IXS Swiss Cup Round 2 - Wiriehorn - Switzerland - 18-19/08/12

After completing the IXS race in Pila I returned to Morzine where I have based myself for this race season. The decision to go to Wiriehorn to race was a last minute thing as I have been reliant on others for transport. We arrived there late on Thursday night and I just grabbed a meal from what was available and slept on the van floor.

Friday rolled around and it was time to register for the event. I hadn't pre-registered due to the last minute decision to race but was lucky to find there were no difficulties with registering for the race. I was really looking forward to the event. Soon after registration I headed up the hill to walk the track. My impressions of this track were that it was going to be fast up top, a bit slower in the middle, then a big pedal and some more high to mid speed sections at the end. Practice runs went well. Got to know the track relatively well and was loving it by the end of practice. I was feeling confident on the track and couldn’t wait for seeding the next day to see how I was doing compared to the other riders.

I woke up Saturday and decided to have a bit of a sleep in since I was feeling good on the track already and didn’t want to overdo it in the heat. I did some practice runs later, with one of them a full run at race pace pedalling and worked out I could let go of the brakes even more in some sections. Seeding rolled around and I was ready to go. The track went by so quick that it didn’t feel like the 5 minutes that it took. I ended up seeding 2nd which I was pretty stoked with. With this in mind I was only going to be happy if my race run on Sunday was a sub 5 minute run - preferably a sub 4 minute 55 second run.
Sunday took its time coming around and again the weather was stinking hot. I opted for a sleep in again. I did a cruisey first practice run and was feeling a little bit all over the place on the bike so went for another run not long after. After the second practice run I was once again feeling on form. I then made the decision that that was all the practice I needed for the day as the track hadn’t changed since the previous day. However, I started getting an uneasy feeling about an hour after my 2nd practice run and started thinking I needed to do a 3rd run for some reason. Ended up going with my gut feeling and was pretty happy that I did, as I ended up getting a flat, not even half way down. After that the uneasy feeling went away and I could relax until race time.

For my race run I was aiming for the sub 4 minute 55 seconds as mentioned before and was feeling good. My run started terribly with blowing my feet off the pedals pretty much the whole way down the top 3rd of the track until I calmed down. I got to the pedally section and I was knackered, but hammered through it. Now it was just the last section to go. By now I thought that I was miles off my sub 4 minute 55 second goal. I was trying too hard and ended up crashing in the left hander, just as the track went into the trees for the final time. I was gutted. I came down to 2nd place with one rider left to race, which surprised me. I was only 1 second slower than my seeding time, despite the terrible run. Once Miriam came down into first, I ended up 3rd which I was stoked with, all things considered.

I would just like to take this opportunity to thank my sponsors Monster Energy NZ, Specialized Bikes NZ, Shimano and Fox Racing shocks for their support which has given me the opportunity to race this year in Europe. I will be back for another season next year. Also a special thanks to my friends/family for their support and all the other people who have helped me out this year. It is really appreciated.

IXS European Cup Round 4 - Pila - Italy - 05-05/08/12

One week after Val D’Isere was the Pila round of the European IXS Cup. We made the short trip from Morzine to Pila on the Friday morning to get there for registration and practice in the afternoon. We ended up getting to Pila quite a bit later that we intended due to the Van running out of brake pads and trying to get that sorted. After about an hour of going to different places to find the correct pads we decided to continue to onto to Pila and get the pads sorted on the way back. This decision was made because we couldn’t get the pads fitted till 3pm on Friday which would have meant that we missed all of practice that day and none of us wanted to do so. Once we got to Pila I registered straight away and started practice as quick as I could. The track was exactly the same as last year. Still had the silly bit that I didn’t like last year and I still didn’t like it. I was loving practice though as the corners are so mint to rail around. Did heaps of practice runs and was feeling good and having heaps of fun.

Saturday was some more practice and seeding runs. Today they (the organisers) decided to enforce the wearing of elbow and back protectors which caught a lot of people out including me. Ended up cruising down some random track to the bottom and getting a cut up tyre and taping that to my elbow for elbow guards and some cardboard for back plate. The weather had been sunny and hot up until today. Practice was dry and I managed to get down in my seeding run before the rain came, but the boys got caught in the rain and had to do seeding run in the wet having not ridden the track in the wet yet. Seeding run went alright, didn’t pedal as much as I could have and made a few mistakes. Ended up seeding around 10^th I think.

