NI Cup Round 2 - Tauranga 12-13/02/10

I took Thursday off school to go up to Tauranga with Campbell, Amanda and Brotha Ryan in the Bicycle Van. We left sometime between 10.30 and 11.30 and made it Rotorua at about 5, in time for the Thursday evening shuttles. We did two runs down Jumps, then a couple down last weekends Race track. After the shuttles we continued onto Tauranga. We got some Fish and Chips for dinner. We stayed at a place on the beach at Papamor.

Friday was practice day. First run up to the top of the track and we got put in trucks with the end door fully closed. I swear we all all nearly died on the way up. It was so hot on the way up, we were all sweating after about a minute. The truck i ended up in was the one where it was fully enclosed, where the other two had like canvas sides so you had light coming in from the side, where the one i was pitch black. Within the first minute we had all gotten chucked around in the truck as the driver put the brakes on coming up to a cattle stop, not relalising the brakes were so touchy. For the rest of the runs up the hill, they allowed us to have the end door open a bit, but wasnt allowed it open much as the road to the top was a public road, so we had to be kept hidden. First run down the track, and i was like this is gonna be quite technical with all the off cambre lines. Just cruised down looking at the jumps and different lines. Next runs down i hit a few of the jumps and ran into the others trying to decide if i would have enough speed to hit them, by the end of the day i was doing all the jumps except for the two drops up the top, mainly because i didnt really see the point in doing the 1st one as going around it was no slower and less risky and the 2nd one was aquakwid to get into, and decided just to focus on more on getting my lines sorted and where it would be safe to push myself and where to hold back come seeding and race run.

Saturday was race day. Managed to get two practice runs down in the mourning, was feeling alright about the track, had worked out where i was going push myself, and where i was gonna hold back, and roughly how much. Pretty much holding back for most of the track, as i didnt really want to get off line and end up in all the dusty dirt, as it slowed you down more then taking it slowly would if you hit it wrong. Seeding run went pretty much perfect, i was stoked as with it. I was counting on crashing or mucking up, but i didnt, and seeded first with Charlotte second. For my race run, i decided i would just ride it like my seeding run, which i did, apart from some stuff ups. I came down to the finish line, and thought Charlotte woulda beaten my time, cos i felt like i mucked everything up so bad, but i only ended up being about 6 seconds slower then my seeding run, which was pretty good i felt. And i managed to beat Charlotte and stay on for once.

Full Results here: http://www.vorb.org.nz/download/file.php?id=127135

Video from Stumpy: http://www.vimeo.com/9463130