New Zealand Mountain Bike Cup Round 2

Round 2 of the New Zealand Cup was held over the hill at Living Springs – home course!!!
The week leading up to this event my training had gone very well and with some good weather the course was looking good for the race on Sunday...
Race day came around and the rain decided it might spill a drop or two but this didn’t really affect the course as I did a pre-race lap. I still chose to run a slightly more conservative set with my tyres just in case!
The race started very well and I managed to lead after the main climb into the pines and even held a gap for the first few laps. Lap 4 came around and I had a flat spot during my race and Carl attacked and I didn’t really respond, however on the last couple of laps Dirk and I had a good battle to get through to the finish. What we didn’t know was while we were racing hard we were closing the gap on Carl.
I played my cards well on the final lap and jumped into the pines ahead of Dirk and managed to push hard and have the edge as we headed toward the finish. It sure was full on but I managed to hold it together and finish second about 50metres behind Carl with Dirk a few seconds behind me.
A good result after last weekend and I would like to thank all my supporters out there – it was great to have heaps of people cheering me on!
Nationals next weekend – time to see what I can really do now with my form coming on!

New Zealand Mountain Bike Cup Round 1

Last weekend was the first round of the New Zealand Cup so it was a good test to see what form the legs and body had.
On the trip down it was raining and the course was very wet. Each lap demanded a very steep climb up the hill (that proved quite a struggle to maintain traction in practice even with mud tyres on!) and a neat downhill through the trees to complete a lap – simple, well that’s what I thought…
Race day came around and the climb had dried up as the sun managed to come out. I still opted to leave my muds on as the downhill was still very wet. I was actually looking forward to the downhill each lap as I was having a ball during my practice but after the morning race the track had cut up big time. Even with muds on it was still full on!
The race went well for the first couple of laps, I felt comfortable on the first lap not smashing myself and even put a gap on the Top Australian riders that came down by the top of the hill. On the first downhill I came up behind Dirk and noticed he had a wee miss-shape on the track. I got a bit off the ball here and had a crash and had to dive at a tree to save my fall! Somehow each lap I crashed at exactly the same spot! So after the first few laps I lost a bit of time due to my crashes and unfortunately my bike setup was not appropriate with the demanding climb and I destroyed my legs. It became quite a grind in a 34tooth front ring when the other riders were in there 26tooth small rings!
I still managed to come in 5th Elite (3rd Nzer) which looking back isn’t too bad when I know I had the measure off the Top Australians if I had held it together. Roll on Round 2 Living Springs!!!

Hanmer Hammerhead

After the last few races being quite relaxed at the start I decided it was time to push the pace right from the start and see who had the legs to hold on. So race start was fast and frantic and I sat in behind Anton for a few metres then nailed it to lead onto the single track shoot. Straight away I cranked it into top gear and Anton and I already had a good gap once back onto the open gravel road!

The race was three laps, 10km each lap with 350m climbing gain. After a super quick first lap we had a substantial lead over the others and I lead us into the pit area/feed zone. Toward the end of the second lap Anton made a strong attack up a climb and despite seeing it coming my legs just weren't quite there to respond!
Although Anton slipped slowly away I consolidated my position to come in a strong second overall. I was pretty pleased how I handled this one with nearly 5 minutes back to 3rd place.

My Trek 29er was running mint, smooth as anything along the Hanmer trails and ideally suited to these tracks. After last weekend I would be fair to say my setup was a bit more suited to this race than last weekend!
My Geax Barro Race tyres were excellent even though there were some damp/wet parts of the tracks to contend with. They really are a super fast, fantastic free rolling XC race tyre!

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.

Spring Crusher

The Spring Crusher MTB race was certainly a good race to have a crack at. With 36km across all of the Hanmer tracks and trails along with 1000m of vertical climbing gains it made for a solid on the body. From the start I was where I needed to be and not long after the first hill the race split up with three of us leading the charge. Conditions were wet and as we came onto the first long single trail downhill my tyre choice wasn't on the money. I struggled to ride smoothly and cleanly slowly slipping away from the other two. Not that this mattered too much as I could still see them up the next few climbs that made there way throughout the forest roads. Each corner I knew I was gaining easily back onto them and thought this was great as I didn't have to put myself in the 'box' to get back on. But when I was about 20metres behind the inevitable happened. The course came around a corner and levelled out, I managed to follow some old course markers which made there way down the hill and up the valley, completely off track! Once I realised this I knew any chance of winning was well in truly over as I had already lost roughly 10 minutes so I followed my tracks back and found where I was supposed to go! I was pretty disappointed but it was still a good training ride around the Hanmer trail network!

Lees Valley 80km Race

The Lees Valley Mountain Bike Challenge was a first for me. It consisted of 80km of fantastic open gravel roads amongst some spectacular scenery. The course stretched right into the middle of the valley and climbed back out to reach the finish line with a few farm animals to ride around which made for a couple of close calls at times!
Right from when we hit the first hill the legs felt fantastic and a game plan was being put into place. There were a few of us at the front of the race until Brent Miller came off around a corner. I waited for around 30 seconds in anticipation to have someone to work with over the approx 25km of flat and undulating middle section of the race. I looked back and saw nothing so I decided it was time to go and see what I had in the tank.
I dropped Craig up a short climb as I put the pressure on and now it was "go" time. I came down not shortly after to cross the river and saw I already had a big gap after stepping the pace up the previous short climb. It was now time to go solo and get stuck in, head down until I reached the final 20km of hilly terrain to reach the finish. I had a strong ride and once I hit the hills again no one was insight but I kept pushing hard and came across the line with the new course record of 2 hours 47 minutes. (exact time to be confirmed) I was very pleased, to say the least, with my ride!
Thanks to Cycleways, event organisers, marshalls and event sponsors.

Mcleans Island 12 Hour

This year we had another strong Cycleways Team competing in the 2011 Mcleans Island Mountain Bike 12 Hour race consisting of Phil Patterson, Nick Clark, Dave Ives, Mark Richards and myself.
Phil was the man to get the race rolling for us and with a Le Mans start to the race that meant for a short run amongst a fair amount of caos as riders ducked and dived for their bikes. Phil came in second after the first lap making up huge ground after he struggled to find his bike in the crowd from the start. With myself heading out second in the team I pulled some good time into the leading team only a few seconds behind with a very quick lap and then Nick went and slotted us into the lead. With Dave and Mark holding their own the race, the day went really quickly and the weather could not have been much better!
Once the 6 hour riders were off the track that meant for even quicker lap times and less traffic to deal with. I had an excellent third to last lap which was the fastest lap of the day overall so I was buzzing once back at our team site! I followed that up with No2 fastest lap of the day.
The North Canterbury Cycling Club Junior Team had a strong ride, keeping us on their toes for a while and their fastest rider Anton doing double laps but our team was too strong and consistent and we took the overall win in the end!
Thoughts go out to the few riders and their families who had attained serious injuries including one fatal heart attack.
Big thanks to Rod and Jane from Bluedog Events for another very well run proffessional events and to Matt Bailey and the Team for all the support, not to mention Mum and Dad for all the usual bits and pieces that go about in these events!