RABODIRECT 2011 NEW ZEALAND MTB CUP - ROUND 2 XC, PAN PAC ESKDALE MTB PARK, NAPIER

This weekend was the 2^nd round of the NZ XC MTB cup and with some UCI points up for grabs it made for a bit of exciting racing. It was great to see most nz xc riders came out to race especially when everyone is in different training phases around this time. Both the men’s and women’s field were strong and it’s exciting to think of the great racing to be had at the national championships in late February.

Katie – Elite women

photo taken by Michelle Bellamy

I started my morning off with a complete rookie moment (or blonde, or completely dumb), I decided that I could quickly ride backwards out of the track, bad move! I collided with Mikey Northcott luckily no damage was caused although adrenalin was running high and I felt not only like an idiot but terrible. Sorry yet again to Mikey – who was great about it (should have had me on the chopping block.)

After my interesting warm up we were already lined up and the race was on the way. During the race I had some fun battles one with Eloise Fry where we tried some of our road racing skills and had a little attacking session one after another. Overall I road consistently although when I started feeling I was in a good rhythm and had the track dialled I got cramp in the legs, the next hot race I will need to have a bit more water and also add some drink mix to prevent this. I spent the first 2 laps in 4^th and 3^rd and then kept 3^rd place until the end. Fiona Macdermid and Karen Hanlen battled it out for first and second place with Fiona claiming the win.

Carl – Elite men

Photo taken by Michelle Bellamy

I was ready as ever I have felt a bit of form coming on after vineyards, and was keen to try get as much UCI points and cash as possible. Dirk Peters put yet again an impossible pace on the 1^st climb leaving Myself, Mike Northcott and Stu Houltham gob smacked and fighting it out between ourselves, we pretty much had the best race we have ever had together chopping and changing positions every lap, it was actually quite fun. I sat 2^nd for quite a bit of the race just trying to catch Dirk, but Mike smashed it past me on lap 5 of the 6, and on the last lap me and Mike went hit for hit on the last climb with Mikey having the final say and rolling away from me after that it was all about getting to the end before Stu, I ended up 3^rd after a good hard race loved every bit.

Results can be found at this Rotorua mountain bike club link

http://www.riderotorua.com/news/rotoruamtb194pd12.pdf

Now its back into a hard block of training before heading to the south island – we are looking forward to the hurt. During the block we will be including the N-duro series races with the 2^nd round this coming weekend.

Carl and Katie

Back to the Dirt – silver for the both of us

The nduro summer series was kicked off today with the first race. We hung up our road bikes and went out to see if we could remember how it’s done. Despite one crash and a bit of cramp in the hands (Katie) we still knew what riding a mtb was about. No rest, no surges just straight out going for it.

A bit of disappointment for the day when Carl took a wee detour on some other trails as a result of people flicking arrows around and pulling down tape. It is disappointing that people out there would change the markings after the n-duro guys have spent the time marking it out.

We still have a major focus on training and a smaller emphasis on the actual racing side with our main event for NZ’s summer still to come so results now are just a bonus. We are happy with our efforts, Bikeculture riders took out first and second in both open men’s and women’s categories, Katie behind Anika Smail who was flying down the hills and through the single tracks up with the top guys, and Carl behind Dirk Peters by 2 mins 18.

n-duro races are fun events held on some of NZ’s best tracks so get along to the next one and we will see you there. Thanks to Marcus, Dean and the team

Carl and Katie

Tour de Vineyards

4 days 4 stages over 357km of racing

Stage 1 - 60km circuit race 12laps

At the start of this I was so nervous I felt sick, the pace for this race is usually something of a tour de France stage this year it wasn’t like previous year. This year I didn’t even know if I was going to keep up, my last road race was this tour last year and I hadn’t raced the roadie since then ether, however I have been training hard for mountain bike nationals and doing lots of road work.

The race started off well and I found myself having a few turns on the front of the peloton of just over 100 riders, a small break went up the road while I floated down the back of the bunch (right where ya don’t want to be, it makes it twice as hard) so I started riding up the side I saw a few guys going off the front trying to make a break away to get to the other 8 or so riders up the road, next thing everyone was slowing down letting them go... seen as I was full tap on the outside I thought stuff this I’m out of here, literally as hard as I could go (Garmin data after shows max heart rate as 200) I attacked and had Josh Atkins a member of Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong development team on my wheel he soon rolled around me and we were off we got a bunch of 12 or so together where we lapped as hard as we could until we caught the other break, I was stuffed by this point and couldn’t lap through very well. We ended up staying away from the main bunch where most of the big hitters were putting 1min 45sec into them, so I was 18^th on GC at the end of day 1 and had a good gap back to the other 80 ish riders.

Stage 2 - 128km Takaka hill stage

I have never had a good day up takaka but it is usually on the 3^rd day this year it was day 2 and I was hoping for a good 1. Early on in this stage there are a few sprints so the pace was on, then there is a KOM on the top of the raye saddle, Jeremy Yates and another were up the road so they got the 1^st 2 place points and I thought I might give it a go to get the 3^rd but George Bennett and Josh Atkins (livestrong boys) and James Williamson (Pureblack Racing) were also going for it, I was matching them up the climb and over the top however James was going to get it so we sat up and rested over the top and waited for the peloton to come after that things got even harder Rollston got on the front for about 30 mins and completely drilled it I was near the front maybe 15 riders back everyone was in single file 100 riders long, I didn’t think I was going to last that however I did, it didn’t get any easier after a small bunch attacked in a feed zone on one of the bigger hills we were all balls out trying to get back to them I was trying my best to roll through and do my work to catch up so I didn’t lose too much time on GC however it had its toll and I had to sit in and rest up as much as I could before the 18km climb of takaka hill, I rolled into the bottom of it with a hell of a guts ache don’t know what from, and wrecked legs I did the best I have ever done up there but still lost 8ish mins to the leader.

Stage 3 - 119km stage with 3 KOM’s

This stage was hell, I had a good few hours, 60ish km to go I blew bad as it was a really hot day and I started on my peak fuels way to early, for the 1^st 2 hours I was on the front of the bunch drilling it trying to catch the break that was up the road, then it all went down hill from there, at the feed station I could only get 1 bottle and no food and I was well out of water so the bottle went straight into me, then we had about 35km to go with 2 hills I was all over, getting dropped from the main bunch and only just hanging on to the guys I was riding with to the end. That afternoon I was in a bad way I ate more food in 2 hours than I eat in 2days, drank lots and by night I felt like I might come right for day 4.

Day 4 – 50km hill st Crit

All I wanted to do was stay in the bunch and finish off the tour in a good way, so that’s what I did, the circuit was only a 2.6km lap and we had 20 laps where we had some really tight corners to get round hitting speeds of over 65kmph, jumping man holes, hitting cats eyes and some really rough roads it was very scary but fun.

I wanted a top 20 finish in the tour this year but after having a shit day on day 3 I just wanted to do as good as I could, I ended up 30^th only 13 mins down and would have made the top 20 if I didn’t have a that bad day. o well defiantly be back next year and will look to do a lot more road races after having so much fun and meeting new people.

Thanks to Sam from Waiariki for looking after us and sorting most of the trip.

Season is all on

Carl