Im back!! A married man!!

Well what a blast! Bex and I got back from our honeymoon which we had up in Kerikeri staying in a cottage on a small farmlet overlooking the Kerikeri inlet, it was amazing waking up to the views each morning. The bikes were left behind for a change so we made the most of our running shoes with a few runs and exploring missions round the area before hiring a car to explore the region over the next 4 days and then driving down to Auckland to fly home. We got out for a really nice kayak up the inlet out towards the coast to a area called Wharau which took us about 2hrs of paddling plus a few stops to do some fishing from the kayak. Bex had a few small bits but I hit the jackpot and cauht a small snapper..wohoo! I hadn't been fishing since I was about 10yrs old , I quite like fishing but I am not into going any further with them so that can be someone elses job..I will quite happily eat it though!

I've had a nice break from the racing and now I am definately getting that urge again to get racing! I have an addiction for searching the race calanders and finding a race to do somewhere in the country or in Australia, I have a plan which will take me to June then from there if it works out I will be hitting the local cyclocross race series in Wellington plus a few weekends up on the mountain.

The most exciting part is that I will be getting on my new 2010 Bergamont machine, I am yet to decide if I should stay on the Fastlane Team full suspension or go to the Platoon Team carbon hardtail? I have heard from alot of people this season that I should be on a hardtail because its faster? But for me..I go fast when I am enjoying the bike I am riding and this season the Fastlane Team has been a brilliant bike to race so my decision is heading that way again..or will it? WATCH THIS SPACE!!

Hope everyone is keeping fit and enjoying themselves. Catch you on the bike soon.

Free Time

For me the 2010 summer racing season has finished, well it actually finished after the Karapoti Classic. I have kept the riding to a minimum with a few days a week riding to and from work and aswell some running in the hills which I really enjoy.

When I look back over the seasons results I am completely happy with how the season has gone, only last December I was ready to put racing on hold and do..well..I didn't get that far but thanks to Bergamont I got the flame burning for yet another season of racing. I had three big goals for the season, 1: win the NZ Cup Series 2: win the NZ Champs and 3: win Karapoti. I achieved the first goal and finished 2nd in the other two, I am more than happy with those results. This year for me was a very consistent season, my attitude was relaxed, I had fun with my training and trained alot less with more freshness coming into each race, also my job is really enjoyable and I actually enjoy going to work now. My boss is Wellington Saloon Champion (speedway), we get on really well and I guess we feed of each others achievements.

Bex and I are two weeks away from getting married, this is pretty cool, racing and getting results is a good feeling but I reckon when we hear the words "you may kiss your wife" I think that will topple the results I have achieved this year. I look forward to that moment.

I have a few different events planned through May. I am training fot the CrazyMan Duathlon in Wellington on the 1st May, this includes a 13km run from Eastbourne over the Wainuiomata then a 33km mountain bike along the fire breaks to Upper Hutt. The 2nd event is the Mt Isobel Challenge in Hanmer on 22nd May, this is an 8km uphill run then a 25-30km mountain bike down to Hanmer. I am looking forward to these 2 events and I have already started my running training up in the hills behind our flat in Ngaio. Bex is also booked herself in for Mt Isobel also and maybe the CrazyMan.

Hope everyone is enjoying whatever they have been doing.

Another win bounced past me....

Karapoti..I put this race in the same category as the Tour of Southland. A race everyone wants to do but how many actually enjoy it? I’ve raced Karapoti before but haven’t had the enjoyment until this year, my 2 previous attempts haven’t made it to any newspaper articles! I first came to this event way back in 1994 when I was 12 and raced the 20km and finished in the top-20.

This year I came to Karapoti “wanting” to race and in my pre-ride I actually enjoyed it but still thought it was just one mongrel of a bike race..it just is..it’s a true old school mountain bike race. When I got in to the sport that’s what we rode on our fully rigid beasts bouncing round like pogo sticks on a sugar high.

I dislike cold water a lot and even get goose bumps jumping into a warm shower so running through a river at the start of a race at 10 o’clock in the morning isn’t on my list of favourite things to do!

The pace was pretty quick up the gorge with big rig Tim Wilding riding like he had a motor on his bike, Mark was putting in his grunt as well. This pace saw myself and a group of round 5 other riders slip away and we stayed together until the “warm up climb” which split the group. Stu, Tim, Anton and I got into a good rhythm, managing a small gap over the others and as the climb went on Tim and I tussled our way to the top with a small lead over Stu. From the top of Deadwood to the Rock Garden, Stu and I were fighting to stay with the flying Tim who eventually hit his powerband twitch and was gone. I was in 2nd and knew I had to pin it to hold this spot because on this course you just never know how far riders are behind you. At the top of Dopers Tim had round 2mins on me so for the last part of the race holding 2nd was the priority.

Coming out of the Gorge on to the road section I saw a hunched over Mark chewing on his bar to reel me in. Hitting the river I went too far to the right and found myself not touching the ground and had to doggy paddle for a bit to resurface and get motoring to the finish line. Quite an experience for a non-swimmer like myself! I held on and it was a great feeling crossing that line!

