Dave Balderstone memorial race

Last weekend I made the trip down to Christchurch for the final round of their summer downhill series which also doubled as the first annual Dave Balderstone Memorial race.

Dave passed away earlier in the year and it was a huge shock and loss to the downhill community to lose someone so talented and passionate about the sport. I first met Dave around 2003 when he started racing in Nelson and he was always a friendly kid who would absolutely rip the track on his Specialized Grom! After he moved up north with his family I didn't see him as much over the following years but he always had time for a chat whenever we did see each other and he will be someone I remember forever.

The race was held at Mt Hutt and the guys down there had put together a really fun track with lots of jumps and high speed sections with a bit of pedaling thrown in to keep you honest.

Apparently the top of the track will be part of the National series race in January so it was good to get a bit of an early look in.

After a fun afternoon of practice on Saturday afternoon we headed into Methven to stay at a local lodge that some of the Gravity Canterbury committee had organised so everyone could have a BBQ with Daves family and friends and have a bit of fun.

Sunday was up early in search of coffee with Snowy and Rennie to help cure the headaches from a little too much fun and then onto the hill to get organised for practice.

The track was holding together well and not changing much which made practice nice and easy so I decided to save my energy and only do a couple of runs before seeding.

I had a good seeding run but took it easy on the pedaling to save from blowing myself out for the race run and ended up seeding in 4th a few seconds down which I was happy with because I knew I had time to make up.

After an eternity of waiting at the bottom we finally got picked up and made out way back up the hill for our race runs and after some more waiting it was my time to take the start line. I decided I needed to put in a good amount of sprinting so I made the most of it where ever I could getting a few pedals in and carrying speed. The whole run was going great until I overcooked a blind drop into a corner and found myself parked head first down the bank in the bushes!

I got out and back on and found a little bit more speed down the last few corners thanks to the frustration of the crash but it wasn't enough and I ended up one spot down from seeding in 5th.

I was disappointed to miss out on winning the race as it would of meant a lot to win the memorial trophy but my time was still only 5.5 seconds off first so I know that my pace is good, I just need to keep it on two wheels.

One of Dave's best friends Sam Perry aka Wookie took a very deserved win and it wasn't surprising after seeing how fast he was during practice, he was definitely on a mission all week and it was cool to see him win.

Dave's old boss from AEL Engineering very kindly donated an awesome looking trophy for the memorial and it apparently started out as a $35,000 USD titanium jet turbine blade which had been broken so they set to it at work and turned it into the master piece pictured with Wookie below.

'Sprung' Super D series round 1

A couple of weeks ago the Nelson Mountain Bike Club hosted the first round of their 'Sprung' Super D series on the ever developing Codgers MTB trails in the Brook Valley. This a fun series of four races that is being run on Wednesday evenings over the next month catering to all skill levels and judging by the 50+ riders that turned up for the first event it will be very popular!

The first round was held down one of the most popular descents called Fir Ball and into Piplini which is a 9min+ run with a very good amount of pedaling in the middle to even out the broad field of downhillers, xc racers and weekend warriors that showed up.

This was the same track that we raced earlier in the year that I took the win at so I was looking forward to getting loose it in the wet conditions and pushing myself to sprint as much as possible.

I had a reasonably clean run aside for a couple of small stalls in corners but managed to win the senior mens class by 52 seconds and take the overall by 10 over Jamie Nicoll who destroyed the 30+ class.

The next round is on the 16th of November down a couple of newer tracks and then into a couple of the more established ones with not much climbing but still a decent amount of pedalling which should make for a good race.

Top of the South finals

Last weekend we had the final round of the Top of the south downhill series here in Nelson on the Fringe Hill Nationals track, although due to some problems with the track near the bottom we only raced the first 2/3rds of the track.

With steady rain on Saturday I decided to leave practicing until the morning of the race which i think was a good idea because the rain stayed away on Sunday and the sun came out which made things a bit better! The track was still pretty wet but was a lot of fun and really grippy to start off with but without the rain the mud had no where to go which ended up leaving the track boggy, slippery and unpredictable by the end of practice.

