Crazyman MTB 2013

This year, while staying at the Maclachlans place for the first half of the semester, I was told that I would be doing the 2013 Crazyman in a team with Jordan, a hockey player my age (actually 23 hours older than me) who would do the run. The weekend came and I stayed the Saturday night at their place to have dinner and make sure we all left in time. I had just gotten my new bike and ridden it the day before so I was looking forward to giving it the beans in a race that had a really strong field, with a couple of top national riders from the Wellington region doing the mountain bike and some, the run as well.

We lined up at the start for a sprint across a wide grassy field and onto the tarmac path that ran beside the Hutt River. I made a strong effort to stick with the front runners, as the first ten kilometers was almost completely flat, so we stuck in one big group and drafted for the first twenty minutes, which was pretty good fun. There was unfortunately one pretty gnarly crash where two guys just in front of me piled into a bollard in the middle of the path at what must have been at least 30 km/h. I was lucky to avoid it, as I felt something hit my knuckle hard, and something else cut my knee, so I was happy to make it through safely. In an interesting twist, rather than crossing State Highway 2, we went under the road and through a 50 meter long culvert, after which we ran up and onto a short tarmac section, then up into the hills.

The first climb was pretty sizeable, but constant and mostly gravel so I got into a good rhythm and it took me about 27 minutes to get to the exposed and windy top, and I made an effort to keep within sight of the next guy up ahead, and on some sections I could see the leaders, so that kept the pace and motivation high. We then dropped down along some high speed, open, grassy descents, which were awesome fun, hopping and jumping over the terrain, and I dropped 300m of elevation in about 5 minutes. We then went up and over a smaller hill, after which there was some very technical rock sections and stream crossings, so I ended up running a fair bit of it.

We then started the final big climb of the day, which didn't go too well for me. I started heading up the gravel road climb and felt like my brake was dragging, I just felt like I was going far too slow for the effort I was putting in considering it wasn't particularly steep and seemed reasonably fast rolling. I made my way up the climb a little bit when the next guy behind me passed me. I stuck on him for a bit, but lost him at a small rise where he just had a bit more power than me. I continued on up the undulating climb, trying to hold my pace and not waste too much energy.

At the top there were a few small undulations before the final, very steep decent that I was looking forward to. Knowing that the last of the hills were done I went for it, picking my lines carefully as there were some big rain ruts and some fairly slippery sections. It was awesome fun though, hauling down this steep, techy fire break, just the sort of thing I like. I then came out along a stream at the bottom, where I did a couple more stream crossings and up into the transition in 7th place.

Exhausted and cramping up, I happily handed my bib over to Jordan, who took off towards the finish for his 15km run.

I stayed for about 20 minutes while to help Scott with his transition, and he came in a bit later than expected after getting two flats and having to run, in bike shoes, down the final downhill, so he was not in a particularly good way. Luckily he had packed plenty of gels to keep him going, so with full pockets he ran off as well.

I packed up the car and drove off to meet them both at the finish, arriving just after Jordan came in from an awesome run, finishing us in 8th place for the overall duathlon (MTB/Run), and 3rd out of the teams.

Scott came in a bit later for his 3rd straight win in the masters duathlon! Awesome work by him, especially considering 2rd place was only a minute behind.

Overall it was a really fun event, with a great atmosphere and some impressive athletes

New Bike!!

So on Friday I got word that my new 2013 Scott Scale 910 had arrived. I had been looking forward to this bike for a long time as an upgrade from my 2012 Scott Scale 29 Pro that I had been riding for the last one and a half years. It had the same frame, which was awesome, as it is one of the lightest XC frames around, it rides really smoothly and has great geometry. The Scale 910 has a full Shimano XT groupset, Fox forks, and Syncros components.

I changed a couple things from the original spec, putting the excellent Kenda Small Block 8s on for their speed and predictability, a carbon railed Selle Italia Seat to lighten it up a little bit and a -16 degree stem to get the front end a bit lower.

The new machine at the top of Mt Victoria, looking over Wellington City

Saturday I went up to Scotts house to build it up and take it for its first ride, a quick spin around Mt Victoria.  There was a couple of things I noticed first off. The XT crankset was probably the first thing, it was noticeably stiffer under pedalling than the XO cranks on the Scale Pro, as well as a far more positive feel under shifting. The Fox forks also had a far smoother action, especially noticeable going over braking bumps. The double upshift feature on the rear shifter was surprisingly useful when going straight from an uphill into a downhill. Many good things have been said about the XT brakes and now I understand why. They have great feel at the lever, the servo wave system giving an awesome bite and really smooth and predictable power delivery with good feedback.

The frame is obviously the basis of the bike, and this is the main reason I stuck with the Scott Scale. The relatively slack head angle and micro suspension in the seatstays are the defining features of this bike, and whenever I ride it I am amazed at just how easy it is to make it go fast downhill. The stability and smoothness mean that trail vibrations are noticeably smoothed out, and the you can stay composed and relaxed through some surprisingly rough and technical terrain.

I can't wait to race it in the coming weeks at the Crazyman MTB, Rotorua Moonride, and the Mt Victoria Super D.

Cheers to my Dad and AvantiPlus Waitakere for setting it up, packaging it and sending it down so quickly. Much appreciated guys.

