Singletrack Mind Series
... for anyone obsessed with singletrack
Singletrack Mind Series 2011 - competitor and supporter commentsRound 2, Coondoo Road, NowraThank you Chocolate Foot, my first SMS race, best organized 8hr event I have ever done, timing chips, scoreboard, near instant intranet, an awesome, clean and well prepared course by SCUM and the best piece of swag in rego bag history ... A choc foot. Value foot return is a winner. See you guys in stromlo. I had so much fun out at the race yesterday and just wanted to write to say thanks. It makes such a difference as a rider when the people organising the event think like riders too. There were so many things that made the race stand out like that, from the track, to the event info, the prizes (which, are not only useful, but it was so nice getting two of each thing and not divvying stuff up, plus the money was totally unexpected - I opened the envelope hoping it was an entry into the next event!!)..... The on-track atmosphere was great too, so happy and friendly - all you had to do was ask another rider how much they were loving the track, and all of a sudden you were both railing corners together egging each other on! It was also great to see so much tight racing. Just read the 'Wrapper' - thank you so much for supporting women in MTB and also Silent Revolution. Great weekend definitely. Tops course, tops vibe, and how about that weather. Yeah ha! Our three had fun and for the second time in a fortnight walked away with some amazing prizes. Choc Foot and sponsors are definitely throwing in some great stuff for prizes. What a day! Perfect weather, awesome track (really), seamless organisation from choc foot, tight fast racing but with good vibes. Oh and we got a third in our category, and it was the first time I've won more than a tyre I didn't want, so that was nice as well (not that I race for prizes etc etc). I just wanted to say thank you for a fantastic weekend and that all of our riders enjoyed it immensely. Coondoo is an awesome place to ride solo. About 4 hours in, you find yourself having too much fun and going faster! Thanks to Choc Foot for a great event, and to SCUM for a fantastic course. It'd make a great venue for a 24.... ;) thanks choc foot for a great event. So many people I spoke to on the day, be it track side or on the track said this was their first MTB event and what a great intro to racing it was. SCUM have the bermiest track in Oz - so much fun, i could ride the first dh section over and over. so thanks for maintaining a sensational place for us to ride. great to see so many females out racing instead of on the side line and also families out enjoying the MTB scene together. Fantastic course and event. Still feeling like a zombie today but still smiling :) Great job yesterday, really enjoyed the day, smooth as ever from chocolate foot. I ate mine last night, ooo yummy, no fluff under toe nails to get caught in the teeth. Have to say thanks to everyone involved. Really liked the atmosphere of a smaller event. The track was good fun as well, took the SS for the first time. What a great race Choc Foot put on and we were very lucky with the weather both Sat and Sun. Well done to all those that participated! Nowra is a fantastic course for those wanting to try out racing - a very fun course, not too technical, heaps of over taking opportunities and not too long in the distance. Thanks for organising a fantastic event. My team really enjoyed it. Thanks for a great race – everyone mentioned how well run and smooth it was. Awesome day, awesome track, great group of riders / support. What an awesome weekend. Thanks heaps for putting on the race. My mate and I were in the male pairs and we were stoked for a solid 2 days after the race. Thanks again for a great weekend! Awesome track and had a great time. Round 3, Stromlo Forest Park, CanberraAll had a great day at the Chocolate Foot SRAM singletrack mind race at Mt Stromlo yesterday! thanks to Jo and Fi for another great event! Just want to say thank you for putting the event on at Canberra this weekend. I also really want to say thank you for putting on the 'Clydesdale' class... As you would have seen from being one of the entrants in the class AND winner (it's been a long time since I have been a winner in sport I can tell you that!!) weighing in with bike and rider at 134kg, it can be somewhat demoralising when you are competing against the super fit skinny guys as they don't know about the laws of gravity!! Being a big banger, I feel gravity at EVERY hill! Please please PLEASE keep the Clydesdale class going, it is a great concept and gives both incentive and a reason for the 'fat' boys to get on their bikes and get moving! Now that I have my own class in which I am able to compare myself against other big boys, I will definitely do more... I feel both a little guilty as I know that one of the other big boys