The off season

Im pretty well into the off season now which is mint, its good to have some time at home instead of constant travel and never being in one place for more than a week like usual.

Ive been back working full time to pay off the last couple of seasons debt from racing and im almost all squared up even with the purchase of an 08 RMZ250 to keep me entertained while im at home!
As some of you may know ive signed a deal to race the full world cup series next year, its a dream come true to finally be getting paid and not have to deal with anything except training and racing. For those of you who don't know about it there will be an official press release out in December with all the details so youll have to wait untill then.
With everything set for next season already im really motivated and ive been training harder than ever so hopefully it all comes together for me. Its such a huge weight off my shoulders not having to deal with anything like previous years and has really let me focus on my training for once.
Ive been riding a bit of downhill back here but unfortunately im going to be having a few weeks off the bike, not by choice but for a couple of reasons. Ive been asked to send my Ironhorse Sunday back early so I wont have a bike untill my new team sends me out a bike early next year and also because yesterday we had the 2nd round of the Top of the south DH series on the Kaka Hill track here in Nelson, after a bit of rain I decided to take it easy for my first race run which didnt work out to well as you can see in the photos...
After 3 and 1/2 hours at the Hospital I left with 5 internal stitches and 12 holding it together on the outside! The cut was aparently to the bone in spot so now I can't really use my left arm for much for a couple of weeks. Luckily nothing is broken which is a bonus so once the stitches are out ill be back into action again.

Because of my bike situation it doesn't look like ill be making it to any of the North Island DH rounds so my first race back will most likely be the Dunedin round of the Nationals. This also means ill get to spend a bit more time at home this summer which will be good to get in some spear fishing and wake boarding.

The end of another season...

Once again another season is done and in the books, although it was shorter than last year for me this one has been busy! ive had 2 weekends break the whole season and in those two weekends I was riding so I havent really stopped in the last 4 1/2 months.
Its been a break out year for me though and im really happy with how it has all played out.
I have achieved all the goals set out for myself at the start of the year, even some that I thought may have been a little unrealistic like a top 20 at the World Championships and I placed 13th so that was awesome.
There has been a lot of travelling this year aswell with about 150 hours spent in a van driving in the US alone and about 90 hours spent in planes over the whole season.

Im taking a bit of a break now to try and let a couple of small injuries heal up and let my body recover! Im not sure how long it will last though because I can't wait to get back on a moto.
Keep an eye out though because this isnt the end of my blog updates yet, ill be posting up any interesting news or anything exciting that happens during the off season.

Above: Mt Saint Anne

Below: Bromont

Photos curtesy of Sven Martin.
www.svenmartinphotography.com
Thanks Sven!

Canberra World Cup DH

After 4 1/2 months of chasing races around the world Canberra, Australia was my last stop for the 2008 season.
Canberra is hosting the World Championships in 2009 so I was really looking forward to this race so I could get an early look at the track and see what I will be up against for next year.
After hearing everyones views on the track over the season who had already ridden it I had fairly low expectations of seeing a quality track when I got to Mt Stromlo on Thursday morning for practice. The first thing I noticed was that who ever named it Mt Stromlo should of called it Stromlo Hill because its definately the smallest mountain/hill ive raced on. But once I made it onto the track I was pretty blown away by what they had laid out up there, the track was really good with a couple of decent rock gardens, plenty of jumps and some interesting little things like a whoop/roller/rythm section that was difficult to get through cleanly and also claimed Matti Lehikoinen braking both of his wrists after going over the bars. He should of had surgery by now back in Finland so hopefully he heals up quickly and is back on a bike soon.

Being so close to home we had a heap of New Zealanders come out which was good to see with Scolsy making his return to racing after breaking his ankle at the Oceania Champs in March. I think we had 15 men racing all up which was awesome.

The first 3 days of practice were perfect weather, although a little chilly it was nice and sunny so everyone was enjoying it and getting in plenty of runs then of course like nearly every race this season the rain showed up especially for race day! The first rain in 4 months according to a local.
The track is really hard packed and sandy so the rain didnt really affect it apart from the last 30 seconds of sprinting which turned into a bog! It was definately a huge fitness tester of who could push through the pain and keep sprinting the whole way, Minnaar showed everyone just how strong he was and pulled a 4.7 second winning margin!
My race run went pretty well, I hit all of my lines and had a good run except for bending a pedal in the whoops section which made it really awkward sprinting at the end but im still stoked with 30th place considering that.
The main thing about this race is that I found out exactly where I need to work on my fitness to be a contender for next years world champs.