Sunday was race day. By the time practice started the track was fairly dry, there was the odd slippery wet bit but by the end of practice the track was back to being dry and nearly dusty in some parts. On my third practice run today my derailleur fell off and I lost the bolt which wasn’t ideal. Cruised down to the bottom on another track and took the bolt from Richos old broken derailleur and she was good to go. While ill was cruising down the other track the rain started to come back in. Once I got my bike fixed and ready to go I headed back up in the rain to get some practice runs in case it kept raining through my race run.  I was lucky and stopped raining towards the end of practice and didn’t rain again till after my race run. The track ended up being a lot drier than I thought so I took the top too careful but let the end hang out. Had a good run and finished 7^th which was alright. Was about 22 seconds of Florian Pugin which I’m pretty happy with.

WC Round 6 - Val d'Isere - France - 26-29/07/12

This race was another world cup round, this time held in France. Unlike the others practice day was on Thursday not Friday and Friday had become Qualifying day due to the XC races being held on Saturday at the same venue. So the DH race had nothing on Saturday and Race day was on Sunday as usual.

This race for me didn’t go to plan. Started off with my brakes not really working, so went and saw Shimano and they looked at them and said I needed new brakes, but they couldn’t sell me any. So I started worrying about what to do and came to the conclusion that I would just run my brakes how they were if I had to. My shifter on my bike was also broken so I hung around while they replaced that and a different Shimano dude came over and said they would replace my brakes for me for free but would need my bike for 1.5 hours. Because of this I decided to go do a couple of runs first since I had only done two by this point. Did another 2 runs and they weren’t good so I gave my bike to Shimano to get my brakes sorted. I got my bike back with enough time to squeeze in one more run and found out that my front brake now did absolutely nothing. It ended up even worse than my screwed up brake that I had on before they replaced them. So in total I only did 5 practice runs on the practice day, all of which I went slow as due to being unable to stop quickly or reliably. Went and saw Shimano once again and they told me it was probably because I had a old disc and new pads on and said if it still wasn’t working after a run tomorrow to come back and they would put a new disc on and some new pads in again.  After this I went and saw Fox Shoxs to get my forks serviced as there was rubbing on one of my stanchions appearing. After talking to the Fox guys earlier in the day and asking if they would be able to replace my stanchion for me it sounded like they wouldn’t as it was from a lack of service on my part. So when I got my forks back and saw that the stanchion was replaced I was pretty stoked.

After getting back to our accommodation me and hippy cleaned and scuffed up my disc and pads in hope of getting them working again. This all ended up being a waste of time as they didn’t really get any better. So come first thing in the morning when we got to the track I went and saw Shimano once again to get that new disc and pads put in before I even bothered heading up for a run. Once this was done my brakes were working better than they had been since I got over here pretty much. Managed to get in 2 practice runs before seeding which was alright, but kept braking too much and too hard.  I hadn’t got used to the feeling and power of the new brakes by qualifying so new that I just had to let go as much as I dared and hoped I didn’t crash. With this mind I tried to do that but kept grabbing my brakes too early into corners and nearly went over the bars a few times from grabbing a fist load of brakes. Not exactly idea. Ended up 29th worst placing ive had so far unfortunetly. So overall I am once again not happy with my results but at least my bike is now fixed and working better now because of it. Hopefully now that I have brakes that work properly ill be able to push myself further and trust myself and bike more.

Wheels of Speed - Willingen - Germany - 14-17/06/12

From Fort William we brought both George and Vero with us. Bringing Vero with us has made things a lot easier for us all once we got to Germany as she can speak German pretty fluently. Because of this we were able to get some pretty sick and decent accommodation for not too much. It also made our washing our clothes experience a hell of a lot easier as the lady was not happy to see us at first with all our washing. But once Vero got talking she came around and was happy to do it for us. Once we picked it up once we were done riding we found that she had not only washed it, but also dried and folded it for us. This was choice and more than we were expecting especially at 5-6 Euros each (especially considering last year I paid 2 Euros just to go a self service Laundromat to wash them only).

 Thursday was registration day with some practice in the afternoon. For me this was just a day spent on getting used to the track and checking out lines and not going fast. Friday rolled around and Vero and I did some runs with Tracey discussing lines and following one another. By the end of the day I was feeling pretty comfortable on the track and hitting all the jumps that I wanted to do; now I just needed to go faster. Overnight it must have rained quite a bit and continued to rain on and off throughout Saturday, our qualifying day. The track rode well in the wet apart from a corner on the off camber grass at the bottom which was a bit hit and miss if you got off line. Qualifying came up and I was feeling good and confident. My aim was at least a top 5. The run didn’t start off too good. Went through a puddle at the very top of the run which seriously limited my vision causing me to around the gap jump. By half way down the track all I could see was mud (wish I had taken a photo of my goggles at the bottom of the track). By this point I was wishing that I had some tear offs. Once I got out of the trees I whipped my goggles off but it made no difference as I ended up with so much mud and water in my eyes that they were pretty much shut and remained shut till I got to the finish line and found some clean clothes under my jacket to get the worst of the mud out of my eyes. I qualified 4^th which I was happy about since I didn’t hit any jumps and the other girls ahead of me did.