did finish in front of me on the same lap, but when I found out that he was approx 20kg lighter than my total weight, I don't feel soo bad!!! Thanks once again and hope to see you at another venue soon!! great event today guys really chilled out and really fun, thanks. See you at southern highlands Great day of racing. Cheers guys. just wanted to say that i loved this event! i was in a team of three and came 9th, but had a ball out there, great track, looking forward to Wingello! Thanks for a fantastic day of racing Joe & Fi! A special word of thanks to the course marshals at the far corner of the coarse. Each time I got some air on the jumps they were cheering! Really gave me a buzz :) Thanks guys...it was a great day...the marshals up the top were awesome...keeping up the encouragement for 7 hours takes a pretty special effort. Thanks to the crew at Chocolate foot for another fantastic weekend and doing a great job on controlling the weather. Best race I've had for a long time, this time it was actually fun, and there weren't 234254645 switchbacks to the top of the hill. Great Day, the track perfect and weather better. The cheer squad (Marshals) at the start of Party Line were truly inspirational - they cheered and clapped and gave encouragement to over 350 riders for a whole 7 days - I bow to their talents and tenancity. Thanks guys who-ever you were!! Great event. Congratulations and thanks to the track builders-maintainers. A big thanks to the CORC guys and girls who acted as marshalls, especially to group at the top of the missing link who cheered on each rider on every lap... they must be hoarse today. Yep another great event by the Choc foot crew, and a big thanks to CORC, the trails were in very good condition. As always, awesome event. You and Joe should be really pleased with the atmosphere the Chocolate Foot series has at every location you go to. To Chocolate Foot – Fi & Joe – awesome event, well organised and thanks for not holding up the presentation so us Sydneysiders could get out of there at a decent time. Thanks Fi and the Choc foot crew for another well organised event! (I appreciated the extra hour to get home!!) Despite the cold, as soon as I hit party line on the first lap I remembered why racing in Canberra, in winter was a good idea ;) It was so nice to pop out of the fog on the first lap into the sunshine, stromlo is awesome and I really enjoyed the track, each lap and every lap! Pumped and ready for the next one... ;) What a great day for a ride despite the freezing morning start. It was an awesome track with lots of fun downhills sections that were fast and flowy. All in all it was a really fun race with a nice relaxed atmosphere. Just wanted to add my congratulations to everyone and also a big thanks to Fi, Joe and CORC for a great day.....bring on Wingello Thanks Fi and Joe for another great event even though i only lasted 1 lap. Crashed with 1.5 ks to go. Rode down with something wrong with left shoulder. Off to Canberra hospital with a dislocated shoulder. Thankyou for hooking my mate up with some brakes. Will be back as soon as possible to race at one of your events. Just writing to say thank you to you and your support team for your hospitality and help over the weekend. Both you and your team run a great event, and I only wish more event organisors were like you and your team. It was well run and despite getting spanked by my own lack of preparation (too much beer, not enough stretching) I had a great day. Round 4, Wingello State Forest, Southern Highlands of NSWJust a note to say AWESOME event yesterday. Well run, fun crowd, Awesome track (once it dried out a bit!). Well, after seeing the rego area on Sat night I didn't believe Fi, but the course was pretty damn good on Sunday for the race. There were only really a couple of wettish sections, and no real bogs to speak of. And quite a bit of the track was super fast at the end of the race. Good course too, no real climbs - just a couple of pinches and some fireroad links. I had a great time. Thanks Joe and Fi. What a great event! I was very worried about the rain given the carnage to my bike at the Husky, but it was largely unjustified. The first couple of laps were excitingly slippery, but it didn't rain at all during the race and the track got better and better as the day went on. There was only a few short places that remained muddy (and only about 1cm of slippery mud) with the rest of the track getting faster. I didn't notice any tearing up of the track either, which is good news! Seemed like a necessary evil to add that 40km/h fireroad - but it was a great race, big thanks to SHCC and Choc Foot for making it happen and with good roads in and out! what a fun night/day - Love Chocolate Foot Thanks for the updates at Wingello, and for persisting with what ended up a top day out on the bike. Thanks for what turned out to be a great days racing on