NZ Downhill MTB Nationals

Two weekends ago I headed down Rotorua for the National Champs, for a dusty weekend of riding. On Friday evening as part of the Rotorua Bike Festival a race was held up Mount Ngongataha, The Skyline Sprint Warrior, a super d style event. I hadn't been planning on doing this event but with a little persuasion from my brother and a look at the sick berms at the bottom I decided why not give it a go?! With a gondola to get to the top, and a fun looking track with heaps of nice berms and jumps, I just had to do it! There was a limit of 200 entries, I was lucky enough to just make it in as a couple of people didn't turn up. Stoked! :) The track was so much fun, so loose and dusty after 200 riders passing over it but it still had a nice flow to it and the jumps were real fun to hit too! It was cool to see such a big crowd at the event, we don't usually get that many people turning up for the DH races, so it was mint to have such an atmosphere. There was talk that because the event was such a success maybe in the future they might open up the gondolas to let MTBer's build tracks and create a bike park. Wouldn't that be cool!! Stoked to come 4th place in the open women, was so cool to see so many females racing there were seventeen of us, Emmeline Ragot pro elite DH racer took the win.

Saturday dawned sunny, perfect conditions for National Champs Downhill practice. I didn't get a chance to walk the downhill track Friday night because I ended up doing the Skyline Sprint warrior, so I spent the first few runs sussing out the track and looking at different lines. The track was pretty rough and got blown out real fast because it was so dry and dusty. I struggled a bit to get my flow through the rough sections, I hadn't ridden such a rough track in while after the smooth track at Hunua it was a bit of a shock to the system. I focused on the other bits though that I was riding well and eventually I got smoother through the rough bits. The track had a bit of everything, some big jumps, fast rough sections, steep chutes, a rock garden and a couple of pedally bits, overall it was a pretty awesome Nationals track! Different to the usual tracks we race at Rotorua so that was cool. By the end of practice I had all the jumps sussed, and was feeling better through the rough sections despite tired arms and shoulders!

Sunday morning I got a couple of runs in before seeding, I rode all my lines keeping it smooth and looking out for all the places I could pedal hard to make up a few seconds come seeding an race. I had an alright seeding run and got 7th, not as fast I would have liked, I thought I could probably make up a few seconds in my race run. I did manage to knock 6 seconds off my previous time :) and ended up in 5th place out of all the kiwi women, Amy Laird took 1st, with Alanna Columb 2nd and Sophie Tyas 3rd. Here's a couple of photo's from the weekend, thanks to all the photographers out there for the awesome pic's!

Flying over the last jump before the finish