Wainui 6-Hour Wurldz - Sun 22 May 2011

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


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

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

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Crazyman - Saturday 7 May 2011

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



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

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



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

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New Bike!!

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

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

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

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



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

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PNP MTB Series Round 5-Makara

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

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























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

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


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

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

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

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Women of Dirt 6 Hour Relay - Sunday 7 November

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

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

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

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

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

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Women of Dirt - Amazing Outfits!!

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

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PNP Mountain Bike Series - Round 4 - Belmont

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

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

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

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PNP Mountain Bike Series 2010 - Round 3-Mt Vic

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.

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OHV Mountain Bike Orienteering Series Winter 2010

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).

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PNP Mountain Bike Series: Round Two - Wainui

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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PNP Club MTB Champs - 21 March 2010

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.

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