UCI World Cup Mont Sainte Anne

We arrived at the Mont Sainte Anne a week out from the race with good preparation time on one of the most demanding XCO courses on the World Cup circuit.  Two years ago I raced here in the World Champs as an Under 19 so I was looking forward to getting back on the technical and intense race circuit Mont Sainte Anne has to offer.
Lap after lap the course climbed steeply up the first climb which then came down the famous Rock Garden Mont Sainte Anne is well known for.  It then climbed back up steeply up into a switch back section and then through a tight and gnarly trail and onto the fast downhill and past the feedzone.  From here the second half of the lap saw a fast trail blaze around a loop that criss crossed a couple of times to follow back through the joint feedzone and to the start/finish.
Race day came around and I was feeling ready to get to that start line and get stuck into my first World Cup event this year.  The race start was intense!  I had not put myself into the best start position off the line and was stuck right in the middle unable to move out and put the hammer down.  I quickly knew that I had stuffed up and as soon as we hit the top of the hill into the trees it was just chaos, people walking with others trying to ride around them over slippery rocks and roots made for a hell of a fun first lap, not!
I knew I had lost minutes once I came through onto lap two but now it was time to forget that and concentrate on improving my position as much as I could by the end of the race.
I was climbing well and attacked everyone that came in my path which I was happy with.  While I didn't get the result I wanted to achieve and finishing 34th in the U23 event  it was still a good hit out and im looking forward to improving my placing big time this weekend in Windham, U.S.A!  
I have just come back from my first look this year at the track and am feeling really positive about it so things are looking good for this weekend before my flight home back to NZ.  This trip has gone fast!

Rider update

After the Raid race on Saturday a few of us packed up our friends van and headed across the U.S Border to ride some of the Kingdom trails network.  These tracks were said to be some of best America has to offer so were very keen to get amongst this iconic mountain biking park!
The network is very similar to New Zealands Rotorua version with a 100km of track (not that we rode it all!) so while the body was still a bit tired from the day before the eyes lit up once we started to really get into the heart of the forest.  Huge big sweepers flowing up and down through the sides of the valley floors sure brought a smile to the dial!
The best thing was that it was all single track and all the work up sure got rewarded with the down, good for the technical speed work negotiating the trails with all the roots and it made for a neat 2 and half hour ride.  A full suspension 29er would be the ideal bike for this sort of work!
Tuesday also saw Mat and I off on another trip roughly an hour out of Sherbrooke to East Hereford very close to the border.  

We parked up behind the local villages church and headed off down the road to start climbing our way up into the forest and the first 4wd track.  The sharp smell of the pine trees was superb!  This followed onto a single track climb that we knew we would be finishing our ride on so we quickly thought this was going to be a very fast and fun finisher to our ride after we had completed our loop.
As we rode deeper into the forest it became more rooty with a few natural rock gardens scattered here and there which made for some good fun.  After a short open climb to reach our half way we re-entered the forest and it was all undulating but mostly downhill to the end.   We had a blast as the tracks became even faster especially that final section!  Neat big bermed corners and fast flowing singletrack took us back onto the road where Mat had managed to get a puncture just coming off the hill!  Never mind, I went and got the car, picked him up and we were on our way, another excellent trail ride!
Last Wednesday I have raced in a local club event just around the corner from our accommodation in our training forest.  The course was a short 5 lap trace but highly intensive and was tight and technical with many trees roots.  Even better it had been wet also (but we had been training here so we were familiar with this riding style) so I had to be on my game with the 7pm start.  I raced again last night against some keen club riders and had a very solid training with that added bonus of coming across the line first!
This weekend we have been pushing to see if we can race in the Canadian National Championships so fingers crossed they let us race.  It will be our final hit out before the World Cups starting next weekend which I'm looking forward to with much excitement!

