Hannah Barnes - Sporting Life

Wainui 6-Hour Wurldz - Sun 22 May 2011

2011-05-25T03:39:00.002+12:00

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!!

Crazyman - Saturday 7 May 2011

2011-05-11T03:20:00.001+12:00

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.

New Bike!!

2011-04-15T02:42:00.001+12:00

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!

PNP MTB Series Round 5-Makara

2010-11-27T22:43:00.007+13:00

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.

Women of Dirt 6 Hour Relay - Sunday 7 November

2010-11-09T02:26:00.008+13:00

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.

Women of Dirt - Amazing Outfits!!

2010-11-09T02:11:00.001+13:00

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".

PNP Mountain Bike Series - Round 4 - Belmont

2010-11-01T03:24:00.004+13:00

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.

PNP Mountain Bike Series 2010 - Round 3-Mt Vic

2010-10-12T03:15:00.006+13:00

After an amazing holiday of sunshine and sunburn, it was predictable that the day before the race the weather would turn to custard. Luckily on the actual race day it wasn’t too bad, the rain had stopped but the air still felt icy and the tracks were bound to be greasy and slippery. When we got to the race Caitlin Pilcher (usually my only U19 Girls competitor) informed me that today she would be racing in Rec Women, who ride the same course as us anyway, but usually have a much larger field. Not wanting to race being the only one in my grade and not knowing that Kara MacDermid had come to show us how it’s done, I too decided to race Rec Women.

The race started with one lap of the velodrome, and as usual there was a fair bit of argey-bargey getting out the gate, but more so in the other starts than in my start, which included both Rec grades, U19 Girls and U13. We had to do two laps of the 6.5km short course. Going up the first hill my throat started to burn almost immediately, reminding me that it’s definitely not good planning to get a cold just before the race. I got round the course very slowly but managed not to crash, however going up the big dipper the second time I managed to get very close to the top, only to find myself slide the whole way back down again.

I finally got home in a time of 1:18, ten minutes behind Caitlin, and 15 behind the lady who won rec women. This time was however good enough to get me third in my grade. Kara MacDermid, the U19 rider came home in an amazing time of only 46 minutes, making her the second fastest to complete that course, beaten only by 27 seconds by the winner of Rec Men, Jayant Singh.

Although not my best ever performance I still enjoyed the race. Marco and the team put on an amazing race and the course was so well marked not even I could have got lost. I’m looking forward to the next race, and the tough Belmont trails and I’m hoping Kara will once again come to teach us how to race, and that maybe some other mysterious girl will come along to give us someone to compete against.

OHV Mountain Bike Orienteering Series Winter 2010

2010-09-25T21:08:00.004+12:00

This year I did two of the four MTBO events in the OHV MTBO series, the first and the last. Mountain Bike Orienteering is a great cross of the two sports, orienteering and mountain biking. Riders are given maps and have to find certain controls, by selecting their route well. It is riding with a purpose. In a normal MTBO event you have about 10 control points marked on a map. You have to visit them in order, using the track info to find the best route. Competitors start at intervals, and the fastest to do the course is the winner. Control points are easy to find, they are all on or beside tracks, it's all about finding the best route. The map shows how good the riding is on all the trails, and how steep the country is. Courses are usually designed to be won in about an hour.

The first one (13 June) was held at Makara Peak on a rather gloomy and miserable day, so it wasn’t a surprise that not too many people turned up. The course that I did was quite short and simple, a good choice for a day like that. Although everyone there got muddy and cold, fun was had by all and it was a very well run event.

The second one that I did (11 September), and the last in the series was held at Wainui, a particularly good place to have it, as round two of the PNP series was to be held there the week after so it was good to ride around the area and get a feel for the tracks. This time the sun was shining brightly and lots of people had come to give it a go. I found the course really good, although I did get slightly off course whilst finding the penultimate control, just as I was thinking I was very lost indeed, I somehow managed to stumble across it. I definitely enjoyed this event and it was nice to have such good weather and so many people.

The sport in Wellington relies heavily on Michael Wood of OHV and his small but committed team who put in a huge amount of time and effort to ensure these events are as enjoyable as possible. I definitely recommend people give MTBO a try, it’s awesome fun.

Series winners 2010:
(http://www.mapsport.co.nz/hvoc/mtbopoints10.html)
Junior Men: Jonathan Barnes
Junior Women: Hannah Barnes
Open Men: Simon Kennett
Open Women: Rachel Ockelford
Vet Men:Chris Sherwood
Vet Women: Jo Holden
Super Vet Men: Graeme Silcock

Details of the whole series at -
http://www.mapsport.co.nz/hvoc/mtboresult10.html

Where can you try it?
The next event in Wellington is a pre-Christmas combined MTB-foot rogaine on 12 December (http://www.maptalk.co.nz/events/event.cfm?e=2884). In late January will be the 4/8 hour Ak-attack, somewhere in the Akatarawas (the starting location is only revealed a week or so before the event).

PNP Mountain Bike Series: Round Two - Wainui

2010-09-19T19:55:00.006+12:00

Despite the predicted ‘weather bomb’ the weather for this race was definitely better than for Makara. The blue skies on the way over Wainui hill were a nice change to the usual overcast and windy conditions we Wellingtonians are used to. Much to my pleasure, Caitlin Pilcher had decided to race so I was not alone in my grade.

This year we D graders didn’t have to go up the huge climb up Konini Firebreak 4WD track to begin with, instead we went up Jungle Scout, Jungle Gym and down Snail Trail twice then back home. The first time up Jungles was pretty congested. After a hectic scamper to get onto the single track first it settled down into a steady train of riders, until someone fell off on a switchback or someone’s chain came off. By the time we got to the top it as a bit more spread out and I could see Caitlin, my arch rival for the day, ahead of me. Going down Snail Trail was awesome. It was so easy to get into the rhythm of the track...until all the Under-17’s came charging by in hot pursuit of one another.

At the bottom of Snail Trail we had a fast little bit on the flat then back up Jungles to do the loop again. It was going up Jungle Scout that I finally managed to overtake Caitlin, and I was then going as fast as I could not know whether she would catch me or how far behind me she was. I managed to get to the finish in a time of 47 minutes, only two minutes ahead of Caitlin.

As the D course was so short we had a while to wait for the prize giving. Once the race was over Caitlin and I were friends again and it was nice to have some female company at a bike race again. I made sure I waited for the spot prizes again as last time my name was called out first but I wasn’t there, so this time I was definitely staying. My name wasn’t called out first again, but it did near the end when there were only lolly bottles left, so I still got something.

Next race is in three weeks time at Mt Vic, a park famous for getting lost, getting muddy and having fun. I’m looking forward to it and to racing Caitlin again.

Wellington Secondary Schools Road Champs - 12 Sep 2010

2010-09-14T19:50:00.001+12:00

The Wellington Champs were held in Trentham and consisted of three events: the hill climb, time trail and the criterium. For each event riders get points and then the overall champion is worked out by adding up riders points. We arrived at the YMCA where registration was and I was very pleased to find that there were four girls racing in Under 17 with me this year.

Soon enough it was time to start the hill climb up Wallaceville Hill. Although not too steep or too long, when you’re really pushing it this hill definitely hurts. I got to the top and my legs where on fire, if it had been a few metres further I’m pretty sure my legs would have exploded in flames. I later found out that the two Palmy girls had both beaten me by two mins, but I had gone as hard as I could, so I was still pleased with my effort.

The time trail course was a 10km there-and-back over the other side of the hill. On the way to the turn around I was looking forward to coming the other way as I thought I would get a tail wind, but when I finally did get to the turn around realised that no, that actually I had a headwind coming back.

There was a good wait between the TT and the final event, the criterium, so we could go back to the YMCA and have lunch and relax a little before our next race, which was last on the agenda. By this time I was really starting to feel the first two events and my legs felt vaguely like lead. This showed during the 10 lap race where I was dropped early on and only just got lapped in the last straight.

It was a good hard day of racing and I’m glad I went, but I was definitely very tired the next day! Although the two Palmy girls were 1st and 2nd overall, they are from outside the Wellington Centre, so I did manage to take the title of Wellington U17 Girls Champion. Lots of kudos to Gary Gibson and Marty Grenfell for organising a great day that ran very smoothly with over 80 competitors.

PNP Mountain Bike Series 2010: Round One - Makara

2010-08-31T19:47:00.001+12:00

This year I was looking forward to my 3rd PNP spring series. Over the years thanks to Marco and the team they always manage to be intense but fun races. The day of the first race came but unfortunately someone forgot to invite the weather, so it threw a hissy fit. Riding to the race was a little bit more like swimming. By the time Jony and I got there the rain was starting to ease off, but by the time we started, well I was glad to have my raincoat.

