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Capel 2013
Well another great Capel 200! Numbers were down, may be because it was a Saturday ride particularly when it came to camping on Friday night. For those of us there it was great sitting around the camp fire under a cloudless sky, though it was a chilly night. The conversation was lively but you had to be there! At the campfire was Gareth, John390, Welshman200(?), Bunga (who wants a beer?), Jason, Peter & Roley. Fortunately Peter slept in the X-trail so I didn't him snoring but Gareth alleged there was a rumbling from our general direction, possibly my swag! LOL. Steve joined us in the morning as he preferred a warn bed at home!
While the sun was out and it was a warm day, the tracks were the wettest I remember with numerous water crossings and large sections mud. There was some entertaining moments with some riders choosing to go full throttle into the deep bog holes while others chose the "alternative route" round the worse of the mud. The 72 km main loop was for me, with no rider fitness and just recovering from MAN FLU more challenging than I expected. There were more tight single tracks than usual, which has left me the day after with very sore hands, forearms & shoulders. My day didn't end well with two almost identical stacks in the last 15 kms. The first stack no injury or damage but, the second time about 10 kms from the finish left me with a broken clutch lever and very sore ribs! I rode the bike almost back to the finish with no clutch but as it turned out about 300-400 metres from the finish stalled and had to do a clutch ever mod with some tie downs to limp home (see pics). Peter and I called it a day feeling knackered but satisfied. The other boys all headed for a second loop! Thanks Peter for looking out for me and Steve, Jason & Bunga waiting for us along the way! Other Crustys were sighted - if you were there post a message to tell your story and get a ride point! The Capel as always is well run and worth the effort. Roley Capel 200. Had a brilliant day yesterday, along with a mega crew, Gareth, John390, Bunga, Jason, Peter & Roley. Had one or two little spills,,,,no damage. Bunga threw a little abuse towards a rider who nearly wiped me out,,,LOL. I really cant stress enough for the gratitude for my fellow riders, who all in turn, rode behind me. A big thank you to all. The ride was wet muddy, river crossings, bit of sand. Just fantastic all-round. First loop was tiring towards the end then we decided to do another loop on the novice trail. John navigated us on to the big loop again!!!!! Talk about knackered. But I decided after half was through to call it a day and took the short cut back. Bunga followed to make sure we were all safe,,,:) Bit stiff this morning, but still smiling. Great day, thank you all. nige Yesterday's Capel 200 was another beautie. Great variety of trails, lots of creek crossings and a perfect clear day. A pack of 5 crusties (me, Roley, Pete, Bunga & Jason) rode together for the first loop of 72km and I pushed hard to keep pace with Jason and Bunga, resulting in a lot of near misses and a few not-so-near misses. I was surprised that Jason kept letting me ride in front of him, only to discover later on that he had his helmet-cam on; probably expecting some entertaining footage of me coming a gutsa. Luckily for me, his camera battery was flat! Without a doubt, yesterday was the hardest I've pushed myself and I appreciate that my reflexes (and skills) aren't too good. I was very fatigued and sore at the end of the 72km loop, but proud (relieved) that I didn't go arse up in a water crossing for a change. Roley broke his clutch lever, so him and Pete went home after the first loop. After lunch, Jason and I took off to do the 25km intro loop, which we assumed would comprise mostly nice and easy trails. Jason had put a fresh battery in his helmet-cam, so let me lead again in the hope that he would finally get some good footage of me going arse up. The intro trails were not easy at all, and comprised mostly bits of the first 72km trail. After a while we realised we had done more than 25km, and then rolled up at the half way check-point and were told we'd missed a turnoff and were doing the 72km loop again! I was absolutely stuffed, so we took the easy way back to camp, then loaded up and went home. I woke up this morning feeling like I'd been hit by a truck!! Thanks to the guys for a great ride, to Pete for riding sweep and to Roley for taking the photos. Steve Another good Capel event yesterday. Me andMick530 couldn't do the overnight thing due to work so we had an early start and arrived about 0730. Registered and put the bikes into park ferme then caught