Whistler - Crank Worx

My time in Whistler has come to an end again for another year, after almost two weeks here ive spent too much money so its time to leave.
Apart from going over the bars on a jump the first day I was here ive had a pretty good time, I decided to only do the Garbanzo DH race this year and thats to the crash I mentioned before Garbanzo sucked. I only got one practice run down the whole course the morning of the race so I was pretty much racing blind and then after crashing about 1 minute into my run it just kept getting worse with about another 3 crashes over the following 14 mins of the race!
The rest of the time here has been good, I decided to make a holiday of it so I was riding every second day and on the off days going fishing, hanging out at the lake and just generally not doing too much. Its been a pretty full on season with only 1 weekend off racing up untill this point so it was good to relax for once.

It was cool watching the rest of the racing and slopestyle stuff aswell, Sam Hill owned the Canadian Open track and won by 2 seconds which was good to see and Andreu Lacondeguy is rediculous, thats about all I can say after watching his winning run at the slopestyle competition.

From here im going to Seattle to race the Fluidride Cup this weekend and then I fly out on Monday to Australia for the World Cup round in Canberra to finish out the season.
Im looking forward to getting home again, but im not even going to get a chance to take time off and relax because 3 weeks after I get home im racing the 6 hour motocross enduro in Nelson so I will be back into training for that.

Looking for a ride for 2009

I know its blatant self promotion but I'm hoping someone might see this and be able to help out!
First up I just want to clear up that I haven't signed with the ODI/Southridge team, basically the owner of the team just wanted to help me out how ever he could in exchange for me wearing the team jersey at the remaining US national rounds in 2008 so I have nothing set up with them for 2009 at this stage.

2008 has been a pretty huge season for me, after almost not racing the international season due to lack of funding I managed to get enough of a budget through working full time to barely scrape by and race 5 of the 7 DH world cup rounds and also 3 of the 5 USA national series rounds.
Even with the late decision to race this season I still managed to achieve all of my racing goals that I had set myself at the end of last season and now the only one left to fulfill is to be picked up by a race team.

2008 Results:
Oceania Downhill Champion
13th World Downhill Championships
Currently Ranked 22nd in UCI DH Points (top privateer)
1st USA NORBA Round 3
6th USA NORBA Round 4
1st USA NORBA round 5
Currently 2nd Overall in NORBA Points
50th Downhill World Cup - Ft William
34th Downhill World Cup - Mt Saint Anne
33rd Downhill World Cup - Bromont
Currently Ranked 61st Overall in the DH World Cup
1st 2008 Skyline DH Invitational

2008 Media:
NZ Mountainbiker magazine March issue - 3 photos
NZ Mountainbiker magazine August issue - 1 photo
Decline Magazine - photos
Pinnedmtb.com - photos/press release
Dean Optics - Photo used on promotional material
Bike NZ magazine
Blog posts upload directly to Vorb.org.nz home page


Contact me at kieranbennett@hotmail.com

Bromont DH World Cup Race Day Report

I've never been so relieved to get a race over and done with than this weekend, for some reason I just couldn't get comfortable riding the track here in Bromont. When I walked the course on Wednesday I thought I was really going to enjoy the track but once I got on course on my bike I couldn't find any flow and just found it really difficult to get any speed up, every time I would try opening it up a bit I would end up on the ground and that is exactly how both days of practice ended up for me.

I was a little bit worried I wasn't going to have the speed to qualify in the top 80 but I just tried to push that out of my head and get a clean qualifying run out of the way so I could focus on the finals. I made a couple of mistakes during my qualifier but still managed to run a 3.04 which put me in around 55Th place so I made it through to the finals pretty easily.

Just before the girls started race runs it started raining again which I think most people were dreading including me, luckily it didn't last too long but I was still cautious through a few sections during my race run because I wasn't sure how slippery they would be. I had a fairly clean run with only one big mistake that would of lost me a little over a second but I still managed to run a 3.01 so I was quicker in my race run but still not under the 3min mark where I wanted to be. Still I managed to place 1 spot better than last weekend with a 33rd so it wasn't too bad.

Now were just getting ready to pack up the van again for another cross country trip this time to Whistler, BC for Crank Worx which starts on the 17th. 