The course went up Allington road to the top, down Rimu then along the 4WD to Big Tom, down Lazy Fern, up Koru, Sally Alley, Ridgeline Extension, and back down Lazy Fern to repeat the loop. Although the rain eased at times it never really cleared and the tracks got pretty sloppy. Koru started to look more like a stream than a track, and after a combination of the conditions and bad judgement I found my self nearly riding right off the tracks a number of times. I completed my course in a time 1 hour 51, fast enough to put me first in my huge category of, well, one. Although there weren’t any other girls in my category, by comparing times I would have come 3rd in the Rec Women grade, and I was only 32 seconds slower than their winner - Amy Hanlon.

Because we live only 5 minutes away Jony and I had ridden to the race, and because we had ridden to the race I had no warm clothes for after, so I hung around till I got my medal, but decided I probably wouldn’t get a spot prize anyway so there was no point in waiting. Biggest mistake ever. I later found out that my name was called out first, so I could have chosen the best prize. I’ll make sure I wait for the spot prizes at all the other rounds which I’m very much looking forward to, but I hope the weather will be in a better mood.

Winter 2010 - What’s Happening Now

2010-07-18T17:29:00.002+12:00

In the 2007-2008 season I did triathlons, however my swimming was not the best so I decided to focus on cycling in the next season. I focused on mountain biking and my big race of the season was Karapoti, which I finished in a time of 5:20. Slow, but I finished. Last season I concentrated my efforts on track cycling, my big event being Nationals, in Invercargill. At nationals I accomplished what I went there to achieve, but I was definitely a tail ender.

This season, I was asked to be a member of an adventure racing team. This is an event run by OPC in National Park. Only 12 teams in the country get into the final event in May 2011, so they have a qualifying event (a mini 2 day version of the 5 day one) in February. The team has to have 8 people, 4 boys and 4 girls. We will complete activities including rock-climbing, kayaking, tramping, camping, mountain biking, rogaining and more. We will also have to lots of team building exercises, including raft building.

So this means I’ll be getting back to the mountain bike, with maybe a bit of road racing for fun. I’m looking forward to this season as it will be something new to keep me going, and I think it will be great fun. I might even be ready to have a go at the Crazyman.

I’ve started my season with a lot of cross country running and orienteering, mostly on foot but also getting to Michael Wood’s great MTB-O series where it doesn’t clash with other events; next will be the PNP Capital Spin Winter Criterium Series organised by Gary Gibson and Dierdre Johnson; then the Balfour Pennington and the Spring MTB Series.

Women’s Revolve MTB Series - Race #2

2010-04-28T10:55:00.002+12:00

The second race of the brilliant Revolve Series was held on Anzac Day. The weather gods had decided to commemorate our lost soldiers with some doom and gloom, weather-god style. This resulted in 40kmh gusty winds and fog so low that from my point outside the school I couldn’t tell there were any hills around. This race I had an even better excuse to not ride: going for a run on Friday I had tripped and hurt my foot and I have been hobbling around the place since, despite this I thought it would be good to make myself useful by going down to marshal.

There were lots of people who had volunteered to be a marshal, plenty to go around all the key places on the course so I got the job of limping around the corner to where the actual finish was to inform the riders of the neutral zone.

The race went well, with 51 entries. I was impressed by the numbers given that it was Anzac day and the weather wasn’t exactly ideal for racing. As far as I am aware there were no crashes or other unpleasant incidents. Rachel Reynolds won the Queen of the mountain Category and Sarah Backler won the Girls Just Wanna have fun. It was interesting to see that for both classes, the winning time was 59 minutes and the slowest time was 1:39, which indicates that the two courses were perfectly balanced.

Marjolien and Ashley did an amazing job, it’s brilliant to see so many women out there racing, and when they all come to the club races and other races we’ll have Marjolein and Ashley to thank for getting them confident enough to show what they’ve got.

Womens MTB Revolve Series - Race #1

2010-04-16T18:07:00.004+12:00

I have decided to have a rest from racing for a while, but I thought I may as well help out and marshal for this event, because I know that Ashley Burgess and Marjolein Ros have invested a lot of energy and passion into women's cycling, including helping me, and this was a chance to give something back.

7:30am was the time to be at the velodrome on Mt Vic ready for the marshals' briefing. Jony and I were placed near Charles Plimmer Park, but before we left the velodrome we put up the start and finish flags, as well as organising a finish desk.
We arrived at our marshal point and were given specific instructions. Jony was about 100m up the track and on the other side of the bush so I was alone. Before the race started I had to warn the many walkers that there was a race about to start, some seemed interested and were happy to adjust their walk to stay off the tracks that were being used, others. . . not so willing.

The first riders through were from the “Queen of the Mountain” category, the harder of the two, but they were closely followed by the girls in “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”. Where I was marshalling I had the two groups coming down different tracks and merging onto one. I had to make sure they didn’t collide (nobody did) and send them up the hill, much to the despair of many,
“UP!?”
“Sorry, yes, up.”
Was a common conversation.

Being right next to Charles Plimmer Park, a dog exercise park, I had to talk to a few not-so-happy dog owners. One dog (that was not on a leash although it was not in Charles Plimmer Park) nearly caused some riders to crash. There must have been around a dozen dog owners walking there dogs on the track that I saw, but not one had a leash. This is a serious danger hazard. Fortunately I had no actual crashes, but it’s only luck that stops them happening.

After both the Tail-End-Charlies had come through I waited for Jony and then we walked along the course picking up arrows and markers as we went, we got back just in to watch the prize giving. Rebecca Speirs won the “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” grade and an awesome home-knitted beanie, and Rachel Renyolds won the “Queen of the Mountain”and a really cool home-knitted scarf. The event was a success with 53 riders on the courses, many of whom I recognised from the MTB Chicks group, run by Rebecca Speirs (check it out at http://www.mtbchicks.org/). Ashley and Marjolein did a great job of organising it, from the colourful wool for tying numbers onto bikes, to the hand knitted hat and scarf that Rebecca and Rachel won, it was a fantastic and girly event. I recommend this series to all women who ride, whatever their ability. See you next weekend at Makara!

Full details are at http://www.revolvetraining.co.nz/mtbSeries.html. The photos on this page are borrowed from the links on the Revolve website.

Makara Peak Grand Loop Time Trial

2010-04-03T17:54:00.007+13:00

Bushlove Racing proudly hosted the 2010 Makara Peak Grand Loop Challenge on the evening of Thursday 6pm 1st April with the slogan “It may be April Fools Day, but the only fool will be you if you miss this race!”. Entry was $5 with all entry fees donated to the Makara Peak Supporters – a total of $180 was raised.

So on Thursday evening Jony and I rode down to the Makara Peak Mountain Bike Park carpark to register. Most of the famous faces of the Wellington MTB world were there, though Dave “Hugh” Sharpe was missing from the Bushlove line-up. It was good to see quite a few women ventured out to have a go – but where were they all last Sunday in Wainui? As usual everyone was super friendly, the event was really fun, with a very merry atmosphere.

The course followed the traditional “Grand Loop”: up Koru, Sally Alley, Missing Link, Aratihi then down Ridgeline, Ridgeline Extension, Big Tom, Swigg and Starfish to the finish - just over 12km by my speedo. The first rider back (Gavin McCarthy) did the loop in an amazing 40:01.

Being one of the slower riders there, I was one of the later starts and spent most of the ride with the ever friendly Tom Lynskey/tail-end-Charlie (who was immaculately dressed for the occasion with a really cool helmet to match his shirt). My time of 1:07 wasn’t too bad, but wasn’t helped by the fact that I’ve been fighting off a bug since I got back from Track Nationals.

The tracks all had lots of loose gravel on them, making them a bit harder than usual. I know some people didn’t manage to keep the rubber side down for the whole race, but I was riding slowly so I managed to escape crashing. I was glad I had my headlights as I needed them going down Swigg and Starfish at the end.

I came in just before they started the festive prize giving, where Easter eggs were given out and bigger eggs given to the winners. Big thanks to the Bushlove guys who ran this, it was a great race - I’m glad I wasn’t a “fool for not being there”!

For a fuller review and a link to the complete photo album, see http://www.bushloveracing.com/2010/04/makara-peak-grand-loop-challenge-post.html

PNP Club MTB Champs - 21 March 2010

2010-03-26T16:46:00.010+13:00

Just as it was last year, the PNP Club MTB Champs took place in the Wainuiomata Trail Park.

The day before I rode with the MTB Chicks group in the same park. This was really good because I could get used to the feel of the tracks and I got a chance to ride the brand new Snail Trail before race day. Snail Trail is a really cool track, great fun to ride so well done to everyone who put in lots of effort to get it built.

The morning of the race came and we got to Wainuiomata High School (where registration was) with plenty of time to spare. I double checked the race description, rode around for a bit and made the really important pre-race decisions like arm warmers or no arm warmers?

The start came soon enough, D-graders left first. We went up the huge Konini Firebreak 4WD to the top. That was slow and hard as usual. Then we descended Labyrinth, and onto Snail Trail. The descent was fun; the bush in there is really beautiful. When we got to the bottom we then had to do two laps of the Wetland Loop. I was quite pleased with myself for being able to ride the drop off on Beeline both times around. I got back into the school with a time of 01:13, something I was pleased with.

