Woodhill 360

This weekend just been Tim Farmer (an endurance mountain biker) held an event at Woodhill forest as a fundraiser for his campaign to get to the 24 hour MTB Solo World Championships. This new event was a team or solo 6 or 3 hour event named the Woodhill 360, there was an awesome turn out with a number of teams and heaps of solo riders.  

Several weeks ago I was looking at the different categories 6 hour solo, 3 hour solo or 6 hour team relay?? So many choices. Me and my brothers were thinking of making a mixed team together but when I saw Sarah was the only female entered for the 6 hour solo I thought I'd better enter to give her some competition! Also as I've never competed in an endurance event like this before I figured it was time I give one a go to see what they are all about. I didn't quite realise what I was getting myself into at the time I entered....

Saturday morning of the Woodhill 360 dawned cloudy but free of rain thankfully, after the mud at Moonride the weekend before I was hopeful that it would be sunny. There was no sign of sun but at least it wasn't raining! My prep for this event was a little behind as I had a busy week at work and hadn't had much of a chance to get it sorted. I arrived at the event village just in time to set up and get a in short warm up before the race start. We had a good turn out of Department of Cycling members, there were both teams and a couple of solo riders. The set up was awesome we all got to be in the same area so we could give each other support.

The event village was very well set up with a great atmosphere. The start was a le mans start, and as running is not my biggest strength I put my bike further back from the start line than most, so I could jump on it and ride off straight away. The horn went and everyone sprinted for their bikes, it was a battle to get to the single track first with riders surrounding me on all sides. Megan Dimozantos (pro mtb endurance rider) turned up to race the 6 hour solo, my goal was to stay on her tail for as long as I could. I knew I had to not go out too hard at the start because I had 6

Le mans race start

Thanks to ScottieT  for the photo!

hours of riding ahead of me, I needed to be able to maintain a good steady pace for the duration of the race. This in mind I started out strong at a pace which I thought I would be able to keep up. I jumped on Megan's tail as soon as I could and managed to keep up with her for a while even got past her down a hill. Downhill sections are a strength of mine so I pinned it down them as fast as I could. I gained a bit of distance between myself and Megan on the downhill sections. One and a half hours into the race I was feeling pretty good, had set a good pace and it felt like the time was flying by. In my mind I was mentally counting down the time, 2 hours down, 4 to go. No problem I was thinking, almost halfway! Fueling and hydrating is so important in an event of this length so I was prepared with lots of water and food to keep me going. It's actually a lot harder than you think to keep hydrating and refueling when your focusing on riding round a course as fast as you can. I knew I had to keep my liquid and fuel intake up though if I wanted to finish strong so I drank water at every point I could and ate something every hour. Thanks Mum for coming along as my support person to keep me well fed and remind me to keep drinking my water! :)

About three hours in exhaustion hit, my body screamed at me to stop and rest up but there was no way, I was in front of Megan and I was determined to stay out front for as long as I could. So grateful for my new Fizik seat which made six hours in the saddle oh so comfortable, at least I only had to worry about the burning in my legs! About three and a half hours in Megan came flying past me, I dug in with a spurt of energy and jumped on her tail, I kept up down the hill but she dropped me at the next uphill. At the halfway mark time slowed right down, every minute felt like an hour. I kept going willing my legs to keep spinning, counting down the hours to go and calculating how many more laps I could get in. Once I worked that out I focused on those final two laps I could get in before the cut off time. I couldn't have been more happy to see the finish line come into sight, those last few laps were very challenging! I crossed the line in 2nd place, one lap behind Megan, with Sarah coming in 3rd. 8 laps completed, a total of 90kms within 6 hours, my first 6 hour solo event was completed! Stoked. Massive thanks to the DoC crew, Cycle West crew and Avanti Plus Waitakere crew for all the cheering and support, much appreciated! Kept me going when the going got tough especially near the end!

Thanks to photographer Mike Breen for these two awesome photos!

