Rocket Ride - Not

Yesterday was the start of my Red Bull Erzberg Rodeo. The ‘Rocket-Ride’ – a timed hill-climb with 3 beeeeg hills to climb.

I queued up and waited, and waited… eventually had a go at the first monster hill. About half the attempts before me failed. I was waved forward and attacked. Back wheel spinning I lost a lot of traction… but kept it pinned… up, up , up…

 The three hills... from the orange tent to the Red-Bull arch at the top

About 20 feet from the top it’s really loose… I could feel the wheelspinning like mad… losing momentum all the time… I eased off the throttle… got a tiny bit more grip… but started to wheelie at the same time. I eased off eth throttle, the wheel came down and I stopped about 10 feet from the top. Shit!

All the way down and try again. We each had 3 attempts at this first hill. I lined up attempt 2. Gave it gas and as I felt the clutch out full, the bike bogged. I was in third! Shit! I started clutching to try get some more power to the wheel, but the game was lost and I made it about 2 thirds of the way up. Shit!

 The last 15 feet of hill three was a killer

Attempt 3. With only 12 feet or so run up to the hill, I screw it up totally by hitting a big rut and bouncing before I started the ascent. It was a terrible attempt and I limped away. Beaten.

 Practicing on the 'baby' slopes

In the afternoon we get another go at it… so I did some practice climbs on the ‘baby-slopes’ in between. The soil was reallt thick and loose… all the mango sized rocks roll to the base of the hill, making it more difficult… you got to get through these first.

Only about ½ of my attempts were successful… and I binned it on one attempt before I even hit the slope when my front wheel hit a mango-rock and I bit the dirt! Doh!

 We got up a few in the end

With a bit more confidence I attacked the hill again in the afternoon. With so many riders queueing to try (seemed like a biit of free-for-all regardsless of whether you’d entered the event or not), we were only allowed 1 attempt. I hashed it up worse than my last by bouncing off rocks at the base and losing my line and drive. Game over.

Bollocks!

Gassing it up the hill

I’m camped next to 3 other brits… only 1 of them made it up the first hill… so I don’t feel so bad. Anyways… gave me a chance to get back on the bike… the last time I’d ridden it was more than a month ago in Scotland.

Today is the prologue event. 13km time trial with ‘no obstacles’. Fast and flat-out to try qualify in the top 500 and get a place in the Harescramble. It’s been raining all night and is wet... muddy puddles everywhere. It’ll be fun!

Bike’s ready… I’ve just got to get my kit on and go wait…

Flat-out!!!

Pre Rocket Ride

11:18, June 03, 2010. Erzberg, Austria.

Up at 4 to get here for signing on, scrootineering and all that malarkey. Good to get here early as we got a good spot near the main paddock and all the admin only took 20 minutes. Half an hour after we'd finished and there were queues a mile long.

Bikes waiting for riders signing-on, number-boards and scrootineering - which consisted of a check of the number-board and last 4 numbers on the frame!

 Some very interesting bikes being used for teh prologue event... including this R1 on knobblies...

...and this cool bike - I have no idea what it is

And a lot of older classics

 

Now we wait for teh Rocket Ride. It's a timed hill-climb. Apparently you get as many attempts as you can fit into the 2 x 2 hour heats. Fastest 48 go through to the final this evening.

All's quiet at Erzberg early on Thursday morning

Saw the hill... hills. Basically from the harescramble start area at teh bottom of the pit and up, up and up 3 beeeeg hills. They're long and steep. But only about 30% longer than what we did in Scotland. I should be ok. A bit nervous.

It's stopped raining and the forcast is good for the weekend.

 View down from the second hill. They're steep!

In half an hour I ride teh 450 rocket and try get up those hills. If it were just me and my mates down the quarry, they'd just be a laugh... but with hundreds of competitors and spectators it feels so different.

Tomorrow We Ride the Rocket

In Austria. Tomorrow is the first day of my 2010 Erzberg campaign - the Rocket Ride!

It's a hill-climb. Never done a hill-climb before. It's been raining since I got here on Monday night (after a 17 hour drive!) and there was snow as I went over the mountains. It's going to be cold and mushy!