Bromont World Cup DH Report #2

It finally stopped raining last night around 9pm which was a bonus, I was looking forward to riding untill I got to the track and saw that it was still saturated and sloppy so I was pretty bummed, I was hoping it had dried up but I think it actually got slipperier and there was even more standing water on the track than yesterday.

I only managed 3 runs today because once again I managed to send myself into the ground and my bike hurtling about 30 meters before it finally came to a stop, luckily I only broke my shifter and got a couple of grazes but I was pretty over it after that.

Unfortunately Bryn Atkinson had a huge crash and it sounds like hes out with possible broken ribs and maybe a broken wrist which sucks, hes an awesome guy and is fast as hell.

Race day tomorrow so look out for an update in the afternoon sometime

Bromont World Cup DH Report #1

Day one is in the books and it wasn't a very exciting one, I only managed two runs after a big crash onto my head courtesy of clipping my pedal on a tree.
The course here is kind of strange, the top section is really good with some awesome rocky and rooty sections through the trees then it all of a sudden goes really flat with horrible hard pack bermed turns that follows along beside the 4x track then a final big jump out of the woods onto the last jump of the 4x. It goes from awesome to boring really quickly, and its super short, i think it will be under 3 minutes easily.
The 4x looks awesome for once, its over 1 minute long and has some huge jumps, a massive first berm, a rock section and all sorts of other stuff to catch people out on, it should be good racing if it stays dry.
Thats the other thing, in the last 24 hours weve had 3 big thunder storms come through and dump rain so the tracks are so sloppy right now, hopefully it drys out a bit because it was a mess today on the DH.

And on a completely random note I decided I needed some pictures up here for once so I found a couple of racing ones,

This one is from my race run at Ft William this year

And this is a random one of me I found on the BBC website from practice at the World Championships in Rotorua from 2006.

Dean Optics

Just thought id give my good friend Jeremiah Dean's new venture a plug here, after working as a sponsorship manager for a couple of eye wear company's he has decided to go out on his own and bring out a new goggle into the MTB market. His company is called Dean Optics and is already starting to take off big time here in the US with multiple National wins and podiums gaining him a lot of exposure.
Ive been running the trooper goggle all season and im stoked on it, the frame is a good size and fits inside all helmets comfortably and the lenses come with tear off posts so you dont have to worry about buying new lenses to run them.

Mt Saint Anne World Cup

So I finally got the monkey off my back and qualified at Mt Saint Anne, 3rd time lucky aparently. After 2 years of bad luck in qualifying I put in a clean run and qualified 35th, I knew as long as i had a clean consistent run I would make it into the top 80 easily. I think this has been one of my problems in the past, putting too much pressure on myself for qualifying then blowing up, exactly what I did at my first world cup of the year in Andorra.
Mt Saint Anne has always been one of my favorite tracks and this year they kept it almost identical to last year apart from a couple of minor changes near the end which took out an up hill and made the track better.
The only real difference from last year was the fact that its been raining for the past 6 weeks so the track had some serious mud bogs in spots, I needed my moto to get through some of them! The UCI changed the schedule for this round as well so we raced on saturday instead of sunday like usual which also meant we only had two days of practice to get the course dialled. I only did a total of 6 practice runs over three days because the track was so similar to the other years I knew where i was going.

My run started good and I was feeling confident going through the first woods until I nearly blew off the track going into a flat pedally section so once I got going again I was trying to make up some time. I had a pretty solid split time considering my mistake but then going into the lower woods I tried changing a line at the last second and came to a complete stop in a rocky section where keeping speed was a major key.
Even with my mistakes I still managed to finish 34th which was a good result but definately not a top 20 where I wanted to be.

Im in Bromont now for the 2nd Canadian World Cup round being held this weekend then its a cross country drive to whistler to have some fun and do some Crank Worx events. Its kind of crazy that my season is almost over, only two world cup rounds to go then its back home for the summer.

moto cross and world cups

Just a quick update for now, Just got into mt saint anne, canada for the downhill world cup round being held this week. the course sounds similar to previous years which is good because its sick. We got to put some input into the finish this morning and its going to be quick with some flat turns which will be fun.
Cam Cole, Amy Lair and me went to Unadilla, New York over the week to watch the AMA motocross round and it was definatley my non mountainbiking highlight of the year. Amy managed to get us VIP passes which got us into the pits full time and into hospitality areas and a whole bunch of other sweet stuff like that.
The racing was awesome and NZ privateer Cody Cooper almost ruined James Stewarts perfect season, he was right behind him the whole time which was awesome to see. We met him while the first lights moto was on and hes a really nice guy so hopefully he gets factory ride for next season!