Race day the next day was the complete opposite. It hadn’t rained over night and was windy which dried the track considerably. Going up for 1^st practice run I thought the track would still be wet and muddy but it wasn’t. There was about one puddle on the track and I came down pretty much spotless. Did another few runs trying to get the run into one of the jumps I hadn’t done but called it quits after nearly crashing twice as it wasn’t worth it for me. Race run came around and for the first time in my life I did a warm up. I spent around 20-30 minutes warming up with Tracey and Vero before it was time to head to the start gate for my run. Between my last practice run and my race run the track had dried out heaps which I was not expecting. Between that and the warm up I came into things a lot faster that I had prepared for. Ended up overshooting to flat two of the top jumps which was pretty scary and clip a rock while pedalling but somehow managed to hold it all together and had a good run. Came down into 1^st place with 3 riders after me. Not sure what happened to the rider right behind (think she might have flatted?), but the lady behind her came down and bet me by around 0.2 of a second which looking back now I’m pretty guttered about as I know where I lost this time (over shooting the jumps and also clipping a rock while pedalling). But at the time I didn’t realise that I was this close to her and was stoked to get third, (Still am, but 2^nd would have been even cooler). Tracey came down into 1^st by about 7 or 8 seconds, and Vero ended up 5^th. Being up on the podium was pretty cool, got to do the whole Champagne shower thing which was pretty choice and fun. Ended up leaving the race with a box of chocolates and a 250 Euro check. Now I just have to work out how to turn the check into cash without losing any of it in the transaction...  

WC Round 3 - Fort William - Scottland - 07-10/06/12

The drive to Fort William was a long one. The boys did about 27 hours of solid driving right after we had finished watching the racing in Val Di Sole. After that we still had some driving to do but took our time. Once again we arrived at our destination early. Once again the boys opted to get another nights accommodation, except this time I decided to save some money and sleep in the Van. The place we were staying at was the Corran Inn which is in Onich right by the Corran Ferry. We were about a 10-15 min drive from the track. Thursday rolled around and we headed over to the track to register and do our track walk. During this time I caught up with Gabriela Williams from Cedric Garcia’s team (met her in Val Di Sole after Qualifying), and Vero as well. Once we were done with our track walk we headed back to our accommodation. Friday came round and I headed up the hill from some practice runs, bumped in Tracey Hannah on the way to the gondola so cruised down behind and crashed when I braked on a wooden ramp I forgot was there and went for a slide on my arse. Ended up with a graze on the side of my arse/leg but it was more embarrassing than anything. She ended up losing me about half way down the track when I stopped to look at some things and watch people do some of the drop/jumps. I did some more cruisey runs by myself just trying to get to know the track and get up to speed slowly. By the end of the day I was loving the track and feeling good. Saturday rolled around and with it came qualifying. I was still loving the track and felt as though I stood a good chance at qualifying. But once again I was outside the top 20. I was closer to the top 20 time wise but further away position wise. (At Val Di Sole I was 25^th and about 13 seconds off qualifying and here I was 26^th and about 9 seconds off qualifying.) I can’t work out what I’m doing wrong apart from being a little bit too careful. Hopefully between now and my next world cup I’ll get up to a world pace. Guess we will just have to wait and see till then.

WC Round 2 - Val Di Sole, Italy - 31/05/12-03/06/12

We arrived in Val Di Sole a day early so ended up getting some accommodation for that night as well and got our bikes sorted. The next day we cruised around in the morning doing nothing in particular till registration opened and it was time to walk the track. Registration was quick and easy unlike last year. During the track walk I discovered that the track had changed quite a bit from last year, with some new loamy sections that were obviously going to be torn to shreds come qualifying/racing time. After the track walk I knew roughly what lines I wanted to take to start with while I gauged the track and speed before I worked on my final lines. I started taking photos but gave up since there were too many people on the track to get a clear photo. Ended up getting a copy of Bryn’s photos that he took. After studying the photos during the evening I was looking forward to riding the track the next day. Friday was the first day of practice and I was loving the track despite the crashes on my first two runs. After these crashes I realised that I needed to tone it down a notch as the track was changing quicker than I could react. Come my last run down the track I had my lines pretty much sorted apart from one or two sections so decided to try and go a bit faster down the track. This turn out to be a bad idea as I ended up over the bars and screwing up my leg in the first rock garden which put an end to my run. I cruised down the hill slowly and somehow crashed on the bridge which killed my arm and made holding on to the bars kind of hard and pretty painful. Once I got back to our accommodation I had a shower and started loading up on anti inflammatory cream and some ibuprofen before I went to bed. Qualifying day I woke up with a pretty sore/stiff neck. Did 3 practice runs. First one I just cruised down looking for lines and bumped into Tracey Hannah so I looked at lines and discussed them with her and then did a run following her down. After that I did a run myself at a steady pace nonstop to see if I would be able to hold on with my arm. All was well and I knew I just needed to ride faster come qualifying time. Qualifying came and went and I had a steady run with a few near crashes but I managed to stay upright. I ended up in 25^th place (not a qualifying position) about 13 seconds off qualifying. Was pretty guttered and disappointed in myself and am pretty hungry to Qualify for Fort William this coming weekend.

