Wainui 6-Hour Wurldz - Sun 22 May 2011

http://www.w6w.co.nz/
Wainui 6-Hour Wurldz is a 6 hour mountain bike relay that loops around in the gorgeous Wainui MTB Park trails. You can do it as a solo rider, as a duo, or in a team of four. I was in a team of four with Dave from i-Ride, his wife Anna (with whom I had done a Revolve relay last year), and my Dad. Due to some last minute mechanicals Dad was unable to ride, but fortunately James Truebridge was able to fill in.


It was a fun event, “for the grins not the wins” as the race manager put it. Dressing up was strongly encouraged (we didn’t dress up) and there were some pretty cool costumes. The Revolve ladies were the ‘Ladies who Lunch” and wore pretty dresses all the way around the course. There was a Mr T who had even decorated his bike, and John Randal and Simon Kennett who had some seriously cool Robin Hood and Little John costumes, complete with bows and arrows.

The fastest lap of the day was 20 minutes. I was doing my laps in a consistent time of 30 minutes each. In our tent we had baking, chips, even a barbeque with sausages. Our team came 5th out of 10: we were running in 3rd place for most of the event but the Revolve team was moved from the Women’s category into Mixed Teams, as they were the only women’s team, and then the Floe team passed us on the last lap. Overall it was a spectacular event and the weather gods were in a terrific mood. Looks like it really pays off to have Met Service as a sponsor!!

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Crazyman - Saturday 7 May 2011

http://www.crazyman.co.nz/
Although the Crazyman is quite a huge event, and I had decided to do it long before the event date, I still somehow managed to have so much to do and then it was suddenly there, two weeks away. I had done some training, but nowhere near as much as I had hoped to get in. This was my first big race on my new Orange that I had only recently acquired. There was no way that I would have been able to do the whole thing alone, so I was in a duathlon team with my brother Jony. He was doing the hilly 18km run, and I was doing the 39km mountain bike.



The weather on the day was atrocious, it had been pouring for days and the sky didn’t look promising. The run came first, so I was off to Wainuiomata to wait. Jony was back a bit sooner than I had expected, which was a good thing but it was a bit of a shock to see him so soon.

The cycle leg went up Jungle Scout and Jungle Gym and then along Labyrinth in the Wainui MTB Park, and then along the Hutt skyline for a very long way (coming down at Silverstream) and along the Hutt River trail for about 12km. It was impossibly muddy all the way, pretty soon I had no clean surface on me. The worst bit was getting mud in my mouth, going to wipe it off with my arm, only to smear even more mud on my face. At 18km my speedo decided it had had enough so it stopped working, not a big disaster, but frustrating as I was relying on it to pace myself. I was mostly just hoping not to set the record for the slowest time ever, but ideally getting under the 3 hour mark, slower than the average, but still an ok target for me. After my speedo died I really tried to pick up the pace, desperately hoping I was on target. I got back in a time of 2 hours 38 minutes, so I was very pleased with that. I had pushed it pretty hard along the Hutt River trail and I was literally still panting like 20 minutes after.



Jony and I came 12th out of the 18 mixed duathlon teams; we were pretty pleased with that result. It was a really well run event, the guys obviously knew what they were doing - and special thanks to Michael Jacques for being flexible with the age limit so we could enter. It was really enjoyable and I’m uber-keen for next year.

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New Bike!!

Although my Giant XTC bike has served me well for ... um, not that many days, really, at least for the 2010 PNP MTB series ... when the chance arose to get a fully it was too good to miss. Don from Mud Cycles was selling his old Orange (he's upgraded to a fantastic looking Turner). So after school one day Dad and I took it out for a spin in Makara Peak MTB Park.

Although I’m not so technologically retarded to think that the name ‘Orange’ referred just to the bike’s colour, but I was still surprised to find that is in fact silver, with no orange at all except a tiny sticker (It now has some bright orange hand grips).

Despite the lack of exciting colours the bike was amazing to ride. The tubeless wheels made more difference than I could have imagined. It was like the bike wanted to play. After getting a bit of help from the guys at i-Ride to get it set up better for me, and a coaching session with Marjolein Ros of Revolve Training on the subtleties of controlling a fully at speed, I am thoroughly enjoying my first fully. Heaps of thanks to Don, Marjolein, and all the guys at i-Ride.

Tech specs:
2003 Orange Sub-3
2007 Marzocchi Bomber MX Pro SL forks
5th Element Air shock in rear
FSA SL-XC wheelset with tubeless tyres
FSA Afterburner 386 42/27T cranks
Shimano cassette 12-36



Here I am using the XtC to lure my Track coach over to the Dark Side!

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