International Win Number 2!

Weve just finished here in Winham, New York and I just won my 2nd US National DH round this season! I won qualifying by close to 3 seconds in wet conditions after it dumped rain on us all morning.

It stopped raining basically straight after our qualifier so it was really dry by the time finals rolled around. I was pretty confident going into the finals but was a little nervous being the last starter. I had a really clean run and hit everything exactly how I wanted and came through the finish over 2 seconds up on 2nd place finisher Gerrit Beytagh.

Cam Cole finished up 3rd making it two podiums for the weekend after getting 2nd in slalom last night, Amy Laird backed up the good finishes with 2nd place in the womens DH

After DH Cam, Amy and myself headed back up the hill to race super d, this is the first time ive raced it and I was racing the track blind because I didnt get a chance to practice the course. The start was a Le Mans format mass start so it made it pretty fun. 

I got a really good start and managed to get through the first turn in the lead and start sprinting, I held the lead for about the first minute then the XC guys started flying past on the first uphill. I was looking forward to the DH to make up some positions but going into the first single track I got a front flat tire which sucked, Cam Cole was right in front of me and got a rear flat in the exact same spot! Amy had bad luck aswell after getting a good start her back wheel fell out of her bike so she couldnt finish either.

Next weekend the US national champs are on and they don't let anyone not from America race so its an off weekend for me. Cam, Amy and me and going to head to the Unadilla AMA motocross national next weekend so its not all bad!

40+ hours driving later....

So after 40+ hours driving later we finally made it to Windham, NY for the lone East coast race of the 2008 US national series. After sleeping in the van for 3 nights in rest stops I was pretty stoked to get into a condo and sleep in a real bed!

On first inspection of the hill we weren't expecting much of the track as the hill looked small and flat but once we got up the lift and started walking within the first 30 seconds of track we knew it was going to be good.

The course builder here has done an amazing job and this is by far the best US national track ive have ridden, its really natural and he was used the terrain well making a super fast, fun track which is better than a couple of the world cup rounds ive ridden this season.

My laptop is still out of commision as i havent managed to find a charger for it yet so ive still got a load of photos to post but cant get to them!

More updates to come on Sunday after the race has been run.

Broken Computers Suck

Well not so much a broken computer but the charger for my laptop died so ive been stuck with limited internet access lately which has made it difficult to keep regular updates on here.
This last week ive been hanging out in Boulder, Colorado with Jess Vogt taking a bit of time off riding to hang out, Cam Cole and Amy Laird were there aswell so it was good to spend to spend some time with some other New Zealanders!
The highlight of the week was definately getting a chance to ride motocross at Thunder Valley which held a round of the AMA motocross nationals the weekend before, It was pretty eye opening seeing the size of some of the jumps but after a while I had got back into the moto and was jumping most of the stuff there.
Tomorrow were starting out trek to the East coast which is aparently about a 38 hour drive, we dont have to be there till Wednesday so were not gonna do too many hours driving at once hopefully.

When I finally get my laptop back up and running ive got a heap of photos to post up so keep an eye out like usual!

Deer Valley NMBS

So weve just got done with the Deer Valley NMBS here in Park City, Utah. Its been a weekend of New Zealand domination in the gravity events!

First up Cam Cole dominated the slalom on saturday night beating Petr Hanak who has been on fire this year in gated racing.

Today Justin Leov absolutely destroyed the DH winning by about 6 seconds over Amiel Cavalier with Sam Blenkinsop in 3rd. I just missed out on the podium finishing 6th after my derailer decided to skip randomly through gears straight out of the gate so I had to basically roll all the flat sections of the course and try carry as much speed as possible. Cam Cole didn't have a great day and mechanical forced him off the track so he couldn't finish his run

After DH Sam, Justin and Cam raced the super D and once again a New Zealander took the win, Sam showed everyone how fit he is by taking the win over Amiel Cavalier by about 1 second. He put in the most impressive sprint through the bottom section of the course to the finish by far. Cam got his second podium of the weekend by placing 4th and unfortunately Justin Leov came through with a flat rear tire.

