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

Bannockburn Gutbuster 2008 - MTB Race

Well a great weekend on the MTB, Went up and raced in the Bannockburn Gutbuster ride from Garston to Bannockburn – 75km with 1300m of climbing in it, so a good honest ride. From Bannockburn I caught the bus through to Garston. The bus ride wasn’t the best as I ended up down the back end of the bus and the windy road made me a little bus sick, losing a bit of breakfast on arriving in Garston, luckily the bus arrived about an hour before the start of the ride, so I was able to get some food into me and get rid of my grogginess!! Anyway at the start of the ride everyone was off! Not long into it and the 1st climb began, I settled into a pretty solid and comfortable rhythm and worked my way to the top of this climb feeling good (which was planned as there is a lot further to go) a the top of the climb my rear tyre felt a little softer than it should have been, so I stopped and puffed a bit of air into it, thinking that it was probably going to keep going down. Anyway blasting off down the hill I was right as the tyre went down, by the second creek crossing I dunked the bike in and could see a stream of bubbles coming out of it, bugger! So a quick tube change here, a bit gutting seeing people cruising past a s I repaired this, but back onto the bike after this and I managed to make up a lot of time and places on those who passed me and was feeling good. On and on down the valley and finally arriving at the start of the climb up to the top of Duffers Saddle, from the bottom to the top I just focused on keeping those pedals spinning round and eventually got to the top, feeling pretty exhausted but satisfied with the climb, from her it was a quick descent and grind along the road to the finish in Bannockburn. I finished in 4hrs7min, and this placed me 65th overall and 35th Open man from a field of about 300 riders. A good blast. click on this link to view web page of full 2008 results http://www.cromwell.org.nz/downloads/2008Gutbuster.htm

Kaitangata Black Gold XC MTB Race - 16th November 2008

An awesome 45km MTB race around some fantastic purpose built single track along with farm land, forest roads and a very small amount of sealed road. The race started off on tarmac at the Crescent Rugby Club before entering forest terrain with and undulating tracks. There is a moderate climb followed by a fast narrow single-track descent back into the forest. Racing took us across farmland, alongside the Clutha River and through bush before the finish at the clubrooms again.
Awesome weather and a great turn out of riders, felt pretty good most of the way and loved the single track stuff. Jumping around 4th - 5th - 6th place for a lot of the ride, but lost a couple of places in the last 5km to finish 8th which i was still pretty happy with considering the numbers and level of riders there. An awesome event - back again definetly!

Peak to Peak Multisport Race Queenstown - 19th July 2008

One of my favourite races, the Start of this is high up on the Remarkables and the Finish is at the Ski Field Base at Coronet Peak!!! Stages are as follows
1. Run/Ski
2. 17km MTB - fantastic downhill on the Remark's access road
3. 7km Kayak across from Frankton to Queenstown.
4. 9km Run (all up hill) to the bottom of Coronet Road
5. 9km Cycle up Coronet Peak Ski Field Road.

This year was my 5th time racing as an individual and i managed a PB time of 2hrs 45min which i was stoked with. The winning individual time was 2hrs 22min. I had pretty good stages feeling strong in all areas. I finished the run in 38min which was the 6th fastest individual i think. A well run event and heaps of fun! Open mens section placing was 16th out of 51 individuals and overall including teams i was 48th out of 150 entries!