Le Race

After the NZ MTB series and Oceanias I had some time off the bike. Le Race was coming up and with Kristie working at the finish in Akaroa for Coffee Culture, I thought why not ride over!

I entered to race the 100km in the MTB catergory for some fun! My goal was to see how close I could get to my road bike time of 2hours 54mins (crap weather)...

After picking up the race pack Friday the fun began! The number went on the handlebars like a true XC racer, an 11-27 cassette went on and the knobblys went to 40psi.... Turning up on the start line got some funny looks and some good response, it also got the attention of some uptight roadies who thought when I rolled up into the sub 3hr start grid I was taking the piss....(for the record, I never saw them or there 15k+ bikes until the end)

I started next to Justin Sims (also riding in the MTB catergory) and I just followed him up the first climb, across the top we had a good little bunch of maybe 10 riders, I attacked to get to the decent down the bastard first, but got my hill wrong! I ended up being 4th into the descent. Passing the two roadies, it was Justin and me setting the pace...... he started to freewheel away from me. This is when I knew I was going to suffer, his 35c slicks at 90psi rolled a lot better than my 2.25 knobblys at 40....

We regrouped and set about knocking out the flat section of the race to Little River.... although my biggest gear was only a 38/11, I was comfortable with the 42-50kmph we where doing legspeed wise, but the big tires did their damage, I red lined with an average HR 10 beats higher than my threshold to Little River...

The bunch rolled away from me including Justin and 1st place... I recovered up the Hill Top climb and set a sustainable pace across the tops to the finish. The day was awesome weather wise, and the views were stunning. I fininished 8mins back from Justin with a time of 3hours 8mins.

Super happy with that time! It was a long, long ride after the short sharp XC rounds I had been doing, and the hills were a lot longer, so with no real long rides under my belt, I did what I set out to do... skids, wheelies and finished with a massive grin!

Time to get out and enjoy the riding with ligths and bitterly cold nights!

Oceanias (Rotorua)

After the final cup round in Napier, the last event on the calender was the biggest on my list... the 2012 Oceanias being held in Rotorua.  We roll up to the carpark where the start is and get ready to check out the track and the much talked about rock garden. All week I had been telling myself and others, I will just roll around the track until I get to the garden and just hit (I had seen enough photos and videos to know my line).

As we cruise up the road I was shocked to see the rock garden on my right! (It was the end of the loop but you had to go past it before looping back to it). David, Cam and Simon from Timaru where standing checking it out, apparently they had been there for 15mins. I checked it out for a mear 15 secs told them to move and hit it! I shat myself but made it... and got faster down it.

Checking out the rest of the course, I was pretty happy with it, fast and punchy.

Race day came round and our start time was shifted back an hour to 3pm. After what seemed like a long wait until the start, it was all go!  I had a good start and made the singletrack in around 7th spot. I pushed hard but the legs didn't responed as well as I wanted them too. By lap 3 I knew it was game over, the legs and mind just didnt want to race. As I look back and reflect I feel I was over the season. It had been a rough one, with no consistancey, a bike that wasn't mine, not meeting some of my goals and a cold coming on. I wasn't ever going to have a good race, I should have just enjoyed my time riding in Rotorua with friends. I managed to gain 11th spot, but got lapped out. The Aussies were fast, and claimed the top 4 spots with Carl Jones taking 5th.

The experience was good, and once again I learnt a lot. Time to chill out and have some downtime.... Something I never had last year......

See you on the trails with some Fat Tires on!