Rita Langley's Downhill Mountain Bike Racing

A new start for 2010!

2009-10-22T11:44:00.002+13:00

I have a new bike on its way, and am VERY excited. A wholesaler is sorting me out an awesome deal on pretty special bike through the Quiet Revolution Cycle Shop and it's on its way to Christchurch now... All will be revealed when it arrives, and I will take some photos and update my blog with a new header and sponsor images (it's looking a bit bare at the moment!).

Can't wait to get on it, and then get it off the ground! Yusss!

Buy my V10!

2009-10-18T13:47:00.003+13:00

I decided to leave the Santa Cruz team (for reasons I won't put on here) and so my V10 is for sale. I'm still representing for the Quiet Revolution Cycle Shop and SR Cycles (who do Kore, Vesrah and Fly), and I'll probably be wearing a Martha Hucker riding top when I get some printed!

I don't have a new race bike for 2010 yet, and tried to do a race on my Heckler this weekend - it didn't go too well, I only did practice, did some big jumps, but then got nailed in a steep, rough section with my short forks and xc head angle. So with a sore neck, bad weather and an inappropriate bike I didn't bother to pay to do the race in the end! Was a fun day practicing though. I have a renewed respect for how awesome big bikes are, and I can't wait to get a new one... in the meantime, my V10 is on trademe looking very bling with its red wheels on. BUY IT!

Swin Flu Survivors Zombie Killing Mountain Bike Army Single Speeders

2009-10-12T12:42:00.000+13:00

The SFSZKMBA is a facebook group Martha Hucker started a while ago when the swine flu media hype was at its peak. So we named our Macleans 12hr team after it, and dressed up as a post-swine-flu-apocalypse army of single speeding mountain bikers and shot toy guns and bits of potato at everyone all day, and menaced other people into riding faster with a baseball bat and some creative heckling!

In terms of riding, it was pretty cool tearing around the flat, bermy tracks on a fast single speed. We came third, only ten seconds behind second, and also got prizes for best dressed (along with a couple of other people). Was an awesome day!

A road trip to Queenstown

2009-10-05T12:31:00.001+13:00

I've met loads of cool people in Churr Churr, and one of my new buddies suggested a quick weekend away to Queenstown, and I couldn't say no. It snowed on and off and there was actually quite a good storm on the Saturday morning, but the weather wasn't really that bad and we got heaps of riding in, hitting up good old Seven Mile, Remarks track, Wynyard and the pump track in Wanaka too. A good weekend, and Mops (my xc travel buddy) learnt to put her seat down and ride steep stuff... nice!

Remarks track, these shots look just like some taken in summer, but with a lot more snow and cloud on the Remarkables in the background...

Trying new things

2009-09-28T13:09:00.000+13:00

There's a new biking club here in Chch called the Christchurch Single Track Club, and they had a club barbecue on Saturday. Despite having had too much of a good thing on Friday I took my hangover and my single speed along to see what was happening.

The highlight was definitely bike polo - riding bikes and smashing stuff with a stick, yusssss! I had a really good time playing with a whole bunch of other people who were new to it as well. There were a few silly races, like an egg and spoon race and some kind of relay. Then I tried out a unicycle, which was really hard but I could kinda balance after a while. And finally I had a play on a proper trials bike, which did great bunnyhops and got up some rocks, and part way up a picnic table... Fun, but I have tooooo many bikes, so NO I'm not taking up trials!

This kinda looks like I'm on the ground, until you look at where my shadow is...

World Champs

2009-09-10T12:11:00.001+12:00

I went to Worlds to do coverage for Martha Hucker dot com. Where do I even start writing about it? It was one of the most intense weeks I've ever had, I got to meet so many awesome people, cranked out some coverage I was pretty stoked on and Emmeline won. Awesome.

I had a media pass which was amazing, as I was allowed to go anywhere. The media are really well looked after, with a massive tent with fast internet, food and drinks and access to all areas including the 'exclusion zone' on the sides of the track which allows you to take photos from right up in the action.

That's me with my video vest on the side of the track for qualifying.

The best part though was meeting all the riders, and how stoked everyone was on the whole Martha Hucker thing. Until now I thought the site was maybe making a tiny wee bit of difference, but in some riders eyes it's a huge step in the right direction, and getting told that by some of the best riders in the world who have been doing it for ten years plus is really quite amazing. It really motivates me to keep doing what I'm doing, and try to do it a whole lot better. I need a better computer, mine keeps crashing while I try to edit videos!

It was also amazing to see everyone riding. I have a huge amount of respect for the ability of the top riders, but at the same time I think I can get there... it just takes a lot of practice, but that's the fun part of riding! I have a whole load of techniques I spotted from different riders that I can't wait to try out and see if they work for me. Watching the world's best ride hard for a week is definitely good for your riding style...

Me and my 'trusty' laptop, doing extreme reporting!

The coverage and videos are on Martha Hucker dot com...

Martha Hucker photo shoot

2009-08-25T11:55:00.000+12:00

I decided to get some tee shirts printed for Martha Hucker before my trip to Worlds, and when I went and put the word out to see if anyone wanted any it turns out that loads of people did. So we then did a photo shoot up in Vic Park. Here are some of the shots, the full set are on Martha Hucker's facebook: www.facebook.com/marthahucker

The whole MH crew doing a mass-skid! From left: Mel, Fraser, Michelle (Indri is behind her in this shot - damn!), me, Lilly, and Anna

This wallride is pretty fun, we spent a while on it and some of the riders hit t for the first time which got everyone stoked! I'm trying to style up the huck off the end in this shot, but it's not really much of a kick...

