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.