WORLD CHAMPS!! and general update

Have just found out last week that I will finally be able to compete and represent New Zealand at the UCI Mountain Bike World Champs in Champery for U23 men this year which is a big thing for me because I have been trying to get to this event for the past three years!! So am very stoked at the moment.
Now all I have to do is not waste this opportunity and perform on the day ha ha..
It is now time to nail down some hard training over the next couple of weeks leading up to the world cup in Czech and get the speed up through to world champs.


Other stuff

For the past to weeks I have been staying in Antibes on the coast of France with my girlfriend's uncle, Paul. Its a very good place to be based with the beach being a 5min walk away, the mountain bike/walking tracks being 20min bike away, and some huge mountains going straight up to 1200m being 50min bike away (the Alps).  I also have a double bed and bathroom to myself. This place is perfect!! I have met some really cool people that all snowboard which is awesome and have let me stay at their houses up in the Maritime Alps (just out of Antibes). Last week I went camping at Valberg.  Pitched my tent out in the whops somewhere and was woken up by some growling at around midnight, scary stuff!! I then went to St Auban to celebrate Bastille Day with a bunch of these cool people I mentioned earlier at Jayne's house (Paul's friend). There were some good fireworks and a live band after, wearing some funky clothes.

So far so good.

Cheers!

better late than never

Racing update (done on a phone)

Chur

After the race we headed to Basel to stay with Pascal and his parents Dieter and Beatris. I had an awesome time at their place and probably ate half their pantry as well.. Sorry about that. They also took us to the Swiss Circus which was amazing! I was sad to leave but the race in Chur was coming up fast. We stayed in Flims which is just up a bit from Chur. There is some really nice riding in Flims and I'd recommend it to any mtb enthusiast! We started riding the course a couple of days out from the race, it was a good hard course with a lot of climbing. A lot of fast downhills. The race day was hotter than any other day we had been there and we were down for 9 laps. I was seeded far back as usual (48th) and held that position for the first lap but started fading back into the 50s. On around the 3rd lap I found a rhythm but I was already way too far back in the field. I started catching places each lap and was feeling good! Until Nino came past and I had been lapped. I finished 8 laps in 32nd and was happy that the legs were working but I need to do a lot of work on holding that intense pace for the 1st 3 laps or so!

at the circus

Beiley the dog

Double rainbow!!

awesome track in flims

Val d'I sere

We arrived in Tignes at 2000m altitude to our hotel which was mint.

There is still a lot of snow up in Tignes and you can summer ski here! Which was tempting but I'm here for racing. Training up this high was a bit hard on the lungs and you would get slight headaches from time to time. Anyway the course in Val d'I sere had just been constructed. It was quite bumpy in places and had some challenging parts on the course which made for an overall good mtb race course.

Race day was hot like usual and there were a lot more starters in the race than I would have thought (106). I was seeded on the 3rd row and I wanted a good fast start this race. The whistle blew and I took off as quick as my legs would take me, this lasted about 2 mins until the 1st climb and I started going back through the field. I could not maintain the speed I'd hoped to. It took until the end of the 2nd lap to get my rhythm back and I worked my way up the field into the top 40 by the last lap. Coming up to the sprint for the finish my chain dropped off and I lost 3 places which was annoying. I finished the race in 40th overall and 14th U23. I now have a month until the World Cup in Czech and need to do a lot of work on my race start and being able to push above and over my limit in races. Until then Au revoir.  I think that's how its spelt.

the fox

the view

(wonderful isn't it)

Cheers

Racer bike cup Engelburg

Engelburg

Liars

After the race in Granichen we made our way to Engelburg where it is winter in summer, it was freezing! And we only had two days of sun in a whole week. Apart from that the place where we were staying (on the side of a valley) had amazing views of the mountain peaks.. and the snow haha, the temparture felt colder than at home. Leading up to the race was not so good for me.  I was barely getting enough sleep at night, the night before the race I got to sleep at around 1am and I could tell this race was not going to be fun. On race day the sun had finally decided to show itself which was very bad for unprepared me. After the puncture last week I had ordered some new tyres but the wrong ones arrived and I thought as it was very wet I would wait for the right ones (for dry conditions) and use my  Medusa mud tyres, but somehow the course had completeley dried out by our race time at 3 in the afternoon. When the race started the pace was easy but I was still struggling out the backdoor up the first climb which was gutting!
I was just thinking I came over here to race and not give up,  but the leaders still caught up and lapped me on the 6th lap (out of ten) I sat on their wheel up the climb and puttered out by the top, the next rider to come past was Jose Antonio (current world champ) so I decided it would be cool to race him so I did and for the last three laps I pushed my way up the field a bit and it was cool riding with Jose.

