New Zealand MTB Marathon Champs/ Highlander

After a two year break the New Zealand MTB marathon champs made a comeback joining into the Highlander which has also been missing off the bike calendar for a few years, it had rained over night and the tracks were in mint condition.

We had a casual start with everybody bunching up and no attacks happening so I jumped into the lead after the first single track section, we then headed straight into the first hikeabike section and I opened a small gap surprisingly. After that I knew there was a good chance of winning so I settled into a comfortable pace with 3 riders on my tail. By the first climb up Direct I had a gap again but kept the pace at comfortable and after a while Carl Jones caught back up just as we headed out around the Green Lake on the forestry roads. After this section there was only one last major climb so I used that to make my final breakaway, I attacked up the hill and lost Carl, quickly opening up a good gap and used the remaining 20km of single track to extend the gap and take out the New Zealand MTB Marathon Champs title - woohoo. This was a big relief as I really wanted to back up my Huka Challenge win with this race, so am happy everything went to plan.

Big thanks to my sponsors Yeti NZ, Mulebar, Roam Industries, Southstar Shuttles, Endura, Adidas Eyewear, Wildland Consultants, Outdoorsman Rotorua, and Aroha for feeding me.

Peace out

Karapoti Classic 2013

This year must have been one of the driest years for the Karapoti, the river was low and the roads dusty, I planned to have fun with this race and if the chance came aim for the top step.
But that didn't quite happen,  the main pack split up quickly at the start and there were just 4 of us breaking off the front, it stayed like this until the first climb when Edward Crossling got a bit of a gap and Dirk chased  followed by Brendon Sharret leaving me Struggling on the loose gravel. After finding some good pace I started catching back time on the front guys moving into 3rd before the "Rock Garden" and having a lot of fun down there on the slippery rock. By the last climb I had moved into 2nd and was feeling good but had lost too much time to catch up to 1st by the end of the race finishing in 2nd, 3 min down from Dirk.

It was a good day out with some great weather and I can see why people always go back to the Karapoti, it is very demanding on both climbing and descending making for a good challenge.

                                        Managed to get back home in time to enjoy the weather