Lachlan Norris

Time to drink crazy juice from the World Cup again…

// May 16th, 2012 // No Comments » // Blog, Diary

As a muddy preparation for Czech I headed to Solothurn with the Giant-Swiss-Team for as Jose Hermida put it a "mini World Cup". I had a solid comeback from crashing hard the week before and came home in 20th. My sis Alana and Brett were there to cheer me on and Larn also flexed her photography muscles...

The course was fast and starting in the moat of Castle Solothurn it was narrow and hectic from the gun.

Home to Genève for a post race refuel stop at the market.

Last weeks Mad Monday Shred Session took me via Annecy to a little place called Bourg Saint Maurice.

Lac du Annecy

Also managed to get some repairs done. Thanks to Dr Adam and Dr Rosara for keeping it real. And sanitary...

Going deep to find the last stitch. (p.s don't try this at home...)

And welcome to the Czech Republic for WC#3

The forest was dense, dark and rooty. Just like home, so I was feeling good on course in practice. The Giant Anthem was definitely the bike of choice for me.

Narrowly missing the big pile up 200 crazy metres into the race, I picked through the carnage of the war zone and rode as hard as I could for the next hour and a half. Finishing in 69th I was disappointed with the result. But with every country finalising their Olympic teams it was no wonder the pace was blistering. I was riding fast, but only as fast as everyone else, not faster. This weekend I have another shot in La Bresse France, where I am hoping I can put my good from to use with a little more luck off the line. Thanks to Row Fry for getting behind the lens for some good action shots!

The taste of German Dirt

// May 2nd, 2012 // No Comments » // Diary

Swiss Cup – Luguno/Tesserete, 22/4/2012

A big day in the car, which included some amazing scenery and also a car-train through the Furkka Pass, finally saw me to Lugano. One of the nicer parts on the planet!!

What's the best way to get to a Swiss Cup? Drive or take the train? Stuff it I'll do both...

good morning Lugano...

While the sun was shining on Lugano on race morning, I was not deceived. The damp forest floor that awaited us was certainly no drier than before. Roots and lots of them, along with mud and lots of it, made for both a physically and technically challenging track.

Compounded by some pretty heavy legs I struggled to find the speed early and spent the race “flogging a dead horse” eventually arriving at 13^th place. A good race to put down as training!

Thanks to the Giant-Swiss Team for their support over the weekend and also Sarah and Craig for cheering me on and taking some snaps of me bathing in mud – see below!

Start

Mud.

The chance to spend the night in Varese and catch up with some old friends over a massive balloon calzone and gelati was great. From here it was time to shred some Autobahn, hire-car style and arrive in Offenburg for a week of training with Australia’s favourite large human, Paul VDP. Coach Neil Ross put us to the task for a heavy week of training in the black forest, which offered up an ample amount of hills and trail. Thanks to Paul’s Illy coffee machine for getting us through…

Heubach “Bike the Rock” Bundesliga Cup 29/4/2012

I had pulled through the week extremely well and was feeling pretty good in the warm up. A fresh set of DT Swiss rolling the XTC 29” had me feeling fast. The good thing about Heubach is the course. Basically up for nearly ten minutes, across the top on some fire road and then a bombing descent back to the start finish. A course I have done well on in the past, I was keen to repeat with a good performance.

The usual start chaos saw me hold ground and hit the climb somewhere in the first 30. I quickly hit the turbo button, which to my surprise worked quite well and gave me the power to ride up into the top ten by the crest of the climb, slotting-in just behind World Champion Jaroslav Kulhavy and feeling good about it.

I kept things pretty tight and tidy on the descent, which could easily be a DH track. Steep, big angles, big berms, braking bumps, roots, rocks and super fast. That is until things got loose and untidy; dropping into the valley just after the tech zone was the fastest section of all, a big open rowdy root section. Postage stamp on- send it! During the send my right foot somehow came out of the pedal, giving me just enough time to comprehend hitting the next little root drop with one leg before I did. It didn’t end well. I got my army roll on and quickly made clear of the guys ripping down behind me. A quick tooth check, they were there. A quick limb check, they were unbroken. A quick trot down the trail to where my bike had landed amongst the crowd and trees, it too was fine. Just as I was about to mount the horse that had kicked me I noticed a steady stream of the precious haemoglobin, which I had worked so hard to build, dribbling onto my top tube. Along with a decent amount of skin-loss I had opened up my chin. Before I knew it I was being whisked away by the medics, which lead to me winding up at the Mutlangen Hospital for a visit.

Half a dozen stitches in the elbow and another lot in the chinny-chin-chin and I’m good to go. With a fresh new Anthem Advanced SL (thanks to Giant Factory Off-Road) I’m looking forward to another week of training and the next Swiss Cup in Solothurn this weekend, which will open 3 weeks of racing.

Good thing Paul VDP was on hand to drive me back. Thanks as always to everyone for their support including Giant, The VIS and Oakley.

Houffalize World Cup #2 – Race notes

// April 19th, 2012 // No Comments » // Diary

Word Association – Houffalize: Crowds, waffle smells, smoke smells, beer smells, cold, wet, slippery, fun, hurt, mayhem.

Thanks to Row Fry for the snaps.

This year, the seventh year I have visited the area to race a World Cup or equivalent, I was not disappointed. As per usual World Cup MTB racing was taken with all the seriousness that any form of cycling warranted in Belgium and the event went off with a bang. Despite the day maxing out at 4 degrees Celsius.

In practice we had ridden all types of conditions, from hero traction dirt to full on slop, so I felt well prepared for whatever the day could throw at me. The course was technical, but not too difficult in the dry and very physically demanding. If it wasn’t bombing down a tricky descent or getting your power sucked out by the slow top sections it was riding up a shaly wall.

The start was status quo. Didn’t loose spots, but didn’t gain any either as we (from the top 30 down) ran up the first climb. I had my head screwed on all day and persisted in passing guys. Passing, passing, passing, eventually arriving at the finish in 52^nd place, a final result that I felt didn’t do me justice to how well I rode. I had felt plenty powerful on the climbs and even felt strong on the last lap. A great sign as I head into an epic couple of months of euro racing and a good starter to the euro season.

Thanks as always to everyone for their support and stay tuned for more race updates. Oh and please check out the vid below if you feel like getting carsick.

They didn’t plough my driveway!

// April 19th, 2012 // No Comments » // Blog

Spanish Snow Shredding Sessions 1

Mountainous Moments for March

// April 5th, 2012 // No Comments » // Diary

The boys hard at it in Madrid

Heavy eyelids after 33hrs

Good MORNING!

Bergs

Sierra Nevada

Loosing myself in the mountains

more

Actually lost.

Training Buddies

Cafeteria: serving up hidden meats 3 times daily. And heterogenous seafood.

gate

Alhambra - Granada

Old crusty stuff

Jay makes a meal of our tapas

Granada by night

Tourist

Granada

Ideal

less than ideal

heaps less than ideal

muchos heaps less than ideal

immersed in Spanish culture

street

Rad lids

Spanakin Skywalker

"Dad! you know I don't roll like this..."

Palm/Olive branch Sunday

Thirst

Buenas noches

The Mayhem that is World Cup.

// March 20th, 2012 // 2 Comments » // Diary

World Cup #1, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

Downtown

I’m not sure how much these guys get paid, or even if they get paid at all. One thing is for sure they treat their job with the utmost respect. The job of being the security guard holding back the masses until official practice opens at 12 noon, certainly is a testing one. A full World Cup MTB peloton of men, women, U23’s, Juniors and coaches, all busting to get out on course and get a first hand look at what obstacle(s) stand between them and a World Class result.

The thing about the first practice session is fitting around 300 riders in a 5km circuit, some wanting to ride the first lap fast, others slow and others scrutinising over every technical section. Scoping it out, checking the lines, riding the lines, entangled with a lot of standing around watching. Today we were the latter as I joined the Rabobank boys for their technical session with Oscar Saiz, a technical MTB genius in his own right. It becomes a slight mental battle, dropping in to finally ride the rock garden you have been staring at for minutes, with a crowd of the worlds best riders all standing their critiquing your line, flow and style. With extra spice added to the nerves if you follow someone who has either nailed it or binned himself or herself hard on a rock in the process.

The second time around the very ‘manufactured’ course things started to click into place for me. There is something about momentum that flows you from one section to the next. After a few more laps I was confident in my line choices on some quite daunting rock gardens and drop ins. Another day to fine tune the body with some more speed and intensity and a final check to see what has changed on the course and etch the lines more solidly into the memory bank.

All this fades into the background as the gun goes and needle flicks from zero to 50kmph within seconds. It could be said my fate was decided within the first 500m. Rolling the dice and lining up on the right hand side of the start straight turned out to be a costly mistake. I hit the singletrack in a tangled mess of walkers in lycra, with bikes and anger and watched the leaders race off into the distance. My 62^nd grid position somehow turned into 100 and from then on it was consistent crawl through the field; finally riding in, as the heavens opened up into 70^th place. A very disappointing start to the World Cup season. So it’s back up to a high altitude drawing board somewhere in Spain for three weeks to get flying in Houffalize World Cup two.

The company I kept made the week worthwhile. So along with all the other people that I owe thanks- my Family, Friends, Supporters and Sponsors, a big thanks to the boys from the Giant Factory Off-Road Team for the fun times! Particularly Paul Miles for keeping my bike in mint order and Joe Staub for his management genius and intellectually stimulating, random dinner conversations.

Norris runner-up at Oceania mountain bike titles in Rotorua

// March 14th, 2012 // No Comments » // Press

Bendigo Advertiser – 14 March 2012

Oceania Champs in a nutshell.

// March 14th, 2012 // 2 Comments » // Diary

pic via FB.

A quick trip over the pond marked the beginning of what ensures to be another epic season of racing bikes. Thanks to the hospitality of the Geater crew we were right at home, straight away, in Rotorua, AKA the Mountain Biking epicenter of the North Island.