The race was really fun and it was organised brilliantly. Huge thanks to Marco and the team. It was a shame that so few riders turned up. Recently there have been so many events on it has been hard to choose what to enter. On the same day as this event was the Oceania MTB Champs down in Dunedin, so lots of riders were there.
In a race with 60 riders all three of the female categories had only one rider in each, plus there was a girl in the Under 13 category, making a showing of only four female riders in total.

This event was particularly important for the Juniors as it was also the College Sport Wellington MTB Champs. I now have the title of Under 19 Girls Champion for the second year in a row, though it wasn’t very hard to get this year with no one to race against. Slightly disappointing, because I'd come well prepared to defend my title with a new bike - many thanks to Andrew Robertson for the gift of a Giant XTC frame, and to the Bike Barn workshop guys who transferred all my componentry across from the Kona Lisa. Other than the small turnout the day went really well and I am glad to have been there.

Big Coast 2010

2010-03-19T03:52:00.001+13:00

Last year Dad had marshalled for this event and enjoyed it so much that this year the whole family was involved (except my older sister Deb, she was organising a Runathon team to raise money for World Vision). Dad and I were a riding marshal pair, Mum and Marti were helping out transporting luggage, doing registration, setting up camp and being genuinely helpful, and Jony was riding in the event. I had returned from Track Nationals the Sunday before, and had not ridden a mountain bike for a couple of months at least, so I wasn’t sure how this was going to go.

An hour before the riders started all the marshals departed to their posts. Marjolein Ros (the head marshal) would drop us off where we needed to be and explain what we needed to do. The riding was pretty easy, from Tunnel Gully we went over the Rimutaka Incline (there was a morning tea stop at the summit) and then down to Cross Creek (where Dad and I were), then through the farm and onto the sealed road for about 5 minutes to lunch, then along the seal to camp. 47km. The day went smoothly and a good time was had by all.

At the campsite there was live music and even showers! When we turned up to the main area to wait for dinner all the tables were taken so we went and sat on the ground next to were the food was going to be served. This worked out very well as when dinner was served we were second a line of around 400. Better yet, all the tables were now empty, so we could sit and enjoy.

The next morning we were up bright and early so that we could get to our places before the riders. Today’s course was much more challenging, with two big rock slides than had to be climbed over, and a few sandy places, along with the fact that there was a strong headwind for lots of it. After 3 hours riding I arrived at my post, exhausted. Sitting at the top of a hill, being nice to people and handing out lollies for 4 hours was much harder than you would think. When the tail-end-Charlie came through at last and I was relieved from my post I still had one hour’s left of riding to go. I was really relieved when I did get back and was amazingly pleased to receive a free sausage and a drink, along with the chips in our car. Eight hours is a long time to be out and about in the sun and wind, so I was totally exhausted, and not looking forward to school the next day, where I had four NCEA assessments in the coming week.

The event went really well and I was glad to have taken part and helped out – full credit to Duncan and Zoe for their great organisation; Marjolein was a very supportive and inspiring Chief Marshal; the AREC Upper Hutt radio communication guys were very interesting company at the check points; and the participants who came and rode the 100km over the Rimutaka Incline and around the rugged South Coast all deserve a big round of applause! It was kind of nice to be back on the mountain bike, although I still love the velodrome more. I hope to be there marshalling again next year and I recommend the event to all.

Track Nationals (Age Grade) 2010

2010-03-09T03:09:00.003+13:00

This year the Track Nationals were the BIG Event of my year. Near the end of last year I had to make the big decision: Karapoti or Track Nationals. These two big events were on the same week, and all the training would be very different, so I couldn’t do both. Obviously I chose to go to Track Nationals.

So February 28 and I was up at the crack of dawn ready to be at the airport by 6:50. At the airport we all met up and got our team t-shirts. We stopped off in Christchurch on the way to Invercargill. Invercargill Airport was nice but very small. We met Barry and Gary who had driven down in the van a few days earlier. We had to do a couple of trips to the motel where we were staying, due to limited seating in the van. The motel was lovely, if for any reason you are in Invercargill I recommend Yarrow Motel to you.

That afternoon we had our first ride on the wooden velodrome. How can I describe it? It feels like you’re flying. To anyone who has never ridden on an indoor velodrome, I recommend you do. It is very cool. We spent the first 15/20 minutes just riding around, getting used to the steeper banking, and 250m track, much smaller than our 333m track. After that we did some sprints and I attempted some flying 200m sprints. We were getting ready to leave when Alison Shanks, world pursuit champion, turned up to do some training on the track. I watched her perfect, constant technique, it was no wonder she’s the world champ. After she came off and was sitting down, some of the others and I went over and got her autograph. She was really nice and friendly.
The next day we went back to the track for a couple of hours. This time we got to try out the starting gates, which are electronic holders that are used for time trials, to make sure that you are released exactly on time. At this level, medals and titles are won by less than tenths of a second.

On that day I also got a really good feel of the track. Literally. I had my first crash, due partially to going too slow on the wood and partially due to a technical error, I came sliding down the velodrome. Some of you will know that often when you are crashing you have very strange thoughts (or am I just weird?), well mine was “gosh I’m sliding fast!” When I reached the bottom I picked myself up and noticed a large hole in my shorts and a graze on my elbow, other than that I was fine, although a bit shaken. Most importantly my bike was fine. I took the rest of the day easy.

Tuesday, the day before it would all begin. I was mostly working on trying to get my flying 200m sprint line right (that’s a sprint were you dive off the banking after going around for a couple of laps, you are timed for the final 200m). I finally got it good enough that Lee Evans (assistant manager) was satisfied.

Wednesday. The day it started. Second on the program was the Under 17 Girls 200m sprint, my event. I was terrified. My goal was to get in the low 15 seconds range. I watched in horror as the girls before me got mostly 13s with the odd 12 or 14. Then it was my turn. My line was good, just the way we had practiced it. I came around after the sprint and looked up to the score board to see I had got a 14.545, definitely a tail ender, but I had done better than I thought, so I was pleased with that.

The next day I had my 2km pursuits. My aim was to get under the 3 minute mark. Having a 03:18 personal best in Wellington it was never going to be easy. I was obviously very nervous. Finally it was my turn. I’m not really sure what was going through my head but I think it was something like; keep breathing Hannah! Keep going! Come on! I tell you now I have never heard a prettier sound than the sound of the gun when I finished. I came around to the other straight and looked up at the score board, not knowing what to expect. 02:59. I had done it, just, I had still gotten lapped and was still at the bottom of the list, but I had achieved my personal goal, and so I was pleased with that, even if all I could say to a smiling coach was a grunt.

My next event was the 500m time trial. This was an event I didn’t really know what I’d get and I had no real goal. So when I got a 44 second time I was pretty happy.

Up till now all my races had been individual efforts, I had been right at the back of the field for all of them, but not by much and so I wasn’t sure how I’d cope in the bunch races. That evening was my 8km Points Race. Points Races are particularly hard because every so many laps there is a set sprint, so for those of us who are struggling to keep up anyway, the going gets tough.

We all went up to the fence and did one lap rolling start. The gun sounded and the race was on. An early attack saw the bunch spread into a long snaky line. I got dropped, along with a girl from Canterbury and a girl from Waikato. We worked together until the bunch came around to lap us. I jumped into the bunch and did all I could to stay there. It gets a bit scary when you’re riding at over 40km per hour, with 16 girls all trying get into a good tactical position. I kept up through all the other sprints and managed to stay with the bunch for the rest of the race. Better yet, I didn’t come last when we did finally finish. I was very pleased with my racing and was looking forward to the next night’s 5km Scratch race.

Saturday morning: the last day of racing. The evening session came; my race was third on the list. My tactic for this race was to find a good rider and stick to her wheel like glue. That rider came in the form of Cassie Cameron, from the West Coast North Island. She had been placing highly in most of the other events so when I saw her wheel I jumped onto it immediately. I stayed in the bunch for the whole race, something I was very proud of, and I was sticking to a front ender I ended up at the very front a couple of times myself. Inside the bunch there was non-stop action and movement, but to the outside viewer I’m not sure that much happened. When the bell did ring the sprint for the finish line had already begun and was in full swing. As a tail ender I couldn’t see exactly what happened at the front (I was focused on trying to pass more people and make it to the finish line before I collapsed) but Alysha Keith of Otago came 1st and Cassie Cameron got 5th.

So the 2010 National Age Grade Track Cycling Championships had come to a close. It was a beautiful night so some of us walked home in the dark. Back at the motel we had a mini party before bed to celebrate everything that we had achieved as a team and as individuals. Over the four days of competition Wellington centre had earned 6 medals. Eleanor Pepperell got bronze in the 500m Sprint, Mark Coburn got bronze in the Masters 1 Scratch race, Gary Humpherson of Masters 3 got bronze in the Scratch Race and silver in the Pursuit, and Gabriella Peach and Beth Balmer got bronze in their Under 19 Team Sprint. We also had many Wellington riders getting through to finals, or to the next round in their events. We came to Invercargill as one of the weakest and smallest centres, yet we have left our mark: Wellington is now a fully functional competitive centre.

