Sunday, June 20, 2010

Dawn to Dusk - Rotorua - 19/06/2010


This was a 10hr race held on Saturday, with the clock starting at 7am and stopping at 5pm. I went up with the Bicycle crew (consisting of: Brother Ryan, Cam, Cowboy, Marcus, Richard, Jason, Steven, Jamie, Matt, Brandon. and Amanda on the way back) on friday. Had to meet at bicycle at 12 so couldnt go to school as i had to ride there. I got there about 1130, as i had nothing to do at home, so decided to hang out there instead. Trip up wasnt as bad as i thought. I thought that it would be a loud, slow ride to Rotorua, but it wasnt. thought the trip would be loud cos of the boys, thought the trip would slow cos of the double size horse float trailer thingy with 14 bikes plus all our gear being towed behind a van, van cam got was a 3 litre diesel turbo, so trip was good.

Saturday we were up at 530 to get ready to leave at s6 for the race, since the starting people from each team wanted to be on the first shuttle that was leaving the bottom at 6.45 and we had to put the bikes together and gear up. Brother Ryan, Jason, Cowboy and Brandon were in one team (Jason was first rider). Cam, Marcus, Jamie and Matt in another team (Marcus was first rider). Amanda and me in the last team (I was the first rider) and Richard and Steven were pit crew. First run was pretty dark (went down jumps) , and scary especially since i was riding a new bike that felt completely different from the Fury. Was trying out the TR450 i am gonna be riding for world champs. After the first run down, i went up and did another run, this time down the DH, this was also scary, still not much light, bike still feeling weird. After i had finished that run, Amanda went up and did 2 runs of corners, then i did another 2 of down hill and she did billy T etc. We just continued like this for the rest of the day. After the first 4-5 runs on the TR450 i was starting to get used to it, was feeling quite good. Was loving the Marzocchi 888 evo ti's that Ryan had made sure made it onto the TR450. Didnt really think there would be much difference between the Boxxers and them, but they felt a lot more plusher especially through the first bit of travel over the little bumps . Me and Amanda ended up 4th in the 2 person team, Ryans team came first in the 4 person team, and Cams team came 2nd in the 4 person team, just behind Ryans team. Was a good race, very relaxed, more like a 10 hour long day of shuttles more than anything. Pretty keen to do it next year, might even try solo.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Maidstone DH Challenge - 13/06/2010



This race was just a one day race, held on the Sunday, but I did some runs on Saturday with brother Ryan, Carl, Cam and Lloyd as being test riders. Ryan got them to change the pedaly bit at the top so we could ride on the road instead of the soft track which really woulda sucked since it was up hill and some of it was off camber. That was only bit that we got changed, we also decided that it muds front and rear would be a good idea.

Sunday was practice day and race day. Practice started off good, did pretty much all my runs with Lloyd and Carl. was staying on for most of the day until the last 3 or 4 practice runs where i started crashing about half way down the track and in the end chute. The end chute wasn't always my fault, I blame Carl for crashing in front of me for 1 or 2 of them.... Once practice runs finished I decided to stand in front of the BBQ to warm up and to 'protect' it from the little bit of rain. Once the sausages were of the BBQ I stuck my hands with gloves on them over the BBQ to try and dry my gloves after washing all the mud off them. Worked pretty good, gloves were mostly dry by the time I had to leave for my race run. Race run went good, I could grip the bars after washing the mud off and drying the gloves. My goal for this race was to stay on and try not to take my feet off too much since I was the only girl racing so had no competition. Plan went pretty good, stayed on for my run. Nearly lost in it the end chute but kept my feet on and managed to stay on so i was happy. Got Made (mtb movie) to being fastest girl..