PNP MTB Spring Series: Round 5-Makara

After the first four races in the series, the Under 19 girls category points were all sussed out, and I had secured second place, but there was no possibility of winning the first place series trophy. So I decided I may as well marshal, particularly because I was feeling a bit under the weather.

I ended up being posted at the top of Lazy Fern with the Cruise family. From very early on this was a busy intersection, with riders coming at you from every direction, all having to go in different directions. It got a bit confusing.

Martine (my sister) and Skylaah Cruise were together for most of the race and seemed to be enjoying themselves. Jony (my brother) was riding strongly, but the unbeatable Eden Cruise ended up on the top of the podium, With Jony in second and Marti in third. The under 13 category has been a huge success and we now have lots of young, keen and strong riders in it.


In the Under 19 Girls series points, Caitlin Pilcher took first, I took second and Emily Ryan got third. Numbers have jumped hugely this year and I have had to fight in every race.


Over all a brilliant series and I’m glad I did it. Many thanks to Marco and the PNP MTB subcommittee.

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PNP Club Criterium Champs

Saturday morning was beautiful and sunny; unfortunately it didn’t stay that way. By lunch time it had clouded over and there was a strong wind. We got out to the race and registered, U15 boys and U17 girls were the second race after the Open men; we had 15 minutes plus 3 laps around the same Trentham circuit where the Secondary School Champs were held in September. I started to warm up around the circuit. ‘This isn’t too bad’ I thought as I started, ‘I can hardly feel the wind’. But then I turned the corner. Suddenly there was a hurricane. Much to my disappointment the hurricane never stopped or eased off but continued to blow on that side of the circuit.














The race started with a neutral lap, and then it was race on. Ollie Jones and Matt Grenfell took off and left the rest of us for dead. They ended up lapping everyone once and most people twice. Jed McDermott, another boy (whose name I don’t know), and I were next in line and working well together. I couldn’t really see what happened behind us, but I think that the next person must have been at least a straight behind. Ione Johnson, Ari Evans, my little brother Jony and a few others formed a group. I almost lapped them, finishing on the same straight, and about a bike length from Ari and Ione.







This was Jony’s first road race; he finally had a road bike to ride. Dad had recently retrieved a custom built Clamont made in 1991 from a friend (he replaced all the componentry), and so I inherited his Marin, which was a really good fit for me, and it has a carbon fibre rear triangle, with wishbone seatstays, which my old bike didn’t have. Jony got my Kona Lisa, although a little on the big side, it worked pretty well for him.



I saw lots of familiar faces, other than the people I mentioned previously I saw Courtney Grenfell, Zoe Anderson, James Truebridge, the whole Johnson family and lots of others. There was a great turnout of track juniors, most of whom I can’t name but recognise. It was a great race and was heaps of fun.

Cheers to the organizers and volunteers Garth Gregory, Clive Bennett, Kah Chan, Alan Rice, Grant Perry, and all the other people helping out. Special thanks to the guys in the Bike Barn workshop for working so hard to get the Barnes family bikes re-assembled with the right bits for us all to race today - a couple of them even came in on their day off to make sure I could race on a well set-up bike!

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Thanks to the Doctor!

I just wanted to post a special "Thank You" here to Peter Page of Doctor Bike in Christchurch (http://www.doctorbike.co.nz). I've passed my road bike down to little brother Jony, and I've got a new bike, but the handlebars were far too wide, so I needed a new set of handlebars urgently. The great team at Bike Barn are re-equipping the bike but they didn't have any bars narrow enough for me. Doctor Bike had a perfect set on TradeMe, and Peter Page bent over backwards to make sure the bars came up to Wellington in time to upgrade the bike before the PNP Criterium Club Champs on Saturday 21 November. THANKS DOC!!

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A Relaxing Weekend (Yeah right)

After a full on exam week of 7 two hour exams, all my school friends were planning to have nice relaxing-do-nothing weekends. Not me.

