UCI Masters MTB world champs

Racing moto or mtb as a vet/master rider is one of the most challenging types of racing you can do. It’s not because you’re getting old, and your body is letting you down it’s more that you have to balance your family, professional career and training compared to being a young athlete where you can be selfish and worry just about your fitness, recovery, and racing. On top of this the Vet, and masters’ classes allows former elite racers a chance to return to what they love to do most. I have been fortunate to be that guy in motocross when the Vet worlds champs and other select vet races like Mammoth Motocross, Two stroke world champs and Vet MX World Champs. When it comes to racing mountain bikes at a global level it has been a bucket list to race for the rainbow stripes. The rainbow stripes represent the world champ in your respected age group or discipline in all UCI cycling events.

If you follow my social media, you might have seen that my dad passed away in late January. My Dad was my hero and the 7 months that he went through his battle with throat cancer made 2023 arguably one of the most stressful years in my life. During the last 7 months I had no personal goal for myself outside of making sure I provided for my family and was there for my Mom. I slowly became comfortable having a few too many beers during the week all the while staying active with long road rides, some moto’s and balancing Dad life. The problem was I was getting comfortable being foggy and a little overweight for my body type and what I expect out of myself. After I returned home from Dad’s celebration of life, I spoke to Sarah and said I must get out of this funk and set a goal for myself. I knew the UCI master’s event was coming to Cairns, Australia May 16th – 20th for XCO and Downhill so I wanted to use the race as a goal to get myself on track. With not much time to get myself into shape I spoke to 2023 Aus cycling marathon national champion Brent Rees if I was asking too much of myself to be ready in May. The next step was to get aligned with the “boss”  Sarah that I was going to invest some money for equipment, race entries, travel and lots of early mornings to get myself out of a funk. She said no problem as long as I was all in she didn’t care.

It was settled, I had a goal, I was going racing at the UCI Mastrers event in Cairns. Next step was to step up some training tools. I got out the debit card, ordered a Wahoo computer, Speedplay power pedals, some Salida Lycra, and a subscription with training peaks. Brent Rees agreed to get me a program and I went on to follow the program to a T. I was loving it! Each day had a purpose, a plan and what I needed to do on the bike. Although I missed the laughs and banter in our weekly social rides from the “Beachmont Gang” my personal life, and professional life seemed to be more in line with the structure of training. I was about weeks in feeling great on the bike and caught a sinus infection, so I took a week off and I encourage any athlete training to rest and get better. I took the time got over it and it was back on. The work on the bike was calculated, I was losing weight but most of all I was feeling better mentally and that’s why I was doing this event. With only a month away from the event my good friend Stu Cali kept pressing me to race DH as well. I wasn’t about it as I was never a very good DH rider, and I didn’t even have a bike to race. The pressure continued now from from the legend Michael Ronning so I asked Intense Cycles Christy LaCurelle about an M1 frame, and she found me a large frame to build. The frame was delivered 3 weeks from leaving for the event. This became a mad scramble to order parts to build the all new M1 and Mrs. Sleeter wasn’t impressed as the M1 build blew my budget out of the water oooops haha…

For the M1 build I used Jamie Parsons from Triple 666 fix. Jamie was a legend and we got it together with the help from The Lusty crew, and Michael Ronning at Giant Nerang pulling parts of his old bike for me. The XCO training was going well, riding in the rain, mud and early mornings but I was seeing the progress. With 4 days out before I departed for the 19hr drive to Cairns, I went out to Toowoomba for some DH shuttle runs with Ronning and some boys. It had been over a decade since I rode a DH bike. I was a little nervous as the track is fast and rocky, but it didn’t take me long to get the hang of it. Was I fast? No, but I felt confident, so it was game on. I took the M1 back to Jamie for a final prep before I headed out of town. That’s it the work was done, and I had lost 14lbs in the 75 days of training. I still enjoyed my food and occasional beer or two, but I never missed a ride. I felt good, I felt clear, and I loaded up my van with two amazing bikes to go leave it all on the track and extract all that I put in to the program. The drive was long but good, reflecting on what this past year was like, how hard I worked and how much I appreciated my wife and friends for the encouragement.

The entire time training XCO was my focus and DH was just for the experience but with DH first for practice and the rain falling I’m not going to lie I was nervous. I’m not good in the wet roots or rocks and I didn’t want to crash before the XCO event. DH seeding and racing was on Saturday and XCO was on Sunday so crashing my brains out on a DH bike would have been a bad deal. My first practice day on the DH bike was wild! Muddy, slippery and a little scary. I decided to skip out on the XCO practice with track being muddy still and I didn’t want to trash my bike. The next two days of practice went well on both bikes but to be honest I was a little uncomfortable in the rock garden, alien tree, and roots on the DH course. The XCO course was incredibly fun and tough and part of me was like damn it I should have just done XCO and supported the boys in DH. Luckily for me I was on the latest and greatest Intense Cycles M1 DH bike.  

