Live To Dirt Stumpy Style
Name: Matthew Hardinge
Hometown: Albury, NSW, Australia
Job: IT
Age: 35
Follow @mattunderground
No More Secrets downhill trail cam vid on Nail Can Hill Albury: http://tinyurl.com/ykxbcpu #sjtcVideo – No More Secrets
This is a start to finish cam vid of our local downhill track “No More Secrets”. This is the original line which has since been modified a little to take out the pedally section at the top. The Stumpy is currently getting packaged up to be sent for the first SJTC tour in the US so time to bring out the Enduro and have a crack. It had been raining heavily for 3 days so I held back a lot not knowing what was rutted out and I hadn’t ridden the trail for a while. The cool change and rain was a lovely change from the dry heat and dusty trails, you can feel the very start of Autumn coming. The days are already getting shorter and before you know it we will be night riding under lights. Hey AYUP feel free to sling me some lights 
I know this camera angle mounted on the seat post blocks most of the trail but I absolutely love this angle, can’t get enough of it. Oh and please excuse my occasional leg and crotch shots!
(Full HD 1080P 30fps video, 12 hours uploading to YouTube another 12 hours of YouTube processing)
Video – Piss Fartin’ Around
Grimo and I headed out yesterday for some fun with our cams. I managed to get what I call “the JohnF angle” so you can see the fork suspension doing their job and the trail at the same time. It’s a little hard to ride properly with a camera hanging off the bike where your leg normally goes. I thought I would have a crack at uploading a full HD 1080P video. It was only a 1.1Gb upload for a 4min video 
Day in the life on Nail Can
Here’s my first crack at the GoPro helmet cam. I had it mounted on my handle bars rather than my helmet as there is too much movement on top. I think I put a fingerprint smudgy on the lens as it’s a bit washed out in the top half of frame. I don’t have the JohnF awesome frame angle happening yet, I’m still working on that one!
This shows a small part of the trails I usually ride on weekdays after work around Nail Can Hill in Albury, NSW, Australia. These trails are legal and are actively maintained by the Albury-Wodonga Mountain Bikers Club.
For the geeks: the footage was taken in full HD 1080P on the GoPro Hero HD and edited in iMovie on a quad core h@kintosh and uploaded via iMovie to YouTube in HD 720P. I will be recording in 720P from now on as you can’t upload to YouTube at 1080P (that I can find).
Video editing is SO time consuming. I had so much more footage and it’s hard cutting it down into bite sized (song length) video – I wish I didn’t have OCD and could just upload unedited footage straight off the camera, it would save a whole lot of time 
GoPro HD
Specialized and GoPro have teamed up and supplied the Trail Crew with GoPro HD cams. Thanks so much guys these are gonna be an absolute blast. Stay tuned for some sweet trail cam action!
2010 Stumpjumper BRAIN, FSR and Travel Adjust Technology Video
An awesome video showing the technology in the 2010 Stumpjumper suspension. I still have to pinch myself to make sure I really have one of these things. It’s an incredible bike.
MAC10 3 Hour Enduro
Coming off the Otway the weekend before, the MAC10 3 Hour Enduro wasn’t on my radar at all. This showed on Sunday morning when all I had was an esky, water, a few gels and no breakfast. Totally unprepared! I stopped off at the local petrol station/convenience store and grabbed some energy drinks and breakfast bars. Cruised around & picked up Grimo then off to Hudsons Coffee to see Jas (another MTBer) to grab my usual triple shot latte to get me going.
We arrived at our local trails and set up camp at transition ready to roll. This was my first official solo enduro race and I didn’t have a plan at all, just ride for 3 hours straight We lined up and bang we were off. The course was approximately 7kms (4.5miles) long with about 120 metres climbing. Not long or high, but it is 95% technical, rocky single trail so mentally you had to be on the ball the whole time. These were our local trails which we ride literally every other day so we knew every lump and bump on the course.
I totally blew myself up on the first 2 laps caught up in the whole race thang – bleh. I prefer marathons over loop based enduro events like this, they just don’t feel as competitive because you are not in each others pockets for the whole race.
On the 3rd lap I managed to get some space and pulled myself back to my own rhythm and felt a whole lot better. I stopped at transition once to refill and briefly on the course a couple of times for a gel and a slurp on the camelbak.
In the end I managed 6 laps, 42km, 680m climbing, 13km/hr avg speed, 178bps avg HR in 3hrs and 5 mins. I also manged to place mid pack in the open male solo category (11/20 + DNF’s) which is a great improvement. I normally hang in the 75%-95% range
Full race data: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/25693794
Thanks to The Albury-Wodonga Mountain Bikers Club for another great event.
Next Event: The 4Hr Brake Burner Enduro at Mt Buller in 2 weeks. Think of a gravity fed, chair lift assisted enduro. Gonna be a hoot!
Another weekend and not ready for another race
My good mate and riding buddy Grimo
Base camp ready along the transition straight
Self seeded at the back of the pack as always
Obligatory action shot (thanks to PaulB for the photos)
The Otway Odyssey
I’m extremely happy to report that I finished the 100km (60mile) Otway Odyssey marathon last Saturday. It might have taken 10 hours and 36 minutes but I did it!
