World Champs 2011 - Champery, Switzerland 30/8-4/9/11

Saturday 27^th August (Did absolutely nothing)

Today we woke up to rain. And it continued to rain till after lunch when it stopped. We were up at the house up by the Avoris lift so wasn’t close to Pleney or Super Morzine lifts and I wasn’t keen on riding down in the rain so I stayed in bed watching movies and typing up the previous days as well as doing some course work. After lunch I was tempted to go for a ride, but decided I would take a day off since the weather was pretty average and I couldn’t be bothered with cleaning gear afterwards. Dad also wasn’t keen on the mess that would be made. Dad went down to the pub with the other dads to watch the rugby (NZ vs. AUS) a bit before lunch and didn’t get home till about 6-7 so once dad got home we made and had dinner. And decided to drive to Champery that night. We didn’t hit the road till about 830-9 so didn’t get to Champery base till about 10-1030. As soon as well got there I hit the sack. I could have got into the base and got a proper bed but I couldn’t be bothered moving myself or my gear so I crashed in the campervan.

Sunday 28^th August (Rode to Morgins)

Today I headed out with the boys to do some riding since the girls said they weren’t going to ride. We headed over to Morgins to do some runs of the steep tight track there as we thought it would be good practice for Champery. We probably only did about half a days riding there then we got picked up. I just followed the boys where ever they went and tried to keep up the best I could.

Monday 29th August (Chilling at Champery and Track Walk)

After getting dad to change my tyre I headed down to see chicken man to borrow a few tools so I could replace a few of my pedal pins that I had ripped out and had fall out at Val Di Sole. He was busy with someone else’s bike when I got there, but once he was done he took over for me. I had managed to rip out the threads in one of the holes when I ripped out the pin so another pin couldn’t be put back in. And I had bent a pin into the pedal as well on the other pedal. I also got him to have a look at my brakes, and he said my levers were pretty fucked but everything else was all good about them.

Tuesday 30^th August (5 hours of practice)

Today started off with a bit of a mess. We all started practice at least 1.5hrs late, as they had changed the registration process and they needed our Passports, and race licences once again and Mildy didn’t know till he got there. Once we eventually got our numbers and were able to head up the track to do some runs I was so keen and pretty sick of waiting. After walking the track yesterday I felt a bit intimidated and scared going down on my first run. Once I had got that out of the way I realised it isn’t as hard to get down as everyone makes it out to be. Throughout the day I just kept cranking out the runs, trying a few different lines here and there. And every so often checking back at the tent to get a drink and see if Chicken man was busy but every time he was busy. Once practice was done I asked Chicken man to check out my forks as they kept making a bit of a bang/clang and I wanted to make sure that they would be algood. And he said they were all good.

Wednesday 31st August

Woke up nice and early about 630am to have breakfast and to make sure I was on the first shuttle out to the track and I saw was. I jumped in the van with all the bikes, and was the only person in it apart from the adult driving the van. I was then put on bike guarding duty since I was the only one there while Pete took the van back to get the rest of the bikes and while the other riders got here. Practice started at 9am and I was there and ready at about a little over 8am. For practice I just cranked out the runs and tried to go faster and be in more control.

Thursday 1^st September (Wet Practice)

During the night it rained quite a bit. I didn’t know it had rained but some of the others had been woken up by the thunder storm. Once again I was ready to go for the first shuttle down to the track. This time it wasn’t as early and I got there about 830-845 and headed up for a run of the track thinking that it didn’t rain that much. And boy was I wrong. I had my drys on still, and did my first run down in drys. Well it wasn’t really a run on the bike, it was more of a walk down the track and try not to lose my bike. I was on the mission to get down to the bottom without hurting myself and as quick as I could so I could get some muds on quickly and do some runs in them. When I got down I ran into Mildy, and told me to wash my bike and that he would help me change my tyres. Once I got to the tent, dad and Mildy changed a tyre each for me. As soon as they were done, I was back on the bike and went straight up for a run. I managed to get two runs down the track with my muds on. It was a lot easier with muds on than drys, and I could actually stand a chance at getting down the track with them on. Although I crashed at least 3 times each run. After practice had finished today Chicken man took my forks to Marzocchi to get them looked at and service. When they got back and I next saw him, he said my forks were throw away when I get back to NZ and that Marzocchi did what they could to make them better, but like Mildy even they couldn’t get one of the legs undone. So yeah.

Friday 2^nd September (Seeding).

For practice I just did some full runs making sure I still hit my lines and just tried to do them faster each time. My seeding run was good, I went as fast as I knew I could without crashing and didn’t really push myself. Ended up seeding 4^th.

Saturday 3^rd September (Dry Practice).

By now it was back to how it was on the Tuesday, nice and dry. I was loving the track in the dry and was looking forward to racing in the dry. First run down I asked mildly and dad to stand by a jump that I wanted to do so that I felt a bit more pressure and knew I would be wasting their time if I didn’t do it. I knew I could do the jump and was ready to hit it, I just knew I need to feel a bit more pressure. First run down knowing that they would be there for me, I hit the jump I wanted to and was stoked as. Of course there was a bit of a noise made in the air by me like usual. I hit it on the next run down as well, but was too busy thinking about how to get into the next jump and cased it a little bit which scared the shit out of me when I was in the air. Next run in I didn’t case it and got the run into the next jump better than the previous times. I ended up not doing the jump though as I couldn’t commit, and wasn’t feeling it going right. It started raining tonight, so some of us went to change our tyres after dinner so we were set for tomorrows practice. As we were about to start Chicken Man came back from dinner and told us that he would do all our tyres for us and all we had to do was leave our tyres on our bikes. So that was pretty sweet

Sunday 4^th September (Race Day)