Sunday. Thanks to ChocFoot for another great event and those who braved the forcast to turn up for another STM round. Round 5, The Australian Botanic Garden Mount AnnanJust wanted to thank you all for such a well run / organised event. The time and effort you must put into each of the events must be huge. Your events have a great friendly vibe to it - which make you come back for more races. The tracks at Mt Annan was great fun, really enjoyed the technical aspect including the rock roll overs :-) Anyway - thank you - your efforts are greatly appreciated! terrific day though well done to chocolate foot for an excellent event. First up, massive thanks for the race on the weekend and congratulations on what is a superb series. Track was great, support crews and St Johns staff were really visible out on the track which is always really appreciated and the atmosphere was, once again, spot on. Usually the last few hours of a 7/8hr tend to drag on but for some reason it just didn't. Great weather might have helped that too of course...perfect. Had an awesome day out. Great event, great track, tougher than I expected but that's good. It was my first SRAM single track thingy and I'll definitely be back, nice track, well organized and friendly people, they even called me up to see how the leg was! Nice family feel about the event, all the other teams were super friendly. I had a great time (at least from a solo riders head space as most people think we are nuts). The family enjoyed the venue and the cinema put on by the gardens. The track was challenging and as always you and the team put on a well run show. By the way the series is awesome, our team is having a ball. Can't wait for the next two events! It was a great, well run event BTW. Despite getting severe cramps and rolling around in the prickly thistles ill be back again for more punishment for sure. Great organisation as usual from the Chocolate Foot crew. Just a quick one to say thanks for the race on the weekend, had a really great time and it was great to get on the bike, bring on the next one Thanks to the Singletrack Mind guys and girls for putting on another well organized and super fun race! Round 6, Lidsdale State Forest, RydalWe just wanted to congratulate you guys for doing such a professional job at your races. Everything ran like clockwork, was well organised and fun. We will be promoting Awaba as well as your entire race series to our members next year. We'll see you soon. Rydal was another very professionally run event. You guys really are the benchmark in mtb events that we know of and I reckon Awaba is going to be HUGE! Another awesome event put on by the Chocolate Foot crew, You guys should think about doing it for a living ;-) Both Chocolate Foot and CTMBC did excellently. Great day guys, thanks. Thanks for another well run and fun race this weekend. A Choc Foot 8 hour race is far too good to miss, as they mean great trails and fun racing. Sure enough, this round was no exception. Thanks to the team at Chocolate Foot and CTMTB Club for a fantastic and well run event. Big cheers for all the CTMBC crew who put in a big effort to get the trail built and prepped and to all those who helps on the day, good to see every one there doing well. Cheers to Joe and Fi for putting on another great event and also to the Rydal Show Committee for providing an awesome venue. (How good is it to have proper flushing loos?) I had so much fun on Sunday. I just wanted to thank you for the excellent event. you are doing an AWESOME job and we love it so much that we will be back next year as well. Keep up the great work Thankyou all for your kindness in including Jed. He had a fantastic day and has talked of nothing else since. He won a few prizes and made some new friends. Santa may have to bring a new bike for Christmas as the old one is now the wrong sort and not big enough. The catering went well and your organization has to be congratulated on the way the grounds were left clean and tidy and the friendliness of the participants. We hope to see you back again. thanks for another Awesome event, see you at Awaba!! Been an awesome series so far. Great courses & extemely well run Hi Fiona and Joe I know of quite a few people, and heard many riders say I'll have to get my mates on this next year, who are now looking forward to riding one or more of your events for their first time next year. I look forward to seeing you then. Well done on a great year of racing.. all my buddies have really enjoyed it. The feedback has been all positive. Thanks for organising such a great race series. I had fun at every one that I did - even that horrible one with all the firetrail at Wingello! And, like most people I think, I've really appreciated the way that you've handled the wet weather. The tracks have all been great, the prizes were excellent. and I've really enjoyed having a chance to ride at such