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. :/ )