I need to learn some better tricks, but one handers are still a bit fun :P

Winter racing in Dunedin

2009-08-18T11:51:00.000+12:00

On Thursday I head about a fundaraiser DH race in Dunners, and even though I couldn’t talk anyone else into joining me on my last minute road trip I headed down to stay with Scotty and Celia and take the opportunity to ride one of the coolest tracks in NZ. The weather forecast was rubbish, but ended up being fine all weekend. We were riding a freshly-cut piece of track across an exposed hillside which was pretty fun to slide into tight berms on, with the track finishing on the same open section as Nationals.

I felt good on my bike on race day, and was just having fun riding. In the open women, there was just me and Shannan from Invers who I’ve met at race before, and whose brother Peter was racing with a broken wrist. We all got three race runs because there weren’t that many people and my three were all pretty good – in my second I slid out and came to a stop, but it was actually my best run. It was cool to see how the times related to the way the runs felt on the bike, and it was nice to be riding fast but relaxed again.

The race was a fundraiser for Eddy Masters, who did a great job of organizing it and is off to Worlds to represent NZ at 4x. All the category winners won ‘tommy tippy turtles’ donated by a local shop, but someone drove off with them in the car so apparently they are getting sent out! I still don’t know what a tommy tipp turtle is…

Move to Chch, and BMX

2009-07-28T11:34:00.009+12:00

I've moved to Christchurch and it's exceeding my expectations for rad-ness so far. I came down here from Welly - I love welly, but felt like a change, am too broke to go overseas now, and wanted to live in at least one other NZ city before I decide which is best!

My bike in the snow just outside Christchurch in the hills. We were plaiying around and filming for a project my flatmate is working on. It's a bike film but I was the only one who brought my bike, the others had done it before and I learnt what they already knew - dragging a bike up a hill in knee-deep snow is arse, and riding it down is slower than expected and not really that fun! I did some skids and faceplants, but I don't think I'll be in the film, it wasn't as cool as the stupid stuff the guys were getting up to...

For the first few weeks the trails were closed due to rain, which was a bit stink. You can still ride offroad just not on the best tracks. I got into riding street with my new flatmate who has a bmx. He likes to take full credit for my quick conversion to owning a BMX - it only took two weeks! But it's all about the riding, BMX is rad and a new challenge, and chch has multiple indoor and outdoor ramps to ride. Awesome.

That's me on my new Kink Doyle BMX in Espresso (brown). (Thanks again to SR Cycles for helping me afford this when I really shouldn't! Luckily in chch it's possible to live on $1 pies...)

Recently the weather has fined up and this weekend I rode my DH bike properly again. Well, sort of properly - Flying Nun is an awesome track, not an extreme downhill track and I was riding UP as well, but it goes downhill fast, has big chunky rock sections, and has awesome flow.

As you can see, Chch is rocky. I had an awesome afternoon riding with Vorbettes and their lovely hubbies/partners/wotev. There are lots of other women who ride here, and they're not scared of rocks... well, maybe just a little bit!

Check out Mel's (Tinkerbell) blog here with other pics of riding on Sunday, and a video of us thinking we're having a photo taken and heckling passing roadies with transparent lycra while we're at it (I'm easy to spot on the far left, the only one with a DH bike!)

I can't wait till summer, if I'm having this much fun here already it's only gonna get better when weekend shuttle buses start rolling in September, 10 minutes ride from my house, on some really great DH tracks. Oooooh yeeeeeah!!!

Eye of the tiger

2009-06-09T18:40:00.003+12:00

It's winter, it's horrible and cold and raining, and even though riding in that is still fun for a while, and I'm used to the cold by now, cleaning bikes all the time gets lame pretty quickly.

This winter I'm trying to build more core and upper body strength, and since I'm not riding my bike all day as a courier I have the time an energy to do it on top of my normal riding. So as well as some weights and strength excercises I've been making regular use of my boxing bag - I've had it for ages but it tends to be a last resort for when I'm injured and can't ride!

Since I'm still at home it's set up in the shed along with an awesome 80's ghetto blaster that I bought for $2, crammed in between the bikes, bodyboards and windsurf gear, and a whole load of Dad's old tools. My MP3 player hooks up to the ghetto blaster, although I should go really old school and make a mixed tape... Eyyyye of the tiiiiiiigerrrrrrrr!!

Firepit pump track

2009-05-29T22:47:00.001+12:00

We were heading down to Christchurch again and stopped on the way at the Firepit Pump Track. Sooooo much fun! Damian, the guy who built it, came out to show us how it’s done – very inspiring. It’s surprisingly hard work getting around it, and you have to get your berms totally dialed on this thing to make it. After sessionning it for a wihle I could make it around on one of the lines for a couple of laps without pedaling… it’s so addictive I want to go back already!

Check it out at www.firepit.co.nz

The Secret to Wheelies

2009-05-27T22:45:00.001+12:00

I’ve finally learnt to wheelie, Emmeline and I had this ongoing thing over summer that we were going to learn to wheelie, and have a wheelie competition. I’m not quite as consistent as I’d like to be, but I can now wheelie for aaaaaaages, and made a video for Emmeline’s birthday talkin’ smack about how I’m gonna beat her at the wheelie comp!

If you are my friend or a friend of one of my friends of facebook you can watch the vid here (click!)

The real secret to wheelies? Well, it’s just practice! And realizing that there is no secret. It’s just one of those things that you have to believe you are capable of doing if you persist at it. I’m good at being persistent! :P

Playstation!