a variety of places. Congratulations on a great series. Look forward to next year. A big thanks to all the sponsors, support crew, and clubs that have helped along the way. Pass on our congratulations to the series winners and thanks to all competitors for making it such a fun series. The no- dickhead rule has worked a treat. Round 8¼ & 2011 Series Finale, Awaba Mountain Bike ParkCongrats on another fantastic event today to finish off an awesome series. I am already looking forward to STM 2012! Best race I've been to for years. Thanks Choccy Feet crew! A truly awesome event. Good to see the track getting a little wild and making it a real mountainbike session. Thanks again joe, fiona and team. great work today guys! I think everyone had a fantastic time. nice touch of lager there at the end too. Our First Mountain Bike race at a grand old age of 40, What a great day had by all of us, People so friendly on the track & in the village, Great to hear "pass when you can" & "Thank You" after it.(Even the Pro's) Jason English is a freak he passed me on the camel hill like i wasnt moving..... Thanks too the choclate foot crew for a awsome day.. Was well worth the sore body today see you again. what an awesome day, and great rivalry between mates, really added to the fun of a well organised event, great work to the chocolate foot team. Great race yesterday guys, well run, great track. Thanks for organising a great series. Held at the people's favourite trail, Awaba, we finally got our chance to ride the flowing lines that this trail is well known for. After a number of rained out attempts through out the year it wasn't just the crew from Chocolate Foot that had their fingers crossed for some fine weather. The ride, the racing, went off! The Chocolate Foot crew once again have brought us a great series, highlights which include, Round 6 at Rydal on the fresh new Lithgow trails, a tacky Round 4 on the superb Wingello trails, but who could forget Round 2 on the hero dirt that is Coondoo. Thanks for a great series! The Singletrack Mind Series has been a fantastic exhibition of the great work of the MTB clubs of NSW and some awesome singletrack, and is definitely one to pen-down in your calendar for 2012. Great races, prizes and people at less than half the price of the 100km races – and with better trails! Hi Guys, just wanted to say what a great event it was yesterday at Awaba. As always well organised. See you next year. In a word - "Awesome" Seriously - that is a great track. I enjoyed the whole series - but that's my new favorite. It's got a lot rougher than when I first rode it a couple of years ago - but the flow.. omg the flow... Perfect trail conditions, perfect riding conditions, perfect beer conditions. All hail the beer gods! Win win win! Had an awesome day. thanks to everyone for encouragement on the track, the maintainance people for rebuilding my bike and muck off for lubing. great day, well done for the weather. Fun fun fun, in a hurty way. And I smashed my mates :) It was an absolute pleasure to be a sponsor of the Chocolate Foot Singletrack Mind Series this year. Even better that I snuck in for a 3rd place in the Series in the Solo Clydesdale class. Thanks to Joe, Fi and team, as well as all the competitors. It was a great series. Dear Joe and Fi, After many years of general recreational mountain biking only, this year (now in my mid forties) I took up endurance mountain bike racing and was introduced to your series by my riding buddy - together we formed a male pairs team and did every round. Thank you very much to both of you for such a great experience. While I find the races hard and challenging, they are fun and rewarding. One of the reasons they are fun and rewarding is the obvious effort you put into everything. The set up, logistics and communication are all fantastic, but its also the happy mood you create. You obviously make a great team. With Fi's obvious order and Joe's sense of humour on the microphone, its all good! Since starting way back at Nowra, I have now bought a new bike and raced it at the second last and final rounds. I am hooked and will plan to do it all again next year; legs heart and lungs permitting. As a newcomer to the sport, I just wanted to say thank you very much to both of you for all your effort and for making it a great experience in all respects. Well done - much appreciated. Thank you very much for the fabulous event. I really enjoyed myself. Thanks so much for such an awesome mtb event. This being my first ever race it was quite an eye opener to the world of mtb racing, especially the speed of the top guys & gals. I think you guys really put on a great show. It was so well organised and I will definitely be back next year. thanks again for a fantastic series. I raced for the first time this year together with my teammate and we had a blast. |
But when the track dried out, it got even better.