Wellington Secondary Schools Road Champs - 12 Sep 2010

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.

Read more...

PNP Mountain Bike Series 2010: Round One - Makara

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.

Read more...

Winter 2010 - What’s Happening Now

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.

Read more...

Women’s Revolve MTB Series - Race #2

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.

Read more...

Womens MTB Revolve Series - Race #1

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.

Read more...

Makara Peak Grand Loop Time Trial

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

Read more...