2009-05-23T22:42:00.000+12:00

Teenage boys are always fast at DH. What do they have that I don’t? Computer games, hahaha! Anyway, apparently playing computer games helps your reactions and you ability to rapidly process and respond to visual data. So I got a second hand playstation.

Just an excuse to play games, right? But you know what, with the right kind of game you really do have to think in the same way as when you’re riding fast. Fortunately I got 11 games with my second-hand PS2, and one of them is car racing through a city. It gets that real feeling of speed going and there are loads of little hazards everywhere to try to get through in the quickest way possible. And just like DH, I find if I think hard about my technique, I learn stuff but go slower… but to really nail a race run I need to get into that zone of not focusing too much on one thing, just almost zen out and just do it. ‘Turn your brain off’, kinda… more like turn your conscious brain off, because when you’re doing stuff that’s that fast you just need to let your unconscious reactions take over. And I’m terrible at doing that on demand, but this game is really good practice.

Still skeptical? Well, I played it a bit and felt I was getting that ‘race brain’ thing happening, and went and rode my DH bike on a piece of track I session often and time myself on. I beat my personal best by two seconds, in only two tries, and felt more focused and controlled than ever down there. If I can get to the point where I really can think like that in race runs, or even just whenever I want to ride at my absolute limit of speed and control, it will be awesome. I definitely think too much about what I’m doing when I ride, great for learning but it’s slowing me down. Less brains, more BRAAAAAAAAAPPPP!

Nelson non-race!

2009-05-18T22:31:00.001+12:00

I went over to Nelson to do a club ‘race’, although it was supposed to be a pretty relaxed thing with no shuttles, just push-your-own-bike! That’s cool though, I’ve been pushing my bike up a lot of hills lately. It poured with rain the day before the race in Golden Bay so I was expecting a very wet race. I put my mud tyres on my red wheels that have been hanging in the shed – my bike looks sooooo purrrrdy with its red shoes on!

Anyway, on Sunday the weather was good but the ground was wet and the first track was clay, so I was glad to have the muds on and was having a great time sliding around on the track. It was a cool little course, and I was having a good time, talked to lots of people I haven’t met before, and saw a young British dude knock a tooth out crashing in a berm… he kept on riding! He was a bit gutted though, he is moving to NZ and his fullface and real DH bike are in a chipping container on their way here 

There were three women entered, me and Amanda and Kelly who I haven’t seen since 2008 Nationals, because she hasn’t been riding since then. Nine years or something of racing DH and she decided to take a break – fair enough! Was cool to see them again. Harriet and Live turned up all rockstar-late and just did race run, beat us all – haha!

But the day wasn’t over, we then headed to another track that was a similar length and also push-your-own-bike, this one was more forested and rooty, really good fun again! After six runs of the first track and four of this I was pretty nackered, and was being silly at the start line about it not being a serious race. I rode fast enough though, and got third out of us five. Overall it was a super fun day, and I’ll be back to ride these tracks again now that I know where they are!

Rita vs. The FEAR

2009-05-08T22:43:00.000+12:00

Woot for winning a mind-games battle yesterday. I haven't crashed properly in ages, but have been riding HEAPS and pushing myself, so it was just one of those things that happens. I had a massive stack right at the start of a downhill I'd pushed up for, and I mean MASSIVE like high speed over the bars thanks to a rut I wasn't looking at, head first into the ground at a lot of k's an hour, exploding bits of helmet visor everywhere, bike goes flying to land safely in a gorse bush waaaaaay down the track, I roll and scrape over the rocks and lie there for a bit going 'hmm that was dumb, I wonder what I've hurt the most?' I got my helmet off and checked that my nose was still straight (I'd gone face first into a rock so hard on one side I thought I might have broken it, I've done it before and know what it feels like), but that was ok, and then checked everything else: sore but all working. I wasn't wearing armour just a jacket, long pants and knee pads, and had some nasty knocks and scrapes on my shoulder and all down my forearm that I wouldn't have if I'd had armour. Anyway, I collected my helmet bits out of the dirt (just the visor was broken and my goggles garked up), and set about to ride down.

Now the woot part is that normally I crash like that and get all like 'oh my god! I'm such a muppet! what was I thinking trying to go that fast!' and then ride extra slow for like, several weeks :p But this time I was like, 'ok, you know what you did wrong - tried to ride like Steve Peat in his world cup run in the first ten seconds of your ride. Don't do it again, just get into the feel of it, then ride fast and smooth!' and so I carried on down the track, giving myself time to get into the flow of it this time. And it ended up being a great run down, by the end I was totally buzzing probably from all the extra adrenaline and riding awesomely! Or maybe it was having no visor that made me go fast :p . Anyway it was an awesome ride, and I rode well. So it's really good to be able to do that, even though it might not sound that smart, getting back on after a crash and riding fast and well again straight away is something you have to do at DH races ad practice days, and it's something I'm usually useless at being far older and more sensible than most n00b downhillers!

Anyway, Rita: 1 The Fear: 0 YUSSSSSS!!!!! :D

Oh, and I put my visor back on with zipties, and it's now known as The Frankenhelmet! The rest of the helmet is unharmed.

Riding big bikes in Nelson

2009-04-30T22:30:00.000+12:00

The last two weekends I’ve been over to Nelson riding with teenage boys! It’s really cool, on of the Nelson guy’s dad shuttles us in a big Hilux. It’s a two hour drive from the bay and Rhys and I head over early in the morning to meet up with the others.

