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!

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!

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.