Nelson Nat Champs 2012

Second in the NZ national champs for 2012. I was keen to make up for the past two weeks races but at the same time I was a little nervous to see how the body would hold up for the full race distance at full gas. The track was a big climb up the gravel road then a single track decent, up another gravel pinch climb, with the rest of the track being single track pinch climbs and some fast decents. It was a hot and dusty, fun track to ride but it kept you on your toes all the way, with rocks and tree roots being exposed with every lap. Running my 2.2 GEAX AKA tyres was the best option for this track and the bike was feeling good. During my warm up the legs were feeling slow and didnt want to play the game, this was causing me concern but I blocked it out and focused on keeping the race under control up the first climb. Carl went off like a rocket off the line but I knew it would be hard to keep that pace all the way up, I pushed on and rode up to him half way up and then moved into the lead for the first decent. I opened a small gap before Dirk caught up towards the end of the first lap and moved into the lead, I knew I had to ride my own pace and let Dirk go as I didnt want to go too far in to the red this early in the race and blow later. I had a BIG moment on, (yep you guessed it) lap 3 and almost rag dolled onto rocks! kept it up and kept the hammer down. 6 laps, a couple other silly little moments over shooting corners and getting tangled up with lapped riders and the hurt was over. Second across the line behind Dirk (still u23), 1st senior for me (although he is still U23, mtbnz dont enter a U23 grade when entering the Nats with UCI). All in all a good hard day out and it looks like the form is on its way for late Feb early March!