Chocolate Foot says thanks

Just got this from Fi and Joe

Dear Flynny and the rest of CTMBC

Joe and I want to say a massive thanks to CTMBC for its role as hosting club for Sunday’s Singletrack Mind Series event. It was fantastic to have all your help in the lead up to the weekend and the trail marking crew, marshals, timing assistants all did an amazing job! We’ve heard nothing but positive feedback from competitors, and we’re very impressed to hear that your great trails attracted Mark Renshaw to the clubbie this week but even more impressed by Flynny for beating him! We reckon there will be many people kicking themselves for missing the race on Sunday and next year will be sure to be a “must do”!

Feedback received so far has been summarised here and some nice event reports are listed on the Results & Reports webpage....

We really welcome any feedback you have on what went well/what didn’t work well so we can improve things for future events.

See below for the Chocolate Wrapper, our event report. Hope you enjoy the read!

Thanks once again to CTMBC for helping make the event a success.

Cheers

Fi & Joe

Chocolate Wraper

Dear Singletrackers

How great was the venue at Rydal and the new trails that the Central Tablelands MTB Club have built there? So great, in fact, that the ravings of the Bathurst crew piqued the interest of Mark Renshaw (yep that’s pro cyclist Mark Renshaw) who headed up to Rydal for the Club twilight race the Tuesday after our event. Much like numerous stages of the Tour de France, Renshaw led out only to find a phenomenal talent, local bike shop guy and Club President, Craig Flynn pass him at the vital moment. Flynny crossed the line triumphant and is now known as the “Cav of the West”.

Congratulations to all the category winners and place getters for their incredible efforts, and who walked away with over $12,000 in cash and prizes from our fantastic sponsors SRAM, Avid, RockShox, Truvativ, Leyzne, Merida, NZO, Hammer Nutrition, Jimmy Jack wine, Aussie Butt Cream, Kenda, Mountain Biking Australia magazine and Muc-Off! Wasn’t it great to see Richard Campbell, CTMBC trail fairy who’s spent countless hours building the Rydal trails, walk away with the $1500 Merida prize? And karma played its part in awarding the RockShox SID XX fork to Dave Carter. Dave’s existing fork was deemed broken beyond repair earlier in the day, and we’d also just awarded him a prize for his Good Samaritan duties on track – stopping for 10 minutes with his eventual podium place at stake – love your work Dave!

A big thanks goes out to our awesome event sponsors who were there on the day: Castech Sports Technology for their fantastic timing service with massive scoreboard, results café, and live to the web results. SRAM and City Bike Depot provided awesome tech support, and a shiny fleet of Merida demo bikes. Mountain Biking Australia magazine provided free copies of their magazines, and the crew from Jimmy Jack offered tastings of their fine wines while their head honcho Graeme Scott rode the furthest he’d ever ridden in a day, a very credible nine laps (rockin’ the solo Clydesdale category too!).

Results, Photos & Reports

Preliminary results and updated Series Points are up on the website. Please take a look and let us know if anything is incorrect! If you’re a team contending for Series podiums, don’t forget to revisit rule#27 regarding rider substitutions for Series Points. Please also note that you need to use the same team name each event to keep earning points.

As always, event photographer Dave Bateman got some incredible shots, check them out in the Gallery – podium shots have been added since the first upload so don’t forget to check these out too. There’s also a bunch of shots that event crew members Josh and Stew have kindly provided – they had plenty of time to roam around on their bikes with cameras, proving that the event crew can grab some of the action too!

We’ve posted a couple of event reports on the website and also a summary of comments received from competitors, supporters and event services – thanks to all that have sent kind words, we in turn would like to thank all of you for the great vibe on and off track.

Look out for the SRAM Singletrack Mind Series featuring on SBS’s Cycling Central programme this Sunday 30 October at 5.00pm!

Event Crew

We'd like to take this opportunity to thank everybody who assisted in the successful running of the event:

· Central Tablelands MTB Club – Craig Flynn, Skinny, Steve, Tim, Richard, Glen, and the rest of the CTMBC crew who devoted so much time to making the day a success.

· Course Marshals – thanks to all our fantastic CTMBC volunteer marshals who were looking out for you on the track

· Riders – As always, we’ve received great feedback on the fun vibe and politeness of other riders, we’re totally stoked that you guys are doing your best to obey Rule # 31! We also heard plenty of tales of Good Samaritans, and we thank you for putting aside your race to assist a fellow rider.

· Rydal Showground – for the great catering and fantastic venue, with proper toilets and even showers! We particularly loved the Old Bar

· Steve from Espresso Mobile – for keeping us all caffeinated

· Dave Bateman – lensman extraordinaire who always delivers outstanding shots.

· St John Ambulance – Who tended to your bumps and scrapes all day.

· Volunteers – We couldn't have done this without our wonderful volunteers! Special shout out goes to Josh, Stew, and Maxine, for whom nothing was too much trouble throughout a long day – you’re all awesome!

Transponder return

Did you find an orange timing chip attached to your fork leg when you got home? Oops! If you did, please pop it in a tuff bag or wrapped in bubble wrap and post to:

Castech Sports Technology

PO Box 219, Wahroonga NSW 2076

Lost and Found

We can't help you find your lost fitness or "mad bike skillz" but if you lost some gear at the race we might just have it here. We’ve got a few bits and pieces including a mini pump and a mobile phone. Get in touch if you think you’re missing something.

Hammer Nutrition Special Offer

Don’t forget that, as a competitor in the SRAM Singletrack Mind Series, you are entitled to a 15% discount off Hammer Nutrition’s fine products! Purchase the products online then proceed to the checkout cart. Insert the code CHOC FOOT into the coupon section, check out, and your discount will be applied.

Putting our best foot forward …

We’re really looking forward to wrapping up the Series at Awaba on 27 November. We’ve already got 350 entries in this event and with more coming in daily, it’s going to be huge! All the info for Round 8 ¼ of the SRAM Singletrack Mind Series is on the website. The Corporate Cup will also take place at this round, so if your company is interested in taking part in this battle of the businesses, get in touch soon!

And, just for the girls, if you’re looking for new places to ride and people to ride with, why not come along to our next Chocolate Ride, a social ride taking place at Terrey Hills (Sydney’s Northern Beaches) on Saturday 19 November. More info will be posted here very soon and you can also join the Facebook group to keep up to date.

That's it for the Chocolate Wrapper, our event wrap-up, and again we'd like to thank everyone for contributing to the success of Round 6!

Cheers

Joe & Fi