Today started off great...... Firstly I get woken up at 5.45am by Lucia’s alarm clock. I was pretty much screwed from then on. I am no good when I wake up before 6am unless I’m straight away doing stuff and keeping busy. Next I get up to have breakfast, and there’s no bread or any chocolate cereal left, so now I have no food and nothing to do. From then on I just get more tired and tired until I’m pretty much yawning nonstop. By the time we got the track, really all I wanted was to just go back to bed and have a good sleep. But I got on the bike and did runs like usual. Surprisingly once I got on the bike, I was all good, and didn’t feel tired really. On the chair lift up though, that was another story. First run down I made it down sweet as, just took all the safe lines that I knew would be all good in the wet. 2^nd run down I tried to go a bit faster and try a few riskier lines in places. They didn’t really work out, so 3^rd run down I went back to the safe lines and tried some other lines in other places. They didn’t work either, but on my last run down I did hit all the jumps I had done in the dry, and they were sweet as, so I knew that come race run, I would do those. So coming into race run I knew my lines. A little after the other girls went up, it started raining. Not long after the rain started and I realised that it wasn’t going to stop I chucked my gear on and headed up the chair lift before it started to get heavier. It was pretty cold going up the chair lift. By the time I got to the start of the track I was pretty frozen. Chicken man gave me his jacket to warm up which help heaps. I just hung out under the tent with Chicken man and Mildy talking to them while I waited for racing to start. Not long before it was my turn to head to the start gate, Dodzy rang Mildy and told him everyone was crashing and that the key was to just stay on the bike. So going into my race run I knew for sure that I had to take the easy and safe lines and not push myself. So that was my plan. I hit the first little bit of the track all good, it was all going good until I got to the first chute. I had nearly gotten to the bottom and it didn’t feel like I was losing grip but the next thing I knew my tyres were no longer underneath me like they should be and I was on the ground. This happened another 2 times in various places. After the first crash I wasn’t sure whether to hit the end jumps or not as it was obviously slipperier than I thought. After the 2^nd crash I was considering not doing them but was going to wait till I was there to decide. And after the 3^rd crash I knew I was going to hit them as there was no way I was going to make podium now so it didn’t really matter if I lost it on the jumps even though I was fairly certain that they would be all good as they had like gravel on them. So I hit the jumps I had hit in practice and it all went as planned. When I came down I was sitting in 3^rd place. But I was quickly bumped out of that position fairly quickly. So once again like last year, I seeded 4^th and ended up 5^th. Was pretty guttered with the result and pretty pissed with myself. But what can you do. Shit happens.

DH WC R7 - Val Di Sole 16-21/08/11

Monday 15^th August (Drive to Val Di Sole)

We had to be out of the carpark we were staying in by 9am so we woke up at about 7am and had breakfast and tidied up. Once we had done that we went over to the bike wash and filled up our water tanks. Once we had done that, us kids headed down the roughly 20min dh track into the below town, while the dads emptied the waste waters and toilets. It was a cool track, with some random multiple lines in some places. And one section of it was like an axle deep dust bowl with just switchback straight after another switchback for a while. Once we had finished the track, we made our way to the gondala pick up where we were to meet our dads. We had to wait for them for a while. Once they eventually got there, me and Daniel headed up the gondala for another run, while Maddy decided to stay behind. The dads and Maddy went groccie shopping. Once again me and Daniel were at the campervans for a while waiting for them to come back from the groccie shopping. Once they got back, we put the groccies away, and hit the road for Val di Sole. Once we eventually got to Val di Sole (or somewhere where we knew was close to Val di Sole but we wernt sure where the racing was) we found a random side verge thingy and camped up for the night. We didnt camp till about 1030-11pm. Also we had dinner in a tuck stop place a few hours before so we just hit the sack as soon as we camped up.

Tuesday 16^th August (Muck around and do a track walk)

We had a bit of a sleep today as we had nothing planned to do today. Around about lunch time we headed down to the bottom of the tracks, and met with the rest of team, and decided that we would do some riding this avro. But everyone wanted to do a track walk first, so we did that first. I didnt really see the point in wasting time doing a track walk today, when we would be able to do one tomorrow for free, but I went along with the others. First impression of the track was, that it was going to be bloody hard to do a run and stay on as well as tiring both physically and mentally. It was essentially just one big long rock garden for the whole length of the track, apart from a few fast bits and a few roots. Once we had finished the track walk, we headed up for some riding. Since us girls had finished quite a bit before the guys we went off on our own. We thought since there were two lifts that there would be a track or two coming down from the top of the 2^nd one, but we were wrong. So we just rode down the road, then ended up god knows where, so pushed back up till we were under the gondola then free rode it down the grass among the rocks underneath until we got to where the bottom gondola meets the top one. Once there we got onto a random track and rode that to the bottom. When we finialy reached the bottom, the gondola had already done its last uplift, so we only got that one run, in which we wasted a lot of time going to the top and getting lost.

Wednesday 17^th August (Track Walk)

Again since we couldnt register or anything till 2pm we slept in and just cruised and stuff till then. Once it reached 2pm I headed over to register. Once I had registered I waited for the others, then we all headed up as a group. The dads came up as well today. I started off with everyone, but they were spending way too long in the first couple of hundred meters for me to wait for them. So I went off on my own with dad following. I knew what lines that I wanted to hit, and stuff. It was just a matter of remembering where they were, and how to get onto them.

Thursday 18^th August (Practice)

Today was the first day of practice. All I can say is that the track is bloody hard and the hardest bit of the track is in the first 200-300 meters of the track. There was a bridge about 1/4-1/3 of the way down. Once you got past there the track was easier and I could actually get down it. I only did about 6 runs today, which I wasnt too happy with. Stupid brakes wernt co-operating. By the end of the track I had both brakes on full and I wasnt exactly slowing down in any sort of hurry. Even at the start of the run they wouldnt lock up. Getting down was hard enough with out worrying about your brakes. I got Mildy to look at them, and he said something as def wrong with them. Took them to the SRAM dudes and they bleed the brakes for me, and had a look at them, but said nothing was wrong with them. The brakes were still the same when I got them back, except for the lever feeling like it had more power, but the brakes were still essentially powerless. When we got back to the campsite, I got Daniel to have a look at them for me. My pads were glazed so we scuffed them up, and then gave the disks a good clean with his brake cleaner. After that, they were locking up a little bit if you gave them a good grab once we had ridden up and down the road the few times. I now knew that was the best I was gonna get them.