Tomorrow were heading out to Colorado to spend some time with American DH racer Cole Bangert at his house to do some riding and training before heading out to the east coast to race the Windham, New York National DH round.

13th at the World Championships!!

Just a quick update for now as ive just got back from the race, as the title says I just pulled off 13th at the 2008 World Championships! This is my best World Champs result so im stoked.
We also had a solid showing in Juniors with Aari Barrett in 4th and Brook McDonald in 5th, they are both in their 1st year of juniors so watch out! Unfortunately Matt Walked had a huge crash near the bottom of the track and was taken away by ambulance, the good news is that he is ok, he only chipped a tooth and had got a few bumps and grazes. (see photos that will be up later)
Gee Atherton won the elite DH with Steve Peat in 2nd, Sam Hill was on a killer run untill he crashed on the last corner!
Justin Leov was the top NZ pro with I think an 8th place, Wyn Masters also pulled a solid result with 25th.
Scarlett Hagen came through in 9th to be the top NZ lady with Amy Laid in 16th.

Off to 4x now to watch Craig Pattle and Wyn Masters do some sweet whips!

Thunderstorm!

Weve just had a pretty decent thunder storm roll through Val Di Sole, the rain only lasted about 20 minutes so i don't think its going to affect the track much if at all.
4x qualifying was on this evening, Jarad Graves is top qualifier which is sick with the NZ guys spread out through out the pack;
25. 125 NZL19880203 COLE Cameron NZL
31. 93 NZL19900324 WALKER Matthew NZL
37. 110 NZL19870418 MASTERS Wyn NZL
47. 128 NZL19850125 PATTLE Craig NZL

4x seems to have turned into a bit too much of specialist sport lately which I think is making it a bit less exciting, theres only a few people racing both DH and 4x and three of them are from NZ (Matt, Wyn and Cameron) along with Filip Polc from Slovakia. Thats the only people I can pick from the results anyway.

World Championships Day Five.

Another day is in the books and it has been pretty uneventful, most people spent practice double checking their lines since it has dried out considerably.
The weather looks like its going to stay fine for tomorrow which will be good, the track is getting stupidly fast now that it has mostly dried out. Scary fast in some spots.
Aparently 4x specialist and former world 4x champ Michael Prokop is out after breaking his collar bone last night in 4x practice so it basically looks like its going to be a race between Lopes and Graves for the title, im hoping graves pulls it off because hes a sick rider and deserves it after all the hard work he puts in.

Race day tomorrow so having a pretty casual afternoon back here at the hotel, don't want to be tired tomorrow!

World Championships Day Four. Part Three

The UCI have finally put the full qualifying results up on their website and I was pretty surprised to see my name in 15th and 3rd fastest Kiwi! There were a few of the top guys further back because of crashes etc. and it was only qualifying so im not going to read too much into it but its good to know im on pace.

1. 2 GBR19850226 ATHERTON Gee GBR 2:45.68 3:24.81 50
Course length : 2250 m / 1.40 Mile - Average Speed : 39.55 Kmh / 24.57 Mph
2. 3 RSA19811113 MINNAAR Greg RSA 2:46.42 3:28.52 +3.71 40
3. 11 NZL19841020 LEOV Justin NZL 2:48.64 3:29.95 +5.14 30
4. 1 AUS19850721 HILL Samuel AUS 2:49.23 3:32.32 +7.51 25
5. 15 NZL19881028 BLENKINSOP Samuel NZL 2:53.61 3:35.72 + 10.91 22
15. 34 NZL19871202 BENNETT Kieran NZL 3:02.38 3:45.85 + 21.04 10
27. 49 NZL19880203 COLE Cameron NZL 3:06.87 3:50.70 + 25.89 3
37. 38 NZL19871011 SKINNER Michael NZL 3:10.80 3:56.50 + 31.69 3
42. 56 NZL19870418 MASTERS Wyn NZL 3:14.24 3:58.57 + 33.76 3

Unfortunately Nathan Rankin is out with a broken collar bone sustained at Andorra, he decided it would be best for him to sit out this race so could finish out the rest of the World Cup.