In the end I finished 24th which was not what I was after, especially being lapped out!

We have now left cold Engelburg to go to the summer in Basel which is soo nice, Pascal Shmutz and his family have taken Carl, Katie and I in for the week which is awesome, the people here are so friendly and helpful!

It only looked like this twice

This was what it mostly looked like.

Have got some new shoes and new tyres now! So the next race in Chur (pronounced sure, choir and hore haha),  which isn't for two weeks, will be better, so will probably update the blog sometime next week as well.

Laters

Disaster Strikes!!

Granichen Racer Bike Cup

The event village

This week leading up to the Racer Bike Cup, Carl, Katie and I left our nice "all you can eat buffet house" in Germany and moved onto the next best thing in Zurich, Switzerland. It turns out Karle and Annemarie's daughter Katrin and her partner Clemins are just as nice. We have been staying in their flat since Wednesday after Katrin and Clemins went to the Black Forest (Germany) to stay with Karle and Annemarie'. We pretty much just did the switch with them.

Anyway the lead up to the race was really good, and we had a lot of time to play on the course and get to know it. The first couple of rides on the course were pretty wet and slippery making it really technical but after a couple of days it dried up and was dusty by race day.

The race pack. I gobbled this up after the race:

8 packs chewing gum,4 packs chocolate, a pie, some cereal, a muesli bar, 3 tubes toothpaste, 2 bottles mouth wash, sunblock, key chain, bottle and a seat cover!

.
Race

I kind of liked being seeded in 45th (last) as it put no pressure on me at all. All I could do was improve and improve I did... The gun went and the pace was moderate but people were still managing to crash and lose control, about 300m into the race a rider behind me barged into my shoe destroying the buckle completely (epic), I managed to stay on my bike and keep with the pack until my chain dropped at the first descent and sucked into the chain rings. While I was untangling it I moved back into last haha.

Like new

I spent the first two laps in 38th then stopped at the tech zone where Katie and Bek had prepared some tape all ready for the mint shoe repair. I rode the next 5 laps really strongly and had moved into 23rd place by the 8th lap. But a puncture in the 8th lap saw me lapped out and finishing in 32nd which I am kind of happy with but would have loved to see how the race went with no problems! Oh well gotta go shopping tomorrow to replace some things. Big thanks to Katie for feeding me, and giving me her wheel so I could finish the race!

Oh and one more thing haha somebody stole my gloves too! I wish insurance would cover all of this..

Looking forward to having a faster race next weekend in Engelburg at the next Racer Bike Cup!

Matching bug

Thats all for now

Cheers

Sam

World Cup Round 3 Offenburg

Hi all

This race was for a bit of fun and getting to know what racing is like over here.. I arrived in Zurich, Switzerland on Thursday afternoon and did a bit of sightseeing whilst waiting for Carl and Katie to fly in at 8.30 that night. Managed to learn how to buy train tickets from the machines and managed to catch the wrong train towards Geneva haha. Anyway when they arrived we put the bike rack on the rental car, packed the car, and headed to Schaffhausen where we spent the night in a Castle Youth Hostel.

 The next day (Friday) we headed into Offenburg, Germany and I registered for my race and found out I was racing the next day. It had rained that day and there was still the odd shower when we got to the course, riding the course was really fun! It was a good course with a good variety of technical areas and no rocks. There were a bit of roots that made it a bit slippery in the wet. That night I raced the Terminator short track race and finnished in the 50s and was definitely feeling the jet lag, when I finished I couldn't even think straight! After that we went back to Karl and Annemarie's.

 A very nice German couple who are feeding me too much and letting me stay with them, so awesome!