Beginning of my 2012 Europe Trip

This year I have come over to Europe once again targeting the European world cups. Except this year I'm without my dad and with some fellow kiwi team mates instead, these guys are Richard Leacock and Bryn Dickerson. We flew out of Wellington at 7.30pm on a Friday the 25th of May (Wellington time) and arrived at Morzine at about 11.30pm on Saturday the 26th of May (Morzine time). All three of us have come over with 2 bikes and a suitcase and managed to get away with only paying $117.50 excess baggage which was pretty choice. Between arriving in Morzine and leaving for Val Di Sole we have built up our bikes, got the Van which we will be traveling in. Massive thanks to Jason and Amie Marsh for letting us use the van which is perfect for what we need and set up ready to go. Also we went for a play up Les Gets on Monday to get a little bit of riding on the big bikes before our first world cup race in Val Di Sole, Italy this coming weekend. Tuesday was spent mucking around and buying a little bit of food for the trip to Val Di Sole in the avro. We got as far as Torento (about 1 hour from Val Di Sole) and spent the night in the van. Not the most comfortable sleep ive had but better than nothing. The next day we played tourists andd eventually headed up to Val Di Sole where we are now going to be for the next 4-5 days. Tomorrow is rego and track walk, Friday is the first day of practice and I cant wait till its time to ride. I will chuck some touristy photos up in this post when i get a chance.

Oceania Champs - Rotorua - 9-11/03/12

Oceania’s is the final race of the New Zealand national mountain scene. I drove up to Rotorua on Wednesday after work so that on Thursday I could check out the Super D track on Thursday morning to decide if I wanted to race it or just solely focus on the dh and also to walk the dh track in the afternoon.

Thursday I ended up going out to lunch with my Nana due to it being her birthday. Afterwards I met Dave Hamilton to go ride the Super D track with him as he knew where it started and ended. Things ended up working out pretty well as while I was waiting at the gate for Dave, Steven Pattle turned up so I caught up with him while I waited for Dave. Once Dave turned up we decided to go walk the Downhill track 1^st as Steven had to go and do a quick bit of work on it. Dave dropped us at the top of the track and met us at the bottom. So I got my track walk in. After that we drove to the top of the Super D track with Steven driving the car to the end of track which was pretty choice as the hill to the top of the Super D track is pretty steep and a bit of a long push. I was glad that I had come up early and ridden the Super D track as knew before I reached the end that I wasn’t going to race it. I came to the conclusion that there was too much pedalling for me to enjoy it and that the Downhill was more important to me.

Saturday was a full days practice which I spent quite a lot of my runs following team boss Hendi just trying to keep up with him as it was my last chance to get him to pay for my flights. (We made a deal about half way through the season that if I bet him fair and square (i.e. he didn’t crash) he would pay for my flights to and from Europe) Unfortunately for me, he still bet me come race run on Sunday by the normal amount of roughly 10seconds. Throughout the day I felt I was on a good pace and feeling pretty confident I could take the win.

Friday was the 1^st day of practice but it was only a half day. I did a few runs today to learn the track and get the idea of where the track was going and how it rode and with what speed you came into sections. After the practice runs had finished I headed back up the hill to do another track walk. During this track walk I saw a couple of better lines that I hadn’t spotted in the previous walk. I wasn’t liking the track too much, not sure why. Might have just been because I was cruising because the next day I was loving the track.

Sunday rolled around and practice went good. Just after I got my last practice run in though it started to rain and the race began with trying to get tyres changed in timed for seeding runs.

All I can say is I’m glad Brian our team mechanic was there as I could not get the tyres on or off for the life of me. Went up for my seeding run on full muds only to find that it was not the right thing to do, as I was all over the place on the many roots on the tracks. After seeding I wanted to chuck drys on, but we decided to wait to see what the weather was doing. After talking to Hendi we came to the conclusion that cutting my muds down to half was the best solution. So I did that. For my race run I was a bit hesitant as I was worried about crashing on the roots after seeding

run. I was cautious on the roots, way more than I needed to be as I soon discover after it was too late. By the 2^nd half of the track I stopped being cautious and rode it like it was dry. Even though I was overly cautious on the top half of the track it still worked out good for me as I stayed up right and managed to take the win. NZ season now done and dusted and I’m undefeated in my first year elite. Pretty stoked and couldn’t have asked for a better season really.