I learnt a lot of thing at Nationals, including how to ride on rollers, and I managed to touch my toes. The race experience is something that is incredibly valuable and cannot be gained any other way than by racing at a high level. I owe so much to my parents for supporting me, helping me and making my cycling possible. I am also grateful to my sponsor Bike Barn Wellington and to Barry Johnson for giving up his time to come down and be our manager, and Craig Peach for being the handler and mechanic. To Gary Gibson I owe so much for teaching me so much and being an amazing coach. I had an amazing time at Nationals and achieved lots of personal goals. I am looking forward to next year.

River City Wheel race Carnival Spectacular (Wanganui)

2010-02-25T23:04:00.008+13:00

This carnival was one of the important build up events to nationals. It was particularly important because it was the last major event before nationals. Another important thing was that the Wanganui Velodrome, being wood and 250m around each lap, is about as close as you can get to the Invercargill Velodrome, where the nationals are being held.

So Sunday morning Jony and I rode down to the bike shed at 9:30, ready for a 10:00 departure. We loaded the cars with bikes and bags, tools and aero bars. Peter Reynolds turned up on his mountain bike to say ‘Hi’, and he came at the perfect time, just as I was handing out the chocolate brownie.

At 10:00 exactly we were getting in the cars and about 2½ hours later we were in Wanganui. At the velodrome our Wellington team of about twenty found a spot to put up our two large tents for shade on the scorcher of a day. We went to register and got given a little pot of Resene sunscreen. I guess they wanted to make sure we all painted on the sun cream, and didn’t get burnt. A good idea actually.

So after warming up it was time to get the racing underway. My first race was the 10 lap Under 17 Scratch Race. The Under 17 field was huge; there must have been 20-odd riders in it. There were only 3 girls, including me, so we had to do the hard miles with the fast boys-really fast boys looking for top placings at nationals. So, the 10 lap scratch race started and after a few laps I was in a mini-bunch with the two Wanganui girls. The final lap came sooner than I thought, being used to a 333m track the 250m laps went quite fast. At the finish line I put on a big sprint and I beat one of the girls on the line. I’m not sure what happened to the other girl, we must have dropped her because at the finish she had mysteriously disappeared. A rather successful race from my point of view.

The next race was the Under 15 and 17 combined Miss & Out race. Due to the large field in both grades they decided to give us both separate races. I must have misunderstood something because I thought that the race managers said one neutral lap, one race lap, then the next lap they would start the eliminations. We did the neutral lap and then the next lap they called me out. Although I wouldn’t necessarily have placed by the finish, it was still annoying, and was annoyed with myself for not getting myself in the right position.

After that we had the sprint qualifying, but when we went to get in line, it was only the top people from the scratch that were allowed to do it, so we didn’t even get a shot at it. Having so many more riders than we do in Wellington, they have to be selective or they would never get through all of the planned races.

The 6 lap handicap was next, I had a good start but I slowed down a bit to let the other girl who had been on the same mark as me catch up so we could work together because I knew I had no chance by myself. Dumb choice, she went past me and then it was me who had to worry, soon after all the crazy fast boys were whizzing past, but I did manage to pip one on the line, in a final, desperate sprint not to come last.

Out came the motorbike and it was time for the Kierens. I was put in a heat with the open women, being the only Under 17 girl who was keen to do a Kieren. I got on the back of the bike in third position and was doing fine, until the motorbike got faster, and faster, and faster until it was a bit too much. It dropped me with about half a lap to go until it pulled off. I time trialled the rest of the way home, not a fabulous race, but then again I was racing with the Open Women.

The last event of the day was the team sprint. Beth Balmer and I took to the track in an attempt to beat our fast and furious Under 15 girls from Wellington, Ione Johnson and Ellie Pepperell. I did the first lap and had a bit of a slow start, and somehow the other two beat us.

The ride back home to Wellington held lots of excitement. Whe stopped in Bulls to get something “eat-a-bull” for dinner, Kebabs that made us “full-as-a-bull”. Standing outside the Kebab shop we got to see a car crash, I’m not sure exactly what happened but there was lots of screeching and when I turned around there was a door lying on the road, and two smashed up cars with there noses together. I don’t think anyone was hurt and the Fire Brigade arrived before we left.

But the drama didn’t end there, as we were going along the motorway we saw the Titahi Bay fires, a scary sight, the whole side of the hill was ablaze! I was glad we weren’t going the other way because the traffic going the other way on the motorway was terrible. While in the car we also found out about the Wellington Phoenix’s amazing victory that got them through to the semi-finals of the Australian A-league. When we got home we were tired but happy after a good day of racing in the sun.

For making this day a successful one, thanks to:
- Alex Laplanche who always makes his van available to carry PNP riders and their rides to events around the country;
- Bike Barn workshop (again!!) for sorting out my stem problem so quickly;
- Wanganui Cycling; they are so friendly and hospitable, well organised and equipped, and they're happy to share their great track with us.

So this Sunday I’m off to Invercargill to race at the Track Nationals. I’ll have to make sure that I am really careful not to get blocked in, and that I try my absolute hardest. When I come back, no matter what my results are, I want to be able to say I had no regrets; I went as hard as I could given the training I have done. To say that I’m nervous would be a massive understatement, so wish me and the rest of the Wellington team luck; I think I might need it!

Wellington Centre Track Champs

2010-02-17T21:36:00.000+13:00

The Wellington Track Champs was one of the major events in my lead-up to Nationals. The weekend of the Champs came and it was raining. Hard. Saturday it was raining all day, so we couldn’t race. Sunday it rained in the morning, but we got some pursuits and 500 ITT’s in before it was home time.

The next Tuesday night we were at it again. We re-did some of the pursuits and I got a PB, 3:18 for my 2km pursuit. We also did an Under 17 8km points race, as the only under 17 girl there I was racing against the boys, Conner Johnson, Alex Dent, Lewis Taka and James Truebridge. In classic James style he took off at the first sprint and lapped the field twice. Somehow I ended up being half a lap in front of the others (James not included) with 2km to go. I time trailed my way into second place, although that doesn’t show on the results as I was racing in a category of my own. Nonetheless a pleasing result.

The Tuesday after that we had the sprint finals. I was still racing with the Under 17 boys but in my own category. Due to the lack of female competitors I get another gold certificate for that effort even though the boys all beat me. Next we did some team sprints: for my first one I stood in with the under 15 girls, racing with my 10 year old sister Marti, against Ione Johnson and Elle Pepperell; naturally the other two beat us. In my second team sprint I raced with the under 19 girls. I (the weakest) was put with Gabi Peach (the strongest) against Beth Balmer and Laura Burke. In a close match my team managed to pull back the win, and that concluded my races for the night.

Last week of the champs and it was time for the scratch races. The women and the Under 17 5km scratch race was combined to save time. True to form Truebridge was away before you could even stand up, leaving the rest of us to battle it out for the other placings, although there were actually three races going on in one. Same as the rest of the champs, I was the only under 17 girl competing. The last lap came suddenly and the two women had a big sprint, I tried to keep up with their fast pace but couldn’t quite, but still got first place under 17 girls (very hard as you can imagine with such a big field of, well, one).

Also of note, I was very proud of Jonathan, my brother who placed in all his races except one, in the Under 15 category. Marti (sister) was also doing well. Although not placing she did very well for a ten year old racing against 13 and 14 year olds, showing great determination.

Rachel Anderson did an amazing job at keeping the races ticking over and organising the whole thing. A big thanks to all the volunteers who helped out, and to Gary Gibson for being such a committed and amazing couch, big thanks to Mum and Dad for everything.

Overall a brilliant event, even if the weather wasn’t on our side for the scheduled weekend!

Canterbury Summer Track Carnival

2010-01-22T21:12:00.010+13:00

Late in December, Dad was stumbling around on Vorb where he came across a poster for the Canterbury Summer Track Carnival on 5-6 January. We already had plans to spend the week after that in Picton, which meant missing the PNP Screaming Hot Carnival, so it was a good chance to make up for that. A quick scan of Air New Zealand’s Grab-a-Seat page found me some cheap transport, and a phonecall to my grandparents in Christchurch found me a bed.

I went down to Christchurch not really knowing what to expect. I knew that Canterbury is one of the top centres for track cycling, and I knew that the velodrome was 400m around and that was about it. The day before the racing started, Hamish Ferguson, the coach down there kindly offered to let me do a bit of riding on the track, and to come down and help me.

The Hornby velodrome was very smooth with no bumps at all. The 400m track was so long, every lap goes on forever! I did some standing starts, some sprints, and some motor pacing behind the motorbike with Hamish. It was brilliant to be able to experience what the velodrome felt like before racing on it. I also met Syd Martin, Canterbury Track Chairman, who was there for a while. I was told a list of names to look out for, and I was getting a bit worried when every girl seemed to be a national champ for this or that, and another one is a time trail road champion. Slightly nerve-wracking . . .

The next evening we turned up for racing. I was amazed by the huge number of participants, but even more so by the spectators. Every seat in the grand stand was taken, and more people stood to watch. The whole A grade was made up of world champions and New Zealand champions. There were also some top women, a four time Olympian and a New Zealand Champion.

