2013 Taupo Day Night Thriller

Another year, another Day Night Thriller. Like last year, I was in the AvantiPlus Waitakere shop team, which was a pretty solid team comprised of Sasha Smith, Peter and Sophiemarie Bethell, Jamie Till and Myself. Dad and I drove down on Friday afternoon, stopping at my grandparents in Hamilton for a catch up and some typically awesome bacon and egg pie. We arrived in Taupo and went to drop some stuff off at the site, which was in a good location right by the entrance to the campground, with a good view up the track for changeovers. After this we went back to our rooms at the holiday park, sorted our stuff out and went out to dinner, where we found some bikes standing in the street, so we jumped on for a ride:

Between the Taupo and Rotorua 12 hour events, I usually prefer Taupo, as it has a wider and faster course, and is generally better for overtaking. It also has more teams, which adds to the atmosphere. Turning up to the event village this year, it was obvious that numbers were down even further, with only one main field of tents, which was a bit of a bummer, but by the time the race started, it was pretty well attended.

The riders and support crew from AvantiPlus Waitakere

After hearing rumours that the track was quite different and a lot shorter, I went out for a practice lap with Callum and Isaac to check it out. We headed through the campsite to make sure the time was accurate, and down the big hill towards the river. We then kept going around the road, then left and backwards up the last section of singletrack from the year before, then right and into some more trails that last featured a couple of years ago. We finished off with some freshly dug trails with some tight and slightly awkward berms, before a short road sprint and up the final two pinch climbs that took us back over and into the campground. While it was pretty short at about four km long, there was enough to it that it wasn't too boring. I didn't have very accurate timing, but clocked it at about 11-12 minutes for a lap. After this I decided to tell the team that we should be doing triples, but we decided that doubles would be a bit easier.

The start line, with me on the right. Cheers Jemma Manchester for the photo.

I volunteered to start, and the rest of the team seemed happy with that so come start time, I went to line up. Rather than like previous years where we started down by the river, this year we started on the track, by the start/finish line, heading around the gully and onto the course from there. I managed to get on the second row, but when the gun went, everyone else went right, so I got a clear run up the left and got up to the back of the front group.

100m or so since the start. The guy on the right was in 3rd, so I (3rd from right) was about 6th here. Cheers Deane Tetley for the photo.

The first lap was fast, and I came around just outside the top 5 riders, and maintained that going around the second time. I felt good on the track, it wasn't technical at all, but there were a couple spots where you could make up some time by staying off the brakes and taking some smart lines.

We continued doing doubles, and my first two rides after that felt pretty average, but after I started making an effort to do a bit of a warm down I felt a lot better. It was cold, so I made an effort to get changed out of my race kit in between laps. Apart from that I was happy that my bike didn't need cleaning after each lap like the Moonride.

I did have a couple small issues, on one lap my chain came off twice in the campground, and I lost about 30 seconds for a lap so that was pretty frustrating not really being able to do anything about it. On another of my doubles my rear tyre got a leak, and it was pretty soft even as I finished my first lap. I ended up having to ride heavily on my front wheel to avoid rolling and burping the tyre even more. It turned out I had less than 5 psi in it when I went to pump it up after my lap, and all it took was a tighten of the valve to fix it, so I was pretty gutted about that. I didn't seem to lose too much time though which was a relief.

Coming out of a tight corner at the end of the singletrack. Cheers Jemma Manchester for the photo

It was also a nice to be in the first event for a while where we had a full team of riders, so that meant I had plenty of time to wander around the campsites and relax between laps, chilling and catching up with mates and have some decent meals. Like Moonride, we had our support crew back, with Catherine managing the campsite, Dylan sorting out any issues with our bikes throughout the day, and Ben being a general helping hand wherever he could, and having that support was really awesome.

My last set of daylight laps was just before we needed lights, so I had the benefit of not being the first to ride the course at night. When I did get out, I was happy to see that the track was pretty much as fast as it was in the day, with the main line contrasting with the loose soil off the side. The dew had also settled on the track, damping it down and giving it a bit more grip. I came back to find that my laps were pretty much on par with my daytime laps, my fastest of the two being only twelve seconds slower than my fastest daytime lap.

As it worked out, I ended up doing the final two laps for our team, and I set off with about 26 minutes to go, so seeing as there wasn't much pressure to squeeze in any more laps, I decided to just go for it. I had some extra motivation at the end of my first lap, overtaking a rider who was only just slower than I was, so keeping in front of him made for some good motivation. Looking back at points in the track I only made about 30 meters on him in a whole lap, so it felt good to hold him off.
I crossed the line with around 5 minutes to go and rolled back around to the campsite to get changed, help pack up and get ready for prize giving.

Prizegiving went well, we ended up 3rd place in open which everyone in the team was pretty stoked with, and I got to see plenty of my mates get up on the podium as well so it was a good way to finish off the event.

AvantiPlus Wataikere Still Classy. Cheers Deane Tetley for the photo.

The AvantiPlus Waitakere Old School also team pulled off a solid 6th place in the old mans category and Duane for riding 45 laps (180km!) on his rigid singlespeed for a 10th place in solo men.
The biggest result from my point of view was the Massey High School boys team, who had four riders, smashing all other teams to take the overall 12 hour victory with a rediculous 68 laps. Impressive stuff.

We had a pretty good time, and topped it all off with a late night run to Burger King, and a hot swim the next morning.

The Waitakere Crew having a well deserved swim
on sunday morning

The jumping mat at the Holiday Park

All in all a pretty successful weekend and a good way to finish off my uni holidays. Thanks to Catherine for organising and managing everything, Dylan for making sure my bike was running sweet, Dad for paying for my accomodation, and AvantiPlus Waitakere for the continued support.