Showing posts with label mountainbiking otago. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mountainbiking otago. Show all posts
Thursday
Naseby 12hr MTB 14th April 2012 from the side line..
Naseby is a fantastic little village in this great place we live in! Naseby has a huge selection for some fantastic MTB trails, Weather and just general atmosphere... The Naseby 12 hour MTB Challenge is a massive event attracting all sorts of riders from about the place. I am still in recovery mode from my recent surgery but did manage a good day out on the side of the trails with my Camera (another interest and passion is a bit of photography). I spent several hours around a few different locations of the trails snapping shots of riders. A good fix on biking while in recovery mode, not long now until I will be back on the bike and enjoying this stuff again. Check out some of the images I have snapped in the slide show below from my other webpage. www.sloanshots.blogspot.co.nz
Heat, Hills and Hammering! R&R Sport Otago Peninsula Challenge - Sunday 6th February 2011
Photo of me heading up the Karetai Track for the first hill climb.
Well the annual Peninsula Challenge MTB race has been for this year and what a day Dunedin turned on! This was my 4th year racing in this event, an outstanding course that challenges everyone with the grunty climbs and rewards all with some super terrain and views from the tops of the climbs. This year it started out as a very warm morning and was around 24 degrees at about 8.30am! so by the time the race started at 10am it was really starting to cook up. The race starts off with a quick spin around a paddock before getting into the first climb to the top of the Karetai track and road. I took off at the start to ensure i was in a good place with out too much congestion for this hill climb. By the time i was nearing the top of this i was starting to wonder how the body was going to hang on for the remaining course fo 43km in the heat. Anyway a careful descent down the buskin track avoiding any crashes and it was into another climb back up, the race continues with climbs and descents all the way out to Tairoa Heads. It was on one of the hill climbs mid race another rider told me the temperature was 38 degrees!! this explained a lot about the way i was feeling - pretty cooked and heat blown. Anyway I kept on pedaling hard and made the most of the flat sections to spin out hard and the downs to take rest from the taxing up hill stages. I reached the end at Tairoa Heads in 3hours13minutes - around 45minutes slower than my best time for the same course. I finished 18th open man and 33rd from a field of around 200 riders.
A fantastic event the has grown in popularity - a good challenge and one to put on the list of events for the year, If you haven’t done this one it is definitely worth a look if you are up for the challenge of it.
Monday
Bethunes Gully MTB XCtravaganza 3 Stage Race 7th December 2008 - Report
Race Stage 1 – XC 3 laps around Bethunes tracks – 8th
This was a great blast, 3 laps of single track, the first part of each lap was up the road and then onto a climb up to the top of the trees before the traverse descent down to lap back to the entrance gate. My strength on the hill was great but I then gave up a few places on the fast singe track stuff, but then made my time up again each lap on the road and climb part of the laps – a great fun first sage, crash free!! Was 8th in this stage.
Race Stage 2 – Hill Climb – Bethunes entrance to Mt Cargill/Organ Pipes Intersection Summit – 4th to top 3rd Open Man
After about a 30 min rest from race one we started stage two to the top of the Mt Cargill walking track where it meets the organ pipes track. I was looking forward to this stage as I have been doing quite a bit of hill work and feel this is possibly one of my strengths. We were off with a blast and I quickly got myself into 4th and then just hammered all I had up the hill, constantly trying to pedal just that little bit harder and spin the pedals at a good pace, but one that I could sustain for the whole climb. I felt good (well “good” being working as hard as possible and sucking for oxygen with the legs pumping!) for the whole climb and got to the top in 28:44, which had me 4th to the top Behind Tony Hogg, Peter Green and Mickey Fan, An awesome climb to the top. It was then a cold misty wait for everyone to arrive before the down hill stage.
Race Stage 3 – Down Hill – Mt Cargill/Organ Pipes intersection to Carpark at bottom of the track. 17th open man
Well my tyre choice and pressure probably wasn’t ideal for the steep fast descent on pretty loose fresh gravel track. My “Mezcal semi slicks” didn’t offer the ideal traction slipping through the corners, and my conservative approach to the downhill saw me get down in 9:23, not as uick as I would like but with things like our wedding coming up I didn’t want to break any bones! A fast and fun descent. The fastest down hill rider was 7:03!
Overall a great race set up, I really enjoyed the XC stage and loved the hill climb,
Open Men’s results for me were
XC – 8th
Hill Climb – 3rd (4th to the top overall)
Downhill – 17th
The final results combined from all three stages had me finish 8th= open man for the day which I was really happy with
Below is the link to the MTB Otago website full results:
http://www.mountainbikingotago.co.nz/html/modules/news/article.php?storyid=72
This was a great blast, 3 laps of single track, the first part of each lap was up the road and then onto a climb up to the top of the trees before the traverse descent down to lap back to the entrance gate. My strength on the hill was great but I then gave up a few places on the fast singe track stuff, but then made my time up again each lap on the road and climb part of the laps – a great fun first sage, crash free!! Was 8th in this stage.
Race Stage 2 – Hill Climb – Bethunes entrance to Mt Cargill/Organ Pipes Intersection Summit – 4th to top 3rd Open Man
After about a 30 min rest from race one we started stage two to the top of the Mt Cargill walking track where it meets the organ pipes track. I was looking forward to this stage as I have been doing quite a bit of hill work and feel this is possibly one of my strengths. We were off with a blast and I quickly got myself into 4th and then just hammered all I had up the hill, constantly trying to pedal just that little bit harder and spin the pedals at a good pace, but one that I could sustain for the whole climb. I felt good (well “good” being working as hard as possible and sucking for oxygen with the legs pumping!) for the whole climb and got to the top in 28:44, which had me 4th to the top Behind Tony Hogg, Peter Green and Mickey Fan, An awesome climb to the top. It was then a cold misty wait for everyone to arrive before the down hill stage.
Race Stage 3 – Down Hill – Mt Cargill/Organ Pipes intersection to Carpark at bottom of the track. 17th open man
Well my tyre choice and pressure probably wasn’t ideal for the steep fast descent on pretty loose fresh gravel track. My “Mezcal semi slicks” didn’t offer the ideal traction slipping through the corners, and my conservative approach to the downhill saw me get down in 9:23, not as uick as I would like but with things like our wedding coming up I didn’t want to break any bones! A fast and fun descent. The fastest down hill rider was 7:03!
Overall a great race set up, I really enjoyed the XC stage and loved the hill climb,
Open Men’s results for me were
XC – 8th
Hill Climb – 3rd (4th to the top overall)
Downhill – 17th
The final results combined from all three stages had me finish 8th= open man for the day which I was really happy with
Below is the link to the MTB Otago website full results:
http://www.mountainbikingotago.co.nz/html/modules/news/article.php?storyid=72
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