Friday 19^th August (Qualifying)

Since I didnt get any where near as many runs as I would have liked yesterday, I started cranking out the runs from the very start of practice. In the 3 hours I managed about 5-6 runs I think. My main focus was trying to ride the top bit of the track as I hadnt yet managed to get down it without crashing or stuffing up and having to come to a stop. Finaly I managed to get the top bit sorted on my last 2 or runs. I took note of exactly where I braked and where I changed direction etc etc as I knew this was the bit I was struggling the greatest. Seeing the other girls ride I was pretty certain I wouldnt qualify, but still gave it my best. I had a good enough run. I managed to stay on which was good, but slipped a few pedals and had to slow down quite a bit to sort out my feet. I ended up 27^th which I wasnt the happiest with, especially since tehre were 3 juniors ahead of me and they all qualified. None of the Kiwi girls qualified unfortunetly. None of the non pros Kiwis qualified either apart from Ruben who got like 37^th or something. Daniel also had 4x qualifying this evening and quailified 28^th even tho he stuffed up a corner and cased the pro line jumps.

Saturday 20^th August (drove to venice)

Since I didnt qualify, me and dad decided to head to Venice today as there wasnt much point in hanging at Val Di Sole for the next two days, and might as well go to Venice since we both wanted to.

DH WC R6 - La Bresse, France 4-7/08/11

Thursday 4^th August (Drive to La Bresse and track walk)

Today dad woke up at 5am and in turn woke me up. Since we were awake and dad couldnt get back to sleep we decided to finish our journey to La Bresse, France. The trip was easy going, just followed the gps like every other time so far. We got there about 8am and just cruised around and did mundane stuff such as stock up on groccies etc. The track was very easy to find, we saw it straight away. At 2pm we registered and went up to walk the track. The top 30secs of the track was grass with a few wooden things on it such as a jump and some boardwalks. The start ramp was obviously wood but it finished with a drop. After the grass it was into a like a rock ditch jump which I had to pedal my arse off into in order to make it. And then it was into more grass but with rocks implanted in it. This was mostly what the track was like, there were a few natural jumps and stuff and then there were the man made ones in both wooden dirt form. The end of the track finished with a steep grass bit followed closely by grass lumps and dips you could double up before sending a wooden drop to enter the final jump.

Friday 5^th August (Practice day)

Today was the first day of practice. I could roughly remember the track, not really the order of things but what things looked like. I had already picked my lines while doing the track walk, and was going to try those out and check out other people lines throughout the day and give them a go.

First run down the hill I didnt really have any clue what I doing or what was up next on the track, once I relised what bit of track I was on, I knew what line I wanted to be on though. First run went smoothly enough, hit the wooden sender thing down the bottom, nearly cased it tho, was a bit bigger than I remembered it being. Throughout the day I slowly and constently ticked the other jumps and drops of my list. All apart from the last one. I was pretty put off of the end jump after watching one of the chicks full on nose case it and break her arm.

By the end of the day I pretty much just stuck with my lines. And tried to get them faster and smooter. Ruts were beginning to develop and chuck me all sorts of places and ways.

Saturday 6^th August (Qualifying)

So with practice up first, I thought I would do a few runs to warm up and do the end jump and also to make sure I could remember the track for qualifying. Things were going alright, I had the track a bit more dialed than yesterday. The only problem I was having was clearing the hip drop sorta jump thing halfway down the track. Third run down the track my rear wheel decided to fail, and im guessing it was from that drop. So I had to end up walking my bike down the bottom half of the track. Once I got the bottom, I went and asked the Mavic guys if they could fix my wheel for me, so they did. When I got it back, they pointed out that my rim was bent. I was Jason at this point as he was helping me fix some other things on my bike. They talked, and he got a rim off Mavic for me (not sure if I have to pay for it yet or not) It ended up being free. For my seeding run I just ran my cracked rim. I treated seeding a bit like a practice and a bit like a race run. I went fast but with a bit of cautionary side like I would in a normal race run but also tried to do things a bit differntly and see if some new markers I saw while I was practicing would be better than the current markers I had in my mind. One of the main markers worked better the my orginal one, which I was quite happy with. I nearly crashed about 2/3s of the way down the track, which I wasnt happy about tho. I ended up just getting into qualifying with a 19^th place.

Sunday 7^th August (Race day)

During the night it pissed down with rain, and had some decent amounts of wind judging by some of the tents in the pits and by what Jason said. Today was race day, First thing I did was go see Jason to get my wheel sorted and change front tyre to a mud. He started swapping over the spokes for me and then left me to it while he went to get Jill and make sure she was sorted and everything. Once I had put all the spokes in and put a mud on and Jason had finished with Jill I went to go get ready while he tightened up all the spokes and trued the wheel and stuff. Once that was all done I headed up the hill for a run. The track had changed quite a bit since yesterday, the ruts were worse. By the time I got up for a run, about 1hr after practice started the track was a lot more chewed up and a bit slushy up the top. I opted out of doing the rock up the top and also the hip turning jump half way down that reacked my wheel yesterday. I managed 3 runs before practice ended. I would have liked to have done at least another to try the rock gap. So now it was time to clean bike, change clothes and have a quick bit of food and drink before heading up for my race run. I got to the top with heaps of time to spare, and I hung out with Mannon Carpenter and her dad/manager. When it came time to starting I didnt know that they were starting, I was standing out side the tent, and assumed/figured that when I had to go line up they would tell me, but no one did. I only relised when I saw the person before me in the start gate. By the time I had relised that we were starting she had left the gate, so I had less than a min to get in the start gate put on and do up my helmet and goggles. Pretty much as soon as I had put my goggles on, it was time to leave the start gate. So that pretty much stuffed up my run right from the start. I managed to forget it and compose myself for the rest of the track. I ended up getting a bit lose and making heaps of mistakes just trying to push myself a bit to hard, I finially ended up crashing and im not entirely sure how or why that happened. I cant even remember where on I track I crashed, I forgot it that quickly. I ended up 18^th today. I wasnt too happy with my run, but I learnt my lesson and wont forget it for Val Di Sole. After the racing had finished we hit the road to head to Morzine before going to Pila. About half way to Morzine we pulled over into a carpark and set up camp for the night.

Descend Winter DH Champs - Rotorua 18-19/06/11

For this race, Dad took me, Lloyd, and Robert up after we had finished course/school on Friday. By the time we got to Rotorua it was about 9.30pm. First we dropped Robert and Lloyd off at the campground at which they were staying then me and Dad continued to my uncles where we would be staying. Once we got to my uncles, I unpacked the car, and thought long and hard about whether to chuck a mud on the front and rear, or just front or just leave drys on altogether. I eventually came to the conclusion that I should chuck a mud on the front and take the other mud with me to the track tomorrow in case I thought two muds would be necessary.

Wake up time on the Saturday was 6.45 in order to get ready and leave by 7.45 to pick Lloyd and Robert up at about 8. We made good time and were ready in time and sorted. We got to the bottom gate and Dad was allowed to drop us at the bottom of track and drive back out, so we did that. On the way up, Dad told us that we would not be getting picked up as he didnt want the car to get dirty, so we would have to ride to the campground after practice had finished. Not the best way to end a day of practice, but still better than not racing or riding at all. It had been raining a bit over night, and a little bit during the week. The track was still pretty tacky for the first few runs, until more riders went down the track and tore it to bits. The lines were pretty open, and by the end of the day a few sneaky lines had begun to show themselves. The lines that were ran were Teamline, into Stepdown, down Couch, Into 24 Carrot and finally into the last chute but only the left side entry of last chute before hitting the right side jump. Throughout the day the rain couldnt decide if it was coming or going. Ruts appeared and got bigger, by the end of the day, some ruts (especially on Teamline) were so big that your pedals scrapped so that line was pretty much out of the question. About half way though the day i started having trouble with the track, crashing on pretty much every run, either down Teamline or Couch. This continued through to the end of the day.

Sunday was race day, and it had rained a little over night, but the track was the same it had been on the last run on Saturday. Big ruts, impossible to ride with feet on, more impossible with feet off. 1st run down the hill I saw some of the sneaky lines that had developed and avoided the ruts, Was a bit harder to get into from the line i was taking, and never successfully got into without having to drag my bike back on line. I did 2 or 3 runs, and every run was essentially the same. Not making the sneaky line (now the main ridden line) and losing it down couch chute. As usualy girls were first down the hill for race runs. we had 2 timed race runs and no seeding, so we just seeded ourselves. When i got to the top for my first race run, i went to change gears and the wheel said no. Turns out my disk was horribly bent, so with the help of the other girls we attempted to bend it back enough so that my wheel would at least spin while pedaling. My first race run was probably the best all weekend. Managed to get into the sneaky line by slowing down a bit more and remembering where it was. Got down the track nice and fast and clean. But unfortunetly that run wasnt timed, No one got there first run counted, but at first they thought it was just the first 2 or 3 groups of riders so we had to go straight up for another run. which once again didnt count. I was fine with that one not counting as it was crappy as, but pretty guttered about the first not being counted. 3rd and final race was also good like my first one, but not as fast, as i was beginning to get tired by this point, especially with the bent disk. Once again, managed to stay on, and put a nice clean run together. Ended up winning by 2mins 24secs ahead of Sophie Tyas in 2nd place.

Crank Taupo - Taupo 21/05/11

Crank Taupo is a one day race. This is the second year that it was held, it normally has xc in it as well and an 'all mountain' category, but due to high winds in the two weeks before, the xc track was unable to have been cleared of the fallen trees so it was only the downhill race left.

I went up with the Tawa crew after course on Friday, didn't get to our accommodation until about 10.30pm and didnt start heading to sleep till about 11pm. Saturday was race day and practice day. We woke up at about 6.30am and had left a little after 7.30am to head to the track to register and do a track walk. We got about 1/2 way up the track during our walk when Scott told us we had to be at the rego tent in 10mins for the race brief, so we headed back down only to find out Scott had been misinformed. We got on the first shuttle and did a cruisey run do

wn the track, the top half was essentially the same as last year, so not finishing our track walk didn't make too much of a difference really. The only bit that was different would be at the end where they made the jumps better so they weren't just big nasty hucks to flat. Especially the jump over the fence which was a terrible huck to flat last year, but was pretty good this year. First run down i cruised into the step down near the bottom and forgot that there was a bump so you couldnt just cruise into it like i did, I ended up nose casing but managed to hold on.

Second run down i did every jump, just cased the fence jump but got the step down perfect and boosted the step up. Every run from now on was pretty much the same, but just trying to go faster and try some different lines in a few places.

Once prolouge had finished it moved into the finals where the top 40 riders got in. (prolouge was just our practice runs, but every run had been timed). I managed to get the top 40 riders which i was pretty stoaked about since there were 117 riders and out of that Kaytee and I were the only girls. My 'race run' wasnt the best, but i was still happy with it. It was about 3 seconds slower than my fastest prolouge time and i know i lost a bit of time from the step up as i

decided to back off on it after nearly falling off the back of the bike a few times during prolouge.

For being the fastest girl i got a mean as trophy as a prize as well as some minta bright as yellow bars which i think ill chuck on my double. Overall i was pretty happy with how i went during the race. I got what i wanted which was to see if my training was working and it appears it is, I also now know i still need to work on jumping a little bit more and learn to trust my bike and tires more.

Oceania Champs - Shepparton/Dookie 17-20/03/11

Since it was Oceanias, we had two days of practice plus race day. We got a 3.30pm flight from wellington on the Wednesday afternoon. Didnt get to where we were staying out of Shepparton till about 10pm Australian time which was 12pm New Zealand time. We were staying at the Dookie Uni Campus with pretty much the rest of the nz team apart from a few that chose to stay else where. Thursday we slept in till about 7 Aussie time, as we had to be up by about 7 in order to get breakfast. We spent the day going to Shepparton to get food and water bottles for the following days riding. I also walked the track once with dad, and again later on with the nz downhill team that was staying at the campus.

Friday was race day for the cross country (xc) riders and the the four cross (4x) riders and also practice for us downhill (dh) riders. Once again it was up at about 7 for breakfast, and since the dh practice wasnt starting will the afternooon and there wasnt anything else to do, so i decided to go and the xc riders race in the morning. In the morning it was all the female riders racing. In the Elite field, kiwi Rosara won followed by another fellow kiwi Karen. Katie got 2nd and Samara got third in the under 23. That was all i got too watch before i headed off to get ready for practice.

When walking the track, it seamed pretty below average and way too pedaly and boring and basic. Riding the track wasnt quite as bad as i thought it would be. The Aussie soil over here is so different to the soil back home. I found it quite a bit more slippery then our soil, and found myself drifting around a few of the corners. First run down i remembered most of the track from the two walks i had done the previous day, and knew what rock obstacles i was going to hit on the first run down, and what ones to have more looks at and do runs into. I rolled down the first rock obstacle, which was just a rock face. Cruised around the chicken line of the next two rock drops and dropped the 4th which was also the last rock obstacle. The next run down i did the same thing pretty much, but stopped and looked at lines and the 2nd rock obstacle and rolled down the 3rd rock obstacle. Pretty much the rest of my runs went something like that, while trying different lines through everything else and trying to go faster. Towards the end of the shuttles i went up with Cam, Amy and Bryn and did a track walk with them, discussing different lines and comparing lines. After the track walk i decided to up and do at least one more run to some of the lines that we talked about that were slightly different to the ones i was doing. Ended up doing two last runs. For the last run of the day i stopped at the 3rd rock obstacle and decided i was going to drop off it instead of rolling off it, and that i wasnt going to leave untill i got it. Ended up pushing up about 3-5 time before i hit it properly, then pushed up another 3 times to make sure i was all good on it. I then pushed up another two times a bit further back. Back to where the 2nd rock obstacle was so i could practice that a little bit more and also see what speed i came into the 3rd rock obstacle with and to also hit it a few more times. After that i just cruised down as that pushing up in the heat takes it out of you pretty quick. Hung around around at the bottom for a bit, having a drink and some food before heading back up to watch the 4x racing.The atmosphere at the 4x was non existent untill one of the two kiwis came down. Dan McCombie got 6th and Dan Franks got 2nd.

Saturday was practice day, with our practice in the afternoon and seeding after that. Practice was pretty good, hit the rock obstacle to flat (3rd rock obstacle) first run down, so pretty glad i hadnt hesitated and managed to hit it straight up after yesterday. Practice was pretty much the same as Friday, just trying different lines still and trying to work out what ones were faster. Had a bit of a break before seeding so sat on the last lots of shuttles. just before we all went up for our seeding runs, we got together as a group to remember a fellow rider, Dave Balderstone who passed away on the Monday before. Found out that Tom and Nick were going to be riding in Daves tops to give him one last run down the hill this weekend. This weekend we were all riding in memory of Dave. Was feeling alright going into seeding, wasnt too worried as i was doing everything i wanted to do, and wasnt crashing or struggling too much. Seeded first about a second in front of Sophie and 5 seconds off the fastest female elite which left in 2nd place over all for the females seeding runs.

Sunday was race day. First practice run down i decided i might give the hip jump at the at the end a go. Ran into it and decided not to do it that run, but that i was definately going to give it a go next run down. So next run down i hit it. I didnt fully make it, and was a bit surprised i actually managed to turn a bit off the lip and not ride straight off the track and through the tape upon landing. I pushed back up quite a bit to try once again. Got the hip all good this time, and went for the finial jump, but got on the pedals too late and braked too much after the hip so ended up casing the last jump a bit. But i knew what i did wrong and knew that i would make it, so once again i went back up to the same spot to try again. (this time Mildy pushed my bike up for me while i walked next too him and had a chat with him.) Had a bit of a break at the top, and went for it once again. This time i made both pretty easy, and knew i would be able to do them both no sweat on race run, but figured i should do at least one full run and do them without stopping so i could see if i would be in the right gear coming into them and if not, if i would have enough to change to the correct gear. The answer was yes i was in the right gear, or i was one gear too low and had more than enough time to change if i came in in the wrong gear. In memory of Dave we all wore black duct tape around our arms for race run. Sophie and I were first out of the gate. My run went pretty good, hit all my lines i wanted and remember where to change gears and how many to change and stuff. I did a one or two lines a bit slower than i would have liked, but i stayed on so wasnt too worried. I hit everything i had been hitting with no problems or hesitation. Came across the finish line with a time of 2mins 34.73secs which landed me with a 6-7 sec lead over Sophie making me 1st in the under 19 womens catergory. My time also held up against all the women elite riders, so i was the fastest women of the day, which i was pretty stoaked about.

National Champs - Dunedin 24-27/02/11

Thursday was the hill climb and dual slalom events. I flew down friday morning, so was not there for either events obviously. Like Christchurch we got a 7am flight, so once again required getting up at 5am. Robert was going to Dunedin to race and we were looking after him. Our rental vechicle was a Hilux, which was perfect, managed to fit the 3 bikes plus the bags easily into it (bikes were my TR450, my Double, and Roberts Giant). It was now off to the track to register and do some practice runs.

Once at the track we put the bikes together and registraed while we waited for Scott to turn up as he had my mud tyres, and you needed your muds for that track as it had be raining during the week, and it was pretty slippery. It was especially slippery in the bottom half of the track where it was hard enough to stay up right and on line without muds. The track consisted of the rock gardens for the top half, then into the tripple treat jumps and finialy into the slippery off camber stuff for the last third. Did a few runs down the track and i was struggling just like pretty much everybody else. The first main rock garden was a pain to do. You either had to go off the rock drop or go around it, which you couldnt really do as it was soo awkward and you couldnt uneven your pedals or they would drag along the rocks. I tried coming into the drop from different lines and angles but couldnt do it and also couldnt get going around it. This was my main problem for the whole week. The rest of the track wasnt too bad, just really really slippery and everyone i saw down the bottom third was sturggling just as much me.

Saturday was a full days downhill practice. Muds were still on the bike, but by the end of the day you were beginning to wonder whether to chuck drys on or not. The weather was holding up for the race weekend, and looked like it would continue to hold up. Practice pretty much went the same as Friday did. Dad showed me a different line into the drop in the first main rock garden that made getting into it a bit easier and predictable. I tried rolling off the drop without stopping on the top once but missed the narrow as bit which was the only place you could roll of it (it was just wider then your tyre) and landed on the rocks. After that i was a too hesitent to try it again so kept stopping, but my stopping time lessened and lessened through out the day.

Sunday was race day. Turned up to the track and decided to chuck a dry on the back and see how it went. First run down and it went good. better then i thought, so decided to also chuck a dry on the front. Once the dry was on, i went up for another run, and that was also a pretty good run. I wanted to do another run on full drys but they wouldnt let us as it was 'pro practice' even though one of the shuttles was partly loaded with non pro people. I thought that was kinda stupid especially since there werent even any pros waiting for the shuttles, or heading over. Seeding run came and went, it was a pretty average run. I stopped for ages on top of the rock drop, a lot longer than normal which i wasnt too happy about, also the rock garden section bit after the rock garden was quite slow. I took it easy down there as i saw the rider (Phoebe) in front of me, was pretty glad i took it easy as Phoebe ended up crashing towards the end of the rock garden. Rest of the run went pretty good, didnt really pedal as i was saving my energy for my race run.

Race run went pretty good. Was probably the best full run i had all weekend. Pedaled as much and as hard as i could where ever i could. Hardly stalled at all on top of the rock drop, got pretty much all of my lines as good as i had when i got them good in practice runs. Got the tripple jump set good, and started pedaling kinda forgetting about the jump afterwards. Ended up hitting the jump for the first time in race run and made it all good. The rest of the track went as planned. Both feet stayed on for pretty much the whole run, which was a first for the weekend, especially for the bottom third. Ended up winning which i was stoaked about. I finialy got a break and managed a good run and got 1st instead of 2nd.

SI Cup Round 3 - Christchurch 19-20/02/11

This track in my opinion was a pretty basic track really. The majority of it was on grass paddocks. The top of the track was a little tech and had a few drops. That was good until you got to the massive pedal bit, which was pretty hard to pedal as there were rocks sticking out of the ground which would be so easy for you to catch a pedal on. After that it was into the grass paddocks. the first bit was tech as it was off camber through some rocks for quite a bit. Then in was into the sweeping turns on the grass which lead into a forest section which was pretty fun and the entry into it was pretty hard to get fast. After the forest section it was into the paddocks again to the finish where you go through a little spread out rock garden.

Saturday was the day i flew down, it was also the day of practice. I woke up at 5am to get ready for my flight to Christchurch. Everything went smoothly apart from the man at the check-in deciding he was going to be the first person to sting us with the $50 overweight fee. Landed in Christchurch, got our rental car and headed straight to the race. I went and registered while dad put my bike together for me. Straight after we were both done it was time to head to the shuttles. It was a long, slow windy drive to the top. Made even slower by the numerous amounts of roadies. 1st run down was slow to start as we had to wait up the top of the hill for the marshals to get in place. Once they were in place people started to head down. My first 3 or 4 runs were slow stopping and looking at the track runs as i had not done a track walk or anything. After those runs i started to do full runs and tried to go faster. A little after lunch me and Scott decided to stop up the top where the two drops were and watch people hit them and decide whether or not we wanted to hit them. While we were watching someone crashed coming into the first drop and collided with my bike which was off the side of the track in a hole in the bank. He hit it just right too snap my derailure hanger. Me and Scott took my chain off and tied the derailure to the frame with some flax leaves so it wouldnt end up in my rear wheel while i rode to the bottom. Found a marshal with tape so taped it up for the last little bit of the track and met dad at the car to go head to the bike shops to see if i could find a new hanger. Couldnt find a hanger anywhere. Snowy from Beckenham Cycles offered to lend me his bike (a Morewood Izimu) and all i had to do was use my brakes as he didnt have any on it. I ended up having to take him up on that offer.

Sunday was race day. I managed to get 2 practice runs down the track on Snowys bike. It was way too big for me, the supension was way too hard for me and the seat post was .way to long so i had a seat in the way the whole time while riding, but it was better than not riding at all so i wasnt about to complain. Both practice runs went good enough for me on a different bike. Seeding went good enough and so did race run. Wouldve been a lot faster on my own bike though. was a lot more careful and slower on the Morewood then i was on the TR450 as i was worried about getting bucked over the bars from the seat being too high especially through the rougher off cambre stuff. Ended up 2nd place about 9secs behind Sophie.