Mark didn’t bother with a swim at the end and came through another 9 seconds after me. Anton ended up having a superb ride, coming in 4th, just a tad over 2 minutes off the Junior Record, I’m sure by the time he’s finished Junior he could quite possibly have his name on both records? As the event doubled as the NZ Marathon Championships I take claim to 2nd for the Elites and Anton took the Junior title for this. Stu rolled in to finish 5th after a puncture up on the Boulevard.

Great race all round – Karapoti and I are now even thinking about becoming facebook friends now that we have found out we quite like each other!

Congratulations to Tim, brilliant ride and great to see him take out another big event. To those who rode Karapoti well done for finishing and even cooler the “always working hard and not leaving time to ride her bike” Bex took 23mins off her last years time!

Closer..but not close enough in 2010

My new home town Wellington was the perfect host to the NZ MTB Cross Country Nationals this weekend.

The weather was in fine form, the track in perfect form and my legs were in even better form. Big cheers to the organizers, this was one nationals track that tested!

I knew it was going to be good, my plan was to be at the front and stay there...more importantly not to let any of the big hitters get a gap. This plan worked for a while with Mike Northcott, junior Richard Anderson and myself gaining time on the other riders on the first lap. This grew throughout the race. Mike was on fire but I did what I could to match him and let him know I was going to be the one to beat today. But he was on form too and he gained a little here and a little there, getting a gap of round 25 seconds, which slowly grew to 55 seconds then to 1min 10secs at the end. Not part of my plan! When this happened I was still feeling really good and giving it gold, but Mike was just faster and stronger, in mountain biking it’s simple...the fastest rider wins!

The remainder of the race I had a good tussle with young Anderson who was having a cranking race and won the U19 comfortably. This race was by far the best I have had all season, in my own form and in the competition around me. The second step on the podium was well earned and for Bergamont a big start to a big venture in New Zealand, for a brand new to NZ in 2009 they have already got people talking! Maxxis Tires were part of my success today also, it is great to have their support this season. Claiming 2nd place at Nationals twice in a row shows the consistency in racing form which I have built to.

It’s completely exciting to be part of the scene right now, there are so many up and coming juniors who are biting at the elite riders heels, keeping the effort and race tactics fast and honest. Age and experience are still the trump cards, not just on race day but in preparation and training.

Thanks to all the people who came out to support, although I can’t always pick out faces from the blur trackside I hear the voices of support, clapping and cheering. In the weekend at both Mt Vic and then on Sunday round the short course the crowd were really getting into it. Quite cool to hear heaps of people yelling out my name!

So as always it’s a quiet Monday night, time to chill out, recharge the batteries for a couple of days then look the next challenge straight in the eyes...Karapoti. A race I’m convinced people love to hate! It’s never been a good one for me, but after a sweet run through a couple of weekends ago it’s time to bite the bullet and get the mongrel out! Best wishes to all those taking on this challenge, whether you get round at race pace in contention for the podium, or get out there and finish it is a massive achievement.

Show Down in Vegas!!

Series win on the line, 2 riders eligible and ready to win…showdown in vegas!

I won the 2010 NZ MTB Cup Series. This was one of my goals for the season, added to the South Island Cup win - two titles which I’m stoked to have grabbed.

No time to dwell on it though, it’s all just a warm up with the real goal next weekend…Nationals…something I have wanted since my second placing in Nelson last year. And by being part of the racing this weekend in Rotorua the stage is set for an exciting and fast day on the slopes of Mt Vic!

I rocked the Maxxis Aspen tyres this weekend which had literally just turned up at my doorstep – mint for the rotovegas track which was bone dry and fast. It took every advantage to stick with the locals in their turf! The field was cranking with all the strong Elite riders in the country showing up.

I rode the start like a bit of donkey, it was an uphill tarseal climb and by the top I was sitting about 14th. My thoughts headed towards “no way my legs can’t be this bad”. A couple of years ago a bad first lap would have seen me pull out as if I wasn’t at the front I thought I wasn’t in it. I’ve had a huge head change in racing since then and know that there is plenty of time to work the crowd if I can keep my head positive. So I kept calm and started to feel to fire burning by the end of the lap. Lap 2, my legs hit overdrive mode and I had a stormer up the tarseal climb, moving from 12th to 4th in the space of 300m and going uphill like a rocket. I managed to get within 10secs of the 3 leaders..perfect. I was back in the race!

From here I had a real battle with Carl Jones (Bergamont) and Stu Houltham for 3rd spot. I got a gap on Stu and was tussling with Carl for the last few laps. At the end of the 5th lap he attacked my in the singletrack and I just couldn’t follow his wheel. I pulled a small amount of time out of him up the main climb but his local knowledge of the singletrack tested me and I had to settle for 4th.

This round was about the racing, not necessarily the result – it’s put the legs and head in the right space to attack it next weekend in Wellington.

Wicked to be part of the Bergamont crew – we’ve had a huge start to the season results-wise along with being part of an exciting brand introduction to NZ. In every cup race, North and South Bergamont has hit the podium, in most we’ve rounds we’ve hit the podium steps twice or three times.

