2010 Oceania MTB Champs

The 2010 Oceania MTB Champs were held down at Dunedin in Bethunes Galley. The course involved fast flowing single trails and a steep 4wd climb put in the mix also to create a hard paced blow out. After racing this track successfully in the South Island Cup I was looking foward to this race being the final of the season. I had come down thinking it was going to be wet so I had my wheels set up with new Geax Gato's but after riding closer to race day seeing the track was dry it was the Geax Saguaro's that were the tyre of choice and they were awesome! They gave excellent hook through the fast turns in the forest and with a bike running in top form I had an excellent set up for race day. The start came around in a flash and before I knew it we were smashing it up the first climb of the race! I was comfortably battling it out for the lead in the first 3 laps (of a 5 lap trace) but after that my legs started to go and I slipped back into 7th and was the 3rd NZ home. I was a bit dissapointed with my result but at the moment I dont quite have enough endurance. Something to work on over the Winter! I would like to thank my Sponsor Cycleways along with Geax tyres and my Coach Dave Plew for there excellent support this season along with my parents and other supporters out there helping me achieve the dream!

Pass to Pub 2010

The Pass to Pub 2010 sure turned on the weather conditions today with the sun blazing in the clear blue skys. We arrived with little time to spear and before I knew it I was on the start line. Once we had taken off I quickly realised that I was going to need to give my legs time to wined into the race as they were still feeling it from the previous days training. Sure enough they started feeling better throughout the race where Brent Millar, Thomas Prestige and myself battled it out. Getting towards the final stages of the race Thomas dropped off and that left Brent and I to finish it off. I put in a couple of attacks near the end to see what would happen and up the final pinch. The course then ducked onto a short run of tarseal where I had put a 5-10 metre gap on Brent just before the finish shoot. After thinking Brent had backed off I eased off once in the shoot and then looked back once I was halfway through. Little did I know I got a surprise when I saw he was putting in a final attack to the line but I quickly got back on the gas and won overall by a wheel length! Lesson learnt-race all the way to where it says finish!

2010 National Champs, Wellington

The 2010 NZ National Champs were held on Mt Victoria, Wellington. The course was by far one of the more demanding XC circuits that made for some hard yet exciting racing through the fast rooty trails and gravel paths. Race start came around and I had a pretty good start managing to get through most of the traffic. On lap one I was right where I needed to be until about 4/5 of the lap where Richard Anderson slipped infront of a couple elite riders and managed to get away. Lap 2 was still fairly good but on lap 3 I started to fade and made a couple of mistakes. Near the end of this lap Logan Horn had caught me up and past me but on lap 4 I failed to get back on his wheel and ended up finishing third.