Career Highlights: Australian XC MTB Champion 2007, Australian Marathon MTB Champion 2006, winning Otway Odyssey Mtb Marathon race, Australian 24hr MTB Champion 2003 & 2004, returning to riding after a riding accident in 2005, racing World Cups overseas 2007.

Bikes: GT Zaskar Pro totally SRAM'd up with SID forks, GT Pro Road

Best thing about mtb: There’s lots of best things. The people are great, and I’m lucky to have a world class training venue – lovely Mount Beauty! I love the training, it’s the perfect excuse to get out and spend hours out in the hills. The bush is so alive, it energises the soul and you see some amazing things.

The Worst thing: Riding down the big hills around Mount Beauty in winter without warm gloves or booties (still fresh in my mind!).

My best mtb moment: This would have to be when Tim asked me to marry him on the top of Mount Emu!

Background to mtb: My background to MTBing is in running, climbing, equestrian and adventure racing. I love riding my bike, but I don’t love cycling more than other sports – for whatever reason(s), Mtb just seems to be what I do at the moment!

I think my mountain bike “career” has been more the result of circumstance rather than anything planned or premeditated. All of my early mtb rides were undertaken with Vinca, a friend I met through rockclimbing - wow we went on some seriously stupid rides! Most of our rides involved an element of epic; getting lost was the norm, as was carrying our bikes for enormous stretches of time through impenetrable bushland, blackberries and across rivers. One of the more interesting rides involved carrying our bikes down rockclimbs in the Blue Mountains – armed with only a set of very vague directions and a muesli bar and a water bottle each, we managed to take about ten hours to complete the ride! Character building!

My first ‘real’ mountain bike race was the Mont 2003 24hr race as a solo, this was my first taste of what it was like to be competitive on the mtb. I loved the enduro style races, and during 2003 and 2004 I regularly competed in Victorian endurance races of 6,8,12 and 24 hours. I also participated in several State and National XC races, gradually progressing from Sport to Elite category. A bike vs car accident in March 2005 saw the bike (and me) come off second best, and put a rather abrupt and end to my preparations to compete at the 05 World solo 24hr Championships.

The Year Ahead: A new season - new challenges! I had a bit of a dream run last season and exceeded my expectations by achieving all of my race goals. I’ve reassessed and reset my goals and I’m already working hard towards trying to achieve at least a few of my goals for 2007/2008 season. Since racing World Cups overseas, my focus has definitely shifted from Australian racing to trying to be more competitive in World Cups, however there are still heaps of key races here in Oz to keep me focused between now and when I head back overseas. I would love to perform well at National Champs in Jan and Oceania Champs in March, and along the way I’ll be competing in most of the national rounds, a few marathon and enduro-style races, as well as a few road races.

Sponsors:

TORQ (yum!)
SRAM componentry, Rockshox suspension, Avid, Truvativ
Polar Heart Rate Monitors
Crank Brothres
Wheelcraft wheels
Ritchey Cockpit
Oakley eyewear
Victorian Institute of Sport

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