World Championships Day Four. Part Two

Seedings over and all of the New Zealander's made it through the day without any injuries. Brook McDonald had a huge moment off the jump at the bottom of the track but managed to recover with a good time that put him into 3rd with Aari Barrett right behind him in 4th after having a huge over the bars crash near the top of the track.
Justin Leov was the top pro in 3rd with Sam Blenkinsop in 5th. Not sure where everyone else was as I haven't seen a full results list yet but when it comes out ill post the rest of the New Zealander's up here.

World Championships Day Four. Part one

Just a quick update this morning, the sun is out once again and it looks like its going to be a good day.
We have qualifying this afternoon so hopefully some hot lines will come out that we can poach!

World Championships Day Three.

I woke up today to blue skys and a hot day so I was stoked! Especially since Pros didn't practice untill 1pm so I got to have a pretty casual morning.
I walked the track with Wyn Masters while the Junior Men were practicing so we got to have a good look at how it was holding up and also found some good new lines. The track was drying out slowly over the day so by the time we got out it had dried considerably since the morning but was still really slippery and dodgy because of all the wet roots that you couldn't see so it was basically trying to hang on and avoid the roots as best as possible.
I did 3 runs practice and I felt pretty good last run so called it good at that. I haven't heard of anyone else breaking themselves since Dan Atherton yesterday so everyones still in as far as I know.

This mornings view from my hotel room:


NZ junior Terrance McDonald:


Turns out mullets are in over here:

World Championships Day Two.

Day two is over and we finally got to ride our bikes!
It rained basically all of last night and drizzled most of the day today so practice was slippery with a lot of people crashing. Dan Atherton is out with a broken collarbone already which sucks since hes been on the gas in 4x this season.
The track was constantly changing so I only did two runs in the morning to get a feel for the track then called it good.
Nothing much else to report on from today except that the weather seems to clearing a bit so heres hoping it gets fine.

Team NZ downhill mechanic and 4x specialist
Craig Pattle:


A semi clean bike with a sweet number:

World Championships Day One.

Today was the first official day of the World Championships and after what has felt like a month but was only a week we finally got to do something other than sit around the hotel!
Although it was only track inspection it was better than nothing. I took my camera up and got some photos of the course, as usual they don't even come close to showing the steepness and roughness of the course but should give you a pretty good idea of what were dealing with here.
On first inspections the track looks awesome and scary at the same time, its really loamy soil so its going to get blown out and there are roots everywhere so id imagine that by the end of the tomorrow its going to be a lot different.








Thats about all to report on today, ill be posting updates everyday after practice so bookmark this page!

blogupdating

Just a quick one for today,
Im in val di sole, italy getting prepared for the world championships which are being held next weekend.
The DH course looks awesome, huge boulders, steep and lots of roots. its going to be absolute carnage if its wet so heres hoping it drys up because its been raining the last few days.
We havent managed to find a DH track to ride here yet for training so weve been doing some sweet XC riding on bikes that id estimate to be 1995 models at latest with no suspension and 1inch wide tires riding some pretty technical rocky trails but its the most fun ive had xc riding in a long time.
Apart from that there has been a lot of sitting around, watching tv and reading books!

Europa.

Today has been the first day ive had a chance to actually sit down and write anything since I left the US! I just got into Ft William, Scotland for the world cup round so its good to be back into a country where people speak english and drive on the correct side of the road!
Last weekend I had the 2nd round of the Downhill World Cup on in Andorra which is a tiny country between Spain and France and is basically just built in a valley in the mountains, im pretty sure you could drive everywhere in the country in a day easily its so small.
Anyway after a (not so) lovely couple of flights from America I got on a Bus and made it to the place I was staying at to meet up with Brook MacDonald who is one of the Juniors on the NZ worlds team. Thursday morning I got to walk the track while practice was on and on first inspection I thought it looked like rubbish, it was narrow, slow and one lined and basically just made its way across the side of a hill, definately not a world cup caliber track.
After 2 days of practice I was finally beginning to enjoy the track a bit more and have some fun on it so I was feeling confident I could have a decent result here.
Unfortunately again I ruined my chance of making the finals at another world cup round, this time on the very first corner as I hit it a bit too fast and blew out through the tape losing about 10 seconds, i missed making the top 80 for qualifying by 1 second so I was gutted because I knew I can be consistently up in the top 30 if I stop making mistakes.

Practice for Ft William starts tomorrow at 10 so hopefully this weekend I will ride a bit more sensible and keep together for my runs! this course is long and brutal so it suits me well.

