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