletrack Mind Series

SRAM Singletrack Mind - 2011 Series Wrap

Dear Singletrackers

We hope that the festive period was a fun one and you've kicked off 2012 with some great rides and adventures. After two false starts, it was fantastic to see so many of you at Awaba to see out the 2011 Series with us – no doubt you'll agree that the last race of the year was a ripper with superb weather and sublime singletrack!

While we've had dates for the 2012 SRAM Singletrack Mind Series locked in since the middle of last year, we are still to confirm a couple of locations. This has been somewhat delayed by the rescheduled Round 8¼ in late December and then a serious family illness taking Fi to the UK where it appears she'll remain for some time. So we apologise for the lack of an update on 2012 locations and to any Series podium getters waiting to receive their trophy. Details are being finalised currently and we hope to make the announcement very soon, and trophies will be sent when Joe’s back in the office in February. Pencil in 29 April, 24 June, 19 August, 16 September, 28 October and 25 November as the event dates, and keep an eye on our Latest News section and on Facebook for the announcement of locations. For now, please read below our 2011 Series Wrap!

SRAM Singletrack Mind - 2011 Series Wrap

There could be little doubt that this year's Series was great fun with excellent courses courtesy of our partner clubs, and it saw amazingly tight racing, as testament to the high quality fields the events attract. And in fact we had almost exactly 50% more competitors than last year!

Serial Offenders: For some it seems, too much singletrack is barely enough! We like to reward the obsessives who attend every event and this year Zoe Gill and Ben Cirulis walked away with our 'Serial Offender' trophies. We again will be offering the Serial Offender discount package in 2012, but remember you'll need to lock this in before the first event.

Another big winner was Trent Smyth who walked away with the $3,000 Golden Ticket, courtesy of Bicycling Australia and Toyota. Each entry to the 2011 SRAM Singletrack Mind Series gave you a chance to win, with the Golden Ticket to be spent in the bike shop of your choice. Within a couple of days of receiving this prize, Trent had already been in touch with his favourite bike dealer Lonsdale Street Cyclery about the purchase of the bike of his dreams, a Specialized Epic carbon 29er. The awesome folks at Bicycling Australia and Toyota will again be offering the Golden Ticket prize in 2012, and we're stoked to be a part of it once again.

Even More Videos! If you missed any of the action from the Series we have loads of reports and links to blog posts on the website as well as video reports here. The legendary Dave Bateman hammered the shutter on his Nikon until his fingers were red raw! Needless to say the pain was worth it as he came up with the goods as ever - the galleries are here and Dave has kindly put together a great video featuring all the best photos from the Series: http://vimeo.com/34235754

At the Awaba event we poked the TV camera in your faces and asked "What do you love about racing enduro?" We got some really cool and inspiring answers as you'll see in this vid!

Series Results: "Everyone's a winner baby that's the truth". 70's cheese maybe but never a truer word has been said about the SRAM Singletrack Mind Series with 6 rounds of epic fun. But at the end of the day ... or Series ... we did in fact have a whole bunch of extremely worthy winners! Huge congratulations to all of our Series podium getters and we look forward to seeing you return to defend your titles this year! As mentioned above, we've got a bunch of trophies still to send out which we'll do during February.

T-Shirts: Want another reminder from what was a fun Series? We still have a limited quantity of Series T-shirts, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with your size and we'll send the inventory monkey into the cave and he'll see if you're in luck! Value: Priceless! Cost: just $15, plus $3 for post.

Huge thanks to our volunteers: On one hand we have no idea why they keep turning up to help us and ultimately you guys out at each event, especially when we get them to maintain the portaloos amongst other 'fun' jobs! But we must be doing something right because they keep coming back and we couldn't provide such efficient registration and event services without them. So to all the absolutely awesome volunteers who helped us this year, a massive thank you, hug and nanna kiss on the cheek to every single one of you!

Thanks to our awesome sponsors: Without the kind assistance of these great companies and brands we simply wouldn't have a race series! Our podium getters get great prizes along with everyone having the chance to grab cool giveaways! We'd really, really encourage you to support the companies that support your sport! Super massive thanks to: SRAM, RockShox, Avid & Truvativ and huge thanks to Lezyne, Muc-Off, Hammer Nutrition, Merida Bikes, Kenda tyres, N-Zo Clothing, Jimmy Jack Wines, Aussie Butt Cream, Mountain Biking Australia Magazine, The Body Mechanic & Castech Sports Technology.

Give us your feedback and you could win a prize!

We've assembled a survey for competitors of the SRAM Singletrack Mind Series to complete as we want to make the Series better than ever in 2012. Many of you have already given us great feedback over the year but if you could please take the time to answer this survey we'd be super grateful. If you fill out the personal details info you'll be in the running to win a draw prize, including a Lezyne Port-A-Shop toolkit worth $220! There'll also be a $50 Nzo voucher, a Mountain Biking Australia magazine annual subscription, and some SRAM grips worth $30 each up for grabs for the next six names to be drawn!

You've got until Wednesday 29 February to respond to the survey which you can access here.

Congratulations to all of you for your efforts throughout the Series, whether you've been on the podium, racing your mates, or trying out racing for the first time - and we sincerely thank you for your support. Don't forget that in addition to the SRAM Singletrack Mind Series we also have on offer the Rock Wallaby marathon at Appin on 27 May 2012 - and with the introduction of a full marathon distance option this event is gonna ROCK!

We look forward to welcoming you to a Chocolate Foot event in 2012!

Cheers

Joe & Fi