2W Gravity Enduro

On Saturday (5th Oct) I raced in the second ever 2W gravity enduro held in Rotorua's Red Wood forest. Although it is the end of winter, the tracks were dry and dusty and the day was warm with blue sky and no sign of rain! We had 5 stages to complete inside 5hours including riding to and from the start/finish, which was a short ride from the forest. I rode most of the day by myself catching up with different groups of mates in between stages. We could either catch the shuttle bus up to the start of each run or ride, I decided to ride up to my first run and managed to beat the bus up the hill to be the first on that track (C gunna gota-Paddys run). After a clean run (although I felt like I could have gone a bit faster) I moved on to the far side of the park and caught the bus up to do the long run, (A Billy T- roller coaster) As it was a small climb to the start of the run I was first from our bus to the start. I cranked into it and felt like I had some good flow, then my chain some how dropped off and jammed in my chain guide.... Once I had it out I decided to cruse the run and use it as a "look lap" lucky as the same thing with my chain happened a few more times......... I thought I had fixed it at the end of the run so I jumped back on the bus and decided to do the (B jumps track) run as it was shorter and I wouldnt loose as much time if the same thing happened again, Feeling good on this run and hitting the jumps and burms well I made it about 3/4 of the way down the track before the chain jumped off again! I was far enough down the track that I knew I could coast and only loose a couple seconds. This time I spent a few dollars and had Ed (the event mechanic) to have a look, we adjusted the gap on the inside between the chain ring and the chain guide. As we put the back wheel back in we noticed the clutch in my rear derailer was not working properly and allowing the chain to jump around more than usual, I went up and had another go at (A) this time making it down although the chain still wasnt 100% so back to Ed and he was able to adjust the tension on the clutch which fixed the problems. With coffee in me and my bike sorted I was off back to the other runs that I hadnt yet done, as I cut my way through the forest I decided to ride up to the top of the next run (as the way I was going bought me out 1/3 of the way up anyway). Next up was run (D Corridor) I managed to take off just before another rush of riders after they caught the shuttle up, An "ok" run with a few small mistakes but nothing too major until I plugged my transponder into the timing box at the end of the run and it snapped off..... I had to smack the bottom of the timing box to get my chip back out and put it in my pocket from there on. I rode back to the top of the hill again as I knew it would be quicker than going back to the shuttle pickup, Run (E) was down Tukairangi and up the road onto Challenge track. I managed to get the transponder to work without dropping it in the timing box but still had to make sure I put it in my pocket safely before taking off, another "ok" run but trying to find the timing chip in my pocket (with full finger gloves on) and then put it in the timing box wasnt the easiest. I decided I had enough time to do one more run before heading back to the finish, after waiting in line for a few minutes I decided to ride up one more time!??! 4 times in one day up the same gravel road almost reminded me of doing reps for xc training although this time I was on a trail bike..... Once at the top I decided to do my first run of the day and see if I could improve that time, I was getting a tad tired by this stage though and crashed part way down then "blew" shortly after that, so just rolled out to the bottom and made my way back to the finish for a beer and some pizza!
Although I did 7 runs only the best 5 counted so I finished up 14th over all with 2 older hammers being ahead of me meaning I was 12th in my age group. A good fun day with about 34min of timed (and counted) racing and about 4hr 45min all up. Rumor has it that the race in Feb with be on tracks that are a lot more challenging so I cant wait for that!