On Saturday morning I was up at seven, and then it was off into town to do the women’s road ride from OnYerBike in Vivian St. We started to go around the bays but when we reached Oriental Bay a woman called Ellie and I decided we wanted to go a bit faster, so we split off from the rest of the group. We talked as we rode and she said that she was a triathlete, and was going to do the first Scorching Bay triathlon on the 15th so good luck to her. We continued around the bays and decided to go up Awa Road, to get in a bit of a hill in. So we went over it to the bottom of the other side and back, twice, and then continued on our ride. Eventually we headed up Aro Street and then she turned off to Kelburn while I carried on to Karori.



I got home and showered, had lunch and then it was about time to go out again, as I was marshalling for the Wild Wellington relay. During the three hours I spent at the Alexandra Road saddle I became quite amused. Upon orders from Davo Aldred, I had made a ‘Go Bushlove!’ sign, and so every time a Bushlove guy was due to come past, Marco would be waiting. He would then sprint up the hill alongside then waving the sign madly in their face and screaming to go faster, then spanking them with it as they departed down the hill. Lynskey turned up and debated with Marco whether gears or no gears are better. Then he told me I should be getting onto a single speed. A little while later Tiger went past in a fairy skirt and so Marco and Lynskey departed to wait for him at the bottom of the short climb. Soon enough, I heard them coming, screaming and cheering and spanking and waving the sign madly, they were quite a sight, with fairy skirt and all. My three hours went by quickly, but I got to see Jackson and Rose Green (famous for riding a tandem around the B course at the Belmont round of the PFC-PNP MTB series) as they went past in pirate costumes, hats, swords, the lot. Actually some costumes of note were: the guys in Speedos and swim rings; the floral people who had flowers all over them and their bikes; the chef; the lady bugs and Tiger’s fairy skirt (it matched the pink on the Bushlove shirt very nicely). Check out the photos at http://www.bushloveracing.com/2009/11/wild-wellington-09-12hr-relay-lolfest.html and http://www.onlinefotos.com/site/images.asp?Studio=100000148&Gallery=100003161.

After I arrived home again I had to hurriedly wolf down my dinner before rushing to the neighbour’s house to babysit their seven year old son. I didn’t get home till about eleven thirty, when I fell into bed and started to snore immediately.



Sunday was another early morning, and a cold one too. I clambered out of bed at 7:30 and by 8:50 I was at Karori West Normal School waiting for the PFC-PNP MTB Round 5 pre-ride to start. We were riding lots of the Makara Park tracks backwards and so earlier in the week Dad had put up lots of warning signs. Despite this we saw lots of surprised riders going the “right” way, who had obviously not read the signs. Lazy Fern was really nice to ride up and I was trying to remember when the last time I rode down Koru was. The ride went pretty smoothly – right at the end there was a minor collision on Koru with a non-sign reader but no damage to bikes or riders. By the time we finished it had become a nice day, and Jony and I now had to rush off to the Hataitai velodrome for Junior track coaching. Track was fun, as it always is and we did a variety of sprints and some activities on the grass. By four I was totally blown and in need of an early night.



Getting up the next morning was a struggle but I was pleased with what I had done in the weekend and looking forward to next weekend.

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PNP MTB Spring Series - Race 4 Belmont

After last year’s dramatic and muddy race I wasn’t too keen on going back. The week before I did the pre-ride and realised that Danzig was way better this year (huge thanks to all the guys who worked on that), and my own riding ability has improved. This was also a very important race for me, because if I lost to Caitlin Pilcher then she would win the series.

Race day turned out to be beautiful and sunny, we couldn’t have asked for better. Danzig was pretty greasy, and both my wheels ended up covered in slippery clay, which made getting over all the roots difficult. I got up there ahead of Caitlin but only just. We were riding together for most of the steep grassy climbs (man that was a killer!), but somewhere after where A, B, and C split from D (the Waitangirua Ridge), she left me for dead.








The rest of the race was hard but enjoyable. Going down Danzig I had a number of scary moments, but luckily no crashes. I ended up four minutes behind Caitlin, so not the win I was hoping for, but still a good race. I thought the route planning was brilliant and my memories of Belmont are now good ones. I’m looking forward to the last round at Makara, it should be great fun.

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