It was race day for DH and it was unique because we would do seeding, and our race run all on the same day. My plan was to go as hard as I could in seeding to learn a little more. I got through seeding ok, but I felt I did ride a little cautious. I regrouped put a little Maxima chain lube on the bike and prepared for my race run. Before I dropped into the shoot for my race run, I took a moment to appreciate the view overlooking the legendary Cairns DH course. The nerves felt a little like a Supercross race for me nervous, anxious, and excited all at the same time. I broke the timing stripe and let the Intense Cycles M1 roll. I navigated the rock garden clean, got through the alien tree and took a big breath so I could enjoy some fun jumps, drops, and turns. All that was left was the long flat finish and I got out of the saddle and pushed hard all the way to the finish line.  I checked the time, and I was able to go faster than my seeding run and this was by far the best run down the mtn all week. When it came to an end result it was an 16th place for Men’s DH. I was so stoked to get through it safe and getting better each run.

Most of my crew woke up a little dusty from celebrating an epic DH event while I was putting on some Salida lycra to get ready to suffer on the Intense Cycles Intense Sniper T. This is what I had put 3 months of hard work for, to challenge myself, to clear my head and get my mind and body back on track after losing my Dad to cancer. It was time for call ups and the nerves were real. Were my legs going to be ok after punishing them during the DH race day? Did the work I put in with Brent Reese pay off? We were off and it got wild in the first minute when a rider hit a rock roll over at 35 kilometers an hr. He was catapulted into the air I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The rider landed and instantly ejected himself off the course into a creek. I couldn’t believe what I saw and now it was time get back in the game. I was about 10th place hitting the first climb where my heart rate would spike, and I would begin to crawl myself into the hurt locker for 90 minutes. Things got eventful when they shouldn’t have because my “cool looking” carbon bottle cage that I got off Alibaba failed me. Down the technical rock section my bottle fell out and I was left with no bottle. I was in a bit of a panic but after calling out to the feed station two laps in a row another rider’s support team tossed me a bottle. I got the hydration into me and on the next lap I tossed the bottle back to the guy. Luckily for me Bob from Rocky Trail had another bottle ready for me with a quick toss leaving the aid station. I was halfway through the race and was in a battle with three riders. I had moved up to 8th place sitting right on 7th place where I would play cat and mouse. He would gap me about 3 seconds up the climb and then I would bring it back in on t descent and tactically sit on his wheel in the flat sections. This Italian rider had some choice words for me after multiple laps of this. He didn’t like me sitting on his wheel on the flat sections so with the last lap bell ringing he gave me some choice words like a “F you” and put the hammer down. I didn’t take the bait because 9th place was close and didn’t want to pop on the climb. I stayed in my groove and wanted to finish strong. The last half lap I started to feel a little emotional. I wanted to race this race to feel better and to do that I would make myself suffer for months for this moment. I left it all out there even my Ryno Power bottle. I crossed the finish line in 8th place with nothing left in my legs and completed depleted. I know it was only a small training block to get here but it was a big milestone and accomplishment for me to make sure I extracted the work I put in on race day.

As I loaded up the van for a 19hr drive back to the Gold Coast I couldn’t help to smile. I could feel my Dad with me. I took the model he always told me as a kid and young man racing and that was to do your best. Understand what you put in and make sure you set realistic goals for race day. On this weekend at 43 years old I did just that! I accomplished my goals rode the best I could with the work I put in. I want to thank my wife and kids for letting Dad get his training in each morning missing breakfast and school send off’s. The companies that have always been behind me and the friends and shops that also supported Thank You!

You have just read about my reason for racing the master’s UCI world champs and I before I let you go, I wanted to give you my feedback on the event itself. Both the DH and XCO track were world class. They were technical, strenuous on the body and most of all fun allowing the best rider to win either discipline. The event was run like clockwork, and I feel I got good value for money for the $250 entry. If I were to be critical of the event I was really surprised with the lack of support from the industry on hand. Sram, Shimano and major industry companies were not on hand but were attending the Crankworx event the next week. If riders traveling the globe had any technical issues, there wasn’t much support at the track.  Event pictures were not easy to find, and I only got one from DH. Will I do it again? Yes, I will! I can’t wait for next year already.

Event information HERE

The Bikes

Downhill – Intense Cycles M1

Tires – Maxxis

Sram – XO drive train

Brakes – Shimano Saint

Bars – Deity

Saddle - Deity

Grips - ODI

XCO – Intense Cycles Sniper T

Learn More about the bike HERE

The Gear

Downhill

Pants, Jersey gloves – Troy Lee Designs

Shoes – Crank Brothers mallet

Goggles – 100 percent

XCO
Lycra – Salita

Eyewear – 100 percent

Shoes – Fizik

Socks – 100 percent

Nutrition – Ryno Power