The first time we went, we hit up Kaka Hill, the track from national champs that I kept saying was my favourite track. Well, it’s not as fun anymore! After all the racing since I first rode it nearly 18 months ago and all the rain at the Nationals, all the awesomely sketchy loose rocks are gone. No more gnarly driftng… instead, all that’s left are rocks that are firmly imbedded in the (steep) hillside, making it really rugged and unforgiving. You can’t get sideways in many places now or you hit something that doesn’t move!

After that we met up with some other people and headed up to a new track, Maitai face. Complete opposite of Kaka – all tight corners made of super drifty dust into tiny mini-berms, and insanely steep! I fell off a lot, it’s the hardest track I’ve ridden in ages, not scary hard but uber-technical. I’d love to go back and learn to ride those insane little corners! Then we went and sessioned a longer track with more than a little pedaling and for the last run of the day (the eleventh full-on DH run!) we tried another track that resulted in me and two others getting dead-ended into some logging, and having to push our DH bikes up hill and over trees for FORTY MINUTES to get back to a road. So exhausted!

This weekend we rode at Ben Nevis, where I raced in December. It was very cool – we rode that track again, and some others as well. There are some really great tracks up there and we got to ride a range of different stuff all day, from sketchy steep gravel chutes to flowing berms and north-shore structures, and also fire-breaks and rocky native bush stuff…. Heaps of variety! I was stoked all day. We saw some crazy big jumps too, that people have been building for photo ops and just because they’re crazy… pretty impressive. We happened to meet up with some local guys who build the trails there too and rode with them for a bit, giving them uplifts too. It’s cool to meet the people who create what you’re riding. You get to say thanks, and good on ya!!

Christchurch trip

2009-04-20T22:24:00.000+12:00

I went down to Christchurch this week, to scout for work and do a few hours helping out on a school holiday program. Oh, and to ride my bikes. I took three of them down, unfortunately I didn’t get to use the big red one though!

My Heckler has had a make over and with some new wheels ad forks it’s noticeably lighter and rides great. I took it on some missions out on Godley Head, and also rode with Laurence from Ground Effect who had a Heckler just like mine, same colour, Gravity Dropper post too. We rode up the hills behind his house and then down a track called Anaconda – sooooo cool!I also took my hardtail, and managed a night ride around Bottle Lake with some of the Vorbettes. Really really fun ride! And I also took it for a play at the skate park with some BMX boys. Man those guys do some tech stuff – one dude was tail whipping over this tiny hip, he had to do it SOOOO fast, but he was pulling it off! And it’s a cool kind of riding, everyone just hanging out and trying stuff and egging each other on.

Post season wind-down

2009-03-24T16:26:00.003+13:00

So, after all that racing it's been awesome to put my big bike away and do some random riding. I've been on crazy night missions, single speed rides, played on other people's hardtails a lot and done some wheelies on the beach. Actually, I've done a lot of wheelies, everywhere, and am definitely getting better at those!

It's been cool just to chill out and ride for fun again instead of always thinking about the next race, the next track, the next BIG jump. It gets pretty full on, and getting back to riding other bikes gives me challenges that push my skills in other ways that aren't all about going bigger and faster and riding at the very limit of my abilities till I push to far... For the next wee while I'm going to be riding a hardtail for a bit, less squish means more technical difficulty and more thinking about what I am doing with my body while I ride, and not just letting the bike do it. My Heckler now has a little bit less travel too, and a lighter build, so it's less freeride-style and more enduro/trail. I'm loving it, only put the new wheels and forks on yesterday, will post pics soon. And after seeing how the pros train I'm all inspired to get fit and strong for next season and am starting now with strength training and early morning runs. That's a lot more fun than it sounds when you live by a beach!

I've been doing heaps of writing/interviewing/editing videos for Martha Hucker too, you can check that out on MarthaHucker.com. It's going to be very cool watching people I've met this year battle it out at the World Cups. I'll have to get myself to a fast internet connection to watch it all unfold on Freecaster. Woohoo!

National Camps - Race day

2009-03-02T14:15:00.004+13:00

Thank you to Andrew from BikeHQ for letting us stay at his house and not have to sleep in the muddy van the night before the race! It poured with rain overnight again, so we knew the tracks would still be muddy for race day for more of this kind of mess….

In the morning I was still looking forward to hitting the track, as crazy as it may be in the mud. Unfortunately the shuttle trucks were less enthusiastic, and we had to get off and push them up the hill at one part! Pushing a truck up a muddy slope is HARD. But worth it for the ride down… we also had to push our bikes up the last section to the top, as a little warm-up!

The track was worse than Saturday with lots of sticky mud that was being spread across the rocks making all surfaces more unpredictable than ever. I stayed on my bike for the practice runs and got some tricky lines I’d been struggling with the day before sorted including riding fast off a drop further down the track. I was feeling pretty good for racing!

In seeding I started fine and then fell over in a corner that kept getting me in practice, and managed to get my bike all tangled up and couldn’t get up! After a lot of swearing I got back up and on my bike and pinned it for the rest of the run. Apart from the fall it was pretty good, but I was frustrated at coming off so stupidly! However, everyone else seemed to have crashed too, and I hadn’t seeded last. Woohoo!

