Dome Valley Shuttle Day

Its been a while since I've posted on my blog I've been really busy with school and exams but its all finished now, so I can get right back into the downhill again. I went up to Dome Valley today to do some downhill runs, it felt so good to be back on my downhill bike! Haven't been riding on my downhill rig for a wee while so I had a great time up at dome today. The dome valley track was in perfect conditions, bone dry. There were a few new developments to add an extra challenge to the track for the upcoming race there next weekend. Some big new jumps have been added which will be a challenge for me to do. I had a good look at the jumps and hit one of them stoked with that, just gotta sort the other ones by the race next weekend. Cheers to Auckland Downhill club for putting on the shuttle day. Looking forward to the race next weekend, two days of full on downhill riding! :)
  

Downhill World Champs

Wow what an amazing trip I had! I spent a week in Morzine after the Val Di Sole World Cup round before heading to Champery for the Worlds. We had perfect weather for the week in Morzine, nice and sunny. Everyday we rode different tracks around the area, we went all over the mountains to Chatel and Les Gets. There was a super fun track with table tops and big berms over at Les Gets. It was so awesome being able to catch a chairlift or gondola up to ride so many different tracks, I had so much fun riding in Morzine. 

After a week at Morzine we headed to Champery to meet up with the rest of the New Zealand team. On Monday World Champs officially kicked off! We walked the track and I was pleased to see that it wasn't as bad as people made it out to be. It turned out to be quite a challenging track to ride because it was very steep with rocks, roots and jumps throughout the track. Downhill practice kicked off on Tuesday and ran through to Saturday. Practice went really well for me and I enjoyed riding this track. The jumps were a good challenge for me to hit, by the end of the week I had done most of them, which I was stoked about. The weather was good for us all week apart from one morning, it rained overnight so the track was slippery and muddy, I had a lot of fun that morning because I love riding in the mud! 

By Saturday I had the track completely sorted, I did a number of the jumps, which I was real stoked about! I felt well prepared and ready to race Sunday morning. Then it rained! This changed the conditions of the track immensely, the dust made the track very slick and slippery for the practice runs before the race, I had quite a few off's, slipping on wet rocks and roots. I did manage to do one run riding all the sections so I felt good for the race. Just when I headed up for my race run, it started raining again, it had been clear all morning. Once again this changed the conditions of the tack. My race run went well minus the off's I had, the track was so much more slippery than it was in practice so it took a lot of control to stay on the bike! I was stoked that I managed to ride all the challenging sections and I ended up in 8th place which I am pretty happy with considering it's my first world champs.

This was such an amazing experience and I am so lucky to have had this opportunity. I enjoyed every moment of it.

I want to say a big thank you to all the people who have supported and helped me to achieve my goal of competing at the World Champs. I really appreciate your support.                   

Val Di Sole World Cup

I’ve been in Italy for the last week riding in the last of the World Cup series in Val Di Sole. My first world cup round, so exciting! It's been such an awesome week, had beautiful sunny weather and the track is real fun to ride. On Wednesday we walked the track, it is so different from the tracks back home. It's very gnarly and rough with loads of rocks, roots and steep chutes a very technical track to ride. Had practice day on Thursday, it was quite a challenge to ride but by the end of the day I had the track sorted. Qualifying was on Friday afternoon; I did a few runs in the morning to get comfortable with the track again then did my qualifying run. I didn't manage to get through to the top 20 women, but I managed to put together a good run on the roughest track of the world cup series so I was pretty happy with that. I really enjoyed riding a different track, it was pretty rough but it was so much fun to ride. Moday, I’m off to Morzine in France to do some riding/training in preparation for the World Champs.

What a day!

Today was the Woodhill Downhill fundraiser race for both myself and Sophie Tyas out on the SPCA trail at Woodhill. It was a huge success with a turnout of roughly one hundred riders. Super stoked with the support of everyone who raced and helped to make the event happen. I had a full but fun day helping set up, process registrations, time the race runs and set down. It was great to see everyone enjoying themselves despite the rain at the beginning of the day, nobody's spirits were dampened and everyone seemed to be having a great time.

The 16inch race (on small bikes with 16inch wheels) was especially fun to watch! I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who came out today. Thanks to the organisers, truck drivers, timers, marshals and everyone else who helped make the event happen. Thanks to Avanti Plus Waitakere, Department of Cycling, Bikes International Ltd, Floe, Kenda, Five Ten, Chromag and Sportspro for their support and providing products for prizes. Also a huge thank you to Woodhill Bikeparks for their support. A big thanks to the Auckland Downhill Club committee for all their help in the organisation and running of this race. I really appreciate everyone's assistance in helping me to achieve my goal of competing in the Downhill World Champs in Switzerland in August. :)    

 

Woodhill Downhill Fundraiser Race

Brand NEW Bike! :)

Super stoked with my new Scott bike :) nice and shiny!

Super stoked with my new downhill bike which I picked up from Avanti Plus Waitakere yesterday afternoon. :) Got myself a Scott Gambler to replace my old downhill bike which is very well used and has done its days. I am so stoked with my new bike and would like to say a HUGE thank you to the team at Avanti Plus Waitakere for my awesome new rig. It rides so much smoother than my old bike and pedals really nicely. It's even painted with my fave colour green!  Took it for a spin out at Riverhead today, had a great time playing about on it and getting used to it.

 

 

Riding at Riverhead

Hitting a jump on my new bike

Not so clean and shiny after my ride!

Racing at Woodhill!

Headed up to Woodhill yesterday in pouring rain for the second round of the Auckland Secondary Schools Cross Country Series. It was good to see so many students out there racing. Luckily the rain eased off for the start of the race, was a real fun track to race. I especially enjoyed the downhill bits which were fast and flowed well! The track was quite wet which meant perfect conditions because Woodhill is sand based so a good lot of rain makes the trails nice and firm. However there were a few muddy patches to slide about in, good fun! I had a good start to the race and headed up the first hill strong taking the lead, finished 1st place in Under 19 Women. Real happy with my result and effort! :) Thanks to Sadie, Hira and Rod (the organisers) for a great day.         

Racing on the weekend 

New Urge Helmet

I want to say a big thank you to Black Seal Imports for the brand new Urge helmet. I'm super stoked with it, fits me perfectly and is super comfy. If you're looking at getting a new full face helmet, Urge helmets are the way to go. 

Auckland Downhill Club held a shuttle day out at Maraetai on Sunday, the track was in perfect conditions, nice and muddy. My favourite! I love riding in the mud. :) However it was rather slippery too which made it more challenging but it was a good opportunity for me improve my skills in these sorts of conditions.

Thanks to all the crew at AKDH for organising the shuttle day. Was a great day in out in the mud!      

My new Urge Helmet!

 

Welcome to my blog!

Hello and welcome to my blog. My name's Sophiemarie and I'm a mad keen mountain biker and downhiller! :) This blog is my way of documenting races, events and all things mountain biking. Hope you enjoy!