As much as I would have liked to sit and watch everyone else I did have to get up and ride myself, so I lined up with the other girls to race. Most of the races for us on both nights were scratch races, with one Devil Take the Hindmost, and a couple of Handicaps thrown in. The longest race was 3000m and the shortest was 800m.

Unfortunately due to my slackness I still had my Under 15 gear on, giving me a small roll-out. As of the 1st of January I am Under 17 so this was a disadvantage.

The pace was hard but I managed to keep up with the girls despite my tiny gear. I got dropped in most of the mixed boy/girl races but I only came last in one. That is a result I was relatively pleased with given that I was racing some of the top young athletes in the country. I was at the rear of the girls races but didn’t come last in any of those either.

It was a really good experience and great practice for Nationals in March. The Cantabrians were all very friendly and nice - so I have to forgive them for spelling my last name without an E. A couple of weeks later I received a very kind gift from Syd Martin and the team, a pair of bib shorts, something that my wardrobe was previously lacking. Thank you very much, they fit perfectly. Hopefully I can ride to victory in them in Invercargill!

The Rice Mountain Classic

2009-12-23T17:24:00.008+13:00

Last year I had been planning to do this race but decided not to, as I hadn’t done much training on the road. This year I was doing a lot more road riding than mountain biking, as I am aiming for the Junior Track Nationals in March, rather than Karapoti (sadly they are on at the same time so I had to choose one or the other). Track and road are complimentary so I have been training on the track, the turbo trainer and the road bike. The Rice Mountain Classic was a good aim for halfway through the season.

As part of my build up I took part in the PNP Horokiwi Hill Climb on 15 December. It was warm and calm, perfect conditions. The only problem was that it was a hill, and a very steep one at that. I couldn’t believe how slowly the kilometres ticked by but I somehow ended up at the top of the hill in a time of 24:15, even if I was wheezing and shaking. Jony completed his climb in 25:17, so I was happy to get one over him, especially on hills! It was good training. There were 28 people there, although there was a distinct lack of Bushlove shirts. Maybe they only come out for the mountain biking.

On 19 December we got to Gladstone early and drove around the C course. It looked challenging, but well within my ability. The hills didn’t look too steep and it looked as though there were only two. Oh how looks can be deceiving. The weather around Gladstone was OK: fine, but a bit windy, with a brisk north-westerly, which meant a tailwind for the final climb up Admirals Road.

We got back to Gladstone Hall and did a small warm-up while the A and B grades started their epic-length races (still no Bushlove jerseys, where have they all gone?). Waiting is always the worst bit of the whole race in my mind. Finally my group started, and the race was under way. We worked in a pace line for a bit, but I was struggling to keep up. The others were all sitting up and looking relaxed, but I was spinning flat out and breathing hard and doing everything I could just to keep up. Naturally, I got dropped and so began the long lonely and hard race.

In the car it looked like two hills, on the bike, there were too many to count. At some point (I was too tired to remember where) the B grade men passed me, thank you to those who shouted “Go Hannah!” or something like that. The race wore on and the kilometres ticked by. I got chased by a scary dog, I slugged up some gruelling hills that I could have walked up faster, and I got passed by all the groups.

By the time I got to Admirals I was practically dead. The climb wasn’t exactly easy and it was sooooooooooooooo long! Thank you to Cameron Wood who encouraged me on the last bit of Admirals, I really needed it. Well done to my little brother Jony who was literally half the size of most people there, but finished the 60km one minute and two seconds faster than me (Grrr). I was very proud of him, and he was pleased to have got revenge for his defeat at Horokiwi.

It was one of those races where I was glad I had done it but I was really happy it was over. Thanks to the Bike Barn Boys for fixing my bike so many times in one week, I ended up going to see them every day. Also, thanks to Shane from Penny Farthing for fine-tuning the set up of my bike. Special thanks also to Malcolm Allen and his dedicated team of volunteers who made a great race happen;
and lastly an acknowledgement to Alan Rice (currently PNP Treasurer) for whom the race is named - his decades of racing and volunteering have helped make the PNP club what it is. It's hard to imagine being at a race without seeing Alan and club mascot Walter.

Kevin Smith Memorial Race - Otaki, 12 December 2009

2009-12-14T13:59:00.006+13:00

Saturday 12 December was the fourth Kevin Smith Memorial handicap race. This race honours the memory of Kevin Smith, a keen vet cyclist who was a PNP President and a big fan of handicap races, where everyone has a chance for victory. He passed away on 16 August 2005. This year it followed a picturesque country circuit just east of Otaki - the location was chosen to reflect his efforts to bring together cycling groups from the Wellington and Horowhenua regions.

I was a bit worried when I woke up to strong gusty winds, showers and big dark clouds. However by the time we got out to Otaki (thanks to Gary Gibson for giving us a ride) the skies had cleared and it was looking quite nice.

The field was small, about 30 people altogether, so they combined Limit with Break 4, Break 3 with Break 2 and Break 1 with Scratch. I was in the first group to go. We had to do seven laps of a 7.5km circuit. The hill at the start was steep and went up in steps, two of the people in our group dropped the rest of us and we didn’t see them till the end. That split the group for a while, as Beth Balmer and I worked together for a while, but the others soon caught up, so we all crossed the line together.

The second lap was pretty ordinary. Beth, Candice Pretorious, Candice’s Dad, my brother Jony and I worked well together in a steady pace line, each taking turns at the front. In the third lap Candice and I got away on the hill. The two of us set a hard pace for ourselves and got a good gap back to the others.

Candice and I rode the rest of the race together, but she gained a little bit on me on the final descent and crossed the finish line a few meters in front of me. Unfortunately Beth got a puncture. Jony and Mr Pretorious worked together and came through the finish together.

In the end I got first placed Under 15, which pleased me as a good way to finish the grade - after New Year I'll be moving up to U17. The first U17 rider was Vaughn Pretorious. Sam King-Turner got the fastest time in 1.24.11. Paul Larkin won the Kevin Smith Memorial Trophy for 2009 after winning the sprint against Graham Hawkins and Steve Chapman.

It was a brilliant day despite the small turnout and the weather was good to us. Thanks to all volunteers including Malcolm Allen, Gary Gibson, Aaron Anderson, Simon O’Reilly, Rebecca O’Donnell, Dave, Glen Offord, Alan Rice and my little sister Martine Barnes. We owe the biggest thank you to Rachel Anderson-Smith, the race manager for organising such a wonderful race. I can’t wait till next year's race.

Riding With the Girls

2009-12-07T13:22:00.009+13:00

Recently I have started riding with a number of women’s groups, both mountain biking and road.

Rebecca Spiers has been leading the MTB Chicks rides. They have been great fun. There is a great group of women who are very friendly and supportive. I have now been on three rides with the group, one at Battle Hill, the Kapiti Klassic course, and Belmont. All of these rides have been hard but very enjoyable and I highly recommend this group to women who want a fun social mtb ride - check it out at http://www.mtbchicks.org/index.htm.

On Saturday mornings I usually go down to On Yer Bike at 8am to do a relaxed road ride run by Ashleigh and Marjolein. This is a fun ride that usually goes around the bays. Most days there are a few women who want to go at a different speed so this ride caters for all.

The other women’s ride I have been doing is on Monday evenings at 5:30. We meet outside Freiberg Pool and ride around the bays all the way up Happy Valley Road to Brooklyn. Run by Lisa Morgan, this ride is a bit faster than the Saturday morning rides, but still just as fun.

Riding with women has been a great way of getting confident riding in a bunch. It is also good for me to be doing a 50km road ride on a regular basis (By the time I have ridden to the Monday ride and back home to Karori it’s about 50km.

PNP MTB Spring Series: Round 5-Makara

2009-11-17T13:11:00.000+13:00

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.

PNP Club Criterium Champs

2009-11-15T02:23:00.012+13:00

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!

Thanks to the Doctor!

2009-11-12T02:14:00.005+13:00

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!!

A Relaxing Weekend (Yeah right)

2009-11-10T01:33:00.003+13:00

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.

PNP MTB Spring Series - Race 4 Belmont

2009-11-03T02:36:00.005+13:00

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.

Seaview Criterium - Sat 17 October 2009

2009-10-18T19:04:00.007+13:00

The best thing about this race was that it was in the afternoon, so I still got my sleep in. During the morning it rained on and off, and we weren’t sure if we should go or not. In the end we did (obviously) due to the fact that it seemed to be clearing. We got out there and I was surprised how few people there were. Because of the small numbers, they put the A and B grades together, and the C and D together. The circuit was 700 meters long and all flat.

The first race was good to watch: most of the people I recognized but couldn’t name, however Lee Evans seemed to do pretty well, a major player in the chase group (chasing the one-man break away), I could be wrong but I think he came second. Other familiar faces were Zoe Anderson, who shone at the Wellington Secondary Schools Road Champs in September, and Luke McDermott from PNP Track Juniors. They both held their own well against the more experienced A and B grade riders.

