We got back from the Canberra world cup last night (about 10.30PM). T’was a great weekend despite the rain (which was pretty shit, but what can you do about it?!).
SATURDAY: In attendance was: Jing and Shirley, Felix and Diane, Timmy, Christina and I. We all met up at the Mobil on the M5 on Saturday morning, the drive was super easy and we were in Canberra before we knew it. We checked into The Parklands, got set up and then went for a bite to eat next door at Dickon Shops (Laksa FTW!). We decided to check out the War Memorial (hey it is voted as Canberra’s no.1 attraction, with nothing else coming in 2nd spot lol). I always see something different each time I go there.
We had an awesome dinner at Pangaea in Manuka (a suburb with such a classy look and feel about the place I thought I was in Double Bay). Diane chose the restaurant which served up a storm of amazing finger foods which blew us all away. After dinner we headed to Mount Stromlo to watch the 4X finals.
Mt. Stromlo was cold, wet, dark and muddy. The course looked great, the crowd was huge and the vibe was awesome. The rain was the only let down. We watched the womens and watched Jared Graves take out the mens. We then headed back to the apartments, watched Aliens on the TV + played Nintendo DS and crashed out.
SUNDAY: The girls had been complaining about the amount of “bike talk” the day before, how ridiculous is that?! We were there to watch the world cup and there they were complaining about us talking bikes?! We tactically decided to ditch them the next day so they spent the day at the Museum and Questacon whilst we headed to Stromlo.
When we got to Stromlo it was raining hard. Too bad for Jing and Timmy who both didn’t bring any wet weather gear (lol). We walked through the pits, which were totally empty as everyone was up on the mountain watching the downhill qualifying. The first thing we came across was the bike wash bay and I spotted Sam Hill’s bike mechanic cleaning his bike. I got a good gawk in.
Can I have the bike once Mr. Hill is done with it… please?
Number 1.
We then checked out all the pitt stalls and the superstars of the circuit were out and about (since the crowd was up on the mountain). Sam Hill was chowing on a salad sandwich (surely that’s too healthy for a pre-race feed?!), Peaty was riding around with a resistance trainer attached to the back of his bike. We spotted Rennie, Dan Atherton and a few other riders. One of the team Yeti riders talked us through a 575 (my dream bike), which sold me even more on one, we ran into a few of the Farkin forum guys (who were all pretty tanked), had some food then proceeded to climb up the mountain to watch the final womens DH as well as the mens.
Stralia!
Graves’ winning bike from the night before.
Steve Peat from the UK riding around with a resistance trainers attached to his back wheel.
Go girl! These girls have got balls!
Last jump of the “triple treat”.
Halo.
We had awesome views and could get pretty damn close to the riders. Air horns, cow bells and screaming fans, the vibe was electric for every rider (whether Australian or an international) coming down the mountain. We pretty much walked down the mountain and stopped off on points of interest, the riders came down 3 minutes apart from one another which kept the whole event flowing. By the time we got down to the bottom we were in time to watch the final 5 riders on the big screen (perfect!).
The last part of the DH course was more like an XC course, there was even an uphill part! (how strange considering it a DH course). The long flat all the way to the finish line meant that pedallers could shave a lot of time off. Sam Hill was slow on the day, Rennie, who went 2nd last had the hot seat until the last rider, Greg Minmaar from South Africa smashed his time by 5 seconds.
Satisfied, wet and cold we headed back into Dickson to meet up with the girls for a hot Japanese meal before hitting the M5 on the way home.
