Tuesday, April 2, 2013

2013 Oceania MTB Champs

The 2013 Oceania MTB Champs were held in Hobart, Australia - a new part of Aussie for me to travel to but unfortunately it wasn't the hottest of places to visit like you would expect!
First of all I would like to thank the Beavens for being a superb help with taking me in and looking after me.  Made for a super easy trip!
Practise days on the track went well.  First impressions of the course were that it was pretty tame.  All that was technical was a couple of rocks to hop over up the climb but this meant it would be a fast and powerful race.  One to really test the fitness of all the riders and see who had what.
With a mostly single trail climb broken up with one section of about 50 metres of super steep firebreak road positioning would be vital on the first lap to not get held up.  With a similar matching downhill it would take a good bit of handling skill to hold that front wheel down on the ground around many tight switch back bends.
Race day came around and the start line saw us lined up with the Elite men.  The gun goes and we are off!  First corner saw someone pushed into the fence barrier and everyones head swung around for a brief moment before knuckling back into it!
I wasn't overly aggressive from the beginning and suffered up the first climb because of this.  Stuck behind slower riders who have punch at the start but can't hold it.  The beauty of the start of an XC race!
Nevertheless I managed to nail it up the firebreak and pull myself back onto the end of the front train.  This was allgood but then an Aussie rider blew up and backed right off on the single trail leaving me stranded behind.  Finally just before the downhill I got passed and pressed on for the next couple of laps.
While I felt I was riding at a good pace I knew I was starting to fade and my last lap I had hit the wall.  The problem was I simply was not drinking enough fluid and with the intensity of one of these events letting a silly yet easy mistake like this leaves too much of a short fall with performance.
Anyway over the line I came holding a solid 6th position in the Under 23 field and the third kiwi home.  All in all it was a good trip and I am looking forward to next years events with a few changes lined up!Thanks to Matt Bailey/Cycleways for the use of a fantastic set of Envy wheels and to Maxxis Tyres.  Running my Aspens has been a superb choice this year, such a great tyre!  Also a big thanks to my Coach Marc and of course mum and dad!!!

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