NZ National Championships

Over the past weekend I had the New Zealand National Mountain Bike Championships here in Nelson where I took on the first ever Super D National Championship and raced the Downhill Championship for the 11th year in a row!

Super D was held on Friday evening on the backside of the Codgers MTB trails down Firball, Turners and Dogs which ended up being a really testing race. Each section of descending was quite different from the other and a good section of pedaling/climbing in between each of them to keep the oxygen deprivation high!

Since I have ridden the track a bit over the past year I decided on just one quick practice run before the race to get my head around the track again and get a feel for how loose the dust was going to be. This event was raced as a single person timed run just like downhill which I think suits the downhillers because we are so used to pushing ourselves against the clock rather than racing other people around us.

Being the local I ended up getting seeded to be last down the hill which meant I was chasing down some fast guys in the form of World Cup Downhill racers like Justin Leov, Jared Graves and Matt Scoles which was a good thing because it meant there wouldn't be any waiting at the bottom to know how I went.

My run went well and after trying to conserve my energy on the descents I hit the hardest and final climb with a good solid sprint but after about 30 seconds my legs were feeling like bricks and I had to sit down the last 15 seconds and spin which I was a bit disappointed with because it was so close to the top but as it turns out I still managed to cross the line in 2nd behind Justin Leov which I was stoked it. Justin showed us how much of a freak he is by putting a solid 12 seconds into me! I definitely had no answer for where those 12 seconds went and I will tell you all now you can put your money on Justin being a podium contender at the first round of the World Cup in South Africa in March.

Next up on the cards was Saturdays Downhill practice which was extremely dry and dusty after a couple of dry weeks leading up to the race. The track held up well though with only a couple of small turns getting blown out by the end of the day. I took the day pretty easy as I was definitely feeling a bit slow after blowing myself out in the Super D the night before.

Race day looked like the rain was going to come for most of the morning but eventually the sun came out just as predicted by Metservice! With such a long shuttle most people only got one run in during the mornings practice and that worked out exactly as I was planning for me making it up for the clear run pro practice before getting organised for seeding.

I wanted to put a quick run down in seeding to see where I would be standing heading into the finals so I decided to just try and ride a normal run down there so I knew I had time to spare and that was exactly how it worked it, I ended up crossing the line in 5th place about 6 seconds back from Scolsy who seeded 1st

Knowing that I would need to take about 8 or 9 seconds off of my seeding time I hit the track was aggression in my race run hitting the first few corners quick until a corner that had changed a bit since seeding caught me out and sent me to the ground. I was gutted to go down so early and got back on cursing myself for the mistake but forced myself to push hard again to try and salvage what I could from my run.

The rest of my run went well and I hit the tricky off cambers with an all or nothing mentality making it through them clean and fast.

Crossing the line at the bottom I was surprised to see my time was good enough for 2nd and only fractions of a second off the lead! With 4 riders left to go on the hill it was a nervous wait to see how my time would hold up but in the end I finished up 4th only a few seconds from the win which I was stoked with considering I crashed and still made the podium.

Justin Leov showed again he is on form taking his first National Downhill Championship and his second Championship for the weekend.

Iv'e got two weeks off now before the NZ National Downhill Series resumes for round four in Rotorua, I know a couple of things I want to work on before then so its back to training and getting prepared!

Thanks again to all of my awesome sponsors for making it happen again this year, Zerode Bikes, Fenwicks, Results Gym, Equilibrium Chiropractic, Fox Clothing, Scott Goggles, Maxxis tyres, Shimano, Pro, Fox Racing Shox and Interislander Ferrys!

In the news!

Earlier in the week myself and my team mate Reuben Olorenshaw met up with a reporter from the local paper and did a bit of an interview and photo shoot. It ended up coming out pretty good in a half page article in tonight's edition, check it out here! http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/sport/6317578/Its-all-downhill-for-Nelson-riders

NZ National Series Round 3 race report

Hey Everyone,

Another round of the 2012 NZ National Series is in the books and Methven put on a good one! I had ridden the top half of the track at Dave Balderstones memorial race in November last year so I had a rough idea of what to expect which made practice a little bit easier not needing to learn a completely new track. The top was a fast, open and had a few fun jumps in it to keep it fun before heading into a steep flowy section through the pine trees down to the finish.

Friday's practice was a day of fun runs playing around on the track with Matt Scoles which helped find out which lines worked and which didn't. Scolsy is my usual practice buddy at national rounds and is good to ride with because he seems to be able to pick the lines that work and get up to speed quickly while still having fun.

With a bit of rain sneaking down over night race day turned out fine but overcast which was good to help keep the dust down and the light change not quite so harsh going into the trees although it only took about half an hour for the track to be bone dry and dusty again!

