PNP Spring Series 2009: Race 1 - Makara Peak

As soon as the course descriptions came out I started practicing the route. The original D course was short and simple, and there was nothing technical in it, so eventually they changed it, so we pretty much just had to do two laps. This now meant that the D course was 21km, rather than the original 15km. I worked on getting the speed up and rode the course so many times I could have ridden it with my eyes closed.

When race day turned up it was a bit overcast but it wasn’t raining - yet. Because we live so close to Karori West School we rode down there on the bikes. We registered and got our numbers, did all the last minute bike checking and warm up. I was very pleased because I wasn’t the only one in Under 19 Girls (I had done nearly all of last year’s series without any competition so this was actually quite a big thing). My strategy was to keep it nice and steady on the first lap, and then totally give it everything on the second.

By the time I had climbed up Allington Road to the start of Rimu the mass start had split up and so although Rimu wasn’t traffic free, it wasn’t too clogged up. Big Tom and Lazy Fern were sweet, and I passed a few people on Koru. Sally Alley got a bit bottle-necked, and every now and then I’d fly past a scared, puffed looking boy waiting to get passed. The rest of the ride went pretty well, I came back to the school and had my chocolate (cheers to whoever had the idea to give those out). Congratulations to Emily and Caitlin for a great race, and I hope to see you at all the other races.