After a big summer of training at the local training playground (and a whole range of pb's despite training and racing there for many years), I was looking forward to starting off my block of races with a 3hr in Dunedin on the Oceania course. Unfortunately I hadn't quite accounted for the state my bike would be in after 4 weeks of backcountry racing...
1 week later and my bike still in pieces, I was fortunate enough to have Chain Reaction supply me a demo Specialized Epic Comp Carbon. I can't thank them enough for this as otherwise I would have had yet another DNS, and it certainly wasn't the bikes fault about my final result (but more about that later).
Not many people know but before multisport and before my (first) attempt at mountain bike racing, I was a competitive slalom waterskier. I was fortunate enough to win Canterbury champs for waterskiing, then the following year switch to mountain biking and win Canterbury champs again (this time on a bike of course). While the ideal thing to do the day before a race is check over your bike and rest up, I was making the most of the opportunity to be out skiing again. Not ideal for results, but it sure is alot of fun and I will definitely be skiing more frequently from now on.
The Concilio 679 mtb race first appealed to me as it was the weekend before South Islands with the major bonus of only being $30 to enter! With most events these days approaching atleast $100, its nice to have a decently run event, on an awesome course, that's so cheap. My main goal for the event was to see how my training had gone before deciding whether to race South Islands or not. 3 laps with 900m of climbing over 28km should be the perfect way to determine that! The laps were well layed out to even out individuals strengths with the start/finish being roughly halfway up the climb, and a long singletrack descent to add some fun.
As we were driving to the event, the drizzle on the windscreen wasn't doing alot to help with my pre-race nerves. It's not often I get nervous these days about events so it obviously meant something to me to be out racing finally. On the other hand, racing in cooler conditions is far more enjoyable than trying to race in the 30 degree plus days we have been having recently!
While the field didn't quite have the big names I was expecting, there was still plenty of fast people to push me to my limit. Starts definitely aren't my strength so I majorly surprised myself to have a really good start for once and find myself in the top 5 heading into the first singletrack descent.
From here I slipped a few places as we began the main climb, but wasn't too worried as I figured with my training focus trending towards longer events, my endurance would kick in and I would soon see them again. Or atleast that was the plan...
Coming into the long singletrack descent with a group on my tail, I figured my descending skills would be good enough to put a gap into them. Surprised doesn't quite describe my reaction when a small kid came flying past and disappeared into the distance. This was followed by being humbled again on lap 2 and 3 by Glenn Hedges. I can't quite believe I'm saying this but I definitely saw the benefit of a dropper post (and a whole lot of skill).
Lap 2 came and during the rest of the climb a good wee group had formed around me. While we all had strengths in a certain area of the course, we would always regroup afterwards. My legs were feeling great and my borrowed bike was feeling awesome. My thoughts at the time were deciding when to go full gas on the final lap.
And then it happened. Near the start of the descent was a little stump, nothing of too much concern on the previous laps, but when pushing as hard as possible for the last lap I got a wee bit too close. With how hard the impact was, I was sure I would be minus a derailleur. Somehow it was still on and I was still able to pedal so I kept on pushing, hoping to drop the group around me. There was a short pinch climb not long afterwards and this was when I knew I had done some damage. With the inability to change gears, I was forced to run up and watch the group I had high hopes of beating, disappear into the distance. I'm not sure Chain Reaction will so readily give me a bike next time!
From there on it was single speed to the finish with a bit of spinning, alot of grinding and a wee bit of running... actually alot of running including up the final climb and over the finish line with leading female, Nina McVicar chasing me down. In the the end I was 7th open men (even without the mechanical I could have only achieved 5th). Pretty disappointing to be honest to be so far off the pace when I felt good and had a good summer of training. It might be back to the drawing board after this block of racing!
1 week later and my bike still in pieces, I was fortunate enough to have Chain Reaction supply me a demo Specialized Epic Comp Carbon. I can't thank them enough for this as otherwise I would have had yet another DNS, and it certainly wasn't the bikes fault about my final result (but more about that later).
Not many people know but before multisport and before my (first) attempt at mountain bike racing, I was a competitive slalom waterskier. I was fortunate enough to win Canterbury champs for waterskiing, then the following year switch to mountain biking and win Canterbury champs again (this time on a bike of course). While the ideal thing to do the day before a race is check over your bike and rest up, I was making the most of the opportunity to be out skiing again. Not ideal for results, but it sure is alot of fun and I will definitely be skiing more frequently from now on.
The Concilio 679 mtb race first appealed to me as it was the weekend before South Islands with the major bonus of only being $30 to enter! With most events these days approaching atleast $100, its nice to have a decently run event, on an awesome course, that's so cheap. My main goal for the event was to see how my training had gone before deciding whether to race South Islands or not. 3 laps with 900m of climbing over 28km should be the perfect way to determine that! The laps were well layed out to even out individuals strengths with the start/finish being roughly halfway up the climb, and a long singletrack descent to add some fun.
As we were driving to the event, the drizzle on the windscreen wasn't doing alot to help with my pre-race nerves. It's not often I get nervous these days about events so it obviously meant something to me to be out racing finally. On the other hand, racing in cooler conditions is far more enjoyable than trying to race in the 30 degree plus days we have been having recently!
While the field didn't quite have the big names I was expecting, there was still plenty of fast people to push me to my limit. Starts definitely aren't my strength so I majorly surprised myself to have a really good start for once and find myself in the top 5 heading into the first singletrack descent.
From here I slipped a few places as we began the main climb, but wasn't too worried as I figured with my training focus trending towards longer events, my endurance would kick in and I would soon see them again. Or atleast that was the plan...
Coming into the long singletrack descent with a group on my tail, I figured my descending skills would be good enough to put a gap into them. Surprised doesn't quite describe my reaction when a small kid came flying past and disappeared into the distance. This was followed by being humbled again on lap 2 and 3 by Glenn Hedges. I can't quite believe I'm saying this but I definitely saw the benefit of a dropper post (and a whole lot of skill).
Lap 2 came and during the rest of the climb a good wee group had formed around me. While we all had strengths in a certain area of the course, we would always regroup afterwards. My legs were feeling great and my borrowed bike was feeling awesome. My thoughts at the time were deciding when to go full gas on the final lap.
And then it happened. Near the start of the descent was a little stump, nothing of too much concern on the previous laps, but when pushing as hard as possible for the last lap I got a wee bit too close. With how hard the impact was, I was sure I would be minus a derailleur. Somehow it was still on and I was still able to pedal so I kept on pushing, hoping to drop the group around me. There was a short pinch climb not long afterwards and this was when I knew I had done some damage. With the inability to change gears, I was forced to run up and watch the group I had high hopes of beating, disappear into the distance. I'm not sure Chain Reaction will so readily give me a bike next time!
From there on it was single speed to the finish with a bit of spinning, alot of grinding and a wee bit of running... actually alot of running including up the final climb and over the finish line with leading female, Nina McVicar chasing me down. In the the end I was 7th open men (even without the mechanical I could have only achieved 5th). Pretty disappointing to be honest to be so far off the pace when I felt good and had a good summer of training. It might be back to the drawing board after this block of racing!
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