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

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.