mount stromlo @ canberra. no idea. never been there. it’s 4 hours from home and therefore not really a logical destination for a quick ride.

it doesn’t look very impressive, does it? it does have an observatory on the top, though.

anyway, it was the location for the next rollercoaster race so i had to go.

turns out it is good fun. how we can ride down a 200m descent and take almost as long as the thredbo flow trail is a bit of a mystery but the way my legs felt after the race made it pretty clear.

i don’t think i was ever so tired from a ‘mostly downhill’ ride. then again there were 2 big (untied, but still significant) climbs, from the race center (at about 600m) to the top of the hill at about 770m. more importantly, though, most tracks required more than a bit of pedalling, some even had not-so-minor climbs strewn in.

my results are unfortunately still unsatisfactory. the only upside i see is that my distance to the guys ahead of me is decreasing: only 6 seconds separated me from the guy in front of me and i on some trails was getting close to my mate, who is a canberra local. well, sort of close. given i only trained each trail once.

and so the plan is: train harder, ride more, spend more time learning the trails and try to beat him next time. or at least get even closer.

so this is what i look from behind. i think the color of the backpack clashes with the color of the helmet. embarrassing.