Angel Fire - No words, just pictures.

Angel Fire Part 3, The Race.

Its finally happened, I just won my first International Pro race!
The course had almost completely dried today except for a couple of the bogs that weren't drying so the rock section at the top of the course was rediculously fast and the flatter sections below that were a lot easier to get through as well since you weren't getting pushed off line constantly by the wet rocks.

I did one practice run in the morning which didn't go too well, about half way down the course I had a really good line that I think I was only one of the people hitting but unfortunately as I went to ride this I missed my timing picking the front wheel up over a rock and had a pretty big over the bars crash, I landed hard on my left hand, left knee and my head (luckily im running a Leatt Brace) which all felt ok at the time but once I was down in the pits my knee and hand starting hurting a lot which ruined my confidence a bit for my race run. Since I had about 6 hours till my race run I went back to condo and got onto icing them which helped a lot but there was still a bit of a nagging pain there.

My race run went pretty well, I knew if I didn't worry about everyone else and just focused on my own run that I could take the win so once I had got through the more difficult sections near the top I just tried to recover any energy that I could in the open stuff so I didnt blow out closer to the bottom.
I came through the line into 1st place 13 seconds faster than my qualifying time so I was stoked but the fastest qualifyer Aaron Gwin was still on course, watching the time tick by was a bit nerve racking but he had crashed and after a minute I knew it was mine.

Im currently in Boulder, Colorado right now getting ready to fly out to Andorra for the DH world cup next weekend so keep an eye out for updates!

Angel Fire Part 2

The sun is out and the snow is gone! that was the best part about waking up this morning.
I finally got to ride in only one layer of clothing instead of four! Once again the pros had practice with everyone so it was impossible to get a clean run in today, so I did a couple of runs looking at lines then decided to save my energy for qualifying which just finished.
I had a resonable run but it definately wasnt perfect, the altitude is so bad up here so I decided not to try sprinting any of the opens sections and ended up just sitting down and coasting them.
The course is long and physical and I came through the line with a 5.33 which was the fastest time at that point so I was stoked with that but just two riders later I got bumped back into second by Aaron Gwin by around 1 second.
Im happy with my run and I know ive definately got more left tomorrows run so im looking forward to it!

Angel Fire

Just a quick update from the Angel Fire, New Mexico MSC/NMBS race here in the US.
Weve had two days of official DH practice so far and it has been freezing, the top half of the track is covered in snow which makes finding lines pretty difficult. The track is about 50% rocks which really suits me, its rough and technical which is catching a lot of people out. The hardest part about it though is the altitude, i havent managed a full practice yet because its so hard to get used to the limited oxygen.

Ive got DH qualifying tomorrow and then racing on monday so im looking forward to seeing how everything goes.
On Tuesday I fly out to the world cup in Andorra then I have the world cup round in Ft Bill, Scotland then its onto a week training camp in Italy for the world championships with the NZ team so its going to be a very busy couple of months.

Two Weeks!

Another season is about to roll on for me and another summer! (only the 8th in a row!)
Im two weeks out from flying overseas for another summer of travelling mayhem and bike shredding and hopefully this will be better than ever.
I learned one major thing last season, stop crashing. so ive been working hard to put that into effect and hopefully step up onto some more podiums.
This season is going to be split between the US and Europe so im mainly focusing on World Cups but still getting in some US National rounds, heres my full schedule;

May 23-26 Angel Fire, New Mexico - NMBS
May 29-June 1 Vallnord, Andorra - World Cup
June 5-8 Ft William, Scotland - World Cup
June 10-13 New Zealand world championships team training camp
June 14-22 Val Di Sole, Italy - World Championships
June 26-29 Deer Valley, Utah - NMBS
July 10-13 Windham, New York - NMBS
July 19-20 Going to watch the Unadilla AMA motocross national!
July 24-27 Mt Saint Anne, Canada - World Cup
July 30-31 Bromont, Canado - World Cup
August 9-17 Whistler, Canada - Crank Worx
August 22-24 Seattle, Washington - Fluidride Cup
August 28-31 Canberra, Australia - World cup

Its a packed season with only 2 free weekends and a whole lot of travelling which is ALL being funded out of my own pocket once again but I do want to thank all these people for keeping me stocked with the best quality bike parts to keep me rolling this season!

