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.