NI Cup Round 3 - Napier - 24-25/02/12

The third and final round of the North Island DH Cup which is also the final round the NZ National DH Cup was held in Napier. I came into this race not being worried with what place I ended up as I was already Guaranteed the NZ National DH Cup overall and pretty much had the North Island Cup under my belt as well. My goal of this race was just to relax and have some fun on a pretty much new track. I came up on Thursday with team mate Richard. Once we got to Napier we headed to the track and did a track walk. On the walk up the track we found that it was quite slippery and that the track was pretty much new apart the usual bunch of pedalling at the top and the bit of track after road right at the bottom. The majority of the new track was off camber and looked fun to ride with quite a few around the place. It was going to be tricky to hold some of the lines if any rain was to happen over this race weekend. Once we got to the top we turned around and walked down looking at lines properly and found out that even in the short time we were up there that

the track had dried up a little bit. With an idea of what lines I was going to take and how the track was going to dry up throughout practice day the next day it was time to head to where I was staying.

Practice day came and went and I just kept cranking out the runs as I was just loving the track and having fun like I wanted. During the morning I was getting a bit sideways in some of the chutes but managed to stay right way up with my drys on while others switched to muds. My tyres were gripping pretty well on the off camber stuff and I managed to stay up on the high line, which I was pretty stoked on while others continued to fall off the line into the rut at the bottom. I did everything I wanted to do by the end of the day apart from one of the big doubles which I came to the conclusion that it wasn’t worth the risk for me.

Race day rolled around and I did two practice runs. On the first run I decided that I would give the big double ago. I followed one of the guys in and managed to make thankfully the first time. 2^nd time however on the following didn’t go entirely to plan. I got kicked funny off the takeoff and ended up with my front end down extremely low and hitting the backside of the knuckle of the landing with it. Thankfully with all my training in the off season specializing in this I managed to ride out of it much to my and spectators surprise. After this I decided that I would treat seeding like a practice run and give the jump another go and if I didn’t get it sweet as I wouldn’t do it in race run. Seeding run was good apart from the epic nose case on the big double that again I was lucky enough to ride out of. That was the end of the jump for me. I wasn’t going to risk it again as I had my fun and knew that I would knackered by then after all the pedalling that I would doing on race run. Race run came and went. I ended up 1^st again which I was happy with. Let’s just say next year I’ll be back and I’ll get that jump sorted (hopefully that track is raced again).

NI Cup Round 2 - Wellington - 17-18/02/12

Finally a race in my home town. This race was held on a Friday and Saturday. On the Thursday I went up and did a track walk then gave the guys a hand taping the track. Saw a couple of different lines that I had missed during the track walk that I saw while taping the track. What was supposed to be a 30min track walk turned into a 4 hour taping session.

Saturday morning we headed into Long Gully for practice day. Got there a bit later then I planned due to having a pick up a truck for shuttles. First couple of runs I semi cruised down and kept missing a couple of the lines that I wanted to do. I did a run following one of my mates and stayed on his tail and he ended up riding the line I kept missing so I ended up getting it managed to remember where it was for the rest of the day. The track wasn’t really a technical track of such. It was more about pedalling and letting go of the brakes. So throughout the day I just tried to let go of the brakes more and leave the braking till the end. Had a few sketchy moments but managed to hold it all together for the most of it. Practice was good and I was happy with how I was riding. While I was having a break in the monster tent Mildy came over and told me that 3 news would be here tomorrow and that they wanted to speak to interview me on Saturday and that they would ring me later today. After dinner they rang me we spoke for a bit and then said that I would see them tomorrow.

Sunday rolled around and the weather didn’t look too good from my house. Dark clouds over the area where I knew Long Gully was. The closer I drove to the track the darker it got. Thankfully it didn’t turn to anything and the weather just did the typical Wellington thing of being nice and windy. The 3 news people turned up a little bit before the seeding runs were starting. I talked to them off camera and got a lot of practice of putting my helmet on as they wanted to keep filming that for some reason. When it was time to go up for my seeding run, one of the ladies came up with and took some footage of peoples seeding runs and put a helmet cam on my bars looking at me (this footage wasn’t used). My seeding run went good. Hit everything how I wanted, didn’t make any mistakes and seeded first. Between my seeding and race run I got interview by the TV 3 News people and once that was done I headed up for my race run. My race run went alright. I pedalled more than I did in seeding but slipped a pedal a few times and make a few mistakes. Race run felt faster but because of all the little mistakes here and there it was only .01 or a second quicker than seeding. I took the win again though. And my TV 3 News interview was on the news that night.

