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

Lycra vs Baggies

It has been an epic couple of days with the Cross Country National Champs on Saturday followed by the 2W gravity enduro on Sunday,  all held in Rotorua as part of the first Rotorua bike festival, so cheers to the Rotorua MTB club/Cycling club and all the people who put in the hard work to make all the events happen.

Starting with the Lycra on Saturday at the Cross cCountry National Championships

I was seeded on the last row for the start of the race and used the first climb to work my way through the pack into about 6th place by the end of the 1st climb which was bad as I lost time on Dirk and Anton who quickly made a gap, coming out back onto a road section I put in an effort and caught up to Carl who was in 3rd and sat with him until the next road section, then I put another effort in and by then was getting closer to Dirk and Anton. Unfortunately I lost focus coming out of some single track onto gravel road and skidded out. From there I sat in 3rd or fourth place with Carl Jones until the 4th lap when he put in some power and boosted. For the last 3 laps I was doing my best to keep 4th and succeeded finishing up in 4th overall and 3rd in U23. I am really happy to finish a national champs without any mechanicals and to come home with a medal. Things will only get better from now on so will start preparing for the Oceania MTB champs coming up
in 7 weeks.

Cheers to all the supporters out there, it was awesome having such big crowds, Aroha and Dad for feeding me and Mum for cheering so loud.

Baggies on Sunday in the 2W gravity Enduro

Enduro racing is starting to take off in New Zealand and has already interested a lot of people because the events always attract a good bunch of people and its nearly impossible to have a bad day (even if you don't stay on your bike), the 2W was no exception. Fortunately I knew all the tracks pretty well in this event so I had just been focusing on my cross country stuff leading up to this event. Also we could retry or redo a run if we were not satisfied with the first run which I took advantage of on Hotcross Buns as I caught up to another rider quickly, jammed on the brakes and was rolling around in the dust before you could say banana thick shake  It was a great way to spend my Sunday and will definitely be back again next year if I can help it. Finishing up with the overall win and winning each stage was a bonus.

And the giant pay check woohoo. Couldn't have finished this weekend in style without my sponsors support so big thanks to  Southstar Shuttles Rotorua, Yeti NZ, Blackseal Imports, Roam Industries, Mulebar, Adidas Eyewear, Endura, Outdoorsman Rotorua, and Wildland Consultants

National xc mtb series round 3, Auckland, Hunua

It was another cloudless hot day for round 3 of the national series, we had a good start loop that went twice around a grass field and the course was mostly flat undulating tight single track with some fast climbs on grass fields which made for a hard fun course.

I had a good start avoiding a small crash and riding into the single track in 3rd. Coming out of the single track Dirk laid the power down and passed Anton, I just sat on for the ride behind the two (no way near as easy as I just made that sound haha) and made it about 3 quarters around the 1st lap and crashed losing sight of the lead and taking a while to pick everything up and start again, by then I was in 5th and still feeling strong I moved back into 3rd place by the 3rd lap then crashed again going back to 5th again. The pain was a bit more serious this time and pulling out felt like an option but I hate doing that so I chugged down a Mule Bar Cafe Cortado shot which happens to be loaded with caffeine which helps the brain forget about pain. By the last lap I was back in 3rd with Mikey Northcott sitting on, he passed me on before the last part of single track and got a small gap which I closed in the last 200m and we had a sprint battle to the finish, Mikey beat me by a couple of centimeters and we both had a sleep on the line, which in my opinion is a good way to finish a race. Finishing in 4th, pretty happy with how the legs were but the brain wasn't operating to well.

Cheers to Aroha for feeding me and the Auckland mtb club for putting on a great race with a good atmosphere and all my sponsors Yeti NZ, Blackseal Imports, Mulebar, Adidas Eyewear, Endura, Roam Industries, Southstar Shuttles Rotorua, and Wildland Consultants.

Peace out

NZ xc mtb cup round 2, Wellington

The 2nd round of the cross country mtb series was held in Wellington this year hosted by the PNP MTB club, and they did an awesome job making both a technically demanding and steep climbing course which made for some fun racing and good spectating.

On race day it was hot like every other day since ages ago, and the course was dry and dusty. We started with a road climb which was good to get in the right spot before the single track, unfortunately I tried changing gears at a bad time and dropped the chain off the chain ring. After getting everything sorted the front pack was 80m (or so) ahead, so after a bit of an effort I nearly caught up before the top of the climb and was in about 6th. From there on I played catch up to the front guys who had snuck away at the start and managed to reel them all in apart from one charging Dirk Peters who took a convincing win 2min 36secs ahead of me. I am extremely happy with second and am looking forward to the next couple of months of racing on the Yetis.

Big thank you to Aroha for feeding me, all the marshalls and spectators for keeping things lively, PNP club for hosting and preparing the event, and my sponsors Yeti NZ, Black Seal Imports, Roam Industries, Adidas Eyewear, Mule Bar, Endura, South Star Shuttles Rotorua, Outdoorsman Headquarters, and Wildland Consultants.

Apart from racing it was great being in Wellington for the Sevens. We had to dress up to feel normal walking through the streets.

Peace out

Hub tour

Lately there has not been any mountain bike racing lately up here in the North Island so I turned to the road for a good warm up as I get closer to starting out on the NZ national season in February. The Hub Tour in Hawkes Bay just so happened to be on at the right time and have a good set of stages with a 6km time trial on Friday (prologue), 95km road race on Saturday morning, 50min crit on Saturday afternoon, and 95km road race on Sunday making for a good burn out.