At the end of the 6 hour race a short downhill race (very short 30-40 seconds long) was held from the top of uplands to the bottom, five bucks to enter all funds going towards Trail Fund NZ. The competition was labelled "Pin it to win it" with a prize from Magellan up for grabs. Of course despite being totally knackered out with sore, tired legs I had to give this a go, it was downhill after all! It got cold pretty quickly as it had started to rain so I was glad to be the first one to pin it down the hill after Tim Farmer. For the 34 seconds I pinned it down the hill everything was blur, stoked to see my brother Peter do the fastest time.

Big thanks to Tim and all the volunteers for putting on an awesome event. Best of luck Tim for the World Champs in October!

Moodride 2013

It is that time of the year again, Moonride!! The best MTB team relay event in NZ! (in my opinion anyway) For those of you who don’t know the Moonride is an annual 6/12/24 hour event held in Rotorua. It always draws a large crowd no matter what kind of weather is in store! There are a number of categories to choose from 6, 12 or 24 hour team relay and there are even solo categories for the 6, 12 or 24 hours if you want an insane challenge! The course they run is predominantly an 8km loop around some of Rotorua’s awesome single track. It’s a great event to do if you’re new to Mountain Biking because it caters for all levels, is heaps of fun and the atmosphere is always awesome.

I’ve been doing the 12 hour team relay at the Moonride for a number of years now. This year I had the opportunity to be part of the Avanti Plus Waitakere team, which I was super excited about (also quite nervous I have to admit… these guys and Sasha aka Piki are fast as!) Avanti Plus Waitakere put together a team that consisted of Duane, Callum, Elliot, Piki and myself and entered us for the 24 hour relay. I haven’t done a 24 hour relay before so I was looking forward to giving it a go.

The 24 hour event was due to start at 9pm Friday night and run through till 9pm Saturday night. Friday evening we arrived in Rotorua to constant rain that didn’t look like it was going to give anytime soon. I’d had my eye on the weather forecast all week and it wasn't looking so great… I had hoped that maybe they would be wrong this time but no looked like I had 24 hours of fun in the mud and rain ahead of me! Catherine (our team manager) Sue, Inver, Duane, Callum and Dylan (our mechanic) had already set up camp by the time I arrived. I couldn't believe it when they told me the 24 hour had been cancelled; us MTBers are tough we ride through rain and mud no worries! But sure enough they weren't kidding, we would be starting at 9am the next day with all the 12 hour teams. They were expecting constant rain for most of the night so it was a good thing they moved it forward. I was slightly disappointed as I was looking forward to the 24 hour race but there’s always next year and at least I didn't have to put up my tent in the rain!

So after a good night’s sleep out of the rain J I was ready to rock and roll the next morning. Elliot started for our team, he was super fast off the line and did wicked fast laps. We decided to do double laps each because the track ended up being shortened to about a 5km loop (due to the muddy conditions), this gave us more time to recover between. I was up third after Duane, and then Callum and Piki came after me. I came back in after my first two laps puffing hard, with a huge smile on my face, and covered in a lot of mud!! It was awesome! I do love riding in mud, you can have so much fun drifting, sliding and doing fat skids all over the place. I went as hard as I could pining it each time I went out, I was real stoked when I managed to do a 15.30 on my first lap, must have been coz I loved the mud so much! J It was pretty full on right from the start, once I got back from my first two laps I just had enough time to wash my bike, get dry and warm, eat some food then it was about time to get warmed up again and head out for another two laps. It rained off and on throughout the day, for one of my laps it absolutely poured down there was practically a river down the track! It was pretty fun, although I did spend most of that lap riding with my eyes half closed trying to avoid mud!

Mud galore!!

Once the rain stopped later in the afternoon the track got pretty boggy, and it was hard work riding through the big clumps of mud, it was like riding through a swamp. They cut out a few different lines to avoid the worst bits but you had to power pretty hard to get through most of it. Our team held a real good pace for the whole 11 hours and Elliot did the final lap with just few minutes to spare!! (they finished it an hour early, for safety reasons), we did so well we came first in our category (12 hour mixed teams) and 3^rd overall!! So AWESOME!