I had been feeling great all morning in practice but I found out quickly in my first race run just how unpredictable the track was with a big crash in the very first turn sending me off the big and into a tree. I decided to get myself together and just roll the rest of the run and check out the track as I twisted my bars and landed heavily on a rock on the back of my pelvis leaving me extremely sore on one side.

Still not feeling great I made my way up for second race run because I knew the overall title was down to the wire since I missed the first round and had no race to drop.

Starting out quite tentatively (mostly making sure I made it through the first turn!) I slowly got into my run and by the half way mark I was feeling a lot better although still struggling to pedal because of my pelvis until about 3/4 of the way down I hit a turn only to find the corner had blown out as my front wheel washed out and I went over the bars again, luckily onto softer soil this time though!

I tried to get up as quickly as possible and tried to get back into the run and ended up coming through in 2nd place only .2 of a second off the win!

It was disappointing to have two bad runs but not every weekend of racing can be perfect and my second place still gave me the overall title for the top of the south series which was a big bonus!

NZ Whip Championships

Last month one night before a race while having dinner with Team RDR boss James Rennie we decided that we needed to put on a NZ Whip Championships sometime during the national series and after a bit of talk it ended up seeming to work out perfect to have it during the National Championships weekend in Nelson.

Leaving it at that I kind of forgot about it for a while but then it started to snowball and I was getting a lot of people asking about it so I decided to set a date and make it happen!

So January 29th after the conclusion of the Downhill National Championships its all on, the venue is still to be decided but don't worry it will be a good jump and there is even a guaranteed $100 prize money plus $5 entry per rider is going into the prize pool to make it even bigger!

Check out all the info here

Hopefully we will see some style like this! my good buddie Tyler McCaul getting sideways in Whistler. Photo : James Allen

Go Pro vids

Check out a couple of videos I post up on youtube a while back, they were both from the first couple of times I took out my GoPro camera and tested it out.

Not the greatest because Maitai Face was so dark in the trees and it was blowing a gale on Broken Axe so the jumps were far from ideal but you still get to see some riding we have around Nelson!

Unfortunately I completely forgot to take a helmet mount to Rotorua last weekend so didn't get any footage, rookie error!

I wont be doing that again so hopefully from now on im going to have footage from each track we race to post up online for everyone to see.

Maitai Face with Reuben Olorenshaw:

A run down Broken Axe:

Another win in Rotorua!

Hey Everyone,

Over the weekend I flew up to Rotorua to race the first round of the new NZDH inc downhill series which is being held over the remaining months of 2011 as a build up series to the MTBNZ National Downhill Series which starts in January.

Friday afternoon in Rotorua greeted me with wet conditions once again but I wasn't too bothered as I enjoy riding the tracks there in the wet and have definitely improved with mud riding this year! Although once we started practice on Saturday although there had been some rain the track had held up well and was actually really grippy and fast, I had already put mud tyres on my bike and they were working well so I decided to stick with them for the weekend no matter what happened.

This ended up being a good decision because after practice finished on Sunday morning before race runs the heavens opened up and it started pouring with rain which left a lot of people scrambling trying to get their bikes set up for the mud that was waiting!

My first run was like riding down a river so I decided to play it a little bit cautious and try and have a safe, steady run down the hill without crashing! I ended up sitting in second place in the first run 3 seconds back off local Rotorua Pro rider Matt Walker which I was hoping I could improve on for the second run!

Luckily the rain eased up and went away for our second race run which made things a bit nicer not having to shelter from the rain but had also left the track very boggy because the rain had stopped washing the mud off the track! I started my run out not knowing what to expect so decided to go into it at 100% to try and make up the lost seconds after my first run and after a couple of stalls near the top of the track I got into a good run after steep sections and gave it my all for the last half of the track. Not wanting to lose any time on the flat sections I put my head down and sprinted through them back into the last couple of technical sections before the finish.

Going into my second run at 100% had been a good decision and I managed to improve my time by four seconds which gave me the win by just .85 of a second over Walker.

I'm stoked to take another win in such horrible conditions and with a busy couple of months of racing coming up it is great motivation to keep training hard!

