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