Europe 2013

Just settling into European time again, day two into our 6 week race trip to Germany, Czech Republic and Italy for the first three World Cup rounds of the 2013 series.

Flight went well, good movies and decent food and managed a few hours of solid sleep. Being Silver member with Emirates allowed access to the Business Class lounge in Dubai which was pretty sweet with free food and plenty of space to relax.

Landed in Munich to meet up with the rest of the team who had arrived a few hours earlier and picked up our ride for the trip, a massive Mercedes Sprinter.

We’re spending the first two weeks in Sigmaringen Germany, building up to the first World Cup round of the year 20mins drive down the road in the town of Albstadt. Haven’t got up to a whole lot just yet with the Jetlag still having a pretty strong hold on us all. Just managed a couple of easy spins and a first look at the World Cup track. First impressions were pretty good, it wasn’t as steep as rumours had indicated but there is a lot of tough climbing. Some pretty cool descents, nothing overly technical but good fun and still tricky at times.

And the weather so far has been decent to, always nice when you can extend the NZ summer for a bit longer. Hopefully the rain forecasted for later this week doesn’t turn up.

2013 UCI Mountain Bike Calendar     World

Date Event Venue Ctry                       18 - 19.5   UCI World Cup XCO / XCE 1   Albstadt GER       25 - 26.5   UCI World Cup XCO / XCE 2   Nove Mesto na Morave CZE       8 - 9.6   UCI World Cup DHI 1   Fort William GBR       15 - 16.6   UCI World Cup XCO / XCE3 / DHI2   Val Di Sole ITA       28 - 29.6   UCI MARATHON WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS   Kirchberg AUT       27 - 28.7   UCI World Cup XCO / XCE 4 / DHI 3   Vallnord AND       10 - 11.8   UCI World Cup XCO 5 / DHI 4   Mont-Sainte-Anne CAN       26.8 - 1.9   UCI XCO/XCE/DHI WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS   Pietermaritzburg RSA       14 - 15.9   UCI World Cup XCO 6 / XCE 5 / DHI 5   Hafjell NOR       21.9   UCI 4X WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS   Leogang AUT       21 - 22.9   UCI World Cup DHI 6   Leogang AUT

  

Oceania Championships

The last race for the NZ summer season was the Oceania Continental Championships held last weekend in Tasmania not far from Hobart.

The weather we experienced while in aussie closely resembled the fade out from Summer to Autumn with the day we arrived cooking at close to 30degrees, before dropping right away and requiring jackets and arm warmers to be dug out to stay warm while riding.

As usual for an Australian track the ground was rock hard and often covered with a loose gravely surface. It took a bit of time to get up to speed particularly on the switchback packed descent, I wasn’t overly keen on hitting the deck here as the dirt gave the impression of being  harder than concrete.

Apart from a nasty super steep section of road climbing near the top there wasn’t anything too demanding on the course but it did have a lot of single track to keep things interesting.

Although a separate U23 race was held we raced off the same gun as the Elite Men but completed one less lap. Early on we had a mix of three U23s and two Elites up the front with Jack Haig setting the pace with Anton and myself following with Elites Sid Taberlay and Dan McConnell also present. Nothing much happened over the first two laps with the group sticking together. I felt pretty good and was happy just following wheels and going with the flow of the bunch. The road pinch was a different story though and every lap a bit of a gap opened up which I was forced to close. I struggled a bit with the gradient here, it was a tough ask to power up it seated but traction was a real problem when standing and compared to the others I seemed to find it pretty difficult.

The third lap came with an increase in the pace and I was in a bit of trouble starting to swing off the back as we began climbing. I managed to stay in contact but the tough road section proved to be too much and I was properly dropped as the speed was cranked up even more.

It was a bit of a let down as I had been aiming to put up a good fight and contest the win but just didn’t have the legs that Anton and Jack obviously did and they quickly opened up the gap and I didn’t see them again till the finish.

 

The last two laps I just focused on keeping up a consistent speed and holding my third place which I was able to do. So while I was hoping to get more from the race it was still not too bad a ride and a podium finish is always a decent result.

 

Motatapu

NZXC Racing managed to pick up the support of Southsure Insurance which gave us the opportunity to travel down south for the Motatapu MTB Race last weekend. It was a first time for the whole team apart from Sam so we were pretty excited.