After their 40 minutes were up we had 15 minutes to warm-up. Just before our start it began spitting, though luckily it didn’t rain more heavily than that until after we had all finished. A group of stronger riders took off from the front and ended up lapping the rest of us several times, but I still felt I did well. I worked together with some different people over the duration of the race, eventually either getting dropped or dropping them. One of the people I rode with was Ari Evans (Lee’s younger brother) who I know from track cycling: he did pretty well for only his second road race.

It was difficult to tell when to stop, but when I saw that everyone else had and the organizers were starting to pack up I did another lap and stopped, so I think I did a bit extra. I averaged 31.5km/h (that’s quite good for me) so I felt pretty good, and it had been a good workout and a small, but fun event. Many thanks to the main organizers Steve Chapman and Chris Newman.

This was my first serious outing on the road bike since Alex and Owen from Bike Barn helped me do a major re-setup: thanks, guys, your help with that definitely improved the bike's handling compared to the Secondary School Champs.

PNP MTB Spring Series: Round 3 - Mt Vic

2009-10-16T19:41:00.007+13:00

After each winning one and coming second in one Caitlin Pilcher and I were even on points. After being in bed sick for a week I only had one week to get back up to speed. I went to the pre-ride and was surprised to see that about sixty people had turned up, compared to the usual pre-ride groups of about 20max. Obviously everyone was scared that they would get lost in the wild maze of tracks that run willy-nilly all over Mt Vic. The ride went quite well the course seemed much easier than last year (that’s a good thing by the way). I turbo trained on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and then I took Marti (my sister) out on Thursday. On Friday, despite the wind, hail, and mud Jony (my brother) and I set out and went along that Skyline Track and then did sprints up Varleys (aaaah!).

Race day came and the sun shone. We arrived and registered, got our gear sorted and all the other pre-race stuff. The start horn sounded and we were off, the tiny gate out of the velodrome was hectic and the trails were all slushy with mud. On my first lap I had a few crashes, because my wheels just slid over everything. When I got to the big dipper I charged and got to the top, only to slide all the way back down again! I completed my first lap and started my second lap. After much sliding, slipping and getting muddy I made my way to the finish line. Although Caitlin and I had been riding very closely for most of the race, passing each other then getting passed, Caitlin ended up with nearly a two minute win, so well done to her. So its race on at Belmont, if she wins this one she wins the series, and I’m not going down without a fight.

Thanks to Stephen Massey of Soul Focus for some awesome photography, and also to the other (unknown) sources.

2009-09-21T01:01:00.004+12:00

PNP MTB Spring Series
Race 2 - Wainuiomata
Unlike the cloudy day that race one brought, this day was one of those that have no clouds whatsoever. I had done a really useful pre-ride/skills session with Peter Reynolds, and although I was a bit nervous, I wasn’t scared for my life. Once again we had an enormous grade in Under 19 Girls, three people! We need to get more young women to dare to have a go on their bikes.

The huge climb up Roller Coaster really got me puffing. When I finally reached the “top” I found that the bit I thought was downhill actually keeps going up for ages before they let you go down. Spoonhill wasn’t too bad, I managed to ride most of it and pass quite a few people. I got to the playground and clambered over the wooden stairs and rode along the road a bit to far, so focused on sprinting hard that I went a couple of hundred meters past Waiu Street, before I realised I was going the wrong way.

Jungle Scout and Gym got pretty trafficky. You could hear Ashley from a long way off, which was really good because I could figure out how far I had left to go. It was probably one of the trickiest places to marshal, with the A,B and C riders all coming at you one way and the D graders coming from the other way, but she handled it perfectly. The first time down Beeline there were too many people pushing their bikes down the drop off for me to be able to ride it, but the second time was good.
I was leading the race at the final corner, but it seems I was the only person who had difficulty finding the entrance to the school, there you go, I lost three minutes weaving around the buildings instead of taking the straight route. I only got a second place for this race, and so it’s “race on” for Mt Vic. Congratulations to Caitlin for her first win. Perhaps my navigational skills will serve me better next time, but for now all I can do is train lots.

Wellington Regional Sec' Schools Road Champs

2009-09-14T20:18:00.009+12:00

Wellington Regional Secondary Schools Road Cycling Champs in Upper Hutt - September 13th

This event had three elements: A 1.7km hill climb over the Wallaceville hill; an 8.5km time trial; and a criterium (15 minutes + 1 lap). I came first in U15 Girls and 2nd in U17 Girls; details to follow.

Many thanks to Gary Gibson for his coaching, and to Mr Tideswell of Marsden Collegiate School for his support - hopefully we can have a great Marsden squad here next year!

Here are some photos . . .

PNP Spring Series 2009: Race 1 - Makara Peak

2009-09-05T00:57:00.005+12:00

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.

PNP Balfour Pennington Road Race Series 2009

2009-09-02T08:35:00.004+12:00

Intro
After a long break over winter, that was made longer due to the weather and me getting sick, I was a bit out of shape. This year’s Balfour Pennington Series was really just for training. I had started riding regularly and was very pleased to find I hadn’t lost as mush fitness as I had feared. This series was very well run, organised and marshalled, and was a very fun experience.

Round One- Burnham Wharf Lyall Bay
My favourite thing about these races is that they don’t start until lunch time so we still get to sleep in. I was in the limit group and the people at the front were setting a very fast pace, I soon got dropped and was on my own until I caught up with another dropped rider. As we neared the turn-around we could see the remains of limit as they went by in ones and twos, not in any kind of bunch. The other bunches passed and though I tried I couldn’t manage to stay with any of them. As I was starting to speed up and sprint for the finish line ‘Scratch’ came flying buy, broken up because they were all sprinting too. Needless to say my exceptional sprint of about 40km/h suddenly felt a little bit pathetic. Nevertheless it was an enjoyable ride and a great start to the season of racing.

Round Three- Wainui Coast Road
After missing round two, I was keen to race. I had some knowledge of the course as I pre-rode it in training for the Wellington Secondary School Road Champs last year. This time the limit group of four worked quite well together. We dropped one rider about halfway to the turnaround, but the remaining three of us held the other groups off until we only had about 5 km left to go. We all picked up our pace and managed to merge into Break 4. However the pace was picked up dramatically when Break 3 caught up and we all (the limit riders) got dropped. I managed to get to the finish before any of my fellow limit riders and got a personal best average speed of 31km/h.

Round Four- Mirimar Loop + Mount Crawford
After some encouragement from Steve Chapman, I decided to move up to Break 4 in this race. This was a big mistake as not only was the pace quite fast but there were hills in the course. I kept up on all the little streets around Mirimar but then Awa Street was under us and it was too much for me and I got spat out the back. There was a strong wind going around the coast and I was by myself. By the time I had clawed my way back up Awa Street again (we had to do three laps of a 13km circuit plus a 3km hill climb at the end) I had caught up to another stray rider, who I rode with for the rest of my second lap and my third. As we approached the killer climb up Mount Crawford I dropped her and progressed slowly towards the finish line at the top of the hill. Not one of my most victorious rides but it was still fun.

2009-09-01T00:24:00.002+12:00

NZ Secondary Schools MTB National Champs

2009-04-24T08:31:00.004+12:00

Training
Yes, well, about that. After Karapoti I had one week off, and then I had a whole week of school camp at OPC, where we went caving, kayaking, rock climbing, tramping, mountaineering and lots of other things. The day after I got back was the Wellington Champs, which I won, despite being so out of shape. Since that weekend I have been sick, and not able to train properly, only doing shorter rides than I would normally do. So as for the training, there isn’t really much to talk about.

Events along the way
After very little riding for nearly three weeks I wasn’t exactly in perfect shape for the PNP Club Champs. The course was short, fast and hard. The great ascent up Crazy Man and Rollercoaster put me in front of the other two girls in my category. I passed a lot of young guys as well, so I could see how much I have improved since the PNP race here last September – back then I had to get off and push the bike up the steeper sections! Then followed a great ride through beautiful native bush – the team from Wainui Trail Project have done a fantastic job here. The final downhill on Spoonhill was scary and very rooty but I managed to get down without any collisions with trees or the ground to take out a comfortable 1st place in both the PNP Club Champs and the College Sport Wellington Regional Champs (U19 Girls).

The Nationals
Racing two grades above my own turned out to be quite a challenge, but although I didn’t win it, I felt I held my own in the Under 19 Girls. I could have raced in the U14 grade but I thought the courses for that grade (only 2 laps of the 3.5km Cross-country circuit and a considerably shortened hill-climb) looked a lot less challenging than what I am accustomed to in Wellington. Also, because I race U19 in Wellington against very limited competition, I wanted to know what my successes really meant at a national level.

Cross Country
The cross country consisted of one lap of the short course (3.5km) and two laps of the long course (6.5km). In the short loop we went up the big hill that was very tiring and then back down and to the start/finish line. The long course was similar, still going up the hard hill but instead of coming back down we went down the other side of the ridge, round, up and then down. By the time I finished I was shaky with fatigue and as red as a beetroot. I ended up coming 6th out of the eight girls.