My seeding run went well and I slipped into 5th place behind four world cup regulars so I was pretty happy to still be up there with those guys and it gave me some good confidence going into race runs.

After a big break unfortunately due to a couple of riders needing to be helicoptered out we were back to the top and getting ready for race runs. I think one of the best parts of the NZ Nationals is how much fun it is at the top of the hill before runs, no wind trainers, everyone is hanging out and messing around, not like a world cup start area!

I put in another solid run and felt like I had put in a competitive time coming through the line a second faster than my qualifier which put me into 3rd with 4 riders still to come. My time ended up being good enough for 6th which i was happy with although a little bit gutted when I saw the results and found I was only .09 of a second off the podium!

This result was good enough to bump me up into 3rd overall for the South Island Cup behind Matt Scoles and Brook McDonald which was a nice bonus for the weekend!

Still I was happy to put together two good fast runs on the day and am looking forward to National Champs this weekend which are being run on my home track here in Nelson, as well as the downhill i'm also going to be racing the Super D on Friday afternoon which I have been putting in work to try and pull a solid result!

Back on the podium!

Last weekend saw the second round of the NZ National Downhill series head back to Dunedin which has always been one of my favourite races over the years!

With the weather forecast looking marginal for the weekend and after walking the track after it had rained I decided to go straight to cut down Maxxis Wet Scream's the night before practice started and it was a good choice because that night the skies opened up and it didn't stop all night!

Trying to survive during practice!

Practice day started off dry but before long the rain was falling again and trying to practice was a nightmare with people littered all over the track just trying to make it down, I don't think I even had one run without a crash in Friday's practice!

The rain finally stopped on Friday evening and with wind all night the track was beginning to dry out by the time practice started on Saturday morning, although it really only made things worse because the mud got even stickier and heavier without the rain to wash it away!

By the time practice ended things had got better though and the open section at the top of the track had dried out completely speeding things up dramatically.

My seeding run went pretty good until a small crash out of a corner in the bottom section slowed things down but even so I still crossed the line in 7th which I was happy with because I knew I had a lot of time that I could make up. But with Dunedin being Dunedin, just as everyone was getting comfortable with the drying track the rain came back again heavier than ever about half way through racing! Luckily I hadn't changed anything on my set up from practice so I was still set to go which allowed me to relax and get my goggles organised before my race run.

With all the rain before race runs I decided to really try and push down the top section to keep my time consistent with qualifying but that decision almost ruined my run about 30 seconds in when my front wheel washed in a berm sending me off the track into the tape to a complete stop! I thought that would be my run over but I got going again and tried to keep my speed steady and clear all the jumps before heading into the technical trees. Sticking with all of the lines I had practiced worked out well for me and I was riding good until a slippery root pushed my front wheel off a berm to make it stall out number two for the run! The rest of the run went well and I managed to hit all of the high lines over the roots that I needed to before the finish and was extremely surprised to come through the line in 2nd at the time!

With a hand full of fast guys left to come down I wasn't sure how well my time would fare but it was good enough to put me back on the podium for the first time in a couple of years with a 3rd!

Brook McDonald put together a solid run to take the win and my good friend Matt Scoles in 2nd.

11 years and counting...

The opening round of the NZ National Downhill series on the 8th of January marked my 11th year of racing the series and it still only feels like iv'e been riding for a few years! 2002 was my first year racing the series and iv'e been there every year since, i think in 2002 I finished top 3 in the U17 class and I was hooked!

Believe it or not, that is me after my first National Series, looking absolutely stoked!

Queenstown took the honors of the opening round for this years series and it was a round that got everyone talking as it was expected to be held on the Skyline Gondola but after some complications it ended up being held off the bottom of the Remarkables Ski Area access round on basically a grass paddock. Don't get me wrong the track was a lot of fun but it seriously lacked anything technical so it was really just a matter of not making mistakes and staying of the brakes.

Sliding in the Queenstown dust

After a bit of a slide out in qualifying I came through the line in 13th knowing I had room to improve and after thinking about the run a few times I had a good idea of where to make up some time and hopefully put a better race run together.

Straight out of the gate I rode the first chute the best I had all weekend which put me a good frame of mind going into the rest of the run so I tried to put it all together the rest of the way and sprint where I could. I managed to ride a pretty clean run with only a minimal mistake losing me a little bit of time but still made up 6 places from qualifying and ended up placing 7th on the day only a second off a podium finish!

Thanks to all of my awesome sponsors for getting me to the series this year, Zerode Bicycles, Fenwicks, Fox Clothing, Scott Goggles, Shimano, Maxxis, Pro, Results Athletic Centre, Fox Racing Shox and Interislander