UCI cat 2 Nelson

We arrived in sunny nelson on Thursday to stay with Mark and Eloise Fry at their beautiful home just past Richmond. We were very fortunate to be invited to stay, we have redirected our mail and will be moving in for good... we wish.

The Nelson track was mean, really fun to ride and made for great racing especially with the stacked feilds with a number of international riders also in there.

Katies race

It was all go off the line Karen lead the climb ahead of Fiona and myself, and then we were hot on her wheel for the descent and the first lap continued like this. In one of the last descents down to the start finish I had an off, back up within seconds to come through the start finish 6seconds down and charging back on to the wheels ahead of me. As I was climbing up the gravel I heard a rubbing and thought bugger I have bent my rotar then as I turned into the first descent I had an almighty snap and that was the back break gone. This lap was a long 5km of running, riding, and crashing as I slipped into 4^th then managed to climb back into 3^rd as going up was not a problem, however had to run the last few km’s and went backwards through the feild. I made it to the tech zone where I was completely unprepared (Our sparewheels were not arriving until christchurch) Luckily Paul Mcdowell and Mark Fry helped sort me out a wheel which invoveld swapping cassettes and alsorts so a huge thank you to them 26minutes later I completed lap 2 and was on my way. I was determined to get back on the podium and get some all important UCI points and cash however the gears werent holding, bottles were missed and I got every bit of bad luck out of the way.

I now eargerly await national champs, feeling in great form and ready to come back from this dissapointing race. Thanks to Jeremy Ingles for lending me his wheel for a few days and the guys at bikeculture for sending Mikes own race wheel down with instructions to ride it like i stole it. THANX J

Carls Race

Feeling really great I was ready for this. Off the start I was matched for the pace, however I then started to go backwards and didn’t really feel as though I was firing. With a bit of frustration I downed a whole peakfuel in one go and within minutes I was off on the chase, trying to get back to the front end of the race. I ended up having a good battle with Mikey which ended in a sprint finish for 3^rd with Mikey taken the line honors. Dirk and George battled at the front until Dirk slipped away from our roadie friend, blood mountainbiker G-bizz.

Here is a link to the results

http://www.mtbnz.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/xc3-nelson-results.pdf

Lap 3 and 4 for me aint right looks like I’m Nino and then just myself again. Looking forward to getting it right and brining some form to nationals.

http://www.shuttersport.co.nz/galleries/rabodirect-2011-nz-mtb-cross-country-cup?page=1
Photos can be found on the link above