The race was held on signal hill, meant for a good atmosphere bringing the xcers and dhlers into the same event village. The track was brutal a hard climb followed by a muddy descent, very testing.
Sundays weather held out, with rain threatening but holding off until the race and prize giving was over – it almost felt like summer racing up signal hill, it wasn’t until after the race the hail which the met service had predict came.
B4 the start between the Ozy boys
(photo by Kashi)
Carl – Won the elite men’s race after 6 laps in field which was stacked with NZ and 2 of Australia's best men Chris Jongewaard the Australian National Champion, and Paul Van Der Ploeg, we were all racing for crucial olympic qualification points in the cat 1 event, right from the start my self and under 19 Trek world racing rider Anton Cooper rode off the front, Anton sprinted me into the single track at the top of the hill and was stuck between racing him for his 5 laps for pride or racing my 6 laps safely and winning a UCI Cat 1 race, he was out descending me all day and slowly pulled away so that was that he won his race. I won mine. I’m still buzzing after winning this race and with 3 more cat 2 races in NZ i’m sure it will be more of the same tactics.
Katie – 4th place in an equally strong women's field tackling 5 laps of the tough track, with Olympian Rosara Joseph, Karen Hanlan who claimed the win, and Jolanda Neff (Swiss rider and jnr World cup winner) coming in ahead.
Definitely and exciting race to kick of the season, next weekend Christchurch on another demanding course. Christchurch is often known for turning up the heat with scorching hot days with the heat providing equally tough conditions to factors like mud. We are now in the swing of racing and like a few months ago craving the next chance to prove ourselves on the track and see what we can put out on the day.
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