After a big day of travelling on Friday with flights and a couple of long drives we made it to Dan from NZ by Bike’s place in Queenstown. Haylee cooked us an amazing pasta dinner and with some good advice from Sam on the course and tactics we were all set to go. The race makes its way over 48kms from Lake Wanaka across the mountains to Arrowtown. The route manages to slip through the pass without a large amount of obvious climbing but there are still some steep pinches and the gradual haul to the top takes a fair bit of effort. Because it’s all on gravel or farm roads, roadie tactics such as drafting and team work come into play which made things interesting and a bit different to the other races this year.

 

A slow start kept everyone together early on but a small bunch of us got away over the first challenging climb. I wasn’t feeling super good but once the first 30mins or so were over I tried a small attack to test how the others were going. Carl and Anton both came up to me but not super easily so I got a bit of confidence and had another go on the next pinch. I got away by myself this time and settled down for a long solo ride to the finish. It wasn’t to be however and on one of the downhills I went through a hole in the road and my bars twisted right round in my hands. I hadn’t tightened them up enough when building my bike up after the flight down. I was pretty pissed off with myself but luckily the race rules required every competitor to carry a multi tool so I was able to do some on the fly adjustments. Because of the number plate I couldn’t easily access the stem bolts and the lead group soon caught back up. I yo-yoed off the back for a while doing my best to get everything tightened up on the undulating terrain while staying with the leaders.

I got the bars tight and then spent a bit of time at the back of the bunch before deciding I had better try and get away again. A good hard burst opened up a slight gap but I wasn’t able to get away as cleanly this time and was soon joined by Carl with Brad chasing hard not to far behind. Carl and I worked hard together to keep Brad off and seemed to be slowly easing away, but my bars started loosening up again and I was forced to slow down and have another go at getting them properly done up. This time it was a bit easier as it came on a longer climb and with a slower pace I was able to do a better job and thankfully didn’t have any more issues during the race.

However I had a bit of work to do with Carl and Brad getting a good advantage while I stuffed around sorting myself out. Because we were up high in open farm land they were both still in sight though which made it a lot easier to catch back up as I had a visual target to chase. Brad soon reached Carl and a few minutes later I was also back up with the both of them. Brad was really pushing the pace and Carl ended up cracking and fell behind. I was content just to sit on Brad’s wheel and let him do the work for awhile.  As the kms ticked by I knew I would have to make a move soon as it would be hard to get away on the decent and I wasn’t keen for a sprint if I could help it.

With the highest point of the course not far off I put in a big effort up a slight rise and managed to drop Brad. He was still going strong and kept the gap small as we descended down to the finish. The last few kms were packed with river crossings and it was pretty hard going trying to stay ahead but I kept it together and took the win with a new course record.

So a pretty successful weekend away. A big thanks to Sam for coordinating the trip as well as Dan and Haylee for there hospitality and our sponsors particularly NZ BY BIKE and Southsure Insurance without who it wouldn’t have happened.

Karapoti Classic

After a break last year I returned to karapoti hoping to take the win for the first time. The brutal nature of the course makes it a pretty unique race. Long steep climbs, river crossings, mud bogs, hike a bike sections and rock gardens add up over the 50km of backcountry racing taking their toll on both the body and the bike. Added to this is the race’s history as the longest running MTB race in the southern hemisphere and a pretty prestigious former winners list makes it a pretty important event on the NZ calendar.

I found the race even tougher than I remembered this year and despite the super dry conditions it was actually a lot harder with lots of loose rubbly rock slowing the course down and adding to the difficulty on the climbs especially.

I managed to crash twice, once on an uphill losing traction on the steep rocky climb and then again after getting a bit loose down the famous rock garden descent. Luckily I didn’t do any damage to myself but I did manage to take out a spoke and bend a few others.

But overall the race went well, myself and Edward Crossling got away over the first quarter of the race and then when a flat tyre ruined his chances I carried on alone keeping on the pace as much as I could as I had no idea how close the chasers were. I felt stronger as the race went on but was glad to make it back to the last river crossing in the lead with no one in sight and even better as I crossed the line to win Karapoti for the first time.