Raid De Charleviox

Le Raid De Charleviox is a mountain bike race in Quebec, Canada that consists of a 30, 50 and 75km race option.  Mat Waghorn and I opted to race in the 50km as this was going to be more of a specific type of race time for us in preparation for our World Cup races coming up in 2 weeks.
Today the sun was out blazing and it was looking like there was going to be some nice dry tracks for us to race on (most of our riding has involved some sort of mud since we have arrived) so I was feeling excited about getting the big wheels turning!
My start was not the greatest though as the course very quickly shot down a rough downhill and I dropped my full bottle out of my cage!  I simply had to turn around to retrieve it as there was no way I was going to use my spare bottle out of my back pocket for a 2 hour plus race!  Nevertheless I pressed on and quickly and sharply rode through the pack back to the front to where Mat and our friend Julien were riding still warming up their legs so that was a bonus!
As soon as I was back up the front Mat and I knew it was go time so off we went riding side by side looking very sharp as a Team Kiwi like riding style!
Just after I said to Mat about keeping clean this race we turned the corner and were riding amongst swamp land and we sure got MUD!  I just managed to bail out of going full on over the bars at low speed when I was negotiating my way around several mud puddles when I landed my front wheel in a deep rut and was stopped in my tracks!  Anyway that was all part of the fun and after dismounting to tramp through a very impressive bog we were back on dry land and starting our first main climb in the race.
Once we had completed the first half of the race there was a good climb leading up to the highest point in the race with a couple of downs mixed in.  It was some steep and rough climbing and I knew if I kept some good momentum the big wheels would shoot over this terrain nicely.  As we came around and back up a climb at the 27km mark I put some pressure down and noticed Mat was slipping back.  This told me there was an opportunity to do something here so I dropped the hammer and opened up a gap.  After reaching the highest point in the race and enjoying a fast and loose downhill I had the final climb to get up and then ride home to the finish.  With the win in site I was smoking my way along the final part of the course and finished the race in very good time and very pleased with my ride!

Coupe Canada Cup

Last night we arrived home in the early hours after a big day of racing and travelling from the Coupe Canada Cup Round 3 as our first hit out overseas this year.
We arrived two nights out from the race driving through rain and I thought it might be a good case of putting the muds on before I had ridden the track.  I waited until the next day and was suprised when the course was super fast and tacky as it had been quite dry recently and the rain had hardly left a puddle.
I really enjoyed the track.  It was not super hilly but was very fast and still had a couple of neat downhills but was just  a fun track to blast around - perfect for a first hit to blow the cobwebs out and shake off the jetlag!
I started on the front row of the Elite mens race which was a six lap trace.  It was a very cool feeling starting a race like that alongside a few of the pro`s.  My start went well and I just held my own sitting off the line within the top 10. I quickly thought otherwise to running my dry set up (Maxxis Aspens) tyres as soon as I hit the singletrack but that was the setup I had on and so be it (although the Maxxis Beavers were looking quite inviting!)   I managed to hold a very good position for the first and second laps but got passed by a couple of riders throughout the race.
 Each time we completed a lap the course was cutting up more and more but I held it together and kept upright and smooth.  Think the big wheels made life a bit easier on a course like this!
The final laps saw a solid push for the line, the legs had been working hard and I finished in the Elite men in 14th position and 5th Under 23.
Overall pretty pleased with that result for the first race.  This weekend I have the Raid race which should be fun, more of a point to point rather than a circuit but all good training.  The World Cups are  in just under 3 weeks time and are looking very exciting!

International Race Scene Time

Recently I have been in the final planning stages for an international campaign this year.  I am off to Canada!
Like with my European trip last year I will be travelling again with my fellow racing companion Mat Waghorn where we will be competing in four races as follows;

1) Coupe Canada Cup #3
2) Raid De Charleviox
3) UCI World Cup Round 5 (Monte Saint Anne)
4) UCI World Cup Round 6 (Windham, U.S.A)

Also a new person to jump on board  is Marleen Wholesalers supplying me with Maxxis Tyres.  Since I have had the 29er wheels I have tried numerous amounts of different tyres and brands but I have ended up coming back onto the Maxxis brand in particular riding with the Aspen tyres.  With racing on the mountain bike you can't go past good rubber so knowing I have a brand on that I have full faith in just adds another tick in the boxes for having that complete race package!