 Saturday was a good hot day and the day of the race. I didn't have any nerves and was quite relaxed but knew this would not be the best of races as I had just gotten off a 30hr flight.. The start of the race was soo much faster than i thought it would be it was intense and the course had completely dried out and was dusty now, I managed to stay mid field for the start loop and a bit of the first lap but faded fast as I could not handle the quick pace. The first three laps I was going backwards in the race, until a couple of leppin squeezies later I began to pass people again and pulled back to 82nd, 10min 34secs behind the leader. It was a very good experience for me and will help a lot in my race next weekend I hope to be at least 4 mins quicker in the next race but we will see how things go. Thanks Carl Jones for feeding me!

Playing around after the race.

Watched Karen race today she had a good race! except for a few crashes but she still finished 36th which was really impressive. Watching the pro men was ridiculous they are so quick and would have lapped me easy if I was in their race haha.

Thats all for now
Will post another blog next week

Laters

Nduro/Napier Cup/McDonald's

Hi all

Have been busy over the past 3 weeks with the 2nd round of the national series, new sponsors, and the 2nd Nduro summer series race.
Napier did not go too well for me finishing in 10th in a UCI race. The course was hard on the body with a lot of dust and the sun was pelting down sapping energy. But there was a bit of prize money which was pretty sweet! and I had a fun time racing on the fast Napier track as well.
Just last week McDonald's decided to help me out in getting over to Europe which is awesome of them and I am very thankful to Rob and Linley who own the Rotorua McDonalds. Cheers! I also have started working for McDonald's as well and they are being very supportive in making work flexible around training.
Last but not least the second round of the Nduro Summer Cup was yesterday and HOT. I didn't take much fluid which probably wasn't a smart idea. But apart from that the race was really fun It was a good hard course which put my legs to the test and made for some good racing.
I started in the middle of the bunch and worked my way up the field as the race went on, towards the end I was battling it out for second and third but my legs could not handle the last burst and I settled for third.

The Nduros are always a good fun race with a sweet course so cheers to the organisers for making it an awesome day.

3D OFF-ROAD WINTER MULTISPORT FESTIVAL ROTORUA

I'd just like to give Neil Gellatly a big thanks for lending me his Giant TCR 0 for 3 months after I wrote my road bike off in  race. Neil also happens to be the Director and Event organiser of a new multisport festival coming to Rotorua on the 5th of June (Queens Birthday long weekend). There are six different events to choose from, 69 categories, and $10,000 of prize money for the top competitors. This is going to be one of Rotorua's biggest multisport festivals, find out more at http://www.3drotorua.co.nz/ .  Neil is also a multisport coach and has twelve years multisport experience under his belt. He does:
-Multisport Consultancy
-Training Programmes
-Technique Coaching
-Race Nutrition Plans
-Event Organisation
-and Skills Training

So if any of these are interesting to you contact Neil  via email neil@multisportcoach.co.nz
                                                                                     Tel 0064 7 349 6554
                                                                                 0r Mob 0064 27 648 7546

National Series Round One Win and general update

OK, I have not updated my blog for a while but first of all, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

So here is what I have been doing since the Huka Challenge.

The  week following the Challenge was the Rotorua round of the Mid-North Island Cup. It was a good hard course and there was strong competition. I went fast up the first steep climb and was sitting in a good position but my chain kept on popping off so I just had fun sitting in fourth until the end of the race.

Three days after the Rotorua race I went to Brisbane with my girlfriend to stay with her father (he's the man, paid for my tickets). Most of my training there was on the road, and through way too many traffic lights.

When I got back to NZ I picked up a cold straight away which then developed into a chest infection over Christmas which sucked but didn't stop me having an awsome time with the cousins making bike tracks.

After Christmas it was straight back into training coming up to the first round of the national series, but the chest infection was hanging on. I was not expecting a good result..

National Series Round One Tauranga 9/1/11

For this race I wanted to maintain a solid pace throughout and not wither away towards the end. From the gun the pace was hot, everybody wanted a good posistion before the first single track, which was a steep climb to the top. I entered the single track in 7th or 8th and worked my way into the top four by the end of the first lap. From there I took over second posistion and held it to the last lap. I passed the Leader on the final lap and took out first place in my first ever Elite Mens race, which was very sweet.

I really enjoyed the course and want to give a big thanks to Ash and Chris for making such an awsome course; also big thanks to anybody that helped them. My Scott Scale 10 felt amazing on this course, making the uphills and the downhills feel like a breeze (unill the last lap .. cramp ahh). Couldn't have askd for anything better than Leppin for a tough race like that, and it kept me going hard and fast