T 42

In the mid 90s I entered my first MTB race, I was 13 or 14, It was 60km long, Started in National park raced down the road through some farm and then through the 42nd Traverse. I was on a ridged bike with toe straps and lost my spare tube half way through the race, Turns out I would need that towards the end of the race, to fix a flat front tyre. I think I finished 8th in junior that day (with a flat front tyre). This event stopped being run a year or two later,  A couple years ago a new crew decided to hold a race through the 42nd Traverse. 
This year I was able to make it to the event. So, on Saturday the 5th I woke to a loverly blue sky and a good frost. Since the Ocieania champs in early March, I have been riding a few times each week (for fun) letting the body and mind refresh and to remind myself why it is I ride the Mountain bike. It was a fast start with a couple km down the road before a couple more km across farm paddock leading us onto the 42nd track it self. I tried to stay top 5 although not on the front, As we hit the track I new it was my last chance to take off my vest so I took advantage of the moment. We had a small group of 5 or 6 as we hit the first wee climb and the group dropped to four then three soon after. On the way down the big decent to the river I had a bit of a moment pulling my foot off the pedal as I jumped a ditch, I landed on some slippery clay and headed into the some branches on the side of the track having one of them hit my ADIDAS half rims and slide down the glass and snap as it hit my face.  The three of us stayed together until the last major river crossing when Matt (last years winner) flew through the river and lifted the pace up the first part of the big climb out, I was able to stay with him but the other rider couldnt respond to the lift in pace and we were two from there to the finish line. I was a bit concerned with how I would cope towards the end of the race and knew I had to keep putting my PEAK FUEL gels and drink mix in. Other than a couple wet muddy/slippery spots my new TNT GEAX MEZCAL tyres were the tyre to run giving me speed on the fast gravel roads. I remember passing that same point I flatted way back in the 90s and thinking "YUS! the TNT tyres sure are awesome". As we approached the finish I knew I had to be in front so I could control the pace through the last little bit of single track and in to the finish, as we entered the grass park to finish we were told to stay left, so we hugged the tape on our left until people started yelling and pointing to the finish shoot (to the left of the running shoot!) so a quick skid and turn around before sprinting for a gap in the barriers to cross the line and I was able to get the win.
48km in 1hr48min on the MTB and other than a pinch of cramp on the last climb (due to not training enough for the pace we were riding) I am really happy with how it all went.
It was an awesome day and everyone hung out in the park while everyone else finished, chatting and yarning about all the things that happened along the way. Now thats just one of the things I love about this sport!

Sponsors link

Ok so check this out, Go to the following link and then on my name and it will bring you back to this! pretty cool huh

http://www.geax.com/en/company/sponsoring/

Yep, GEAX sponsored rider!

Final race for the NZ season

Thanks to Raewyn Knight for taking this sweet pic

The Oceania champs were held over the weekend in the red wood forest, Rotorua NZ. My form had been getting better as the season unfolded and I was looking to have a big race and improve on my 3rd placings over the past two years. It was always  going to be a tough race with  all the top Aussi riders over and in good form coming off there Nat champs a couple weeks ago. I felt good on the track over the days leading up and although having a crash on the rock garden on my last lap of practice I felt I had it under control. I was running GEAX TNT 2.1 MEZCAL tyres on my stans rims so I was going to have to do some thing rather stupid to "burp" that set up.  I had a good warm up and a good start, the legs felt ok but not fantastic, I was able to move into the lead near the top of the first big climb and spent about half the lap in the lead. Chris then Sid slipped past and I finished off the lap sitting in third and in touch with the lead, During the climb on the second lap my legs felt like they were towing a boat with out the trailer! I dropped back through the field and before I knew it I was well back and the legs were getting worse. By the time I was at the end of lap three it was game over. As hard as it was for me to do, I pulled to the side and waited for the 80% lap out rule. I felt (and still do) really disappointed with myself but some days know matter what you tell your self you just cant push through. 

With that behind me I decided to go for a play on a bouncy bike (called Bluey) the next day, I ended up stopping in to watch the XC Eliminator and as they had an uneven number I was talked in to racing, I didnt make it too far through the rounds and finished in 9th place. After the race a few of us rode to the very top of the forest up above Billy-T and rode down a new track linking onto Billy-T and then down a few more tracks to the bottom of the DH, We arrived about 2min after the last DH rider down so missed out on watching any of that

I am now having some time off racing (well XC anyway) as Im doing the "triple crown" super d race this weekend, Im mainly just doing it for the fun factor side of things but we all know what happens when we get on the start line!

I would just like take the time to thank all the people including my loyal sponsors that have been there over the season and all your support.  