Big thanks to Jasen at Fenwicks and the guys at NZDH inc. for helping me out getting to Rotorua for the weekend, the guys at NZDH inc. put on a fantastic event with a good pro purse and it really seems like they have a great series going on! Also I can't say thanks enough to all of my awesome sponsors who have been keeping me and my bike going strong this season!

My next race is the second round of the local Top Of The South Series here in Nelson on October 1st.

Brake Authority

A couple of months ago I got the opportunity from Kashi at Black Seal to trick out my trail bike and downhill bike with some new Brake Authority rotors and brake pads and I have been nothing but impressed so far!

Below is a shot of the rotors im running on my trail bike which are the "aggressive" rotors in 180mm diameter. They are a semi-floating rotor which is designed to help dissipate the heat and keep them cooler which seems to be working because on a lot of the long trail ride descents we have around Nelson I haven't had any issues with fading in any conditions.

The rotors below are Brake Authoritys more traditional offering called the "burly" rotor which also has some little tricks to help with getting rid of the heat in the form of the wave shape around the outside of the rotor.Paired up with rotors on both of my bikes are Brake Authoritys Ceramic pads which are designed as an all around pad which performs well and lasts longer than regular pads. They also only took about a minute to bed in with the new rotors which I was pretty surprised at, normally iv'e found new rotor/pad combos will take a couple of runs to really feel good but these were feeling great by half way down the first run.

Another bonus is you can buy them straight from www.brakeautority.co.nz and they will courier them to you so if your local shop doesn't stock them then check them out online!

Fox Shox Bio

Just had an email from the guys over at Fox Racing Shox to let me know my athlete profile is up online, check it out here http://foxshox.info/bennett

While your at it have a look over their 2012 range then get into our local shop ASAP and buy some new suspension for your bike! The Kashima coat on their new stuff is unreal, it keeps everything running so smooth.

NZDH Inc launching a new DH series

Some of you may have noticed the New Zealand DH Inc. page pop up on Facebook recently marking the launch of a brand new downhill series here in New Zealand. It may only look like a North Island based series but the people behind the scenes know that to make something big you have to start somewhere and that is exactly what they have done. They have a three year plan to grow the series to include rounds through out the entire country to help develop the future of the sport and allow riders to develop the skills they need to be able to compete with the best.

The series to me looks a good step forward for downhill in New Zealand and hopefully I will be able to make it up to some rounds this year!

Check out the brief below straight from NZDH to learn more about what they are all about

The NZDH Championship Series is designed and programmed to cater for all various skill levels from within the New Zealand All Mountain Category in preparation for the following MTBNZ Summer National Series.

The NZDH organisation's plan is to help and support all riders who wish to be involved in this exciting sport, compete and take their developed skills to the next step.

Our focus for the next three years is to grow the NZDH series venues throughout the country - both North and South Island as a base competition for rider preparation to essentially further develop their skills to compete on a national level.

Developing Downhill Racing - Introducing Gravity Assisted Mountain Biking To The Riders Of New Zealand

Nelson Club Downhill Champs Final

Hey everyone

Over the weekend the final round of the Nelson MTB Club downhill series was on the newly rebuilt Broken Axe DH track in the Maitai Valley here in Nelson. With a good week of weather leading up to the race it was set to be perfect conditions for the weekend of riding and racing.

I spent Saturday afternoon doing a few practice runs on the track with some friends who had made the trip up from Christchurch for the weekend and after one run down the track they were loving it and couldn't wait to get back up for more, luckily having been involved with rebuilding the track I already

had the track locked in my memory from start to finish so I spent the afternoon showing them some of the fast lines I had found and having a bit of fun on the jumps.

After the disaster and disorganisation I had at the last round I made sure I had my bike washed, preped and ready to go for race day straight after we had finished riding and all of my gear clean and organised!

Race day rolled around with another perfect day blue skied day and I was eager to get into the racing! After a couple of practice runs to warm up and check out the track I was set to go and looking forward to seeing what sort of time I could lay down on the track.

With a flat tyre upsetting my first run and resulting in a DNF I did some quick work in the pits and got back up the hill for the second run which went a lot more to plan! I really wanted to take the win and my run was awesome, I managed to ride every line exactly how I wanted and carried really good speed especially on the fast choppy fire break section where my Zerode G1 ate it all up and made it feel like nothing.

