North Island Cup #1 Tokaroa

Carl

Yesterday was the first round of the North Island Cup in Tokaroa and the day was a stunner. It was really hot weather forecast said 26 degrees but felt a lot warmer. The day started up with Chris Mildon and Jeremy Christmas tossing up whether we do a 7 lap race and be over target distance or 6 laps and be bang on for under23 and just under for elite. We ended up doing 6 laps of a 6.3km course which we were cutting out sub 18min laps.

The race we started by doing 1 and a half laps of the cricket field the village and cars were parked on I was expecting a hard start but I had a good start and sat up tucked in at the front. I played the race really smart and sat in for the 1^st lap just letting everyone else set the pace on the 2^nd lap Mikey and Richard Anderson had a little gap of about 10 seconds. Myself and Stu were riding together until we caught Richard, once we caught him I hit the front on one of the pinch climbs and put the pace on once I looked back I couldn’t even see Richard anymore and Stu had dropped off my wheel which I kind of got nervous about because I have lots of respect for Stu and Know how fast he really is and I just didn’t think I was good enough to do that. I slowly lost sight of Stu and could only see Mikey about 75meters in front of me and I was slowly closing on him every lap, on lap 5 I caught and passed him which we swapped the lead a few times and on the final lap I got in front and didn’t want him back passed so after a bit of slowing and boosting I did 4 attacks one after the other and on the 4^th he didn’t come back and I kept the pace on. I was getting riddled with cramp that was just squiggling through my carves from lap 5 so it wasn’t a easy feat attacking like I did. I stayed away winning my 1^st elite race in front of my mum, my coach and Jane our Sports Academy manager and all the other people that were out there to watch.

I’m super stocked with my race; I haven’t kicked in a race like I did since 2006... Perhaps it was because I went back to what I did in 2006. Now I don’t know why I ever went away from what used to work. I learnt so much from my weekend about not panicking when things are not going right and lots about my diet, I learnt that if you eat tokaroa KFC the day before the race you become way lighter over night :p, and I learnt if you eat a lot of low GI food you actually go a lot better than eating my typical subway or some other shit food in the hours before the race...mint J hope all stays together until nationals now.

This weekend sees a clash in races with Rotorua hosting an N-Duro which I get a lot of support from Marcus and his team, and the 2^nd round of the North Island cup in Hamilton, which if I do I may have a shot at the national series title. So a bit of a hard week to pick and choose races...

Katie

It was an awesome track, great whether and I was really excited to race and try out some things which hopefully will make me go fast when it counts.

Nic leary took the win, with a gutsy race especially after having a crash at the start which after saw her arm bandaged up. Samara took 2^nd and Michelle Bellamy Tokoroa local took 3^rd. I finished just short of the podium in 4^th which for where I am at in my training is on track, each race progressively gets better and better as I perfect my racing strategy and get more and more speed under my belt. This week my focus will be on rest and recovery in between my hard training sessions making sure I get the rest my body needs.

Hamilton is the race for the weekend coming and I am going to try wake up the racer within me, this will be my 3^rd race for the season so it’s about time I get the race aggression and determination which is needed to race at the top end of the field.

I just wanted to add big ups to Carl for his first pro elite win!!! (must be the new bike J )