TV 3 News link: http://www.3news.co.nz/Big-dreams-for-mountain-biker/tabid/415/articleID/243333/Default.aspx (click view video)

NI Cup Round 1 - Rotorua - 11-12/02/12

Finally the NZ MTB Cup moved to the North Island. The first round was held in Rotorua on a Saturday and Sunday. I flew up to Rotorua on Friday morning to be greeted by fellow team mates Bryn and Richard. We then headed to Argoventures where another fellow team mate Louis works. He gave us the hook ups on some of the things there. Bryn, Richard and I did the Swoop, Sweeb and Freefall while we were there. After that we headed to Louis’s house where we were staying for the weekend. Later once the boss Hendi got into Rotorua we headed up for a track walk. Not much time was needed at all for the track walk as it was a straight line for the majority of it and the fast lines were pretty obvious.

Saturday was a good days practice. The track was fast and smooth and open. A nearly complete opposite to what is normally run at Rotorua races. The lines that I had picked out during the track walk the previous days were the lines that I stuck to and appeared to be the lines that everyone else was riding. I did enough to get my lines sorted and to know where I could let go of the brakes and where I couldn’t. There wasn’t really too much to the track until you got to the bottom two chutes but they were the same as the NZDH round held there at the end of the year last year. Just had to pick my line, stay on it till I was in line with the exit then let go of the brakes. There was one thing I didn’t like during this race and that was one of the trailers. I couldn’t really get my bike on or off without some help of some sort at the least. After going on that trailer once or twice I tried to avoid it where possible.

Saturday night it rained which was a good thing as it didn’t rain too much. Just enough to make the track a little slipperier for the first few practice runs on Sunday. But by race run the track was back to being dry and was a bit tackier than Saturdays practice runs. My seeding run was pretty good apart from one encounter with a tree half way down Pimp Stump which then led to me having a bit of quality time with the ground. Race run I decided to take it a bit easier down Pimp Stump and be a bit more cautious which I was. Had a few close encounters to a few trees but managed to miss them all and came away with win. J

National Champs - Nelson - Fringe Hill - 27-29/01/12

Since it was national champs we had 1.5 days of practice and then race day. Friday was the half day of the practice. I flew in Friday morning and landed just before the first lot of shuttles had started. By the time I had got to the track and got ready and everything I had probably missed the first hour of practice. Unfortunately the turn around for runs was about 1hr and there was only 1 wave of transport going instead of the 2 alternates that are normally run at races. I managed to get 3 runs in though which I was happy with. After practice was finished we went up as a team and did a track walk but there weren’t really that many lines that weren’t obvious/the main line. After the track walk I got the boys to drop me off at the Super D so I could have a go at racing that. Probably wasn’t the smartest idea and was considering dropping out after doing a run of the track due to the stupid amounts of pedaling, and also because of my huge amounts of unpreparedness. (I raced it on my little bike with street tyres and a front brake that pretty much went into the bars). I decided to stick it out though since I was only doing it as a bit of fun and had already entered. Got my two practice runs in and was looking forward to racing it apart from the uphill. I pretty much died on the uphills, but was feeling good on the downhills until I got a little off line coming into an off camber section and ended up in a tree. Ended up 3^rd place in the open women which I was pretty stoked on. Was feeling a bit better about racing the downhill on Sunday as I figured I had now gotten rid of my race run crash.

Saturday was a full day of practice but I only managed 4 runs which I wasn’t too keen on as I hadn’t made up my mind on some of my line choices or kept missing lines due to coming into sections too hot. Don’t think I managed a run without a crash of sorts or at the minimum a stuff up. On my 4^th run down the hill I stopped and looked at one of lines I kept missing and realised that I needed to slow down coming into it and take a bit of a different angle into it. I was planning on doing a 5^th run to try it out and just focus on making a decision on what lines to take, but the team boss told me to not do anymore runs. I now decided I had to make up my mind on my lines from the team tent and remember them for Sundays practice runs. Despite this it was a good days practice as I didn’t over do the runs and managed to hit the step down that I needed to do and was feeling pretty comfortable and good on the track apart from the few places mentioned above.

Sunday practice runs went good. I was feeling good and hit all the lines I had wanted to do yesterday. 1^st run down I took it a bit slow just fully focussing on getting my lines as good as I could and doing a full run. 2^nd run I did the same again but tried to hit them faster while trying to keep up with my main competition and biggest rival this weekend Harriet Harper. After doing that run with her I knew that I was going to have to put it all on the line if I wanted to walk away with the win. Seeding run came and went and it was a pretty mint run apart from a stupid crash for no reason in the 2^nd corner of the track, getting caught behind two riders in front of me and having to follow the first for ages as she wouldn’t pull over and ended up having to pass her on a jump and then crashing while trying to overtake the 2^nd person not long after. Ended up about 50 seconds behind Harriet and somehow in 2^nd place. I was feeling a bit more relaxed coming into race run and knew that as long as I kept it upright and went a bit faster I would stand a chance at taking the win. (Figured I had lost about 30-40 seconds overall due to the two crashes and getting caught behind people.) Race run came and went pretty painfully. I gave it everything and lets just say I nearly lost it a few times but managed to hold it together. Was pretty much dead by the time I reached the bottom. Sitting and waiting and staring at the timing board waiting for Harriet to come down and see her time was pretty nerve wreaking as I knew I had made a few mistakes but had done the best I could. Ended up winning by about 3 seconds which I was well entirely stoked on as I wasn’t expecting to win at the start of day. So for now I still remain undefeated in the Elite Womens field which I hope to keep that way.