Hill climb
To put it simply, we rode up the hill. But this hill was very steep and when I got to the top I was dead, like actually at the point of collapse. On the way up I did end up passing a fair few people and that felt good. Just in front of me the whole time was somebody called Hannah. I know this because around every corner there were people shouting “Go Hannah!” and they weren’t talking to me. I got to the top (with another 6th place in U19 Girls) and prepared myself for the downhill.

Downhill
With a full face helmet, elbow pads and knee pads, a very low seat and a hard tail bike, I lined up to await my doom. Much to my personal delight I managed to ride the whole thing, and I had a great time. In my time of 5 minutes 53 seconds I earned myself my third 6th place, and giving me the overall placing of (surprise, surprise!) 6th.

At The end of the season
This event was pretty much the end of the cycling season. With winter well on its way there aren’t really any more events until August when the PNP MTB Series starts. This season has been a great success as my first season of serious competition:
 I have won the PNP MTB Series,
 I have come 1st in the Wellington PNP Club Champs,
 I have won Most Improved Junior at the Wellington Velodrome,
 I have been ranked 6th best Under 19 College Girl in New Zealand, and
 I have survived the Karapoti Classic.

I never could have achieved any of this without Bike Barn Wellington, who have been a great sponsor, and continually fixed my bikes, Gary Gibson has helped me so much, and my parents who have always been there on the sidelines cheering me on, who always drive me to my events.

My 08/09 Track Cycling Season

2009-04-14T08:33:00.000+12:00

Track Cycling ’08-09 Season
By Hannah Barnes

Getting Started
I first started track in September 2008. Being the first time ever on a track bike I often found myself reaching for the brakes when I needed to slow down, however being a track bike, it had no brakes so I had to learn how to slow down and stop by using just my legs. On my first day after getting set up on a bike, I timidly rode around the very bottom of the velodrome, terrified to go any higher, but when Gary (the junior coach) told us to ride around on the blue line, or the stayers line (the line half way up the track) I found to my great relief that it was easier than it looked. At the end of the first day I decided I might as well do a race with some of the more
experienced riders, where I came 3rd after just losing a sprint for second place, but
still a good result for my first day.

General Training
I went to junior track sessions twice a week, on Tuesday after school for training and racing and on Sunday afternoons. During these sessions we have done various exercises on the flat grass area in the centre of the velodrome, including slow races, riding very close to someone, and wheel touching. We have also done interval training, learnt all the different types of races and the starting procedures, and of course the safety rules of riding a bike with no brakes.

At home to train for track, I do time on the turbo- trainer, 45 minutes on an easy day, 1 hour as my standard, and 1½ on a hard day. I practice spinning at a high cadence, spinning one legged, and pushing quite large gears.

Tuesday Night Racing
On Tuesday nights after junior training we have racing with all the senior riders in
Wellington, who come to compete, and some of the better juniors stay and race. The riders are put into categories, cat one, two and three (cat one being the best, I
race in cat three). One week (the 16th Dec) I actually won cat three. I came 2nd in the 500m time trial to begin with, then I surprised myself and won the elimination by a very close sprint with arch rival for the night, Rebecca, and I mean close, there was about an inch in it! I then won the keiren by yet another very close sprint. After those two gut-busting efforts, I didn’t have enough left in me to pull back the 20m to get to Rebecca in the Handicap but I still came second. In the last race of the night, a scratch race with cat one, two and three riders, (12 laps but cat three started a lap up, and cat one a lap down) I came just short of my third win by a little more than a foot, but we did pretty well not to get lapped, except by Lee Evans, who wins cat one by a long way. A pretty successful night.

Recently the numbers have boosted, practically quadrupled and multiple heats are now necessary in all categories. Though this is good in theory it does mean that there is much less actual riding and much more sitting around. However Tuesday nights have become quite a social event, with a disposable BBQ, sausages and marshmallows these nights were always full of fun and drama.

Wanganui- The Wooden Velodrome
At the end of November a small group of us went up to Wanganui for a day to ride on the wooden velodrome. It was both scary and fun. I was shocked to see how much steeper than Wellington it was, and it was much smaller, only 250m compared to Wellington’s 330m, and so the corners were much sharper, and it was harder to keep a straight line. No matter how scary it looked I was determent to conquer this wooden beast and so I rode around the very top of the banking for a full lap, and won a prize for being the first new person to do so.

Racing that evening was not very successful, but my excuse was I had been riding all day and was tired, which was true. I was dropped in the first four laps of the Keirin and in the last lap for the other races. It was still a great experience and I’m glad I went.

Laykold Cup Carnival
Laykold Cup Carnival was held on the 6th of December. It was a massive event and was blessed with the best possible weather conditions, hot, dry, and very sunny. Being the only under 15 girl I was racing against the two under 15 boys, who were both in year 10. Unfortunately I did not win any of these races. The day was not without its drama, halfway through there was a massive crash, only two came out hurt but one broke his collarbone. Since then they have been putting a heavy emphasis on track safety, no surprises there. It was a great learning experience watching the elite race in the main event, the race for the Laykold Cup. It was great to see all the different tactics used, and what does and doesn’t work. It was a great day and I think everyone there got a little (or in some cases a lot) sunburnt, but it was still
great fun.

The Summer Stunner
The Summer Stunner was set on a beautiful summer’s day, well a beautiful Wellington
summers day. With a bit of overcast and a taste of the wind that Wellington is so famous for, this tournament was fun and successful.

All Said and Done
I have broken all the records for all individual time trial events in my category, making me one of only four people (and the only girl) in the club to own all the records for their age group. Although I am currently the only under 15 girl, this is still a big achievement, as there were records set by people in previous years that I have broken. And talking of breaking things, I have also broken the record for the most spokes broken in one go, and I just break spokes all the time. The good side to this was that I could always get them fixed at Bike Barn, and they are always so helpful and get it fixed in time for my next training.

At the end of the season I have managed to not only get all the records but have constantly been improving them. I have also won the Most Improved Juniors trophy, a great honour. Gary Gibson has told me that if I were to focus on track alone that I could be a medal contender at the Nationals next season. I have yet to decide if I should do track only next season, or continue with mountain biking. As a first season
I have had a great season, achieved lots and have had a great time.

With My Deepest Thanks
Gary Gibson has been an amazing coach. He has put in so much time, patience and effort into training us all, and I know that it can be very stressful at times. A huge “Thank you” to Gary. I also need to thank Hamish Norton for his intensive week of training earlier this year, and Rachel for organizing all the racing. Bike Barn
has been very helpful, particularly when it comes to broken spokes. There are some great guys in that shop.

PNP Junior Track - Fastest Times for 2008-09 Season
 Times recorded at the Wellington Velodrome only
 Ages specified as per Bike NZ age-groups
 As at 9 April 2009
JU15 Girls PNP record Date Name
200m Sprint 16.02 Mar-09 Hannah Barnes
500m Ind TT 48.23 Mar-09 Hannah Barnes
1 Kilo TT 1.41.44 Dec-08 Hannah Barnes
2000m Ind Pursuit 3.25.36 Jan-09 Hannah Barnes

My 2009 Karapoti Classic

2009-04-10T08:29:00.001+12:00

The Karapoti Classic

In the Beginning…
When first confronted with the prospect of doing the Karapoti Classic, the immediate reaction was ‘Hello isn’t that the 50km one that is REALLY hard?’ But after a little thought I figured that I am a sponsored rider now so I had to do something big, plus it was ages away, I had yonks to train. But the 3 months we had from Christmas to DDay (the D standing for Karapoti, Doom, Do or Die, and other daunting things like that) seemed to pass with amazing speed. One moment it was still two months away, the next it was only a week away. I started my training, by going on a 20km circuit every other day, but then not far into January we went into Karapoti and did a pre-ride of the Deadwood climb. It was then that I realised just how much more training and effort I needed to put in.

General Training
After our trip to Deadwood and back, Dad and I made ourselves a rule that all training rides from then on had to be a minimum of 25km, to build up endurance. We also went out seeking the steepest 4WD in Makara that could be incorporated into the ride. I ended up riding up places I barely knew existed, all those commonly used 4WD that you only ride bits of, to get from one single track to another, suddenly turned out to have scarily steep ends. I got into the routine of going for a hard ride every 2nd day and taking Martine and Jonathan (my younger brother and sister) for a simple ride every other day. I would go like this for about a week until I would have a well earned rest day, before getting stuck into another week of hard training. For some of the hard days I did a couple of 70km road rides with Dad, over Haywards and back, and we also rode over the Akatarawa Road, to build up that essential stamina and endurance. We also went into Karapoti again, this time from Maungakatukutuku Valley, and rode up a 4WD, then down Big Ring and through Dopers Creek and then up the Pram track and came out at Karapoti Gorge. We did this ride with Bernie and Eden Cruise; Eden has become famous as the 9-year old boy who did the
Karapoti Classic in 3:35 (also on a bike from Bike Barn!). I was still going to track twice a week on Sundays for junior training and Tuesdays for junior training and senior racing.