SI Cup Round 2 - Nelson - Fringe Hill - 11-12/02/11

This race was a Friday and Saturday race. I wasnt going to do this race till about a week before when Carl decided that he was keen to go down for it. He decided to go down as he was down for the week at mine because he was coming down for Nitro Circus on the Wednesday. We managed to organise the trip in two days and book everything as well as getting Lloyd and Mark to come along as well. We left Thursday morning, all meeting at the Ferry terminal to load up Carls car and swap bike racks so we can take all four bikes. The ferry over was pretty boring, we watched a movie for a bit, walked around and gernerally did nothing for the ride over. Once at Picton we drove to Nelson and tried to find the place we were staying at. (We had forgotten to write down the address or take a map with us, we only knew roughly where it was in relation to last weekends track. Probly took us about 30mins to find it.)

Friday was practice day. It was a hot, sunny and dry day like pretty much every other day for the previous races (expect rotorua of course). First run down the track, and i knew i liked this track, and suited me much better than last weekends one, and i figured i should be able to stand a decent chance at winning. I did enough runs to feel comfortable enough with the track. I could never

remember the track off by heart tho, but roughly knew what coming ahead of me as i rode the track. This track was a different sort of techniqual to last weekends. this track was more tight and rooty while still be fast. this has also got to be one of the only tracks where there werent actually any jumps on it really. there were a few kinda float over the top ones but that was cos how the hill went, not because the builders felt like chucking a jump in. I prefer these sort of tracks to the tracks with jumps on them just for the hell of it.

Saturday was race day. I did two runs down with Carl to steal his lines in one or two places, then it was time for seeding. Seeding went good enough. made a few small mistakes here and there like always, i was happy with my run though. Didnt pedal down the bottom as i was planning on saving my energy for race run. Race run came and went horribly. Right from the get go i stuffed up. got off line in the first corner causing me too lose heaps of speed. Crashed not long after that from being frustrated, then crashed again because i was too busy trying to work out where i could make up extra time instead of paying attention. After the second crash i fully concentrated on the track ahead of me and it all went good apart from losing the rear in a corner after a step

up jump and ended up crashing for 3rd time. After the third crash though, i stop caring and just let go of the brakes, scaring myself for pretty much the rest of the run. Got to the bottom of

track where the pedaly bit is feeling pretty knackered and frustrated. Pedal as hard as i could all the way down the last bit. That had to be the hardest and most pedaling ive done in ages if not

forever. I ended up with a 2nd place 3 seconds behind sophie and 4 seconds off my seeding time. I was pretty angry at that result, as if i had only had 2 crashes i would've won. Stupid crashes

Sunday was the day that we drove back to Picton to catch the ferry back to Wellington. we were on a 10.05 ferry in the moring which ment that we had to get about at about 5.30-6 in order to

have breakfast and stuff and repack the car and load all the bikes on and drive to Picton to be in time for our ferry. We all managed to be up on time to do what we had to do and pack the car. that is everyone but Mark, who we had to wake up in the end. We left pretty much on time maybe a couple mins late, not that it mattered as we gave ourselves more than enough time to get to the ferry. Played a racing car game in the ferry arcade for what ended up being roughly have the trip im guessing, then spent the rest of the time resting or walking around or whatever else you do on a ferry.

SI Cup Round 1 - Nelson - Kaka Hill - 5-6/02/11

So this race was a Saturday and Sunday race. Me and dad flew down Friday avro/evening and rented a car when we got there. The track was the same track that we raced on last year for the Nelson round of the cup and also the same track as the nat champs track of the previous year. Nothing had changed over the years.

Saturday was practice day, we got there nice and early and waited for rego to open, once rego was open i geared up and waited for shuttles to start. The shuttles were a bit slow and unorganised for the first few runs at least, then people started to get into the hang of how to load certain trailers and stuff. Just like the previous years, i liked the top and bottom, but not so much the middle section. The middle section isnt really my sort of track. It was wide and open and lose, and was fast and all over the place and hard to stop if you started to let go of the brakes, which i didnt like. I was struggling to keep on line for the middle section no matter what speed, so decided to keep to the nice and slower side of the speed so i was more likely to stay on my bike come race run.

Sunday was obviously Race day. I did a couple of practice runs making sure i could remember the majority of the track, which i could. Seeding run came and went, i was pretty happy with it. Sophie ended up beating me by over 20secs which i wasnt too impressed by. Race run came and i managed to go a little bit faster, still no where near sophies time though. I was happy with 2nd place to sophie. wasnt too keen on the 20sec gap though. but wasnt too worried, as she was the better rider on the day and obviously deserved the win.

NI Cup Round 3 - Rotorua - 22-23/01/11

This race was a Saturday and Sunday race this time. The lines they used for this round were Team Line to Stepdown to a new bit cut straight ahead of Stepdown so you didnt have to go through the corners. After that it was just straight down Couch Chute then into Pimp Stump then down the last steep chute but entering it from the left. I reckon it was a pretty good track overall, lots of lines to pick throughout the track and it was fast.

Saturday was obviously practice day. It had been raining overnight, and was raining a little bit in the morning. I woke up and decided that it would be better to put muds on at Carls instead of doing it in the pits and risking getting unnecessary wet putting them on. So we left later than we wanted to due to putting muds on in the garage before we left. It was a good choice we made tho, as when we got to the bottom gate we found out that you couldnt drive up to the pits like previous races held there. We saw Robert there and he had registered with Lloyd and stuff as a team, and since the others were yet to turn up robert had room to take us up to the pits with him. First run of the track was a tad dodge. It was pretty slippery the whole way down. I decided to go off Team Line drop and ended up just sliding down and clipped a few stumps, managed to stay on though. Not entirely sure how tho since the bike didnt go where i wanted it to The rest of the track was pretty much the same the rest of the way down but not as steep, so had a bit more control. Throughout the day the track got better up the top and worse down the bottom in my opinion. Team Line got looser but faster and way more fun. drop after Stepdown got the run in and take all into a thick pile of slow you down slippery mud. Pimp stump got dodgier and dodgier with a rut forming, that i couldnt seem to avoid and caused me to crash into trees twice. Last chute was all good though. By the end of practice day the track was a complete mess. People were crashing all over the place i believe (or i was at least). The take off of the end jump had developed a rut that was causing people to be sent of it funny it made me come in very nose heavy and slowed me down, so i nearly cased the cased pad with my nose down. That was the end of practice day pretty much.