SI Cup Round 3 - Christchurch 20-21/01/12

I never had any intention of racing this race due to lack of money. But after the 2nd race of the SI Cup in Dunedin, was offered a spot on the NZ Monster Specialized team since one of their riders (Cam Johnson) had injured themselves in the 1st race of the SI Cup in Queenstown. It just so happened that he was the only rider on the team that rode a small and all his kit and gear was the size as what I normally wear while racing.

I flew down to Christchurch after lunch on the Thursday and Hendi picked me and we went back to his where we waited for Louis to get in on his flight that came in a couple of hours later than mine. Once Louis was picked up we carried on to Methven where we checked into our accomodation and then headed up to teh track to do a track walk. Brian (the teams mechanic) dropped us (Louis, Richard, Hendi and Me (Bryn was joining us later as he was still making his way up from spending the weekend in Queenstown with some mates)) at the top. The top of the track was pretty much all just one line and was essentially a freeride track. Fast and flowy with some decent size jumps. All the jumps looked like if you made the one before you would make the next one and so on. I knew I would easily beable to do them all if I could just committ to doing them. The track then entered some trees just before you crossed the road to the get to the end of the track. In the trees the track was a quite a bit slower and off camber. The track ended with a drop and jump.

Friday was practice day. Since I was on a new and completely different bike I headed up as soon as I was ready to try and get used to the bike. First run down I just cruised down and hit one of the smaller jumps and knew straight away that I would be hitting all the jumps. The Specialized just seamed to jump itself. Didnt even realize I had a done a jump. By the 6th run I had hit all the jumps including the bottom drop and jump and big Step up about half way down the track. Now it was just time to work on my consistency on the end drop and jump. The drop was realively easy to get wrong and the jump very easy to overshoot. By the end of the day I had the track pretty much sorted and was getting pretty close to getting the end drop and right everytime.

Saturday was race day. I managed to get 2 practice in before practice closed. Through out the day two people got helicoptered out of the track both after getting the end drop wrong. The first person ended up with 2 broken legs, the femur on one leg and the tibia and fibula on the other leg. Seeding run was good and I was happy with how it went. Didnt pedal as hard and long as I should have and decided to save it for race run since I knew i already had the overall and it wouldnt make much of a difference to me if I didnt win the seedings. I won the seedings and feeling good for my race run. With a long wait up the top for our race runs after the 2nd person went down on the end drop just after the last couple of under 19 males and the first couple of elite females had left the start line. This caused 4 people to need a rerun. There was a long delay while we waited for the injured rider to get sorted out and for the rerun riders to make their way back to the top. Again like my seeding run I was happy with how it went. Hit all the jumps and all my lines and gave it everything.

Since this was the last round of the South Island Cup and I had won all the seedings and race runs at each of the 3 races I easily took the overall.

I would just like to thank bicycle.co.nz for their support over the past couple of years and also to Hendi (Darryn Henderson) for putting me on the Monster team and the team mechanice Brian Tindall for keeping the bike running mint. I would also like to thank the Monster team and their sponsors: Monster Energy, Specialized Bikes, Fox Racing Shox, Troy Lee Designs, Oakley, Shimano.

SI Cup Round 2 - Dunedin - Signal Hill - 13-14/01/12

Thursday night it rained and I was guttered as to wake and find it wet outside and still raining. I could tell from yesterdays track walk that the track as gonna be hard to ride in the wet. I waited till about lunch time before i headed up for some runs in the hope that the rain would stop, but of course it didnt. First run down the track wasnt too bad. The top bit of the track out in the open was rideable but a bit slow and boggy and the top half in the trees was rideable but about half way down through the trees I was having a hard time staying upright. The track got harder and harder as the day wore on. I did a few runs with my mates and could either lose them or keep up with them in the top bits of the trees but they would lose me in the bottom part of the trees due too my numerous amounts of crashes in always the same spots. In what ended up being my last run I crashed in a place I hadn't crashed before and caught my knee on a rock so called it quits before I damaged myself anymore. I was a bit guttered about that crash as I was getting pretty close to nailing one of the bits I was having trouble with. (I was now able to ride to the bottom of the chute only to slip over at the bottom, compared to slipping sideways halfway down the chute like I had been).