So quite an exciting time for me at the moment.  The last few weeks have flown by and it's only another few days before I'll be packing the bike up and getting everything ready to jump on the big bird!

Big thanks to Cycleways for sorting my Trek Superfly race bike out to get it in immaculate condition.  Lots of final adjustments to be done so the support I get from Matt and the team is superb!

Keep an eye out on my blog as I will be updating this after each race!

Mt Somers MTB Race 2012

The Mt Somers Mountain Bike Race was one of my first big events that I competed in back in the day.  I missed out on the event in 2011 so this year it was timed nicely after I had been back into training for the last couple of weeks following a break after the Oceania MTB Champs.

The day was a scorcher and after a good warm up I was feeling relaxed and ready to hit the course and see what I could remember from a couple of years ago!

A good roadie start was embraced along the tarmac for a couple of clicks which then headed right and onto the off-road and left up the first major paddock climb.  I sat in for a couple of minutes at the front of the bunch then I flicked it up a gear and made a bit of an attack to see who had the legs to jump on.  Much to my surprise by by the time I reached the top I already had around a 100 metre gap on the others.  I wanted to make the most of this situation I was in so I kept the pressure down to increase my lead throughout the race as we soon entered the hills and rougher terrain.

The middle part of the race went smoothly and I kept a good rhythm going on my Trek 29er as it ate up the gnarly parts of the terrain.

Finally once back onto the gravel road after having made my way through the Challenge course's larger loop the course followed back down the original paddock and tarmac that we had started on back to the venue.  I finished the final few clicks strong tapping out in my 36 tooth front single ring and came across the line with a solid winning time of 1 hour 28 and 52 seconds.

Fantastic day out!!!

2012 Oceania MTB Champs

This was it, all or nothing. The final race of the NZ season ending with the 2012 Oceania Championships held in Rotorua, New Zealand.

I arrived Wednesday afternoon and got straight onto the track and wanted to investigate what all the hype was about with the new rock-garden that had been put in place especially for this event. It certainly got the nerves going a couple of times during practice as it was made on a steep downhill dropping into a neat downward 'S' bend followed by a 2-3metre gap jump. Sure enough after a couple of runs and close calls I had it nailed and was feeling confident at race pace.

The rest of course started off with a fast climb up the tarseal and past the first feed zone then headed up into the trees, up a short climb then a super fun and flowing downhill lead past the second feed zone. It then shot up a techy short gutter climb and looped around the forest undulating until it came back out, down the rock garden and through the start/finish.

On race day we had a 3pm start so I was waiting with anticipation all day to get ready and hit that start line. I had a good warm up and felt I had the course flowing well and the legs felt ready to fire.

Race start went very well, I aimed to sit on Dirks wheel and did so and felt I could have jumped ahead if I wanted too but I thought I'd be best to follow on the first lap. As we entered the single track I got jumped heading into this by Tom although that didn't matter too much. It was near the top of the next climb in the trees where two or three of the Australian riders put out a charge to get ahead. Once past the second feed zone and up the short steep pinch an attack got made and I was stuck behind one of the Australian riders. Meanwhile Dirk and Tom and another Australian or two had followed suit with the front lads and I was stuck behind on the single track. Lap two and I started to get into my work up the climb dropping one of the Australians and moved up a couple of places passing some of the Elite men (who started 2 or 3 minutes ahead of us). I managed to catch back up to another one of the Australian riders after a bit of a smack fest up the hill and got back onto Toms wheel by the time we went through the second feed zone. As we went up the short steep pinch Tom slipped a pedal and I had to dismount. I managed to get past shortly after and started to get into a good rhythm for my race. Lap 3 came around and I cleared out from behind getting away from the Australian I had caught up with Tom and was in a solid 3rd position and could see the 2nd placed Australian at the top of the climb. I kept pressing on and felt I climbed well and the big wheels made the rock garden look easy. In the end I finished in 3rd place in the Under 23 field! Big thanks to my sponsor Matt Bailey and Cycleways and to Mat Waghorn for helping me get around for the time in Rotovagus!