Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Mcleans Island 12 hour

The 2010 Mcleans Island Mountain Bike 12 hr race was another exciting event due to the team aspect where racing around a 10km loop at race pace each lap makes for quite a full on run!
I got the ball rolling for Team Cycleways and after the first lap I managed to gain a gap of almost 30 seconds which was an awesome start into a long distance race being out in front. The team consisted of a solid line up of riders where we had Phil Patterson, Nick Clark, Tim Hoban and Dave Ives and myself. After the first rotation I was keen to do a double lap to make up for my departure later on due to the school formal being on the same night. After two solid laps it was back to the single laps in order to get some hot lap times on the board for the team. Up until my fifth lap my legs had been feeling really average all day and finally after lap 4 my legs were back into racing action where the next few and final laps I felt better and improved my lap times. This was a good sign for me and with over 1300 competitors I managed to put in the fastest lap time of the day!
Before I left we had a very solid lead on second place and after communicating with my Team mates we had come out on top winning the 12 hour race and being the overall champions!
A huge thanks to all the parents for supporting us fighting lads giving it all out there and lasting the distance and also to Matt Bailey from Cycleways who had the best team out there on the day!
Looking forward to the Timaru 12 hour race next weekend for another excellent venue for a great event that involves a solid dose of night racing with the midday to midnight time frame!

Thursday, October 7, 2010

South Island Secondary School Mountain Bike Champs


After having my break from my Worlds trip the South Island Secondary School Mountain Bike Champs was going to be my first race back on the bike since this time. A couple of casual rides were done before hand but I was unable to get out the week leading into the race due to a nasty cold which I am now at the tail end of! So Friday morning my sister and I got up and headed down to Timaru to compete in the Hill climb event that morning followed by Down Hill practice. While the Hill Climb was fairly short it was a good climb as it went up the forest through the single track then out in the open to finish the race. My climb did not feel good at all due to my cold and once I stopped at the top my chest was all iced up. However I came in first place and was keen to get out on the Down Hill on dad's full suspension bike in the afternoon in practice for the race the next day.
The Down hill race was an excellent day full of adrenillin junkies and lots of edge of your seat action! My race run for a Down Hill event was a bit of shocker miss clipping twice at the start and almost stopping the bike on one loose corner as the tyre hooked in. However I still ended up finishing with a respectable time but knew I could have been much faster if I hadn't had those troubles!
The Cross Country was the main event for myself to be down for and another excellent day was put out to us in Timaru! My race was going pretty good until near the end of lap 2 of 3 where I came across a bridge and caught the tyre in the wrong spot crashing. I lost quite a bit of time but had a soilid lead holding this out through the final lap to finish first and also take the overall Champion Title for South Island Secondary School Mountain Bike Champs!
Thanks to the Prestidges and Austins for accommodating us over the weekend!