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