Frog Rock Race

The Frog Rock Race was another beauty of a race for climbing. Amongst the hills of Waipara, the course was 26km but while short it had 1000m of vertical climbing.


From race start the course shot up a steep hill and I had quickly realised my bike was setup incorrectly for the climbing as I was already in my lowest gear grinding away! I still easily held on but knew she would be a tough day if this kept up. Not long after the first climb the course hadn't been marked properly and the leading group of riders, including me, found ourselves agreeing to jump a gate in the hope we were still on the right track! Once we came to another gate we figured we were still off track so after a nice wee climb back up the hill we found a farm track that took us back on the right path. From here we were riding with the rest of the field making our way through everyone.


Once we had some clear track I was riding with Craig Oliver following me, grinding away up the majority of the climbs being badly over geared. On one of the fast downhills at roughly the 19km mark I heard an air chilling scream from behind and while the temptation was there to gap it and eat into Anton's lead, I decided to do the right thing and go back and check Craig hadn't seriously injured himself.


With Craig back on his bike, I rode the remainder of the race with him and came down the final downhill leading. I was now spinning like crazy towards the finish, tapped out to the max with my gearing. I was not expecting the sprint to be contested but sure enough it was and I made sure I took the next winning place 2nd overall.