I battled a bit of fatique leading up to the race which had carried over from a hard block of training (thanks whip-cracker Neil Ross) and the stress of organizing for a five months on the road. By race day I was as sweet ez though and was comfortable with the six or so guys at the front on lap 1. A longish uphill start, to what was a ‘choice’, flowing race circuit, saw Chris J and Mike N checkout on lap 2, after pushing the tempo on the first. Sid T slipped away and the chase group was whittled down to Paul VDP, Dan M and myself, holding Sid at around 30 seconds.

By about lap 4 we closed that down and I took the opportunity to slip away. I pushed hard and formed a small gap. Dan came across on the fifth and an inconvenient chain drop half way up the climb saw me tack back onto Dan’s wheel with the needle on red, in time for him to hit it. He quickly formed a decent gap that I was unable to close and descended the technical yet flowy trails (XTC 29” heaven) into Runner up Oceania Champ, for the second time. Overall a decent day at the races, encouraging signs as we glide over to South Africa for World Cup #1.

A special thanks also to Cycle Concepts Castlemaine, along with Sram and Shwalbe (Bike Box) for getting things together at the last minute, with Jake and Bruce at the helm. As always Ride Life – Ride Giant.

Before every storm there is a calm

// March 1st, 2012 // 1 Comment » // Diary

February 2012

Put in Cycling terms, it’s that moment of tranquil nervousness before the race. Two weekends ago it was the Apollo Bay sunrise as, amongst the other 1700 competitors, I rolled down to the start line of the Otway Odyssey MTB Marathon. The storm came as Chris Jongewaard lit the fire within the first 5km, as we hit the climb at Busty Rd.

I made a conscious effort to pace myself for this one; I had plenty of miles in the tank, but only a couple of weeks of pure MTB training which is the kind you need to get adaptations to racing on the dirt. So when I hit the lead after 25km I was initially a bit worried about my speed management! I quickly began to relish riding my own race out in front and although I had forgotten (or consciously erased from memory) the difficulty of the climbs nestled within the first 50km, I rode them cleanly and with power. After 65km, ironically heading into the Shotz singletrack loop, I missed a feed and rode the next 20km in a dry manner. I was concerned about this as it was a crucial time in the race, but I put the niggling urge for fluid to the back of my head and began to wind up the Anthem X SL. By the final 12km, with still no idea what was going on behind me, I put whatever was left into the trail. Again revisiting some nasty climbs, it was a huge relief to roll into the Forrest footy ground and claim my first Otway Odyssey after a quite brutal four and a half hours in the saddle!

Next stop was Adelaide where a storm was brewing out at Eagle MT MTB Park.

Storm about to hit the trail in Adelaide - Russell Baker

Not only was a storm brewing in the form of the 2012 National MTB Champs but the mercury was also rising. A casual 38 degrees on the thermometer for race day meant to me I had to be on top of my game with hydration. For food I went on the light side, not wanting too much sitting in my gut when the pressure went on. It did go on from the gun, as per usual. The plan was falling into place by lap 3 and when I moved into 2nd I reached for the turbo to close down the 40 second gap that had held relatively steady out to Dan McConnell all race. Unfortunately there was nothing there for me and I suspect I had managed my energy intake a little poorly. This lead to me fading back to third, finally being pipped by half a wheel by Andy Blair and finishing fourth, which was a bit on the disappointing side and a bit on the positive-good-things-to-come side.

Short track saw me start off poorly and work back to fourth, not quite getting to the front in time to see big Paul Van Der Ploeg showing his power and launching off for victory.

But the big storm still awaits. Although it may look as though it has already passed through my bedroom! As I pack to head away, this is not the usual frolic through clothes on my floor and turf them into another bag, for another race, this is the more calculated 4 month packing job. Next stop Rotorua NZ for Oceania Champs 2012!

This summer at home has been on the whole pretty fantastic; always good to spend time with the people you want to spend time with. Thanks to Mum and Dad for putting me up and being the stable, supportive parents that stand behind most half respecting Athletes. Thanks to Jake and Bruce from Cycle Concepts Castlemaine who put up with me, always having my bikes in perfect order and even enjoy the occasional road trip (with or without car keys) to Adelaide! Massive thanks also to Neil Ross who has managed to direct my fitness fanaticism into some decent MTB speed. Still more to come…

Thanks also to my sponsors and supporters, especially the wonderful team at Giant Bikes Australia along with the Victorian Institute of Sport and for all things road – Drapac Professional Cycling.

by Russell Baker

Beats of the week…

// February 26th, 2012 // No Comments » // Blog

Australian Hip Hop Supports Canteen – Compilation

Think Adelaide – Think Aussie Hip-Hop. So for my trip to RAdelaide this week I had these tunes going. It’s a decent album for a very good cause and although it’s a double CD compilation there is a few rubbish tracks to wade through. But all your favourite Aussie Hip-Hop names feature with some really good tracks. Also all of the proceeds go towards Canteen so you can feel even better about buying this bad boy.