Despite the wet, cold and muddy conditions I had so much fun, it was real cool to be part of such an awesome team and have such amazing support crew. I want to say a massive thanks to Dylan for looking after our bikes, Cat for being such an awesome manager, Sue and Inver for the mean set up with the caravan and of course my team mates!! Was one of the best Moonride’s ever. (Despite all the mud!) Looking forward to Day Night Thriller!! J

Team Still Classy AvantiPlus Waitakere

T42

This weekend just been was the annual Totalsport T42 event down at National Park. This event has been going for a few years now and has got to be my favourite event that Totalsport puts on. The T42 attracts a large number of people as there is also the option of an offroad marathon, a 24km, 11km or 6.5km trail run/walk. The last time I did this event was two years ago with my younger brother Peter, we both had so

much fun. I really enjoyed the track, the majority of it being downhill made it very appealing to me, I was keen to give it a go again this year! So there I was again in the shadow of Mt Ruapehu and Tongariro, on Saturday morning ready to take on the 48km Mountain bike known as the 42nd Traverse.

A bit of insight into what the trail is like... It's predominately downhill (really fast downhill!), with a couple of decent climbs (that feel like they go on and on forever), half a dozen river crossings (which are freezing cold!), a couple of steep rocky chutes and a few steep pinch climbs. Overall it's a pretty wicked track, not very technical just very fast and so much fun!!

On Saturday morning I woke up to a lovely clear morning, the view of Mt Ruapehu and Tongariro was stunning, I love the central plateau area it's so beautiful and the crisp mountain air is so good, such a nice change from the humidity of Auckland. We were up early for the race, the horn went off just after 9am to signal the beginning of the T42 MTB event. Over 300 riders raced off down the tar seal road, that led to the 42nd Traverse trail. The start was pretty fast with riders carrying an average speed of about 60kms, it was pretty dodgy because I had riders surrounding me on all sides, I had to stay really focused and hold my line till we reached the farmland where gaps between the riders increased. My plan for the race was to keep a consistent pace for the 48km, I didn't want to push it too hard at the start then burn out on the uphills at the end, I made that mistake the last time I raced the T42 so I knew this time I needed to conserve my energy so I could stay strong throughout the entire race. I had a great start and felt good with the speed I was going. I was determined to beat my younger brother this time having been beaten by him twice before on this track I wasn't going to let this happen again! (especially when I had a bit of an advantage over him on a 26er, me being on a 29er I could get up hills faster and roll faster downhill too)

We battled it out for a while, chasing each other till we reached the downhill, I also chased Piki (Sasha Smith, U23 National cross country champ) for a while I tried really hard to keep on her tail. It was so mint me, Piki and Peter formed a train down one of the longest descents letting out whoops of delight as we pinned it down my favourite part of the track! At the bottom I reached the first river crossing, then it was up a short steep climb. I was still hot on Piki's tail with Peter following me. However as I got through the second river crossing, in my haste to catch Peter who had managed to overtake me, I jammed my chain on a steep pinch climb!! I sprinted with my bike to the top of the hill, unfortunately it took a bit longer than I would have liked to fix. Peter and Piki were well out of my sight by the time I was back on my bike.

On the bright side I got to have a breather and I managed to gulp some food down to keep me going. I put in a good solid effort after that going hard up the hills despite the burn in my legs and lungs. The first climb felt like it would never end, but I kept focused on what was to come, what goes up must go down! Finally I reached a marker that stated there were only 20kms to go. Woohoo! and then I was at the 15km mark... then 10km and then there was an epic downhill down a gravel road. I chased Jenna Makgill (pro downhiller back from when I first got into Downhill) all the way down the gravel road. Lastly came a killer of an up hill right before the finish, downing some lollies to get me through the final climb I pushed my legs hard knowing soon the finish line would be in sight. It was such a welcome sight to come out of the tree's into Owhango domain and see that finish, it was a pretty tough race, and I certainly gave it my all. Despite a mechanical in the middle I managed to get 6th place, although I didn't beat my brother, oh well bring on next year!! Congrats to Piki for taking 2nd! Megan 4th and Sarah 8th, top 10 for all us girls! :) Well done to Jafakid Kim for taking out the Juniors with Robin in 2nd, Tom in 3rd and Peter in 4th. The Jafakids dominated! As did the DoC crew with roadie Brendan McGrath taking 5th overall! Very impressive. Thanks to the DoC crew for the awesome weekend away, thanks Greg for the lift down and back! Looking forward to next year's T42!