Katherine O'Shea rode well from the start. (Image credit: Tony Fetch)
By Tory Thomas & Katherine O'Shea
For most of the Torq team, the start of the 2008-2009 Australian mountain bike season has been really hectic. It's been an awesome experience flying and driving around Australia attending races as a team; however as is the experience of most athletes, I think most of the team has found it really tricky to cram so much racing and travel (and all the other bits of life) in to such a small time frame!
We recently had a team training camp in Mount Beauty, Victoria, after Christmas, and after such a hectic start to the Australian race season, it was sheer bliss to spend a week in my hometown with friends just riding, swimming in the river, hanging out at BBQs, and more riding!
During this time of year, Mount Beauty (and nearby Bright) is the ideal training area for mountain bikers - there are beautiful alpine climbs for long road rides, endless fireroad trails for off-road adventures, awesome flowing and technical singletrack, and lots of rivers and swimming holes to cool off burning leg muscles! So long as you're armed with some good sunscreen, fly repellent, and a good eye for dodging snoozing snakes on the roads and trails, Mount Beauty is training Nirvana.