PNP Club Champs 2013

One of the things I was looking forward to about racing in Wellington was the PNP MTB Club races. I had heard good things about the atmosphere, the trails, and a good level of competition.
I headed out with Scott MacLachlan, a family friend kind enough to have me stay while I look for something longer term.
The format for the day was that there were three events - a shortish XC race, a Super D and a 3 lap Criterium. All three counted towards the overall results, with the XC worth double points. I entered for all three on the day, joining the PNP Club at the same time.
After a short spin up the first section of gravel road, I lined up for the Open mens start with some local speedsters. The start was fast, heading up the relatively narrow gravel road, but gave plenty of time to get into a rhythm before we hit the first section of switchbacks. after a minute or so the Junior grades split off to head an easier way up the hill while we headed up a reasonably difficult downhill track. Eden Cruise was just in front of me until he dropped his chain while running up one of the steep sections. I went around him and continued, trying to anticipate the pinches and stay on my bike. I stayed in the lead until we popped out on the gravel road that headed up to the top, where Eden and a couple others passed me again. I wasn't too bothered as I didn't really expect to be doing this well anyway. I headed up the road and into the downhill, which was quite rough and technical, and I struggled to hold on as I got closer to the bottom, but the track was well made and dry so it was easy to get into a rhythm. On the second of my three laps I really struggled on the downhill, I felt tense and awkward, and I had at least three or four 'moments' where I went off the track and lost a lot of speed, so that didn't help. I got to the bottom and headed up for my last lap, which was pretty routine, I managed to get up the first trail smoothly and the downhill went a lot better.
I finished in a time of 1:10:03, 6th place and 6 minutes off the winner.

In the zone near the bottom of the track.
Cheers Wayne Jones-Nevrilk for the photo.

The next race was the Super D, which I was looking forward to, as it went down the same tracks that were used for the second half of my XC lap, so I had already practiced it 3 times. There was a decent sized queue for the start, so we all relaxed in line and had a good chat while we waited. My time came around and I headed off at full tilt. Unfortuately about 20 seconds into my run I hit a rock and pinch flatted, so that was my race over. I walked down and changed my tube ready for the criterium.

I had an average start, so I didn't really end up where I wanted to be, trying my best to make up time on the road, but the race was too short to make much of a difference. It was really good fun though, and I don't think I embarrassed myself too much. Considering I came dead last in the Super D there wasn't a whole lot of pressure as far as the overall results were concerned.

At the end of the day we sat around a bit more, I ended up 7th overall, as well as getting some lollies and a drink bottle at prizegiving. Also my AvantiPlus Waitakere teammate Sasha Smith took the win in the Elite Womens category which was awesome.
I also ended up with this sweet tan line:

Karapoti Classic 2013

I hadn't planned to do the Karapoti Classic this year, but when I got offered a free entry into the 20k race I figured it would be a good chance to enjoy the the atmosphere, say hi to some people, and have a good quick ride.

The Wellington region was in the middle of a decent dry spell, so the famous start across the river was well below its usual level. I watched the 50k riders start, then went down to line up for the 20k start. There wasn't a huge amount of people so I decided not to go all out through the river. Out of the river and onto the road I rode up to the front of the race, but there was one kid who managed to get on my wheel. I stayed on the gas all the way through the gorge hoping to drop him, but that plan backfired a bit when I missed the turn off for the 20k course and headed up the warm up climb. All I knew about the 20k course was that there was one decent hill, then you came back down and home, so the warm up seemed to fit the bill at the time.
I realized my mistake when my speedo was showing 15 km completed along the undulations at the top of the warm up. I stopped at the marshal point at the top of the Rock Garden to ask the marshals, at which point I also realized that the fastest way home was to do the full 50k.
After a quick chat with the marshals, I headed off at full speed down the Rock Garden, only to smack into a rock, pinch flatting and putting two fairly decent holes in my tyre, despite running tubeless. I walked my bike back up to the marshal station, where I put a tube in and borrowed about three different peoples pumps. I finally got the tyre up and headed down, a bit more carefully this time. I then did the obligatory run/walk/stumble up the devils staircase, which despite the drought seemed to be as slippery as ever. At the feed station at the top I filled up with lollies and water and took off, sprinting, drifting, and hopping my way down big ring boulevard.
Dopers up and down was the usual, slow and steep on the way up, flat out on the way down. The river at the bottom was barely ankle deep thanks to the lack of rain, and I managed to ride all the way through. I then popped out on to the gorge track, where I went as hard as I could, knowing that the track was quite wide and well banked. Coming out onto the tar seal I again gritted my teeth, tucking low and putting every last bit of energy in. Coming back through the river I played it a bit careful, knowing that it is easy to lose time, and look like an idiot, by falling over.
At the finish, several people asked why I had taken an extra two and a half hours, so word got around that some idiot went out for a 20k ride and ended up doing the full monty, I even got a quick mention at the prizegiving. I ended up with a time of 3:25:54, and worst of all 2nd to last in the 20k.
It was all good fun though, and I had a good time relaxing after the race.
Cheers to Scott MacLachlan for giving me the entry and sorting me with a ride to and from the event.

A special mention also to Pete Reynolds, who smashed the 60+ record in a 2:55:32, his fastest time ever, and probably the most impressive result of the day for me.