For race run we ended up waiting at the top for ages and I got pretty nervous. Actually, I think all the Elite women were nervous – the fast Kiwi girls had seeded badly and wanted to make the next run count, Dawn had seeded well and just needed to keep it consistent and do it again, and the French riders Sabrina Jonnier and Emmeline Ragot mainly just wanted to beat each other! So everyone was circling around warming up and looking serious. Not Very Serious(tm). There were no motorbike noises or other stupidity… maybe I need more of that next time! :P

So finally I got to start, after Harriet Harper and Amy Laird and before Gabby Molloy, with the rest of the field following. I was very nervous and just saying to myself ‘ride smooth, ride smooth, it’s all good!’ However, the conditions were changing constantly as the course got a bit dried out and the mud moved around, and I bounced into a newly formed hole in the top section and lost all my speed, ending up having to push my bike up a small rocky uphill that previously I’d pedaled up while others had complained they’d had to push. I tried to get it together but was all jumpy and nervous and trying to control my bike by sowing down instead of flowing the track, and I soon got passed by Gabby, but also passed Amy who had crashed off the side of the track. I kept it together for the rest of my run but was disappointed that I was a LOT slower than my seeding time when I’d known I could have gone faster.

The Elite podium.

But there you go, that’s my first year of racing in Elite done and dusted! It’s been a wicked summer, and yup I got my arse kicked by the more experienced riders but that’s cool, now I’m a bit more experienced too… Harriet won the National Champion jersey which was well deserved!

Also, there was a prize giving on Friday for the series points. I placed second in the North Island series, third in the South Island series, and second in the NZ series over all for Elite women. Woot! Persisitence pays off I guess. Literally in this case – there was prize money for each of these. I got to thank my sponsors Santa Cruz, the Quiet Revolution Bike Shop, Kore, Vesrah, and Fly Clothing three times which got a bit repetitive for everyone… so by the third time I also thanked Emmeline for teaching me to ride faster and hassling me for riding slow, my parents for helping me this year, and the Two Dollar Shop for my ‘Steve Peat’ eyewear. :P

Emmeline and the $2 shop glasses

Nelson National Champs Practice

2009-02-28T17:16:00.003+13:00

Yuss! It's National Champs time and it's on my favourite DH track in Nelson, where we had a Nationals round last year and Oceanias as well. The track has actually been made a little bit easier, with a massive step down being taken out after too much carnage last year, and another chute has a new line around it. I love it because it's rocky, steep, tight, and technical. Really, it's like Welllington trail riding!

Yesterday we got to walk the track and have a slow practice. I was actually a bit worried that after looking forward to this track for ages I'd be disappointed in it in the end but nope, it got me grinning from the first corner. I really do love this track, even though it was damp! Today it started raining before practice and pissed down all day. Luckily Kaka is rocky as well as muddy so it was cool in the wet, far better than Wanganui or Rotorua in the wet! So it was a cool day, although they started late, had a 1 1/2hr lunch break with no shuttles, and finished very early. Ah well, more energy for tomorrow.

And here's the weather forecast:

Last round of the Island Cups... and a Very Serious loss of motivation!

2009-02-25T13:01:00.005+13:00

Ok, this happened last year as well (Auckland round) so maybe it's something I need to work on in the future - keeping my enthusiasm up for so many consecutive races is hard. This Blenheim race.... I just wasn't feeling it. The track was cool, but I was having a rubbish rding day, felt tired, unfocused, wasn't getting my normal buzz riding my bike, was being VERY risk averse, and consequently rode worse than I have ALL season. Really, I totally sucked. But I didn't crash so that's cool!

I had a good chat with my coach (Adrian) after the race about this and the loss of confidence from crashing in Levin, and he explained sometimes this just happens, you go backwards for a bit then go forward again, and it's better to play it safe and NOT crash anymore, so he was fine with my crap result! Also he explained that I shouldn't be trying new stuff all the time at races, the off season is the time for learning and upskilling myself not now at the end of the season. And gave me a reality check about how stupid I am to feel bad about being solidly beaten by professional athletes in my second year of riding DH :P

So, sweet as. This weekend is Nelson: it's national champs and my favourite course. We get two practice sessions which is cool, and I know the track and it doesn't have a lot of jumps (they've become my weakness). I know I can ride this track well so just have to go and put together a decent race run... and then it's all over for this season and I get to start working on what I need to improve for next year. I'm VERY motivated to get better now! It's been an awesome summer but tough race-wise, but that's the reality of stepping up to Elite. You don't just get extra practice time for nothin!

Coronet Peak South Island Cup Round 2

2009-02-15T14:08:00.003+13:00

Coronet Peak time again! This was my first ever Nationals DH race last year, and it’s quite a different course to most of the others in the series. It’s like a highway with jumps and berms, built for people to ride for over summer, and as a race track people sem to either love it or hate it. Personally it’s not my favourite!

That's me showing Caro my new no-hands, one foot balance trick at Coronet!

This week was pretty crazy with a LOT of riding and a lot of crashing too. I wanted to do more jumping after going around the jumps, but I munched myself trying to dirt jump on Monday and wasn’t too good from about an hour afterwards when I found I had a bit of concussion again, so took it easy for a couple of days. Emmeline crashed on some jumps she’d done a few times before at Wynyard and dislocate her AC joint, so that wasn’t cool either! I only had a few runs of the DH course last week with my bike not working – I twisted the chain in Dunedin and my derailleur was thrashed so I had to wait to fix this, and rode 7 Mile a bit instead.

A lot of riders were planning to ride at Coronet on the Thursday but it was closed due to bad weather. Instead, our crew and a whole lot of other vanloads of people went to the Remarkables track and did some shuttles. It’s a GREAT track, cool piles of rocks and fun jumps and step downs. Once I knew the track I was having a great time riding it, it’s my favourite track in Queenstown now!