Race day came, and it had been pissing down all night. Me and Carl woke up, looked at each other and started wondering if the race was still going to be on, and tried to think of what we could wear in order to stay realtively dry. Carl finaly remember he had some we gear overall thingy and a set of pants and top that we decided we would wear. At this point we werent sure if the race was going to be on or not. Not long after trying the gear on to make sure it fitted, and Carl taped himself up to his overalls I got a txt from Kaytee saying that the race was indeed cancelled. At this point i was both happy but guttered. I wasntt looking forward to getting soaked and standing around in the rain all day, but i was keen to ride and have a go and was up for the challenge of attempting to stay on. After seeing a photo (see below) i saw why they cancelled the race

NI Cup Round 2 – Napier - 14-15/01/11

This race, like the Tauranga race was a Friday and Saturday race. I drove up with dad on Thursday about lunch time as Shaun was going to be doing some shuttle runs about 5.30, but that never happened. They had left the track building stuff to the last minute by the looks of things. They were still sorting out the 2nd to last jump and the scaffolding to go in between it. Dad and i arrived at about 5.30, and they were sorting out the scaffolding then, and we left a little after 8 and they were still sorting out the scaffolding. Since the shuttles werent going to happen i just hung around Kaytee and waited for Carl to turn up so i had someone to walk the track with, as everyone else there had already walked the track earlier. Cant remember when Carl turned up, mightve been about 7, but not sure. We walked up the track looking at lines and discussing them, then on the way back down i just looked at the lines again, and disscussed ones i wasnt sure on with carl and got his opinion. By the end of the walk i had a rough ideas of what lines i wanted to try to see what worked best and and an idea on what jumps i should be able to hit realitively easily and what ones i might struggle with.

So Friday was practice day. Just like Tauranga it was stinking hot, except unlike Tauranga there was a bit of shade in the shuttle line in the form of a single tree, which when you were under it, it felt a lot lot cooler, I swear i sweated more waiting for the shuuttle then i did actually riding. By the end of the day i had my lines pretty much sorted, and was doing all the jumps but 2. Wasnt doing one cos it was quite big and teh corner before hand that you needed to rail was getting a bit blown out and the other i didnt do cos it was a step up with a horizontal take off and i cant bunny hop that well.

Come race day i figured i wasnt going to win, but i was going to try anyway. I did two practice runs in the morning making sure i could still stick to my line in the steep dust bosl, which i could For seeding run i just cruised down and didnt bother pedalling up the top really as i wanted to say save my energy for race run. I got 2nd for seeding 7secs behind Maddy. Race run was pretty average as far as my runs went. I pedalled as much and as hard as i could, and i swear it was no faster but a lot more tiring. I got most of my lines well enough that i was happy. At least untill the end of the steep dust bowl section where i hit the rock and had to get off and drag bike vack to the side of the rock onto the track again. Rest of the run was all good. Was pretty Knackered by the end though. Ended up 2nd agian but this time 10secs behind Maddy.

NI Cup Round 1 - Taraunga - 07-08/01/11

This race was a Friday and Saturday race. Practice on the Friday and race runs on the Saturday. I had been crashing at Carls since just before new years so was getting a ride to and from Tauranga each day with him. Driving to Tauranga on Friday morning with the weather not looking too good, we relised half way there we didnt have any muds and was hoping that it had rained too much there and wasnt going to rain at all that day. We were lucky that the weather held off for the whole day and that it was dusty as. The track proberly woulda held up better if there had a been a bit of rain as by the end of the day the track was pretty blown out. The track was pretty much the same as the AKDH track used at the end of last year. The only bits that were different was a bit of retaining at the bottom of one of the steep chutes near the top and some dusty blown out corners after the middle jumps. And of course the end jump section starting with a massive stepup that claim two intense during the practice day. (one was an intense 951 that snapped at the head tube, another was a intense M9 that snapped by the bottom bracket due to too softer spring being used.)

Practice day went pretty good for me, not really any crashes as such. Got up the gutts to hit the big double in the middle after following Carl into it a few times. The jump was a lot easier that i first thought and im not sure why i was so worried about it. I had the track mostly sorted by the end of the day apart from the end section where i kept kinda whipping it out and landing funny on the 3rd to last jump out of a corner which made me to hesitant to hit the last two jumps. so i never got those sorted that day. I also couldnt find out a fast of getting over the step up without actualy doing it (there was no way i was gonna try and do after seeing heaps of the guys struggling to clear it (even some of the faster guys)).

Come race day i managed to get the bottom jumps sorted on the last practice run. On seeding run i had a pretty good run apart from up the top nearly losing it on a off camber line in the first steep chute. I just seemed to get bucked for some reason, Carl saw it happen and didnt know what happened and said the same thing happened to him, so at least i know it wasnt just me. Rest of the run was pretty good, i dont remember making anymore mistakes really. I hit all the jumps down the bottom apart from the step up obviously and the last jump as i cased the 2nd to last one and wasnt sure if i would make, i shouldve just hit it. I managed to seed 1st about 4 seconds ahead of Maddy Taylor. Race run went pretty averagely with a stall on a tree at the top of the second steep bit. went to get into the high line and front wheel slipped down just a tad below the tree causing me to lean and fall into the tree. Didnt come off though, so that was good. managed to carry on but nearly crashed trying to make up for time lost there and ended up on a low line when i wanted a high line which i was a bit guttered about. The rest of my run went pretty good apart from that, apart from at the end on the end jumps where i went around the last two jumps due to having a head wind and not wanting to risk crashing now. I ended up with a 1st place and took away $160 with it.

Full results here:
http://descenddh.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/2011-dh1-taraunga-results.pdf