Hanmer Hammerhead

The Hanmer Hammerhead has always been a bit of a favorite for me as it was a race where I got my first real result when I started to compete on the mountain bike.
After a bit of a looksy around the start of the course before the race it was the typical fast flowing singletrack that Hanmer has on offer so I was looking forward to the race start to see what the rest of the course was like.

I started off hard and lead the first half of the lap before Craig snuck in front of me and whizzed down the next bit of track.  I raced on and came through onto my second lap of three about 20seconds behind Craig with Ben right on my tail and then continued on for the next big lap.  I kept riding on but the legs weren't going to be pushing much harder today and the young buck from Timaru David Coventry, came up behind me ready to slip past at the opportunity.  I rode on for my final lap holding my position finishing 4th Overall (1st Open Mens).

Long Beach Coastal Challenge

Long Beach Coastal Challenge has been a good solid race that keeps on grinding away through farm paddocks for around 35km.  While there is no single track on offer it was a good event to keep the heart rate high and battle away and see how the legs would cope!

I started well and it quickly became a front bunch of Anton, Craig, Ben, Logan and myself taking a few turns to tow the train around the twisty course.

About a third of the way into the course we crossed a river and saw the first attack from Anton and Logan followed suit.  The rest of us chased on and we got back onto Logan and started to work as a group to pull back the whippet leading the way.  Not too long after Logan was riding strong and slipped away through a tightly gnarly piece of terrain and I was left with the Oliver brothers to ride against.  We came toward the beach front and I knew I might be in for a bit of trouble as  I tend to sink in the deeper stuff when the lighter boys skate across!  Nevertheless I pulled myself back onto them near the end after biting the stem down a long gravel road.

The final river crossing came up and the brothers rode over a small walking bridge and while I saw them slow down I thought I could be a bit smart and smash through the river.... Well unfortunately this was not the case and I sunk downwards again!

Anyway it was a few hundred meters to the finish line and I came over the line in 5th place,a nice day out down South.

Spring Crusher - Hanmer

I raced the Spring Crusher last year and with the challenge of over 1000m of verticle gain throughout 36km it was high on the list of build up races to compete in.

While the body was still battling illness I was keen to see what the course had to offer as it was slightly different to last years and the start sure showed what aggression we would be thrown at.  Straight up into the forest from the road we were in our lowest gears and the old body temperature sure rose to the occasion!

I was riding alright, trailing behind the front boys which stayed like this for up to the 20km mark where I managed to start heading back up a main climb in the course when I was meant to just simply cross straightover (don't know how I managed to stuff that one up!)  Sure enough after a good minute or so lost I realized I had made a slight detour!  Once back on track the course was mostly quick fast pedaling alongside the bottom of the hillside with only a couple small climbs to go I was glad to see the finish and rest up the legs.  I ended up coming over the line in 6th and 3rd in open mens.