Events along the way
North Island Cross Country Champs: The weather was in a bad mood on Sunday 18th January, and riding around Mt Vic was an absolute mud slide, particularly as much of the race was on the newly built downhill tracks. I came away from this event with a first place, a few more bruises and a very, very muddy bike! The Akatarawa Attack: This was one of the main training events for Karapoti. Dad and I made up a team in the open mixed, just for the four hour option. We hadn’t done any riding in the area before the event, so we set ourselves a guideline that we would go out for two hours collecting controls, and then we would turn back. However we hugely over-estimated how long it would take to get back and so we got home with just under 40 minutes to spare. We still managed to win our category and have a great day.

D-Day- The Karapoti Classic Itself
Looking out the window the day before the big race I was slightly horrified to find that the rain was pelting down in bucket loads. The next morning it wasn’t much better, and so after a restless night of tossing and turning, we made our way to Karapoti. Much to my delight the rain eased off slightly during the long drive there. During this drive I had one of the most terrifying moments of my life, I thought I had left the plastic bag with all my food in it sitting on my desk at home. To my great relief I did find the bag sitting in the car with all my other stuff. By the time we finally arrived the rain had eased almost completely and was just spitting lightly, but the damage to the tracks had already been done, and the 2009 Karapoti Classic was an epic one.

Lining up at the banks of the river, waiting for the start hooter was one of the most nerve wracking moments of my life. Is it just me, or do they actually wait for a whole hour between each supposed “second” on the count down? Personally, I think it slightly cruel of the organizers to make us go through the icy cold river crossing at the very beginning of the race, ensuring that there is no possible escape from being cold and wet from the very beginning, but then again you have to either have a screw loose in your head, or be into self harm to actually do Karapoti in the first place, so I guess it makes sense.

The first part of the race, the bit where you go along the road was probably the only part where I was not getting steadily covered in mud. The Deadwood climb was unrideable in most places, and by the time I finally got to the top to have my banana I stuck my hand in my pocket and found lots of yellow mush and about a quarter of the banana left in the skin. After slurping this down I continued down the Rock Garden, which wasn’t as bad as I had imagined. The first part was unridable but not very far into it a narrow, but very rideable track appeared, that wove its way around most of the rocks. The next part was the huge ascent up Devils Staircase. What can be said about Devils Staircase? I guess the name suits it quite well. Though it was nothing like I had imagined it was still very energy draining. The huge mounds of clay cliff that we had to climb over were very slippery because of the
recent rain, and I managed to slip and fall over at least half a dozen times. It was I great relief getting to the top of Titi. I knew I had done the hardest part of the ride.

Going down the hill was really nice and enjoyable, though I think that it was were lots of people had their big crashes. Going up Pram Track was agonisingly slow and painful. By this point I was feeling the effect of the 35km I had just done. The number of false summits is enormous, and there are no words to express the massive relief that I felt when I finally reached the top. At that point I knew I had almost
completed the Karapoti Classic. It was all downhill from there, all the hard bits were done. I thought. The hardest bit of the whole race was probably the river crossing at the end. I was shaky with fatigue and was at that point where all I wanted to do was collapse. The fast flowing river was much deeper than it appeared
and even though I went through one of the shallower bits I still got up past my waist in the icy cold rapids. Just staying upright was a mission and I was one of a
limited number who didn’t fall over and get completely dunked. As I ran out of the water and rode the last 10 meters of the race I knew I had achieved something
big. As I stumbled back to the car on shaky legs I knew that I had set out to do something and had done it. That was when the utter fatigue and need to collapse left and that gleeful feeling of knowing you have done something that will raise eyebrows settled in. I had survived the Karapoti Classic, and this had been the worst but at the same time the very best day of my life.

I Couldn’t Have Done it Without you
I would firstly like to say a huge thank you to my sponsor, Bike Barn Wellington, for always fixing my bike quickly and for providing me with the gear I need to be competitive. Everyone in there is always really friendly and helpful. It also just feels really cool to say I’m a sponsored rider.
To Gary Gibson, the PNP juniors track coach, you are one of the most hard working and devoted people I have ever had the pleasure to meet. Without all your
encouraging support I wouldn’t be where I am today.
Peter Reynolds, thank you for your patience during the skills courses, you have taught me some essential skills that I wouldn’t otherwise had the chance to learn.
To all the people out there who said “Hi” to me, it’s almost scary how many people know my name whom I barely know. It is always nice to feel people know who you are.
Finally to my parents, Peter and Pauline Barnes, who never gave up on me, even when I gave up on myself. They are always there to discuss new training routes and take my bike into the bike shop. They also give me some serious help in the financial side
of things.

The 2008 PNP Mountain Bike Series

2009-01-14T08:28:00.000+13:00

PNP Mountain Bike Series ‘08
By Hannah Barnes
This year’s PNP series was a great experience. I decided to do the series because I did not have much on, and I had recently rediscovered my passion for mountain biking. It was a bit of a shock doing so much more mountain biking than usual and sure enough, it wasn’t long before the bruises started popping up on my legs again. In my training I was doing five or six rides a week, including mountain biking, road riding, turbo-training and track. After missing the first round I got stuck in on Round Two.

Round 2: Wainuiomata
After being slightly daunted by some of the track names (Roller Coaster and Crazy man in particular) I started my training, going riding after school most days. I didn’t have a set program of what training I would do because the weather didn’t always want the same as me, so on rainy days I would go for a 1 hour turbo train, and go for road rides and mountain bike rides on nice days, save Tuesday evenings and Sunday afternoons, when I had track, at the Wellington Velodrome. It was a big help going to Bike Barn every time I had something wrong with one of my bikes, because they were always so friendly and helpful.

When it got to the day I had a greatish start, after beating all the boys along the road, as soon as I turned to go into the bush, my chain came off, putting me at the back end of the bunch. It was a tricky ride and Roller Coaster was well named, taking us up and down in a dramatic and dizzying fashion. Going down the hill at the end was barely rideable, as it was very steep and muddy in some places and there were people from the higher grades constantly trying to get past. Overall it was a short but tough race, and gave me my first unexpected win, making me keen and excited about Round Three.

Round 3: Mt Vic
Now that I had won one medal I was determined to get another, and was inspired to try harder in my training, which was pretty much the same as it had been for the previous race. The day before the event I took part in a mountain bike skills training course, where I learned lots of useful skills such as balancing in one place, going around in tight circles and I learnt how to jump. We also did part of the Wild Wellington course that uses lots of the same tracks as the race.

The race was a fast two laps of a circuit that had lots of short but steep climbs that left you breathless, and then back to the velodrome to start your next lap. The race went pretty well for me but at the very end my chain got stuck between my chainrings and so I had to run the rest of the way home to pick up my second gold, and this time it was a full podium, so that made it feel like more of an achievement, plus I beat my brother which was something I had failed to do last time. It was after this event that Bike Barn offered to sponsor me.

Round 4: Belmont
The pre-ride two weeks before the race made me realise that this was going to be one tough ride. It seemed impossibly uphill, despite the fact that it started and finished in the same place. At the start of the ride was a tricky track that wound its way steeply up through the pine forest. As it was so damp and muddy all the roots
were exposed and in one place I fell and hurt my arm and it was aching for a week after, but you don’t need your arms for biking much so I was able to continue with my
training, particularly inspired to try my hardest to get a good result and thank my new sponsor, Bike Barn at the end, which I did.

After having rained all night the tracks were a bog, I think that for this race a wheelbarrow would have been more appropriate than a bike. My new helmet was
so much better than my old one that a few times I had to put my hand to my head to check I was wearing it, it was so light! Every now and then I had to stop and clear the mud off my back wheel because it was so clogged up with mud that it wouldn’t move. The rest of the ride wasn’t much better, and 90% of it was walking, and I came in after a long hard ride (or walk) in two and a half hours.

Round 5: Makara
It was good to be back on home territory and it meant that I could practice the exact course multiple times. And I did just that. After riding the course about four times in one week I probably could have done it with my eyes closed. I was working on my speed and on one day I beat the previous day’s time by fifteen minutes, and I
was feeling pretty confident and ready for the race, especially with my snazzy new Kona Lisa from Bike Barn.

The wind was blowing hard on the day and I got off to a good start. It was quite scary at the top because the wind was almost blowing us off the cliff, and so I had to jump off and run about 50 metres to avoid a date with the cliff face. At the end I put on a good sprint to finish the series in style, and beat my personal best
by three minutes, a satisfactory result.

Overall the series was full of some great rides and lots of fun. I am now commonly referred to by other cyclists as “one of the Barnes sisters” after Marty joined the
competition at Mt Vic. The new bike was probably what helped me do so well at Makara and by the end of the series I had improved not only in my cycling but also in my speech making skills, though I guess after my first grand speech of a embarrassed “Thanks?” this area wasn’t the hardest to improve. It was a great series, and I’m looking forward to next year’s events. For now I’ve still got road and track to concentrate on, and I hope there will soon be some great results for those as well.

2009-01-11T00:51:00.001+13:00

PNP MTB Series photos: