PNP MTB Series Round 5-Makara

The 1st round (held at Makara) had been fought out in cold wet and windy conditions. This time however it was quite the opposite, blue skies and glaring sun, possibly a bit too hot to be pleasant for biking, but Wellington summers usually only last about a day, so I wasn’t complaining.

With exams starting the next day (Maths first) I hadn’t really done any training at all for this race, in fact I hadn’t touched the bike for a week. Fortunately, as far as the series was concerned, I already had enough points to definitely win over all. The course started by going up Allington Road then along St Albans and up the 4WD track. We were sent up Rimu for a change, as opposed to the usual way coming down it, although it is a two way track I had only ridden it this way once, a long, long time ago. Riding up there was really good though, it wasn’t to steep but it was a nice change. We took a sharp left onto AMP connecter and onto the last section of Ridgeline Extension. That was where the loop started, from there, down Big Toms Wheelie, Magic Carpet, Top Koru, along Sally Alley and then down the 4WD track and down Ridgeline extension. We had to do this lap 3 times.























I got away from Caitlin at the start, and kept my lead for a whole lap. It was on my second lap going along top Koru that I pulled aside to let a faster rider pass and she went past too. Panicking slightly, I jumped on her wheel, and passed her again somewhere along Sally Alley. By the time we got to Ridgeline Extension again, she was hot on my tail, and after another lap of intensely close riding, when we were on Ridgeline Extension for the final time, our places were reversed. Caitlin got away from me on that last bit of Ridgeline Extension, and that was the last I saw or her. She finished about 2 minutes ahead, but it was still quite an intense race.

Prizegiving took a bit longer than usual, because it was the prizegiving for both that race and the series trophies as well. Despite losing on the day (second and last are the same thing in a category with a grand total of two competitors), I still won the 1st place series trophy that Caitlin had beaten me for last year. When the draw for the $4,000 Santa cruise bike was drawn, the number pulled out was 68, or was it 89?


When I got home I realised I was pretty sunburnt. But much worse were the horrific tan lines left there by my bike shorts, just slightly longer than most normal shorts. Not so good when you’re not dressed up in lycra. Thankfully I took my gloves off for the prize giving, so unlike last summer, I don’t have blatantly obvious glove lines. Phew.

Out of all the races', I think that round two at Wainui was my favourite and Belmont was the most intense (Caitlin and I finished just 24 seconds apart). All of the rounds have been superbly run, many thanks to Al, Marco, and the team, and all the marshals who give up their day to help us navigationally challenged people to complete the race, cheers. With Caitlin heading off to university next year, I will yet again be without anyone else in my grade: over the next year I’ll be trying very hard to bully some girls into coming, but if you know anyone who might be potentially interested, feel free to peer pressure them into it!

I'm looking forward to next years series, they are always great fun.

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Women of Dirt 6 Hour Relay - Sunday 7 November

On Saturday morning (6 November) we turned up at Makara Peak Mountain Bike Park only to find (much to my delight) that due to torrential rain and enough wind that it could probably be classed as a hurricane, the race was postponed till the next day. Thankfully, Sunday turned out a much better day, with a few ominous clouds hanging around, but it cleared up nicely and by the end of the day there was nothing but amazing blue skies.

Dress up was recommended for this event, and teams definitely took up the challenge. There were fairies and pixies, bumble bees and racing cars, some were dressed up as... well just dressed up. One team had a large assortment of wild and wacky items of clothing and would change costume after every lap. We were the ‘Knight Riders’: with our tin foil covered helmets, shin pads and elbow pads, intense breast plates with emblems and our black capes, I thought we looked pretty cool. Our amazing team leader Anna even brought along horses heads which we tied the front of our bikes, and when you pushed a button they neighed and made galloping noises. Our tenty thing was very atmospherically too, we had hay bales, horse saddles, swords and battle axes around the place and over all I thought it was quite impressive.

We had decided to get there early so we could get a good place to set up, this we did and then it came to the point where we had to decide who would go first. It seemed my team had already nominated me, so at 10 o’clock all the first riders lined up down the road and were off. The course went up Lazy Fern (which is usually a one way down track), along Magic Carpet and then down Koru (usually one way up). This circuit took around 25 minutes, which I thought was quite good for a relay. Over the next 6 hours the relay continued, we could afford to ride hard as we had a nice long wait till our next lap, when we could eat, drink and chill, and in my case squeeze in some study for NCEA exams which start in a week and a day.

At last we finished, and our not particularly competitive team managed to get an impressive 3rd in the "Dirty Girls" category for teams (out of 10 teams), winning ourselves some amazing chocolate muffins. There was also a category ("Dirt Divas") for the 21 solo riders who did an amazing job and kept going for 6 hours by themselves. Prizes also went to the best dressed (this went to one of the people who was regularly changing costume for her particularly exciting outfit that had some sort of jet-pack on it) and for the best baking (everybody had been asked to bring a plate of home made goodies for our tea party at the prizegiving). Ashley and Marjolein of Revolve did a spectacular job of running this event that was impossible to not enjoy. Thanks so much to my team, in particular Denise Pilcher who filled in for her daughter Caitlin (usually my arch-rival) who unfortunately had to work, and to our team support crew, and of course Mum, Dad, Marti and Jony who came to visit me, as did my friend Sophie.

Riding home at the end of the day I wondered why I was getting some very odd looks, and then I remembered I was wearing a cape, was covered in tin foil and had a pompom on my head. Much to my despair I now have very definite tan lines from my shorts, which will most likely stay for the rest of the summer now they are there. I had an amazing time and am so glad to have competed in my first ever 6-hour bike relay and ever thankful to my team and Marj and Ash for making my day so enjoyable.

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Women of Dirt - Amazing Outfits!!

Here are photos of some of the fabulous creative outfits that were on display. The tent at the bottom is the team that won "Best Dressed".

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PNP Mountain Bike Series - Round 4 - Belmont

Belmont - home of the steep, greasy climbs and technical descents. Probably my most dreaded venue. At the pre-ride, I was having bike problems, with my rear disk rubbing, but Bike Barn managed to fix this and my bike was in working order. Having been beaten by Caitlin by 10 minutes at the last round in Mount Vic, I wasn’t sure how much of that was having a cough, so I wanted to show I could still beat her. Luckily we had pretty good weather beforehand so the tracks were all in pretty good condition. The end of Stratton St was icily cold so I decided I’d wear my jacket, a choice I regretted about 5 minutes into the race as I gasped my way up Danzig. Thanks to Don McLeod who put in a lot of time and effort putting gravel on Danzig so it was pretty good.

I got all the way up Danzig, along Old Coach Road and along all the grassy knolls to the airstrip where I stopped to get my bike over the fence before I first saw Caitlin (my arch rival) about a hundred metres behind me. Slightly panicked, I picked up the pace and nearly came off at the bottom of Hill Road, but fortunately I managed to just do a bit of a slide and continue on. I finished my first lap of the Belmont loop and when I looked back Caitlin was still about the same distance away. I did my second loop and although she didn’t catch me or gain on me I wasn’t gaining either. I hammered it as hard as I could go along Old Coach Road to the top of Danzig, which we were descending. Going down Danzig I was desperate not to be caught, however very near the bottom I conveniently rode too close to the bank, hit a tree and I went over the handle bars into the dirt. Luckily I landed in between the tree trunks so I got up with only a few scratches. Remounting my bike I glanced behind and much to my horror there was Caitlin. We rounded the last bends of Danzig with her right on my wheel, and came down past the woolshed to do the finish loop. Turning onto the sealed road Caitlin managed to get in front by a couple of bike lengths, but I got past and got to the finish just 25 seconds ahead. At the finish I got a few strange looks probably due to my pained expression and loud wheezing, but I was very pleased to have finished the my most intense race ever.

I thought this year’s course was terrific, usually at Belmont there are major traffic issues but I didn’t have that problem at all. At the prize giving my name got called out for a spot prize and I scored myself a nice pair of gloves, brilliant, as mine are sort of falling apart and needed replacing anyway. Thanks to Marco and Al and the rest of the team for putting so much time and effort into this series. The next race is Makara, my home ground, but with NCEA exams starting the day after on the 15th, my training will be very limited for this round. Nevertheless I am keen for the last of what has been a spectacular series.

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