Dawn 2 Dusk

Two weekends in a row I've been riding at Rotorua, am I lucky or what?! Last weekend I was down for the first round of the N-Duro and this weekend just been it was the Dawn 2 Dusk.

For those of you who don't know the Dawn 2 Dusk is an event that Descend Rotorua has held for several years. In recent years it has been as a fundraiser to help get some of the Rotorua's downhillers overseas to race at the World Champs. This year all proceeds were going to Louis Hamilton and Lawrence Cawte to help support them in their campaign to get to World Champs in South Africa in August. The event is run in a similar format to the Moonride in that it's a team relay (or you can go solo) held over eleven hours from dawn to dusk. The difference is that it's held predominantly on downhill tracks! There are several different tracks which you can choose from, with the exception of a couple that you must do before the eleven hours are up. My and I brothers were keen to do this event, so we decided to make a team of three, me, Peter and Liam. 

6am: The event village

With the race start at 7am, we were up well before the crack of dawn. Peter did the first two runs with a light mounted to his helmet, it was still quite dark in the forest. Meanwhile as the weather wasn't looking so promising for the day, Mum and I set up some shelter and lucky we did because the moment it was up, down came the rain!

Who needs an ezi up?!

To be in to win the event there were a several tracks that were compulsory to do; 3 runs of corners, 3 of National Downhill, 3 of Jump track, 1 of Billy T and 1 of Hot X Bun. It was up to us to choose what tracks we did and in what order, however there was a bit of a twist, the Hot X bun run had to be completed between 7 and 9 & the Billy T run between 9.30 and 11.30.

Throughout the day we alternated between Peter, myself then Liam. A few hours in we decided to do two or three runs each in a row because it was pretty chilly and we'd only just get back, get warm and then be having to get ready to go again. The tracks were running soo good, I did a run of jump track first and was surprised to see despite the rain the trail was in mint condition. Jump track is one of the coolest tracks in Rotovegas, it's smooth, fast and flowy with some sick berms and tabletops. SO much FUN!!

Thanks to Liam for being chief photographer!

I took my xc bike as well as my dh rig because I thought Billy T and Hot X Bun would be a lot faster on a hardtail. Peter ended up doing the  Hot X bun run and I got to do Billy T. I was so glad I did take my xc bike for this run because there was a bit of a steep climb to get to the start of the track, would have been a killer on my dh bike! 

I switched back to my dh bike for the next couple of runs, I did a run down the National Downhill, which had gotten pretty slippery and tacky because a lot of people were riding it. This track was the most technical of the five, with some slippery roots, tight corners, jumps, rough sections and jumps, it required quite a lot of concentration and skill to get down without sliding out in the mud. I made it down all good with a smile on my face, love riding that track even when it's extra slippery!

Time flies when you're having fun! All up we'd done several runs each, and as 6pm drew near Peter donned a light and headed out to get one last run in for our team. All up we completed 20 runs in the eleven hours, which was good enough to place us 1st in the 3 person team category. :) Overall it was an awesome event, we got shuttled to the top of some of Rotorua's best downhill trails which we then got to race down! What more could I ask for?! Looking forward to next year, maybe I'll take on the challenge of riding solo...     

Thanks to Descend Rotorua for putting on such a great event and good luck to Louis and Lawrence for the World Champs!