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!

2012 National Championships

The 2012 New Zealand National Championships were held in Nelson this year and another fast and exciting course was put on for all riders young and old.

After my performance last weekend only 7 seconds behind the winner I was very keen to see what I could lay down on the table and get a result of which I knew I was capable of.

During the practise laps the course was rather skittery which made for one or two loose exits out of some tight corners. I opted to run my Geax Barro Race tyres which turned out to hold on nicely in those sketchy corners and were super fast up the climbs.

Race day came around and I felt a bit funny before the start of the race (must have been the nerves!). The first part of the race wasn't the best for me as during the start climb up to the single track I was feeling a bit flat until the steep top section of gravel road. From here I managed to overcome that feeling and smacked it to get back onto the back of the front riders. After the first downhill I then pulled myself back behind Carl with Dirk and Mikey leading the charge. Unfortunately after the rest of the lap Dirk and Mike had pulled away as Carl had slipped behind and I was stuck behind him.

Finally when I got into clear terrain I got into a rhythm and started my hunt to catch Mikey up. Dirk had managed to create a gap and while I got close to Mikey I just couldn't quite get right back onto him and finished the race in 3rd position in the Elite category (2nd Under 23).

Overall certainly not the best race for a couple of reasons but still fairly happy to be 3rd in the Elite field as a second year Under 23 rider, plenty of room to improve!

Bring on Oceanias come March!

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!