Oceania Champs

It was behind these two that the race had some chasing excitement - Paul van der Ploeg (Australia), Andrew Blair (Australia) and Adrian Jackson (Australia) provided an effective Australian block on the rest of the field. However, New Zealand's Mike Northcott worked steadily away at the strong Australian presence to finally break free at the end of the fifth lap into third position, which he held to the line.

My best Oceania result so far,

The trip started off not so good with getting off the plane to find out our accomidation had been cancelled and re booked to someone else!. We ended up running into Alex Mcgregor working in the bike shop and he offered for us to stay with his family as every thing else was booked out.

The track was very similar to the one we have raced on in the past, only this time it was dry!!! a good thing as I had on a new set of GEAX AKA 2.0 tyres on and in the dry, those things are FAST!! We took off from the line and I slotted into second spot as we hit the gravel path, I stayed in second until near the top of the first big climb of the lap when a couple more of the Ausi riders jumped past me into the single track. Locky and Dan (the top two ausis) got a gap as I was still trying to recover from the super fast pace up the climb. I spent the next couple laps swaping spots for 4,5, and 6th with a couple other ausi guys before finding my legs again (just as Stu Houltham was about to catch up with us) and I set out on a mission to catch the third place rider. I was decending really fast and was pulling time out of him on most of the climbs, closing the gap. He saw me coming and tried to get away a few times but my legs were feeling good and I knew I could get him and still had a few good attacks in the legs for the last lap. I moved into 3rd just before the start of the coke lap (last lap) and held the pace high on the big gravel climb with a couple small serges on the way up just to see what he had left, not much as the gap opened up and I was gone! I finished in third to take my first Oceania medal. I was 3min 42 behind Dan and Locky who had spent the whole race attacking each other and having a sprint finish, so the gap was pritty good really (last year I was about 7min back) so this has to be a good thing eh!!??!!

The short track was on the following day during the down hill lunch brake. It was 20min plus 3laps. I rode around the edge of the track as the woman raced, so I knew where the track went but I didnt do a proper lap before we started. The crowd was pritty small for the womans race so I decided to try and make our race a bit more exciting. Off the line I had decided to go "BLOCKS!" and try to get a gap, This worked well but on the second lap I hit some moss on an off camber up hill bend and down I went! once up again I had to get my chain back on and get going again, By this time I had been past by most of the field and had to spend the next 10min chasing the leaders back down. I sat on the back of the lead bunch of about 7 for a couple laps to get my breath back and then moved up into third for a lap before going to the front and lifting the pace again, I spent the rest of the race in the top three swapping spots and streching the bunch getting rid of a couple more riders. With 5 of us together on the last lap and me in third spot as we hit the finish straight, I hooked another gear but had heaps of grass in my cluster and my chain started skipping. I had to go back a gear and kick off that, running out of room in the sprint I crossed the line still in thrid. THE END

Front page action, and world famous in the Waikato! Yeah!!!

NZ National Short Track Champion!

What a weekend!!!

The NZ National Champs were held in Wellington this year. The XC on Sat and the short track on the Sunday. After doing a a couple laps when we arrived on wed, I decided to change my tyres from the BARRO RACE tyres which I have raced on in the past weeks, and run the same tyres as last year on this track. Yep the GEAX MEZCALs were back on and once again the perfect tyre for the track. With more technical sections (tree roots loose and slippery gravel type dirt) and not such a long climb, the track suited me a lot more than in the past.

I had a good start sitting in 3rd until hitting the lead just before the 1st single track climb, By the time we got to the top of the big climb I had a couple riders with me and then a gap to the rest of the field. I followed one rider for a while making a few small mistakes and then re-taking the lead about a third of the way through the lap. From that point on I pritty much lead the race to the end. Half way through lap 3 (of 5) was when the gap really opened up, I had a small gap on the other two down a decent and as I hit the bottem I attacked up the next climb (second longest of the lap) and was gone from there. I slowly opened the gap not pushing to hard incase someone closed the gap so I could kick if I needed to. I won the race by just over a minute, and took my second xc National championship.

2010 NZ XC National Champion. Short track action tomorrow.

After a "few" beers on Sat night we went up to the DH for the short track race during there lunch brake. The woman raced first with 15min plus 3laps of a sub km track mostly on loose gravel with one little shoot with a damp patch at the bottem. After the womans race it was our turn, 20min plus 3laps, we had a few min to practice the track and then it was game time. I had an average start off the line but was on the front before the end of the first lap. Three of us got a gap a few laps in and then after about 12min I lifted the pace and then there was only two (Cabin and myself), We kept the pace on swapping the lead a few times and I threw myself over the bars in the damp patch at the bottom of the shoot on one of the laps. It wasnt until the last lap that I was able to get clear, We were going around the flat gravel S bend at the top of the track when Cabin buzzed my back wheel and had to unclip. I didnt realise I had a gap until someone yeld at me saying so, Once I herd that I put the hammer down and was gone!. I won the race and my second National title for the weekend, Gotta be happy with that!!!

Rotorua NZ cup. Saturday saw the final round of the NZ cup. One week out from National champs and a packed field, with all the top riders lining up to do that last minute prep race. It was another fast start, straight up the road climb and into the single track pinch climb. I started on the second row but was quickly on the front and spent the next couple laps fighting it out with Carl Jones and then Dirk Peters joined in on the fun. It wasnt long after Dirk joined us when Carl dropped off the pace and Dirk and I started pushing each other, with a lap and a half to go Dirk made a bad gear change and that was enough for me to GO!!! I was able to pull the gap out to about 30sec by the finish and then the gap back to Carl was about 3min. Over the 6 laps my lap times only differed by 32sec, So all is looking good for next week.

I raced again on the weekend, It was the N-duro final and not the nat round up in Hamilton. I chose this for a few reasons, But the main one was it was going to be more of a similar terrain to the Nats track in Wellie.

I decided to leave my GEAX BARRO RACE tyres on as we hadnt had much rain in Tokoroa, When I arrived in Rotovagas the ground was rather wet and people were saying how they had been woken up over night from the rain, Oh well I only had the one set of tyres with me so it was going to be a slippery out there for me.

I got off to a good start leading the feild into the single track before being passed for a short time. Not long into the race it was just Cabin Stu Houltham and myself, I was able to gap the both on all the big climbs but for the first half of the race I was a bit slow down the decents as the tracks were still a bit slippery. I was able to hold the gap on the third long decent as I was getting use to the slip sliding around and stayed away for the rest of the race. I finished about 1 min ahead of Cabin but it wasnt enough to win the over all series due to my gear problems in the first round.

This weekend is the final round of the Nat series in Rotovagas and then off to Wellie-town for the big one.

Maybe designing, building, clearing and marking out the track wasnt the best way to build up to a National cup race. I did have some help but the bulk of it was on my shoulders. It was kind of fun but it did take some of my focus away from my own race. I have been riding on a set of warn GEAX SAGUARO tyres for training on (the perfect all weather tyre), The day before the race I decided to run some GEAX BARRO RACE tyres and then did a lap (after dropping off the JAMIS tents for the feed zone ect) to make sure they would be the ticket. RACE DAY, I had to have a chat to the officals at rego on the number of laps we would be doing and why we should only do 6 laps and not 7. I started the race on the second row and was wearing my new Adidas T-Sight glasses as it was sooo bright, Off the line the new CARBON JAMIS hardtail helped me hit the front and I pretty much stayed at the front for most of the race. Well until Carl caught up to me with a lap and a half to go, and then one of his attacks caught me off gard and I wasnt able to get back to him.