JAMIS BIKES, GEAX TYRES, PEAK FUEL, ADIDAS EYEWEAR, CYCLE OBSESSION, BELLAMY GALLERY, BRYTON, NIGHT LIGHTS, TINELI  CLOTHING

COACH: BOB TUXFORD

Napier, NZ nat series final round

The view from my bed room window

Coming into the race I had no expectations of making the top three in the series after the 18th and 11th I had from the first two races. I was just trying to focus on having a good solid race and not let any one get to far ahead over the first couple laps. I was once again lucky enough to stay at the Clarks house out on the farm and only 10min away from the race. After a few laps over the two days leading up to the race I was felling happy with the track and loving the new decent. 

Race day and I decided to do a bit more of a warm up than I have been but the legs felt like crap off the line any way, I was back in 5th or 6th into the first single track and started yelling at people letting gaps open up. I was able to make my way into the top three on the main climb and then Carl and Dirk started attacking! My legs still were not keen to pulse like that and they opened up a gap, I kept the pace on as I was going away from the rest of the field and after last weekend I knew I could finish strong (and its easy to push to deep early on this track and pay for it later). By the middle of lap two I was back on Carl and Dirk and the three of us started trading blows, one after another we would attack and the other two would have to chase. This went on for a lap and a half until Dirk was able to get a good gap and we couldnt peg him back. I lost about 45 seconds over the next lap or so and lost count of what lap I was on, thinking I had two more laps to go and then being given the last lap coke bottle. I now was thinking to my self, is this the last lap? or did my feeder give me the wrong bottle?? I decided to give a big push and hope it was the last. Turns out it was the last lap and I was able to close the gap back down to 24seconds behind Dirk and put 30ish seconds into Carl By the finish. 

With another second under my belt I had enough points to put me 3rd over all in the series. As I said at the start of this, I was not expecting to make top three but so the 3rd was a nice way to finish the series. Off the top of my head I think I have finished top three in the series every year since 2004 (except 2006).

With under two weeks to go until the Ocieania champs being in Rotorua its all about doing the last minute prep and fine tuning the legs, 

NZ national round 3, Wellington

After two weeks off from racing, It was time for another round of the National series. Held in Wellington on the Mt Vic tracks that we have raced on since the early days (mid 90s). Over the years I found the GEAX MEZCAL tyres to be awesome on these tracks, so much I fitted them at the start of the week before looking at the long range weather. This year was a little bit of a different lay out with a more compact track that came back to the same point a few times per lap to make for some good spectating. I had a good start and planed to sit in 2nd or 3rd up the first climb, this worked out for the first half of the climb but then I found my self on the front and making a small gap towards the top and leading into the decent. I had only done a couple laps in pre-ride the day before so I was still finding my lines down a couple sections, so I made a couple mistakes but was able to hold the lead for half the first lap before Dirk slipped in front of me and attacked straight away. From this point my legs and lungs didnt want to play the game for the next couple laps and I slipped down into 4th spot, At the start of lap three the legs and lungs decided they would start to work and I started to feel good on the climbs. From this point I started to pull back time on the guys in front, I moved into 2nd and started to close the gap on Drik (who at one point had over 1min gap on me). I was able to close the gap down to 22sec by the finish feeling stronger and stronger all the way to the finish line. Things are looking good for the coming weeks of racing with the final of the NZ national series being this weekend coming in Napier.

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!        

Chch, round 2

After three seasons of physio during the week while back in the north island, My knee was feeling better but still not 100%. I was told it was ok to race as I wont do any more damage, its just about dealing with the pain. The race track was similar to last years track, with one big climb (changing pitch all the way to the top) and then a decent that wound its way down with open sweeping corners, tight corners, drops, rocks and the list goes on. An extension to the climb was added at the start of the lap this year with a couple little rocky sections to make life that little bit more challenging.
Race day and it decided to rain in the morning, After riding part of the climb in warm up I decided to change my tyres from the BARRO RACE to the AKA 2.2 as they are still a fast tyre but have a tad more knob to bite in on the climb.    For the first time in a very long time I was called up on the second row and with a short sprint into a hair pin I knew things would get interesting. I had an ok start and made my way up in to 2nd or 3rd but the time we hit the tight stuff, I was sitting in 3rd when we hit the main single track part of the climb dropping to 4th just before the top. I held 4th for the next couple laps while we pulled a large gap on the rest of the field. I was feeling ok, the knee was hurting a bit but I could push through it. About 1km from the end of the lap on lap 3 I hit a rock with the back wheel kicking the bike side ways and popping my foot out of the pedal and into my front wheel, as my foot entered the wheel it snapped half the spokes on one side of the wheel. This was enough to stop me and almost put me over the bars, my front wheel wouldnt turn through the fork so I had to push the bike on the back wheel for the rest of the lap. By the time I made it to the 80% area I had 8sec to pass or I would get pulled out of the race, as I didnt have a spare wheel in the tec zone I let the 8sec pass and that was my race over. The thing with being lapped out (instead of pulling out DNF) is I still get points.
The next day the guys in basic bikes fixed my wheel (all new spokes) I had a massage and we travelled up to Hanmer. After a play on the tracks it was off up to Nelson to get ready for the Nat champs this weekend.