On Saturday we headed up to Coronet to practice, but the mountain was only open to walk the track as it was minus 5 at the top and snowing! We wanted to walk the track anyway so that was cool, but we got mucked around by a Coronet staff member who wouldn’t sell Emmeline a lift pass because she thought we weren’t allowed to walk the track at Nationals races even though there were big signs up that we could ONLY walk the track this morning(Em needed one because she wasn’t racing like me ad Dawn because of her shoulder). The staff lady got really annoyed with our attempts to explain that it’s normal to walk the track, and by the time we got BikeNZ to explain it to her and then got a ticket and finally went back to the chairlift, the lifties informed us that after all our struggle to get a ticket, they were no longer letting people go up (wtf) .They were pretty stubborn and authoritarian about it all, and I gave up arguing with them and walked away, one guy continued to be rude to the other people in our group including a friend who works there at the bike repair place who is up there all the time, and telling Emmeline she didn’t have to come here if she didn’t like their rules. Charming! I was really hoping to get to know the course a bit better so I would remember where the doubles were as they are often as you come out of corners, but ah well! The BikeNZ crew were cool about it all, but I think the Coronet staff just didn’t really know what was happening and were getting all stressed out trying to control absolutely everything on their mountain with this invasion of crazy downhillers. Stressful for everyone! :(

At 1pm we were allowed on the lifts, to ride. For the first run, there was massive frost/snow/general coldness at the top, which was pretty crazy! I did a couple of runs just to get my flow on and then started hitting jumps and drops… or trying to! I’d lost a lot of confidence from crashing recently and everytime I came into a double my brain would do it’s little calculation that is usually how I work out if you have enough speed and pop to jump, and EVERY time I’d think ‘nooooo you won’t make it/you’ll over-jump and crash, aaaaah!!’ It was sooo frustrating, I just couldn’t get myself to hit anything with a big gap in it. Grrr!

After four runs I was bored with the track and this style of riding (berm berm jump berm berm jump etc), and was wishing I was just riding for fun and could take of and go ride the Remarkables track again! By the end of the day I’d decided to stop stressing about the jumps and just ride what I was riding well. Yup I’d be slow in the race, but in terms of how my season has been going I’d be better off to have a good race where I regret not hitting stuff but I don’t crash anymore, rather than push myself and lose even more confidence. So that was the plan for race day – have fun, ride smooth, and do a good job of the lines that I was riding (through the middle of the doubles, haha!)

Race day’s weather was perfect. There was a massive field of Elite Women with 9 enterred, but Sabrina Jonnier DNS’d due to a crash on the largest jump of the course and a trip to hospital (apparently she’s ok though). Harriet Ruecknagel offered to help me hit the jumps in the morning as she knew I could do them and was just being scared, but after Levin I’m pretty sure trying new stuff on race day is a bad idea! Was nice of her to help though. Emmeline and Jarna (the Outside Sports mechanic) came to the top and waited with me and Dawn for seeding – it was a long wait and we got to see lots of the junior guys crashing on the canyon gap, but I was feeling excited about my run which was a good feeling. I really do love racing when I get that kinda buzz on!

Emmeline, me, Dawn Daley-Coers and Harriet Ruecknagel waiting for seeding to start.

My seeding run went sweet, I had good flow and knew I was going faster than I’d ridden most of the track before so reigned it in a little bit to keep it safe. I had a song in my head and really felt good on the track, of course my time was slow due to not jumping the large number of doubles, but really it wasn’t too bad!! Dawn had a clean run too and was five seconds ahead of me. Harriet R had the fastest time and was pretty stoked, she loved the track and had been practicing a lot. I was pretty relaxed before my race run, and had some lunch in the shade before heading up the hill again.

I was first to start out of the Elite women and was feeling good and focused for my run while waiting in the start gate (I was standing there for ages while the sweeper went down, and normally that's bad for nerves but it was kinda cool this time) and then I got to hit the track. I got a wee bit looser than in my seeding run, letting go a bit more, and getting a few frights at how blown out and holey the corners had become! I kept it clean though and took 5 seconds off my time, getting 4.04. Dawn crashed in the top section and got the same time as her seeding run, so beat me by a second.

Harriet Ruecknagel won with a 3.33, a second slower than her seeding run, followed by Harriet Harper. To put it in perspective, last year's course here was longer with 3.23 the top time for the guys (it was 3.02 this year) but both mine and Dawn's times were over five minutes. So we're still slower than the other elites on this track but have improved a shedload.

So, goal achieved: I didn’t crash ALL weekend (woohoo!) and had a race where I felt focused and also thoroughly enjoyed going fast in my race runs (braaapBRAAAP!!). I was also stoked on getting air again on all of the non-double jumps… so this week I’ll be CAREFULLY working on getting a bit of my jumping mojo back before the next round, although Coronet has more jumps than any other race course so it shouldn’t be so bad in Blenheim! Anyway, it’s only two weeks till my favourite track – Kaka Hill in Nelson. And there are hardly ANY jumps on that track, just a whole lot of super-gnarly rocky tree-riden off-camber insanity. Bring it on! :P

2009 Brake Burner Super D

2009-02-08T14:18:00.004+13:00

My favourite event of the year was on again this weekend - Coronet Peak's Brake Burner 6 hour Super D race.

My Heckler was kitted out with gravity dropper and wider bars (easier on the arms, and there's no trees on this track) and I was all sorted. I wore my fullface helmet but just knee pads for protection this time around, and packed a bin full of food and tools to keep me going for the race. Emmeline managed to score Sheryl MacLeod's entry so she was racing solo too, as well as Caro (my riding buddy from Wellington who came down for it last year too) and some other friends from Chch including Michelle also doing it on her own. Go the girls!

Caro, me and emmeline looking fresh before the race began.

