Adelaide Mountain Bike Club – AMBC
In 2024, we’ll be running a competition for consistent participation in our events thanks to our great sponsor Zero Friction Cycling
Read more at http://ambc.asn.au/zero-friction-cycling-2023-overall-series/
The series rules are as follows:
4x Categories – Men, Women, Junior Men and Junior Women
Sadly Cobblers XCC round in march needed to be cancelled this year as the Sun decided to do a close pass fly by and it was going to be a tad melty. Thankfully its looking like an XCO round is on the calendar later this year woohoo!
So 2024 will leave us at the time of updating this info with a total of 8 rounds counting towards the Series championships. From these 8 rounds your two lowest scoring rounds will be dropped (or another way to view it – your 6 BEST rounds will count towards the series points totals.
This includes the double header at Melrose in October so get planning to make those two awesome rounds, if you miss melrose, you will for sure not want to miss any of the local rounds as all 6 remaining will count.
From 2020 to 2022 – Grading has been pretty good. Ie – one might finish somewhere circa 8th to 10th in A grade would very likely have won B grade. And similarly a 5th to 10th place finisher in B grade would have been winning or on podium in C grade etc. 2023 saw things take a trend where a lot of very fast people who used to be / probably should be in A grade have dropped down to B. Which has meant strong B graders then finishing way out of the top 10 and dropping down to C, and so on. I have had races where I have entered A grade as normal, looked back at B grade and seen the front two rows are for sure going to beat me – and then I finish say 6th in A grade but would have been 9th or 10th in B grade. Many rounds last year the winner / podium in B would have been on podium or close to it in A grade. Normally they would then be pushed up – but I think AMBC has been a bit more lenient on self grading. I know it can be more fun to win or podium B’s vs get 10th in A’s – but just note things really did trend strongly in one directly across 2023 with a lot of very fast riders dropping to B’s, causing still very fast riders to drop to C – and people normally having a good top 10 result in those grades seeing a strong change, and I don’t think it has been a correct direction overall. Positively for me, it with about 6 to 8 people who used to beat me in A grade now in B grade, I can hubbard my way around and get a great top ten in A’s 😊. Realistically though I think a lot of very fast riders should be grading themselves back where they belong in A’s. There will be time for B and then C later as apparently we are going to keep getting older n stuff.
The points system for the series encourages one to grade up so to speak. Ie I got a lot more points for my 6th in A grade last Xco at sheps than what I would have finishing 9th in B grade, not only 3 places lower, but also those lower points reduced by the 0.8 multiplier.
Points multipliers:
A grade – 1.0
B grade – 0.8
C grade – 0.7
D Grade – 0.6
The results will be announced at the State Championships on Nov 10 2024. Prizes include some blingy medals and a voucher to ZFC’s store! Make sure to check out their page to start dreaming of what you get from the store if you work hard and do well!
A little bit about Zero Friction Cycling
Zero Friction Cycling is the WORLDS LEADING independent lubricant and chain testing facility, and uses the information from testing to stock the genuine best products only. ZFC is contracted by many of the worlds largest manufacturers in the lubricant space to test and benchmark lubricants, and if they test extremely well, a full detail review is completed and ZFC stocks and recommends products. If it doesn’t test well, manufacturer keeps working on it and test results remain private. On top of that ZFC tests many lubricants on its own volition to check lofty claims vs reality.
You can find out a lot re zfc by checking for various test articles with cycling tips, Australian Mountain Bike magazine, or listen to podcast interview with cyclings top tech podcast – Marginal Gains – https://marginalgainspodcast.cc/adam-kerin-zero-friction-cycling/
Remember with drivetrain friction, it is the biggest win win in cycling. Simply ensuring running the right lubricant choice often easily saves a rider 5 to 10w of friction losses vs a random lubricant & maintenance choice, and so not only is that 5 to 10w more of your power propelling you further every pedal stroke, it is 5 to 10w of energy saved that was previously literally going into eating through your drive train components at a much faster rate. Some drivetrain components – especially higher tier components – that cost really really adds up.
Grab a cuppa and have a look at very unique cycling website – www.zerofrictioncycling.com.au
ZFC is also passionate about sponsoring local club events & series – having sponsored for last 3 years the PACC Time trial series, one of sponsors for cyclocross Summer & Winger series, and also a stage sponsor of Tour of Goolwa Masters event. ZFC is very proud to now be a series sponsor with Adelaide Mountain Bike Club.