NZ Cup Round 4 Napier

The final round of the NZ Cup was held at Eskdale park in Napier. The course followed the same track as last years with a couple of adjustments but it made for a good, solid power course. A steep sharp climb was there to keep everyone honest as well!

From the start of the race I jumped in front after putting in a powerful first effort and lead around and up to near the top of the major climb - fantastic start!!!

As we made our way to the top single track that traversed along the forest ridge line Dirk, Carl and Mikey slipped past me and I didn't quite jump onto the train as after my excellent start I thought that I might be best to take it back a notch and save the legs for an attack later in the race.

For the next first few laps I kept roughly the same gap on the leaders and saw them on the same spot each lap going up the climb just ahead. I thought that was great! I may still have a chance of getting back on and being in for the win if I launched an attack soon!

Once on lap 4 I noticed after coming through the start/finish for my fifth lap that the front lads had split up as Dirk put in a huge effort and increased the gap on myself and the others which split us all up into solo riders.

I kept going hard and got my last couple of laps complete keeping consistent and finishing 4th position in the Elite men. Overall I was pleased with my race considering I was not quite 100% but nevertheless I gave it a good nudge!

These results slotted me into 4th Elite also in the 2012 New Zealand Cup series.

Bring on Oceania Champs next weekend - final race of the New Zealand season!

NZ Cup Round 3 Wellington

The third round of the New Zealand MTB Cup was held in Wellington in the Mt Vic Park. The course was fast and hard and had a couple of short yet tough climbs and followed mostly the 2010 National Champs circuit.

During the two practise days that I had I felt I had the course nailed and was looking forward to seeing how the body was going to cope on race day.

From the start of the race the course shot up a tarseal hill, around the velodrome then up a gnarly steep climb. I was in a respectable position but started to drop several places. I wasn't 100% so I knew it was going to be a tough day in the saddle but I was still there to race. A slight change in my race plan was made for!

Lap 2 came around and I felt the body was starting to settle into a rhythm halfway through this lap which was a good sign. I pressed on and started to pass more and more riders. By the last lap I had pushed my way up to a respectable position and was pleased to have still got stuck into my work and come across the line 6th in the Elite field.

This weekend I have the final NZ Cup Round held in Napier - looking forward to bringing back some good form!

Skins Road Race 7th January 2012

The Skins Road Race is an event held prior to the Elite Road Racing National Championships that follows the same course with 56km of fast racing action!

This year the course consisted of two laps on the flat followed by two laps using the main climb and also the main spectator point of the race (where there are a lot of hurt looking faces!).

The morning of the race came around and firstly it was off to work for a couple of hours for me before heading off down the road to the start line.

My Trek Madone 5.2 Road Bike equipped with a pair of sleek Shimano Dura-ace wheels from Brad Williams (my boss from Halswell Butchery) , I had a fast looking race machine and was keen to see what the body could do up the first climb in the race.

Starting a road event is always very different from a mountain bike event in the way that it is quite casual to begin with. I changed my mindset and went in with a game plan of letting the body warm into the race on the first lap then attacking when I hit the climb on lap three (first of the full laps).

A couple of attacks had been made early on and one rider was starting to get away on the second lap so I decided I needed to try and get the peloton working to get back up. This didn’t work out too well as most people wanted to save themselves for the hill so only three of us were rotating up the front!

Once we hit the climb it was game on! I smacked it hard up the hill in my big chain ring and past the break away rider very quickly managing to create a good gap by the time I was off the hill. From here I went into time trial mode on the flat pushing hard and once I went through the start/finish it was one last time to do that all again! A final strong push up the hill to increase the gap with the rest of the lap to follow I finished winning with a solid lead on the other riders very stoked with how I rode!

Big thanks to Brad Williams (Halswell Butchery) for the support!