Saturday rolled around with extended practice since practice had started late and finished early yesterday. First run down I got a few nice surprises which I guess everyone got. The track

builders had been up the track doing some work to make it more ride able in places and thankfully it was the spots I had been struggling with the most. I was pretty happy with these changes and just had to make sure I remembered the entry points to them. After quite a few practice runs It was seeding run time. I was last down in the Elite womens field due to winning the last round only to find out Justin Leov was starting right behind due to him not racing the 1st round. Lets just say I was pretty nervous and scared about that especially since he only wanted a 1 min gap between him and me. Thankfully we got a 2 min gap. I was pretty happy with my seeding run apart for a really close over the bars which I managed to kind of ride out of. After that it was waiting around for race run and trying to decide whether to change to drys or not.

I came to the conclusion of sticking to drys as the track was still a bit went in places and I dont like changing tyres. Not long after making that decision I was glad I didnt change to drys as rain clouds started to come in. the rain didnt start untill the end of the Under 19 Mens field and carried on through all of the Elites. My race run was pretty average. It was more slippery out in the open than i thought and nearly had a few close encounters with the ground but managed to hold it together. Once i was in the trees I thought it would be like seeding as i figured that the rain wouldnt have gotten through the trees much. But I was wrong... While the ground had dried up and compacted through out the seedings and earlier race runs the rain had now made that hard ground slippery and it was even harder to stay upright. I had a few crashes and tripped over a few times. Managed to still take the win despite the shocking run.

Otago Daily time article: http://www.odt.co.nz/sport/mountain-biking/194490/mountain-biking-atkin-shows-elite-rivals-slippery-downhill-course I need to work on my interviewing skills..... (Note to self, think of what you're going to say and how it will sound. :/ )

SI Cup Round 1 - Queenstown - Remarkables - 8-9/01/12

Thursday before the race was spent making the 12hr drive from Nelson to Queenstown (I was already in Nelson for a family holiday which worked out good). For this Queenstown race and the following race in Dunedin I will be traveling with Ricky Pincott. Ricky did the most of the driving. Driving the first 9hrs with a small stop for lunch while I drove the last 3 hours. Once we reached Queenstown we checked into the campsite and pitched up our tents where we would be staying where we would be staying.

The next day we headed up to the track to do a track walk. We were only allowed to walk half the track due to the farmer whose land the 2nd half of track was on didnt want people on it due to his stock still being on it. Even after only walking a little bit of the track, I could tell the track was going be more fun that I originally thought it would be after watching a video of the track earlier in the week. The track was mainly off camber grass and off camber corners. There were a couple of steep chutes with berms that were sure to get blown out after a couple of hundred riders and been down the track. Once we had finished our track walk we back to where the Monster/Specilized team was staying to grab my new forks (Fox 40s) off them. (Hendi had sussed me out some new forks due mine cracking at a club series race a week ago). Once I had picked up the forks and thanked Hendi it was back to the campsite to put the forks on my bike and get it all sorted. Once that

was finally done I headed out to Wynyard to catch up with some mates and do some jumps while testing out the new forks. Have to say, the jumps were bigger than I thought they would be and the forks were definitely up to my standards.

Saturday rolled around and practice started. Track was a little dusty but pretty grippy at the start of the day but as the day grew on the track tore up, braking bumps became holes, berms blew out, and the steep bits turned to dust bowls. It was pretty much impossible to follow anybody down the track unless you didnt mind not being able to see a thing in front of you. I did most of my runs by myself, trying different lines and different entry speeds and what not. About half way through the day did a few runs with my mate following me to tell me where I was slowing down too much. Turns out I wasnt slowing him down too much and just needed to start entering sections of the tracks a bit faster, so I worked on that for the rest of the afternoon till practice finished.

Sunday was race day. I managed to get 3 practice runs in before practice finished. I was feeling

confident about how I was riding and new that if I could just hold my runs together like I had been during my practice runs I would have a pretty good chance of winning. This year was my first year out of junior so I went into Elite with Vero and a new chick from the Uk called Harriet. I had no idea how fast Harriet was so knew I had to give it everything. I gave my seeding run everything I had and was pretty stoaked on how it went, got a bit lose and drifty up the top but managed to hold it together to take out first spot for seeding in my category and also out of the girls all together. Now I knew I just needed to do the same again and hopefully better to take out the win. I pretty much did an identicle run with a few bits where i made some mistakes while also going a bit faster in some bits as well. But overall my race run time was on the same second as my seeding run time. With my time I took out the Elite Womens grade and bettering all the other girls times as well which i was really happy with. And too top it all off I managed to beat my mate who ive been trying to beat for about 2 years now by about 4 seconds. Really couldnt have had a better start to the National season.