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