Here's Emmeline testing out her rear suspension... on her hardtail! :P She rode this for 6 hrs of DH and smoked a lot of the guys, much to their surprise at being passed by some chick on an xc bike going flat out on the downhill. She had a few problems with guys refusing to let her through though!

That's Caro and Michelle, they rode together for most of it just because it was more fun that way! Emmeline and I raced with the walky talkies we borrowed for the vans for added entertainment (gets boring riding solo for 6hrs), but they often didn't get reception because of the terrain. They were still handy when you did get reception and you could share stories of race dramas, or just shout 'PEDAL PEDAL PEDAL ALLEZ ALLEZ!!!!'

Anyway, the race kicked off at ten and we were near the back of the queue and started at about 10.25 (your six hours starts when you board the lift). My first runs were a it average, and I was... um... 'displeased' with the new climb! Last year I'd been able to pedal the climbs but this year they'd condensed it into one nasty short steep pinch that almost everyone was pushing. I tried to ride it the first few runs but gave up as it was easier to just push!

I had some food after 2 hours and really felt like I got my second wind and rode better, after that I was going pretty well, clearing all the jumps and making the flowy sections flow and just enjoying the ride. The weather was great, there was cloud cover so we weren't baking, and although there were a LOT of people to pass in the first couple of laps, after that it got a lot better. I would always pull over to let faster people through, but other people often weren't that courteous! Some guys seem to hear a girl's voice calling to pass them and instead of moving over they try to pedal and ride harder in desperate defense of their egos... Sorry guys, but some girls ARE faster than you :P Even on hardtails like Emmeline!

My bike was sweet except for losing the pin from my brake lever - the one that the whole lever hinges on. It fell out on one of the DH sections and I had just a front brake for a bit, until I pulled over mucked around with it to try to make it work. I decided to jam a stick in there in place of the pin, and taped it up with some insulation tape so it wouldn't fall out. Nice! It worked fine for the rest of the run, but I was worried if I braked hard the stick was going to snap. Back at the camp area Jarna from Outside Sports (a cool mechanic guy who also serviced my forks and Emmeline's DH bike this week) sorted me out with a bolt to replace the stick, and I was off again.

I felt good for the last two hours, and felt like I could have ridden more if need be. I was passing people on the push up the hill in my last few runs, I seemed to have more energy left than most people, despite the fact that the majority were in teams and I'd done two or three times more runs than them! So that was cool. Also, Emmeline didn't lap me out (I was expecting her to pass me before the time was up), yusss. In the end, Em won and I came 4th (of nine solo women) with only around 6 minutes between me and second place, and all the top four of us on the same lap count (14 runs). Did it take more than six minutes for me to do all that fluffing around with my brake? Probably! Hahaha, NEXT time eh... and now, time for a beer!

Back on the bike - Dunedin, South Island Round 1

2009-02-01T10:55:00.004+13:00

This week I had a very flakey couple of days following my concussion at the last race. Waking up with a throbbing headache and feeling rubbish all day is something I normally bring upon myself by having a fun night prior... Three days like this from one crash was a bit annoying!

So on Wednesday I met up with Emmeline for the ferry crossing (she'd just missioned down from Auckland, driving through the night after fying back from Canberra - she raced their National Champs last weekend, and won). In Picton, my parents met us and I swapped the car for the awesome bike shop van - big enough to sleep in (it was my road trip buddy last year too), and stil loads of room in the back for bikes and gear. And my parents had stocked it up with camping and cooking gear, a whole lot of food, comfy matresses and even some Golden Bay beer! Thanks Mum and Dad!

After a night of camping on the Kaikoura coast we made it down to Dunedin via the long and boring straight roads between Chch and here. In Christchurch I paid a visit to SR Cycles and collected a new Kore seatpost - this one has a clever system to run either rails or Ibeam, and I'm waiting for their new rail seats to come into NZ to try one of those. We also borrowed some walky talkies from a friend of Emmeline's to make the drive more interesting as we are both driving seperate vehicles... and end up having to text each other to co-ordinate coffee stops (Illegal??)

Emmeline, Dawn, and Kay walking the track

We walked the track on Thursday night (with Dawn who is not racing because she has glandular fever - stink!), and the forecast was not looking good for practice day. It rained overnight and because we'd gotten here so late, the morning was spent changing tyres, fixing bikes, and assembling Emmeline's Turner after it's flight back from Oz. And fitting my new cleats and adjusting my SPDs so I don't have anymore mid-air bike evacuations!

It was my first time back on a bike since my crash and I as a bit weird on the first couple of runs. The rock garden was cool, I had my one crash of the day in my first run down it and let out an aunguished cry as I hit the rocks... the marshall called out 'Omigod are you ok??!!' but it wasn't me I was worried about - I thought my fork stancions had scraped on the rocks and this would have been TERRIBLE! But they were fine.

The rest of the day went good, I really got my flow back by the end although I was still lacking confidence for some of the bigger jumps. I cased the hell out of a smallish road-gap style drop, not once but twice, and hurt my ankle a bit both times (solution - more speed!) but got some great lines nailed by following Emmeline. The tech sections and the corners I was flying through. My cornering has changed so much from riding in Rotorua and I'm really getting a lot of speed through berms and anything I can push off now.

On race day I was feeling great, and riding great too. I was wishing it was another practice day because I had the speed and the lines dialled for the jumps now but it's too late to try new stuff on race day. So I stuck to what I knew and got a pretty good seeding run in - not far behind the other Elite women (Harriet Harper, Harriet Ruckenagel (from Germany) and Emmeline) and that's pretty good considering my lines around the jumps were slower than them jumping them - I must be doing something fast. Woohoo, defintely closing that gap! Also, I grinned the whole way down, which is always a good thing. I was feeling stoked on racing again. Yuss!

