This was it, all or nothing. The final race of the NZ season ending with the 2012 Oceania Championships held in Rotorua, New Zealand.
I arrived Wednesday afternoon and got straight onto the track and wanted to investigate what all the hype was about with the new rock-garden that had been put in place especially for this event. It certainly got the nerves going a couple of times during practice as it was made on a steep downhill dropping into a neat downward 'S' bend followed by a 2-3metre gap jump. Sure enough after a couple of runs and close calls I had it nailed and was feeling confident at race pace.
The rest of course started off with a fast climb up the tarseal and past the first feed zone then headed up into the trees, up a short climb then a super fun and flowing downhill lead past the second feed zone. It then shot up a techy short gutter climb and looped around the forest undulating until it came back out, down the rock garden and through the start/finish.
On race day we had a 3pm start so I was waiting with anticipation all day to get ready and hit that start line. I had a good warm up and felt I had the course flowing well and the legs felt ready to fire.
Race start went very well, I aimed to sit on Dirks wheel and did so and felt I could have jumped ahead if I wanted too but I thought I'd be best to follow on the first lap. As we entered the single track I got jumped heading into this by Tom although that didn't matter too much. It was near the top of the next climb in the trees where two or three of the Australian riders put out a charge to get ahead. Once past the second feed zone and up the short steep pinch an attack got made and I was stuck behind one of the Australian riders. Meanwhile Dirk and Tom and another Australian or two had followed suit with the front lads and I was stuck behind on the single track. Lap two and I started to get into my work up the climb dropping one of the Australians and moved up a couple of places passing some of the Elite men (who started 2 or 3 minutes ahead of us). I managed to catch back up to another one of the Australian riders after a bit of a smack fest up the hill and got back onto Toms wheel by the time we went through the second feed zone. As we went up the short steep pinch Tom slipped a pedal and I had to dismount. I managed to get past shortly after and started to get into a good rhythm for my race. Lap 3 came around and I cleared out from behind getting away from the Australian I had caught up with Tom and was in a solid 3rd position and could see the 2nd placed Australian at the top of the climb. I kept pressing on and felt I climbed well and the big wheels made the rock garden look easy. In the end I finished in 3rd place in the Under 23 field! Big thanks to my sponsor Matt Bailey and Cycleways and to Mat Waghorn for helping me get around for the time in Rotovagus!
