FESTIVAL OF CYCLING WIN!

Well I scored another Festival of Cycling podium but this time I was on the mountain bike rather than the road bike, last year I got a 3rd placing in the NZ Criterium Champs.

Saturdays win was a cool feeling, a new bike, a new sponsor, new motivation and desire to achieve my goal of being the best cross country rider in NZ. It was really cool having the Bergamont guys, Phillip and Peter watching the race and seeing their bike in full flight and I am sure seeing their bike win was a cool moment. for them.

I only decided to race a few weeks ago after my brother approached me about getting sponsorship from Bergamont, he asked me if I could win on the FASTLANE TEAM and I had a short one word answer..YES! Prior to this discussion I was happy riding my bike for fun over racing seriously but this opportunity got the spark going again and bang I was into it!

The week leading up to the race I was pretty confident I could win and I only wanted to win for the Bergamont crew especially with the brand being new into Christchurch and NZ so this was the perfect occasion to get the brand known.

The feild was pretty strong and there was one on form rider called Anton Cooper who could be dangerous if he held on up Rapaki plus a few recent NZ representitives. Richard Anderson set a mean pace up Rapaki which I was struggling to hold but I went through the pain and stuck to him as good as I could . After the Castle Rock descent I had to start thinking about how to get away from Richard because he was climbing super well and descending fast..but..I had more knowledge of the trails than him so I attacked him into John Britten trail and got a small gap which I held most of the way down to the tarseal. Richard had a small mishap which helped me gain a few more seconds that I wanted leading into Sumner and from there I drilled it in my biggest gear to victory by round 20secs. Anton Cooper got a comfortable 3rd placing, both Richard and Anton are the riders for the future and great to be on the podium with them both.

From here I am into training mode for the first round of the NZ Cup at Living Springs, Christchurch. I have raced on this track before at the South Island Single Speed Champs and loved the course. Look forward to it and aim to be on the podium once again.

Train hard and enjoy.