Last weekend the Nelson Mountain Bike Club kicked off their Club Champs Series which runs over the winter with one race each month. Traditionally the series starts off with an easier track to try and encourage people into racing and this year a short but fun trail known was "Redwoods" was chosen in the Brook Valley right by town. With it only being around a minute long I decided to race on my 6" trail bike rather than my full on downhill bike because the track just didn't justify the need for it, it was also a short ride to the top too so I could pedal back up between each run which helped turn it into a bonus training day!

Due to there being no shuttles sign in began at 12 and everyone could do as little or as much practice as they felt like before racing began at 1pm. After a couple of quick practice runs I felt pretty well dialed in and was having plenty of fun in the casual atmosphere. Even so I couldn't help but put 100% into my race run and coming through the line with a 1.03.35 which was good enough for me to take the win with a clear 3 seconds over 2nd place which I was really stoked with, I have been putting in a lot of work over the last few weeks to get prepared for my trip to the US for the North American World Cup rounds and US MTP GP downhill rounds and to win by a good margin on such a short track makes it feel like my training is paying off!

Another five weeks to wait for round two now and then three days after that I will be on a plane with my wife Katie and en route to my first race in the US at Sugarbush Resort, Vermont!

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.

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!