up with the overnight Crusty boys. Got away about 0930 and the tracks were good however about 6 kms in I gunned it through some watery mud like shit then the front end dropped in up to the bars. Next thing me and the GPS went sailing over the bars and I landed face first in the mud. Absolutely covered in shit, can't see a thing I try to get the kato out. 20 mins later I'm away again no goggles gloves full of mud I felt like a Irish "bog snorkler". Luckily I totally cocked up the arrows and arrived back at the start line some 38 kms later. This turned out to be a blessing as I went back out with new gloves and goggles. The 2nd lap was great no more incidents, 72 kms of fun. Good to see a good Crusty turnout not sure exactly how many all up. WaynoVB Capel. Had a great time. Thanks to all the crustys for making it a great night round the fire and a special thanks to garath and Nige for the laughs out on the trail absolutely loved the ride although the last 10ks of round two almost killed me, and gareth had the most spectacular off that I have seen in a very long time. Well done ironstone you will definatly be seeing me again next year. John390 Capel: Another great event by ironstone club well done. Nige and myself arrived about 4pm on Friday where we met up with john390 and Pete, Rolley turned up shortly after. We quickly set up camp and shot back to Capel for dinner as no catering van this year :( Had a good laugh around the camp fire, a few beers and good company. On Sat morning set off with John and Nige, we rode 72ks, good terrain, mud was crazy, Nige hope you got your gear all clean, haha :) Found it was more demanding this year or just getting older! We decided to do shorter loop in afternoon and do special test. All good plans however came across 30k marker and knew we were on second 72k loop, Bunga was well Knackerd by now haha. Nige and Bunga decided to take short cut back at check point but officials convinced me and john to finish the loop, was all good until last 5ks couldn't stand up any longer arse was too sore to sit down! So was just rolling, hanging on home. I came off on last sandy section, full tank slapper and over the bars landed on my face eating sand, now got a nice big fat lip to show for it. All in all though was a great day but megga sore today. I have put a few pictures in gallery. :) Gareth What a weekend! Just getting to the computer as it was full on! Great time at Capel. Went down on Friday arvo and setup camp with Roley, Peter, Gareth, Nige, John390 and Bunga. Great night around the camp fire with a whole range of topics covered. Entertaining as always. Packed it in around 11pm and had a pretty good nights sleep, even with Roley snoring! Woke and went to put the bike through to the pit when the scrutineer saw a new spoke I had fitted on the rear wheel. He said he didn't like the sound and asked for me to go and nip it up. Well two half turns with the spoke wrench and 'ping' the spoke broke. He was telling me that was it my day was done. I went and spoke to the main scrutineer hoping some common sense would prevail and he said as it was the back wheel and as long as I secured it I was fine. Whew! Close to the dreaded HOG award! Did the main loop in the morning with Roley, Peter, Steve and Bunga. Followed Steve a fair bit and was impressed with his improvement. I rode with Steve at the Adventure Rally and ended up pushing on but he has certainly found another gear. He was really pushing himself and found he held a great pace. Was hoping to get some good vision but for some reason the Sony ran out of battery very quickly. A great mix of trails, avoided all the bog holes and no issues with the water crossing. The pines were great but found there was a little too much of the really tight single trail. Add to that the dread whoops and in the end it was a challenging loop. Back at the cars Roley and Peter had decided enough was enough after Roley broke his clutch lever towards the end of the first loop. Steve and I decided to head out and do the 'Intro Loop'. New battery in teh Sony Action Cam and we hit the trails again. Found the first Intro Loop sign but somehow hooked back up on the main loop. When my ride odometer hit 110km I knew we had not successfully navigated the shorter loop. I was certain starting to feel it and had a little lay down in one of the little creek crossing and Steve had a couple of 'oh sh1t' moments. Fatigue was setting in for sure. When we hit the 40km check point we knew there was no way we could do the final 35kms so took the direct route back. In the end, no major spills that I saw or mechanical issues. Awesome weekend with an awesome bunch of blokes! When is the next one? Jason                   |
