AKDH Round 4 - Hawkes Bay 21-22/11/09

Practice day was good, but bloody warm, so decided not to wear my armour, just my elbow gaurds which i had just got. First and second run down i just stopped at looked at all the jumps and some other parts with Sophie Borderes. All of the rest of the runs i just spent trying to do things faster or trying different lines. Was trying to do the no smoking drop onto the road, but kept wussing out for some reason. Also tried a step down further up the track which i case pretty bad and scared my self on so didnt try it again. towards the end of the shuttles i followed Mike 'the Hippy' Williamson down and got him to help me with the rock garden because i kept stuffing it up. Once we got that sorted i just follwed him down and tried to keep up, really needed goggles though, cos he kicked up a lot of dust. Followed him for the rest of the shuttles until he dislocated his shoulder from going to fast and missing the turn off for the chute into the no smoking drop so he tried to get into by riding down the bank but ended up hitting the bank on the other side and doing his shoulder.

The evening after practice day was pretty fun. The normal group of older guys that i ride with in welly were all up for the race, so we all hung out and had drinks (not me though, it tastes yuck) out side one of the rooms some of the guys were in. Later went to the pub and had so

me food, and guys had more beers, was probly there for about 2-3 hours i think. Was a pretty mean night. When we got back to where we were staying, the guys carried on chatting and drinking, while me and Callum, Vee, and Andrew went to bed (we were all staying in the same room away from the others so we couldnt hear the rest talking)

Race day was good, it had started spitting when we left our room, and carried on spitting for about half the day probably, which was good as it helped to keep the dust down a bit and didnt make the track all slippery or anything. First practice run down i think it was (might have been second, not entirely sure) i got up the guts to do the no smoking drop due to Callum being annoying and telling me it was easy and just release the brakes by a tree and you make it easy. Ended up going off it and thinking i wasnt going to make it so i pulled the front up, but ended up making it and the front slamming down, kept doing that a few more times and started getting the hang of it.

First race run down was alright, got everything fine. Didnt really try too hard. Completely forgot about pedalling and didnt push it in the steep dusty bits. Second run down

was good apart from one crash which stuff my run up. Tried to pedal everywhere i could, and it was goin

g good until i got to the dusty steep bit where i came into it too fast and started loosing it. Managed to hang on and stay

upright for a bit and advoided the trees. Front wheel ended up washing out and i went over the bars into the dust. Got straight up and grabed my bike and carried on down

. Had trouble holding the bars cos of the dust now on my gloves as it made them all slippery. Also was a little hard too see due to the dust covering my face, but stayed on for the rest of the track. Second run was 4 seconds slower then my first run.

Full results here

http://rotorua.mtbclub.org.nz/wpcontent/uploads/Napier%20AKDH%20Series%20Results.pdf

AKDH Round 3 - Rotorua 7-8/11/09

Saturday, 1st practice run was weird. The top half of the track felt real awkward, the bottom half was all good tho. After a couple of runs down, i started to get the hang of it a bit more. The top half used pretty much all the lines with new line built in to join all the lines up. just before it crossed the road there was a new jump made, think it was a hip jump (not that i could hip it properly) onto the take off of one of the older jumps. Started hitting it about halfway through the day, was as hard as i thought, just cruise up to and cruise off it. had a bit of trouble with it the first time, cos i just hucked off it and forgot that i had to start turning pretty much straight away, but was all good after that.

Sunday was going good. last practice run was my best of the weekend. felt better then both my race runs which kinda sucked. 1st run down the hill i kept forgetting to pedal so i was a bit annoyed at myself for forgetting to pedal. 2nd run down felt really bad compared to my first one. but ended up about 8 secs faster. 2nd run i stuffed up by lifting my feet off the pedals when i tried to pedal coming into stuff. Keep forgetting to change down into lower gears which doesnt help much. Ended up going down couch chute with my feet only just on pedals, stopped after that to put them back on. down the last chute i did something wrong. not sure what or how, but i ended up with all my weight on the front wheel right at the top and thought i as gonna go over the bars, but i released the brakes and managed to somehow hang on and stay on track and rode it out. Last little bit of the track was all good. Ended up first, which i was pleased with, but a bit pissed of at myself for making stupid mistakes.

Full results here: http://rotorua.mtbclub.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/Rotorua%20AKDH%20NI%20Series%20Results.pdf