Vulcaniser MTB Race

Last year the Vulcaniser MTB race was cancelled due to heavy rain and while this year the race was all go as we were making our way up the farm track to race venue we experienced a little bit of wet ground! This made for an exciting arrival but while this was all good it brought to my mind that the track would no doubt be wet also and with only having summer tyres bolted on it was sure going to be all fun and games during the race!
Finally once I got my gear on and registered and found out they were only using half the course due to the second half of the track being extremely wet I set off to see what the track was really like...
After I did my lap and got back to the car with 3 minor crashes achieved I wasn't in too good a state of mind and with the only having the one pair on tyres I decided to make it a 'fun' race and not charge out and risk crashing.
Race start came around soon enough and as I arrived slightly late there was no room on the front row so I started near the back. Once we took off I hammered it up the side getting near the front until I rubbed up against someones wheel leaving me to quickly dismount. Finally I managed to start passing other riders and then I came to the dreaded downhill mud bath. With watching some riders go down during practise including me, I remembered a certain technique to follow and that was controlled pace, lots of rear brake and not much of the front. To my surprise I got down without coming off! This then took me onto the climb of the lap and about this time the 'race face' came on' and it was time to start racing!
Lap two came by and about this time a nice line was forming in the downhill which made it even better and I was actually enjoying the conditions! Finally with some more passing done I brought myself up to second place and had clear ground ahead completing my last two laps only seconds a lap slower than winner Anton Cooper who had come well prepared with mud tyres set up!

National Round 2, Napier

The second National round was going to have a good turn out of competitive riders due to this being a category 1 event with UCI points up for grabs as well as some good prize money. With this season being the first race of year, the level of racing just got stepped up again as I am now in the Under23 age category which means racing with the Elite men also. After building up some good base over the past few months I was feeling pretty good about where I was at with my training and with a new machine it was time to unleash it on the racing scene and compete in my first race on it.
So this season I am riding on Trek Superfly 29'er hardtail and I am loving it! Anyway before I start raving on about it back to the race - The day's weather sure turned on a cracker of a day with mid-thirties temperatures but luckily the race was based in the shaded forest trees that had some excellent fast flowing tracks as well as a nice short sharp single track climb to keep everyone honest. Before I knew it I was at the start line and with a fairly average warm up done due to the heat I wasn't feeling as awake as what I should have been. This wasn't good as I had a terrible start and got caught up in the chaos in the early stages of the race. Finally when some space opened up I was able to start the big catch up and gained some places throughout the 6 lap trace finishing in 8th positiion and 3rd Under 23 male.
With Nationals about 6 weeks away its now time to start the intenstiy in the training so looking forward to getting some good form and speed in the time frame available.
Big thanks to my sponsor Cycleways for helping me out with the new bike as well as Cyclesport and to Mark Leishman for accommodating myself and travel buddy Logan on our adventure up to Napier as well as my Parents!