To be honest I went into this race with not a lot of confidence. My aim was to complete an 80km training ride prior which didn’t happen. The longest was 60km with 1600m (5250ft) altitude gain and the race was 100km with 3000m (9850ft) of climbing. So it was almost double of both distance and climbing.
This race is known to be one of the tougher ones and it certainly didn’t disappoint. It starts at the beach at Apollo Bay and works it’s way inland to Forrest nestled in and around natural rain forest. You can check out the course description and map here.
The first 15km was a consistent steepish climb on the road with winds literally blowing riders from one side of the road to the other. I had never ridden in winds like that before so that was a quick learning curve. Then onto the dirt for 25km of super tough climbs, there was so much climbing and it was so steep that it was ride a little, walk a lot, ride a little, walk a lot, rest, rinse and repeat. This section seemed to go forever and really smashed my calves as they were not used to walking up hills.
The middle section had the best single trail I have ever ridden. The course total consisted of 35% single trail so there was heaps of it. It flowed, had berms, very little pedaling and was an absolute joy to ride. I was not totally wiped at this stage so I could still enjoy it and finished that section with everyone commenting on how awesome it was.
There was a transition through the main event centre at the 67km mark. My concern leading up to it was that it would be very easy to bail out of the race at the transition points at the 67km and 87km mark. At the first one the body felt tired but it wasn’t falling apart yet. I stopped and had a quick bite to eat, clean and lube of the chain and off again.
The next 20km was pure undulating single trail. This is the point where I basically “went out to lunch”. I started to get very tired and sore, the brain wasn’t working and it felt like it went forever. I fell off the bike into the bushes twice at low speeds because I had lost concentration. I went into robot mode: pedal, pedal, steer, eat, drink and managed to make it back into transition.
This time my mate Captain Slow (who did the 50km race and had finished) was there to give me a hand. I ate and drank while he cleaned up the Stumpy and gave me some words of encouragement. I could have easily pulled out of the race at this stage but the thought of “just” another 13km to go forced me out for the final stint.
I had been warned by everyone that the last 13km is a killer, with a section called the Sledgehammer (seriously). Whoever designed the last 13km of this 100km race needs a good slappin’. Long gradual climbs that never ended with false plateaus started making me angry and at this point I was walking sections I should have been riding. My calves started cramping from all the walking previously. I stumbled through it then finally hit some sweet downhill single that dumped out into a small stream into the Sledgehammer. I had been told you will just know it when you see it, yep, a hill that went straight up for a few hundred metres. It didn’t look possible to ride up it under normal conditions let alone at the end of a 100km race. I was walking while crouched down to try and stop the cramps in my calves. Finally made it to the top then a had a nice long cruise downhill for a couple of km into transition for the last time.
The finish line, I made it! Captain Slow, Antman and a few others had waited around for me and cheered me into the finish line. It was such a great feeling after such a massive day. I am so incredibly proud.
Russ looking cool, me shaking with nervous energy
Reluctantly crouched at the starting line…
Feel the serenity (and wind)
50km refuel stop – half way baby!
67km transition and have looked better.
Why don’t I have my family and a pretty girl at transition?
Stumpy at 67km coated in mud and sounding crust-a-rific
Out to lunch at this stage on auto pilot. Took me to 80km to remember that it was my birthday
Captain Slow helping me out at the 87km transition
Trying to get pumped for the last 13km
The Stumpy was a trooper, done and dusted after 10.5 hours work
Success – if I could only get this 10kg bike above my head
Nananana Matman…. to the Matmobile
I have been a very lucky boy and picked up my first ever brand new car. The WRX had done me well but I needed something that was more suited to transporting bikes, gear and mates around. So sticking with my love of Subaru I decided a Forester XT turbo was the go. It has the practicality and space of a small SUV but still with a bit of go under the hood.
We are off to the Otway Odyssey race down on The Great Ocean Road next weekend so it will have it’s first MTBing weekend away.
To the Matmobile!
Epiphany
It seems that I have had a personal epiphany in the last few weeks. The following might seem perfectly logical to most of you but it has taken me one month shy of 35 years and mountain biking to figure it out for myself.
Most of my adult life I have been driven to acquire the “best” life, materialistically speaking. I always wanted the next better job, the bigger house, the faster car and bigger television. A consequence of this type of motivation is that you are always looking down the road, looking for a destination or a goal to achieve, “my life will be complete if….” (watch Fight Club). What this in fact does is focus your life and energy on a future, which more likely than not, will never exist.
What’s the end result of this? Not living, enjoying and APPRECIATING what you are doing in the now. Mountain biking has taught me this. This sounds corny and I’m sure it’s been used before (Roam) but life is not about the destination, rather, the journey.
I love mountain biking, I love hanging out with my mates and doing road trips, I love discussing next weekends ride or organising our first 24 hour race, I love slowly becoming fitter and pushing longer training rides. It’s all a wonderful personal journey that I now appreciate… not sitting on my slowly expanding ass and waiting for the next big thing to happen to me.
Live to dirt guys, get out there and make it happen.
Matt.
