This weekend was the 2nd 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 4th and 3rd and then kept 3rd 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 1st 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 2nd 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 3rd 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 2nd round this coming weekend.
Carl and Katie
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