Bergamont riders have claimed the South Island and North Island Cup Series. Bergamont has taken the 1-2 in the Elite Men NZ Cup Series, myself and Carl taking prime positions. And Katie O’Neil is representing for the girls and doing it well with the NZ Cup Elite Women title as well as 2nd in the North Island Cup…..Bergamont is dominating!

Rocky Road!

Bikes are washed, washings done, another good weekend on my pedallies!

I hit up the local road scene on Saturday, howling winds didn’t stop the Wellington roadies. The interclub race took us all over the Miramar Penisula…..one minute we were heading round the coast at 40k an hour, next minute it was an almost stand still coming round into one of the bays, 16k and slowing quickly. A mad race, with a hill finish. I started on scratch with 4 others, that soon whittled down to two. Myself and Andy Hagan battled it out, I knew he would be a tough fighter on the climb. He proved that he was ready to pounce, but I had the head tuned in and was ready and waiting. Despite not knowing exactly where the finish was I was able to put the power down at the right time to finish just ahead of him taking fastest time and second overall.

Great to be able to get some time in my calendar to race local road races, nothing like getting the Bergamont Dolce 4.9 out there in full force. Pretty sure some of the race goers are still laughing at my Compact Tiagra but it’s been said before and I will say it again…..it’s not just about the bike. Sure I would love to be racing some light fast wheels and carbon but for local racing the Bergamonts got it covered.

Sunday was an early start out on the Karapoti track for a reccy. It’s never been a good race for me. My plan was to go out, ride it hard and give myself a confidence boost knowing that I’ve ridden the course at near race pace after a good dose of rain. The Maxxis Monorail front and Larsen TT rear was a good combo…..for a dryer track! I’ll be looking to run the Maxxis Advantage if the track gets any more rain otherwise will be sticking with this combo. It was pretty slippery out there, but the first and last climbs have been smoothed out which is likely to make for a record breaking Karapoti time on the day if anyone has got the goods.

So it’s full steam ahead for the weekend up in Rotorua now, race day Saturday. Looking forward to hitting the forest again, love the vegas tracks!

From backyard beginnings….

Somehow I managed to get myself roped into riding back to the Picton ferry with Bex at the beginning of the week, she had ridden out to Nelson on Friday through all the thunderstorms! The return trip was far less eventful weather wise although the legs were a bit had it after the weekends racing.

This should have set me up for a quiet week of spinning but I couldn’t resist hitting it hard a couple of times, adding extra hills to my normal commute. It hasn’t really benefited me as I spent the weekend feeling rather lazy and not going near my bike. It’s a bit of a reflection of the effort that’s been put in over the last month, the body was ready to have a weekend off racing, the travel and the need to be somewhere at a certain time.

A crazy Wellington weekend, hugely hot and deadly still on Saturday followed by an early winter on Sunday left me time to have a think about the times that got me started in cycling.

I grew up on a small block of land in Wanganui behind Virginia Lake where me and my brothers (Craig and Nathon) spent endless hours building jumps, challenging each other to ride up the steepest hill, making jumps at the tops of the hills and jumping down them, building cyclocross hurdles and doing time trials on the motorbike. It wasn’t all fun and games with the yearly planting of pine trees to sell as Xmas trees which funding our racing.

Our paddock became a bit of a hang out for the local club riders, we had skills days, cyclocross races and eventually Mum and Dad organised a kids series for under 12 year olds called “Kiwi Kids Mountain Biking”. These started out to be 10 kids having fun to about 80 kids wanting to win over a near 10yr period! Not many people know but this series was the start of many champions, Sam Blenkinsop, one of the best Downhill riders in the world, Jono Hamlin (multiple NZ Track Cycling Champion and now Motocross rider) and Glen Haden (multiple NZ Downhill Champ and now Motocross rider) to start with a few names!

I was super excited when I found out I could ‘race’ a bike. It all started in 1986 when Craig and I rode BMX in Wanganui at the local BMX races in Castlecliff, at the time I was getting laughed at because I was always last on my little blue chopper! I turned up to my first road race when I was 12 on my Mtb bike and raced well but knew I could go faster on a road bike. Brent Anderson who looked after the younger riders said to he wanted me to use a club road bike to see how I went which at the time was a weapon! A white and blue Tarini with tubular tires and old shimano 600. I raced that for 3 years and treated it like my own bike. It got a good clean each Saturday morning so it was sparkling for the afternoon race. Not quite as fancy as the younger riders these days are getting, but damn it looked clean! The following year I got into Track Cycling on the old 500m Cooks Gardens Track before it got pulled down.

I really enjoy going back to the Wanganui Club and racing every now and again, the club was very supportive over the years and there are a lot of nice people still involved. Bex laughs whenever we drive through Wanganui and we see a cyclist as I can just about always name them! Small town!

So that was how it all started for me, backyard beginnings.

And how it finishes for me in cycling? ….. I’ll be cycling until the stars stop shining! Racing will have it’s day, but the sweet feeling of two tyres and a bit of speed will never die!