one month

I just realised im just over one month from flying out for another season of madness and riding bikes.
The last few weeks have been flat out with the NZ Open being held in Christchurch and then the weekend after we had the Oceania Championships here in Nelson.
The NZ Open was a pretty cool race, it was held completely independantly from bikeNZ so there were no commasaires to deal with and it was all pretty laid back, there was even some pretty decent(for NZ) prize money up for grabs. The race was held on the legendary Lava Flow track which is basically run down a open grass hill with no trees but a LOT of volcanic rock which isnt too nice to crash on. The course was taped well leaving a lot of room to get some new lines happening which made practice fun. I qualified 3rd behind Yeti Factory riders Justin Leov and Sam Blenkinsop with Cam Cole right behind me in 4th so it was going to be a pretty tight final.
By the time we got up the hill for finals there was a massive wind blowing straight across the hill which made some parts a little dodgy and some of them grueling trying to sprint into the wind. I had a fairly tidy run and came through the line slotting into 2nd with a 2.26.58 just .51 of a second down on cams time. The 2.26 mark proved to be popular with Sam Blenkinsop coming in with a 2.26.14 knocking me back to 3rd. I just managed to hold of Nathan Sharrat who also came through on a 2.26.97.
Although it was going to be Justin Leov's race as he came through the last section super smooth and stopped the clock with a 2.22.86 schooling us all!

The Oceania Championships were almost the complete oposite to what the NZ Open was, we were back to having to deal with power hungry commasiaires wanting to take you down a peg anytime they could.
Having ridden the track a bit before and also still trying to deal with an injured ankle which doesnt want to heal I decided to sit out the first days practice and help get the 4x gate set up that I had built. Day 2 of practice also had qualifying in the afternoon so I had to get a couple of runs in before then, the track was in prime condition with most of the corners holding together pretty well.
My qualifying run was going really well hitting everything clean and carrying some good speed untill about 3 corners from the bottom I got a rear flat and things got out of control! Comingh round the last corner into the finishing double I got a huge drift on and almost looped out, managing to hold on and grovel across the line I came through 3rd again behind the two Yeti Factory riders Sam and Justin, the times were all pretty close so I was feeling confident for the race.
My race run was fast but conservative in some places, I knew there would be some corners almost completely gone by the time I raced as there had been about 200 people down the track since I had last seen it.
As I came though the line I saw Nathan Rankins time of 2.57.48 on the board just before mine came up, I knew it was going to be a hard time to beat and as my time started scrolling aross the board i saw the 2.57 and it seemed like a long time before the .06 1st place came up. I was happy that I was definately going to get a medal but I didnt want to get too excited as Justin and Sam were still comewhere on the hill.
Justin came through the line and slipped into 2nd with a 2.57.20, I was stoked to hold off Justin because he is a really hard worker and is always on the gas. But there was still Sam on the hill and you can never count him out, especially after he had qualified 1st and was looking really comfortable on his new bike. Looking through the trees though it looked like he was cruising and when he came through the line I could see why, he had a massive crash near the top of his run and twisted his bars which would of made the rest of the run horrible.
But with this I realised I had just won my first Oceania Championships! Its a big race and there was some tough compeition to beat with valuable UCI points on the line.

Bring on the international season!

what? an update!

Yes im back again, to make it 3 blog posts all in 3 different years!

This time im actually going to try keep it updated, thats if theres anyone who actually checks this page?!?! Were well into the summer in NZ and weve just finished the South Island DH cup, I ended up 5th in pro after crashing at every round, the round in Nelson on my home track was going good. I qualified 2 seconds up on Justin Leov then managed to some how loop out over the bars 2 corners from the finish, i still pulled 4th and got some cash so it wasnt all bad. The highlight was winning a pro invitational race in Queenstown and walking away with $200.









Supercross has started in the US and being a mental moto fan ive been keeping a pretty tight watch on whats going with that, my favourite riders are on the pipe, #22 Chad Reed has won all but one round where he got 2nd and he is pretty much running away with the points lead. And the #338 of Jason Lawrence finally pulled his first win in San Fransisco in the mud then going on to win Anaheim 3 last weekend, hes only a few points behind Dungey for the overall so heres hoping he holds it together.

Ive pretty much got my plans all set for the US season, I just found out I got accepted for a scholaship from the Adastra foundation so thats gonna be a big help to the finances, ive also signed a few sponsors in the US to help me out this year so its looking good.