The time trial went pretty well for my first solo effort finnishing in 26th, there wasnt anything too interesting about this stage, it was a straight flat road with two corners and was over for me in 7min 21 secs (apparently.. I think it was actually 8min 21 secs).

The next day we raced the first stage which was a good course with rolling hills and no flat spots apart from the finish straight and three laps to complete, for the first lap I was just trying to hold on and was struggling a bit with the temperature (it was hot),  and pace, then found my legs in the second lap, then at the start of the 3rd lap I took a Mule Bar Cafe Cortado caffeine shot and notied it starting to kick in really well about 5min later. Unfortunately I had taken it a bit late and missed out on the break away earlier. Towards the end of the race I tried to assist in breakaways but we never got very far so had wait until the finish straight and came 3rd in the bunch sprint but 7th overall.

In the afternoon we had the 50min crit which was tough in the legs, I nearly got dropped a couple of times but managed to hold on and miss a pretty big crash, finishing in the bunch sprint 5secs down.
We had the last stage on Sunday morning which was another lap race, mostly flat but finished with a good climb and about 10km of undulating hills. for the first two laps there were a couple of attempts for a breakaway but the wind picked up and was coming straight at us on the main straight so all breakaways came back eventually. I tried a small attack on the last climb and was a bit bummed out to see the whole bunch stayed with me haha, then the top riders attacked and I just held on. The pack split and there were about 15 of us sprinting and attacking the last 10kms of the race which shattered me and I fiinshed in 11th and 2secs back. With that I finished in 17th over all the stages and am pretty happy, given my initial goal of a top 20.

The Hub Tour was an awesome introduction for me into road tours and was pretty fun as well. Big thanks to Ben and Steph Mchale for giving me a ride over, letting me stay with them, cooking me dinner, feeding me (Steph), and all the rest haha.

And to my sponsors Yeti, Adidas, Mule Bar, Endura, Outdoorsman, Wildlands, Roam industries.
Cheers

Urge 3 Peaks Enduro/ New Sponsorships

Paddy on the top step showing us how its done

Have not updated the blog for a bit due to sad circumstances with the passing of a good mate/man Paddy Avery, he was an awesome guy and lived life to the fullest. You will never be forgotten and my thoughts are with the Avery family for this unbelievable loss. Rest in peace bro.

Here is a quick catch up before we get into the good stuff, since the last blog I won the lat round of the Mid North Island mtb series and took out the overall win with 3 wins during the series bam!

I have just gotten back from Dunedin where the Urge 3 Peaks Enduro was held over the weekend. This was my first real taste of Enduro racing, and it was good good introduction to it aswell taking 2nd in the open men and 2nd overall to local pinner Tom Lamb, kudos to you. So we set out on race morning and biked 1hr to the race start at the Bull pen from there the race started and we climb up to the first downhill run. This run was alot different than Rotorua (all of them were) with no burms at the top and a couple of small rock sections the headed into trees in the bottom with alot of burm/homey sections, had a good time on the gravel corners trying to drift around each corner as fast as possible and stuffed it up on one leading me off the track and straight on.

The next part of the race started at the top of Cargil hill, this was the best course of the race as it had most objects in the starting with a tricky rock section with a sharp left hand turn then further down the course about 200m of steps which got bigger and more out of control the further you got then further down a muddy rocky section with some slippery plastic drain pipes added in for fun then the rest was fast gravel path mostly.

We had a good group ride to the next stage at the top of Signal hill for the last round of the day, This was the  fastest steepest and rockiest course hands down and had a couple of jumps to spruce it up, I was pretty happy to get second on this one as im sure the locals would ride this a bit (but none of the other course haha).
Thanks to Roam industries I got my mits on a KS Lev dropper post for the race and it worked great with the ability for the post to stop at any height makes it the perfect weapon for this type of racing, and there's no cable movement when the post drops, Also thanks to Mule bar I could keep my hunger at bay with some tastey healthy Apple strudel musli bars and Chocolate date recovery bars bars, Yum!

Had a great time down in Duna's meeting a whole bunch of couple people, big thanks to Tom Bradshaw for letting me crash at his whare and my sponsors Yeti NZ, Mule Bar, Roam Industries NZ, Blackseal, Southstar Shuttles Rotorua, Outdoorsman headquarters Rotorua, and Wildlands consultants

New sponsors coming on board

-Roam industries nz (who import/sell Roam bike racks and KS seat posts) have helped me out big time, if your keen on checking out what they have to offer you will find them here  http://roamindustries.co.nz/page/home

-Also Mule bar have come on board big time as well and are also supplying me with Endura kit. So far I have tried their Apple Strudel muesli bars and Chocolate date recovery bars which are both filled with goodness and no artificial preservatives, even the packets decompose's quickly. Their products are definitely worth trying out here is their website http://www.mulebar.com/ and I'm sure they will be coming to a cycle store near you.

-Southstar Shuttles in Rotorua are also helping me out which is so awesome, its always good times hitting up the shuttle and catching up with people for group rides down some of the worlds best single track, cant get enough of it, http://www.southstaradventures.com/

Im pretty stoked having all this support at the moment, thank you for all the help

Peace out.