I ended up winning the race by eight seconds and also taking out the overall club champion title so it was a great weekend for me and a really good confidence booster knowing that my training and hard work has been paying off.

My next event is on the 18th of October so until then its ba

ck on the bike and work on going faster!

Thanks to fixedfocus.co.nz for the awesome pic!

Another history lesson

Alright here is another history lesson for those of you haven't been around downhill for very long, I started racing downhill in 2000 and at that time there was no vitalmtb.com, dirtmag.com or facebook so you waited to find out about races the old fashion way, either in magazines or videos. Below is a video section from the Arai, Japan World Cup from 2001 that the king of mtb videos Alex Rankin had in Sprung 5 (if you haven't heard of Sprung, do some googleing now!).

The quality of this video is awesome, music, shots, everything is good and this is before anyone did movie editing on I movie!

Take some time and enjoy, then go and find every one of the Sprung series and be impressed!

Reuben Olorenshaw x Maitai Face

Check out this video of my Zerode Bicycles team mate Reuben Olorenshaw riding the top section of Maitai Face here in Nelson for a bit of Champery training before the World Champs next month!

Reuben is on his way to Europe at the moment to race the World Cup finals in Val Di Sole, Italy and then will be heading to Champery, Switzerland to race the World DH Championships in the under 19 class. Keep an eye out for him!

Zerode bike check

For any of you that are interested in bike set ups I thought id post up a spec list of what i'm running on my Zerode G1 this season and a few random shots of it.

Fork: 2012 Fox 40 RC2

Shock: 2012 Fox RC4 w/ Nuke Proof Ti spring

Cranks: Shimano Saint

Chain Ring: Gamut Race Ring 32t

Pedals: Crank Brothers Mallet/50 50

Seat + Post: SDG I-Fly and Carbon post

Bars: Raceface Atlas cut down to 760mm wide

Grips: ODI Ruffian lock on

Brakes: Shimano Saint

Wheels: Atomlab Pimp Light wheel set

Tyres: Maxxis Minnion F 2.5mm

Headset: Custom Zerode 2 degree angle set

The frame runs a Shimano Alfine 8 speed hub which is modified by Zerode for use with the frame. My bike is also running a full Ti bolt kit which is available from Zerode and also a set of prototype light weight chain adjusters.

Nelson Club Downhill Champs Round Two

Last weekend saw the running of round two of the Nelson Club downhill champs held on awesome Ben Nevis Mountain just outside of Nelson.

The hill has had downhill tracks on it since before I started riding and it is always fun even in the pouring rain! Luckily for us though the weekend was perfect blue skies although a little bit chilly with a good frost greeting us on race day.

After a few practice runs on Saturday I had the track pretty well dialed in and decided to just do a couple of runs on Sunday morning to save my energy as th

e track is pretty well established and wasn't going to change at all.

My first race run started well and I was feeling really good until about the midway point when I got that horrible feeling of a tyre going flat! Sure enough a couple of turns later all the air was gone so I limped my way to the finish and got it sorted and ready to go for race run number two.

Once again it was another good start to the run and I was pushing hard wanting to make up for the first run disaster. Unfortunately only seconds before where I had got my puncture I messed up my line coming into a turn and washed out hitting the ground hard and scrambling to get back up and going again.

Even with the crash in my second run I still managed to

take out second place and was close to the win so even though the weekend seemed like a disaster it was good to take some positives out of it knowing that I am still riding strong and fast and that my training is paying off.

My Zerode Bikes team mate Reuben Olorenshaw dominated the under19 class winning by 5 seconds and showing how much his training and preparation for the upcoming World Championships is paying off. Hes off for his first taste of racing in Europe in a couple of weeks so im looking forward to seeing how he will go there!

Go Pro!

Last week I had a very cool package turn up with a nice new Go Pro Camera inside! The guys at Go Pro NZ hooked me up to capture some downhill footage so I was excited to test it out.

First thing Saturday I headed up the newly rebuilt Broken Axe DH track with Zerode Junior rider Reuben Olorenshaw and East Takaka local Reece Potter for some shuttle runs and had the Go Pro filming every run.

The footage that came out from it is amazing and its cool to be able to sit back afterwards and watch the run without having to concentrate on actually riding it!

I put together a quick edit tonight of a full run down the track and threw in a little bit of footage of the shock and gear box through some rough stuff to see how the Zerode sticks to the ground!

Keep an eye out on here and my youtube page for more footage soon!

Check it out below

Chad Reed = Bad Ass

If you haven't seen this video of Chad Reeds crash at the Millville AMA Outdoor Motocross National last weekend then prepared to be amazed.

Reed is by far my favorite athlete and this effort just cements that even more, while leading at Millville he washed out off the lip of a big table top and got completely ejected off the bike in one of the craziest crashes iv'e ever seen, to top it off after falling from the sky he gets himself up off the ground, adjusts his brake/clutch levers, starts the race again in last (40th) place and charges back to 14th!

Watch the video and be amazed.

Another huge race for NZ downhill

So I was up early this morning to watch the freecaster.tv live footage from the Mt Saint Anne, Canada World Cup and it was one hell of an exciting morning!

NZ had 7 riders qualified in the top 80 final and 5 of them ended up in the top 20!

Brook MacDonald's run was so smooth and flawless it was awesome to watch and when he came through the line and put 5.6 seconds into the ride who was in the hot seat i couldn't help but have a wee cheer in the living room by myself! I convinced myself

he was going to win after that but in the end he was bumped back to 3rd place only .515 of a second behind the winner Aaron Gwin!

Brook is on fire at the moment and i'm looking forward to seeing how the rest of his series goes, he has a huge future ahead of him.

Next in line the big horse Cam Cole who was one of my groomsmen at my wedding in March charged into 5th place for his first podium of the season, it was good to see him looking solid on the bike again and pulling a good result, look out for

him at Windham next weekend, hes won a US national there before!

Blinky was flying like usual and put in a very good ride for 7th but looked a bit disappointed at the bottom.

Justin Leov put a solid ride in on the new carbon Trek Session to take 10th and Scolsy (best man at my wedding) had an average run (stolen from his facebook status) but still managed a solid 19th keeping him in the top 20 overall heading into next weekends race.

I'm going to miss my world cup fix next weekend because im off to samoa on Thursday for my honeymoon but hopefully the boys will be able to have another good weekend and keep NZ on top of the world!

Facebook athlete page

Check out my new facebook athlete page iv'e made at www.facebook.com/kieranbennettracing

if your on facebook click like then send it to your friends!

Two for two, Nelson Club DH Champs round 1

After a bit of a hiatus the downhill scene returned to Nelson today with the first round of the Club DH Championships series being held on the Maitai Face track under clear blue skies.

It was obvious on Saturday everyone had been keen for the races to return with a lot of people out shuttling the track to get some early practice in and we were no different with a full load of people on my truck getting about 7 runs in by the end of the day. With some heavy rain on Thursday the track was still pretty damp and with the top section being pretty fresh it didn't take long for some massive (awesome) ruts to appear! (which sadly got cut out on Sunday morning before practice)

Race day morning started out very frosty on what I would say has been Nelson's coldest morning all year but once the sun finally made its way over the hill it was an awesome day and after a couple of good quick practice runs in the morning I was feeling pretty happy with my lines and confident for a good result.

After a slight delay due to the organiser's radios going flat the race finally got underway and with the track dropping straight off the road and into the action it made for some good viewing while we waited for our runs. Some of the juniors were a bit worrying after watching the likes of Reuben Olorenshaw, Reece Potter and Tim Adams tearing apart the first few turns I knew there would be no time for messing around on the short track!

My good friend James Rennie made the trip up from Christchurch to represent for the Red Dog Racing/22 motor sports crew and after i gave him a bit too much cheering going into the first turn nearly lost it mere seconds into his run but managed to hold it together just!

After waiting for nearly the whole field I was 2nd to last down the hill and after a near off track excursion in the same place as James I managed to put together a solid run and take the win on the short track with a time of 1.35 min with a comfortable couple of seconds over 2nd place.

Iv'e got a five week break now until the next round of the Nelson Club Champs at the end of July but in the mean time Katie and I are off to Samoa for our honeymoon so it will be a good excuse to relax and have a break from training for a couple of weeks!

Descend Rotorua Winter DH Championships Race Report

With only a hand full of downhill races going on around the country over winter I decided to make the most of it and head up to Rotorua for the weekend to race the Rotorua Winter DH Championships to get some more racing in.

With the Descend Rotorua Mountain Bike Club running the event I knew it would be worth the trip and they didn't disappoint with a full day of practice on Saturday and then practice Sunday morning before two race runs with the top 10 riders going back up for a 3^rd run to battle it out for a cash prize.

After waking up several times on Friday night to sound of pouring rain I was expecting the worst but my first run down the track felt like a race run so I knew it was going to be a good weekend! By the end of the day the track had got extremely rough with some of the ruts up to your bottom bracket! After a bit of scoping on my last practice run on saturday though I had found some good lines and was feeling confident in the muddy conditions.

With more rain overnight I decided to just do one practice run before the race to check out the track and it was a good call with three race runs to come.

My Zerode G1 was feeling awesome in the muddy conditions and the new 2012 Fox suspension was eating up everything I threw at it so I was feeling confident heading into the race. With the whole field racing before the pro class the track had changed a little bit but my two race runs went smooth and after a bit of a wait I found out I had taken the race win by 14 seconds! The top 10 then went back up for a final shoot out for the cash which I managed to have another smooth run down and this time took the win by 20 seconds and the cash!

It was a tiring day after doing three full on race runs in the mud but I couldn't be happier with how the weekend went and I feel like im stronger than ever on my bike and really enjoying racing again.

Next up is the first round of the Nelson MTB Club DH championships this weekend so im looking forward to getting back on the bike!

Thanks again to all of my awesome sponsors keeping me on the podium!

Zerode all prepped up and ready to race

Matt Walker: Blue Steel

Jasen from Fenwicks was on hand to keep everyone's bikes clean!

All business in the race run's

R&R RIP Super D

On Sunday we got the last chance ever to ride the R&R trail in the Maitai Valley which is getting logged this week and the Nelson Mountain Bike Club decided to make a good day of it by running a Super D event on it.

The flow and technicality of the track made it one of Nelso

n's best rides and its a disappointment to see it have to go but the chance to race it was one I couldn't pass up!

My good friends James and Pip came up from Christchurch for the weekend to race so after a couple of laps of the track on Saturday I was feeling pretty good apart from a nagging head cold.

I decided to not practice the morning of the race and keep myself fresh for my race run and after a bit of a wait at the top of the hill I got to be the last one down after winning the last Super D race here.

My run went a lot better than I expected and I felt good

until the last climb when my legs started to feel like lead! But luckily it was only short and it was back into the last section of single track before a 30 sprint down a fire road to the finish.

I ended up taking 2nd place only a second behind Super D weapon Kurt Lancaster so I was pretty happy to still be so competitive. We've both had a 1st and 2nd placing now so hopefully the club runs another event so we can have a show down for the championship!

Ive got a couple of weekends off now before I head to Rotorua on the 17th for the Winter Downhill Championships and then the weekend after we have the first round of the Nelson Club DH series so its going to be a busy month!

Thanks to Shuttersport.co.nz for the photo and to all my awesome sponsors for keeping me and bike dialled this year!

Something a little bit different

The first gravity race on the Nelson Mountain Bike Club's calendar was held during the weekend with a Super D race on the Codgers trails in the Brook Valley.

I spend a lot of time riding my trail bike around Codgers so I was pretty excited to have a race there and the track they ran was one I have spent a fair bit of time on while I was setting up my new Fox 36's and RP23 last month. With the bulk of it being descending with a few fast flowing flat sections and only one real climb it made for a perfect track for the downhill guys.

I knew the track well but I also knew there would be some good competition in the form of New Zealand's reigning unofficial super d champion Kurt Lancaster who has won the last two big super d races around NZ and some other quick local guys who have been up getting plenty of practice in!

I got one practice in on the course in morning and it was pretty loose so I decided to tone things back a little bit for my race run. I had a couple of small mistakes but managed to keep it clean and get some good sprinting in.

I ended up posting a time of 8.50 which put me 6 seconds ahead of Kurt in 2nd and nearly 25 seconds ahead of 3rd!

The race was a lot of fun so hopefully some more stuff like this catches on and starts popping up around the country!

Thanks again to my awesome sponsors who make this all possible!

behind the scenes

Check out a sneak peek of a photo shoot I did with Evan Barnes from http://www.evanbarnesphotography.co.nz last night, there will be a slideshow up on vitalmtb.com sometime soon so keep an eye out!

inside the outdoors

Check out another episode from the "Inside the outdoors" series being aired in the US, awesome footage and behind the scenes stuff. well worth watching

the great outdoors

After breaking two fingers quite badly at a local motocross race back in October last year I didn't get to ride much over the summer but over the last few weeks iv'e managed to make it out for a few days of two wheel action that doesn't require pedaling.

Last weekend I got to check out one of my mates tracks for the first time and with a bit of rain the night before the dirt was perfect for a few motos.

Check out a few shots below that my friend Luke sent through to me that he shot while I was out riding!

Fresh bike for the winter

After the NZ national series was all done my bike was looking a little bit worse for wear and with new suspension being built by Fox Racing Shox for my bike I decided it was time for a freshen up and after having white bikes for the last 3 years I thought black would be a good change!

After a couple of emails with Rob and Dodzy from Zerode we had the colour ways chosen and new graphics getting printed.

I finally got the frame back on Saturday and after a nervous hour of putting the new graphics on I was extremely happy with the end result!

New colours

New Fox Racing Shox Factory Series 40's

The finished product!

I can't say thanks enough to Rob and Dodzy at Zerode Bikes and Fitzy at Fox Racing Shox for all their help this season and to all my other awesome sponsors who have been helping me out!

Keep an eye out on Vitalmtb.com for a full bike check coming soon!

good viewing

If your into motocross I think you will probably find this interesting...

Its a tv show aired on the Fuel network in the US which follows the AMA outdoor nationals and seems to have some pretty awesome stuff on it, lots of behind the scenes shots and interviews. Its an 8 part series so hopefully the others will be up soon

World Champs long list

Just got word last week that iv'e been selected in the New Zealand long list for the world champs being held in Champery, Switzerland later on in the year. Theres a few guys who have already made final selection but iv'e made it known to the powers that be that if anyone gets hurt during the season then I will be fit and ready to race so not that I want any of my friends racing full time overseas to get hurt but it would be cool to race the world champs again which would mark my 7th year in a row!

Trail bike fun

Check out this helmet cam video shot by Leo Sandler following me down the new Firball extension in Nelson. This is my favorite track to ride at the moment and every time im up there it seems to get better and better!

Nelson Cross Country Series Round 1 Report.

The first round of the Nelson Motorcycle club cross country series kicked off during the weekend at Angelsy's farm near Tapawera. With a bit of last minute preparation over the last couple of weeks consisting of a few training rides on my mountain bike and a couple of days doing moto's. Not ideal but definitely better than nothing!

Its been over a year since I last raced a cross country so I was pretty excited to get it underway but by midway through the race I had remembered how painful racing a motorbike for 3 hours solid is and was ready for it to end!

The races are always started le mans style which is pretty cool because it separates everyone out straight away and with a good sprint I got into a good position straight somewhere around the top 10 which I managed to maintain for the whole race finishing up in 9th overall for the day and 2nd in the 0-300cc four stroke class.

I'm stoked to pull off a good result from barely riding and getting some severe arm pump over the first couple of laps, the next round is 6 weeks away so iv'e got a bit more time to prepare and hopefully come out swinging.

More new toys!

Ive had this wee fella sitting in the shed for a while now and finally got it finished last week. I got it mid last season from the guys at VSI who were one of our team sponsors at the time and along with a bunch of our other team sponsors I got the bulk of the bike built up except for cranks which I finally got around to buying last week!

I don't know why I wasted so much time getting them because its awesome! First ride at the local BMX track was good and hopefully ill be able to make it to a few races around here this year!

New goodies!

Check out the nice package that turned up a few weeks ago thanks to Fitzy, Pappy and Mike V at Fox Racing Shox to get my bikes all dialed in for this year!

The Kashima coated 36's and RP23 air shock are all mounted up on my trail bike and are amazing, it feels like a downhill bike on descents now.

Now I just need to finish getting my Zerode G1 painted and rebuilt so I can get testing on the new 40's and RC4 shock.

Keep an eye out on VitalMTB.com in the near future for a bike check!

National Champs wrap up

Last weekend marked the final event of the New Zealand summer series with the National Championships being held on Signal Hill in Dunedin.

With rain all week leading up to the event the track was extremely slippery and had already taken a few people out with injuries during the week so it didn't take much for me to decide to skip the first of two days practice to leave everyone else to slide their way down the hill and cut the track in a bit more. By Saturday the track was slowly starting to dry out with a bit of sun shining and a good breeze blowing through the trees making it more rideable but a nasty off camber section at the very end of the track made for quite a few hold ups during the day and I think I only had one clean run through there during the day.

With sun forecast for race day things were looking better and after the organisers had cut a couple of trees out of the off camber section at the bottom the track was flowing nicely and was looking to be a good race. My qualifying run was good up until the off camber section at the bottom of course, I landed on a root coming out of it and managed to dislodge a quite sizeable rock with my chest which I hadn't even noticed until a few friends came down to see me afterwards and make sure I was ok!

After a bit of a rest and bike maintenance it was time to head up the hill once again for my final race run of the 2011 National Circuit so I was determined to make it a good one and finish the season on a good note.

I decided to try and ride a little bit more conservatively in my race run because the track was still a bit wet and claiming a lot of riders in the other classes during finals, this tactic seemed to work pretty well for me as I had a good clean consistent run up until once again coming out of the off camber section I clipped a large rock knocked out by the rider in front of me, luckily though this time I managed to just hold it together and ride it out losing only a little bit of time.

In the end my time was good enough for 6^th place against guys who are on world cup teams for the coming season and have been training hard in preparation, after breaking my fingers in October last year and not even being sure if I would be able to race the whole series until December im pretty happy with how this series has gone. Ive realised a few weaknesses I need to work on and am now going to have a break for a month before getting back on the bike for a big race in Queenstown over the Easter weekend.

This weekend however brings the biggest event of the year as im getting married to my Fiancee Katie on Saturday!

Once again thanks to all of you for your help and support this season!

Keeping the vision clear mid run.

First turn of the track, sickest rut the whole way down

Race run making my way through the end of the wild off camber section, this was out of control during practice day in the wet.

Photos courtesy of James Allan

Gallery

Just thought id post up a few shots ive collected so far from the national series here in NZ and a few shots of my new Zerode G1 race mobile. Also on a side note Zerode have just launched their website so check it out at www.zerode.co.nz

NZ National Series Round 2

Hey everyone,

Round two of the New Zealand national downhill series was held over the weekend in the hot and dry Napier. Thursday night was spent in Rotorua building up my new Zerode downhill bike, finally getting it all ready at about 10.30 it was off to bed with a 5.30am wake up to get us to Napier in time.

It was great to get back to the national series races and catch up with a lot of old friends before jumping on my bike for the first time with only a day to get used to it before racing!

With only about a weeks riding under my belt since I had my finger breaking crash in October I was actually feeling pretty good on the track and felt like I was riding at a good pace. I proved this on Saturday morning during qualifying by coming in 6^th with a fairly decent run against a field of guys who have been training hard to get ready for the World Cup season thats coming up.

With my good qualifying run under my belt I had a bit of confidence going into my race run but still had the nerves going since I hadn’t ridden or raced in a few months! As soon as I was out of the gate and into my race run they were all gone and I was just focused and sprinting and getting to the bottom without any issues. My run went awesome and it wasn’t until about 10 seconds from the finish I had a mechanical and my chain jammed up which stopped me from being able to sprint the last flat part of the course and had to roll around the last jump. Even with that I still managed to equal my qualifying time and finished 6^th for the day only .2 of a second off the podium!

It’s great to know I’m back up to pace so quickly and haven’t lost any speed with my injuries especially with such a long time off the bike. This coming weekend we have the 3^rd round coming up in Rotorua so I’m spending the week there to do some more training and riding to hopefully get even quicker and on the podium this time!