Race run, I was still stoked on being out here to ride my bike fast. I was looking forward to charging down the hill which is the best way to feel before your race run - sometimes I'm nervous and just want it over, and other times it's like this. I stand there and I'm fully amped and feeling so lucky to get to go as fast as I can down a really cool track with marshalls and medics and all that to watch out for the riders while they push their limits. Awesome.

Anyway, first big rock garden I was taking a super-tight line between two trees and coming into it I got too sideways and clipped one of them. I crashed but got back up fast (thanks to the spectators for yelling 'get up gogogogogoGO!!!' it's very motivating!), and from that point on, my chain was jammed in my chainguide and I couldn't pedal, and my cranks would only turn a bit! Bugger! It's not a very pedally course but it was VERY annoying in some parts, especailly since I change which foot I have forward all the time (I have an unusual cornering technique) and this wasn't working but it's so automatic I kept trying. One of my main things to improve my time from seeding was going to be to pedal harder...Guess that's not gonna happen!

I was still having fun and laughing out loud at the bits where I had to do skateboard-style pushing with my foot, but in one of the first corners in the last open section I got caught out by the cranks-not-turning thing and went over the bars as my weight was all wrong on the bike. I got out of the way just as German Harriet came through, then jumped straight back on and finished, still laughing! You just have to laugh at these things :)

So, another race run time that doesn't reflect my riding ability - ah well, next time! I keep saying that though. It's funny because I'm improving so much and things just keep going wrong for racing. But that's downhill for you, you take the rough with the smooth. Next weekend is Brakeburner, woohooo! I better look after my Heckler a bit before then, don't want any mechanicals in a 6 hour super D....

Levin Race Day

2009-01-25T16:37:00.010+13:00

So this morning I had a big breakfast, I felt good, I left early and got there at 8.30 (earliest I've arrived so far) and thought I'd have two practice runs, maybe even 3 since my practice day was so bad and we would get pro practice. I stopped a couple of times on my first practice and looked at the new lines on the course because it had changed a lot, and then got down and they already said no more practice, and no pro practice! Bugger. We waited for ages (me and the pro guys) and tried to make a truck driver drive us up anyway but he wouldn't. Most of the pro guys got no practice. Nevertheless I was in a good mood, mucking around and laughing and improving my one-foot-on-the-front-tyre-no-hands trackstands.

Thanks to Martha Hucker reader Foxcgirl for that pic.

So then it was seeding and I wanted to jump the end jump properly but I had been braking into it and stuffing it up yesterday when I was riding badly, but I was feeling good today. My run was pretty good, got my lines right, step up went fine, no crashing, although I wasn't pedaling as hard as I could as I was aware it was still only my second run of the day. So I was relaxed when I came into the big end jump (it's a little bit bigger than the first Rotorua round end jump, but sort of a step-up), but I thought I was going too slow so I pumped the take-off and went off it FLYING, distance and angle great, but somehow from that extra pop BOTH my shoes unclipped from the pedals and my bike wasn't really where it should be for me to land on it.....

....next thing I remember I was getting to my feet (woot!) and the announcer was saying "...'s up! That's a real pro attitude...' but the whole world was rotating sideways and I realised I was about to fall over, I knew if that happened things were REALLY wrong and I wouldn't get up again. I staggered around like a drunkard but stayed on my feet... then I remember seeing the finish line on the ground as I pushed my bike over it (where did the bike come from... it was doing a good job of keeping me upright!) and Harriet finished too... Then I was pushing my bike through the crowd and everybody was just staring, nobody asked if I was ok (or maybe I didn't hear them, I don't remember any sound from this part...) and I couldn't see First Aid or anyone I knew well, so I made a beeline to the nearest shade and lay down.

I'm not sure how long I lay there - I remember hearing the pro men finish (Cathro crashed on the jump? Someone else too? Maybe they should run some pro practice next time?!!) and a couple of times I tried to sit up but everything just went sideways unless I was flat on the ground. Eventually I made it back onto my feet and went to the car and took off my armour, and then for some reason went back the the event village and ordered a coffee. This turned out to be a confusing process, I paid for it and then wandered away, then remembered I was buying a coffee and stood back close to the caravan... then some people were staring at me so I said 'hi' and the guy said 'sugar?' I looked confused, and he explained 'for your latte?' and I realised I'd again forgotten I had ordered a coffee, and he was the coffee guy (duuuhhhhhh)... So then I decided I probably shouldn't race! I stayed around for a bit, mostly lying in the shade feeling sore, and tried to take photos of people jumping, but they are so bad because I was incapable of pushing the button at the right time...

This is a photo I took before crashing, Sarah Atkin hitting the big jump at the end (you can see how big it is here, the transition is outside the shot a bit on the left. Sarah was the first Open Woman to hit it (well, they were all juniors but BikeNZ have cut corners with women's categories this year):

And this is photography with concussion. I have about 9 photos like this, some without even a rider. Not sure who it is coming off the lip of the jump in this one... and is that my hand in the way on the edge of the photo??:

Anyway, I didn't break my bike or any bones, and YAY the North Island Series is done! And I came second by points, to Harriet. I'm sure the SI series will be an improvement in terms of luck and managing my race-brain, the NI series has been my worst racing to date - breaking gear at every round, crashing a lot, and today's missing out on the race run was a first. Oh, and I gotta fix those pedals, or get new cleats, or something - two crashes in one weekend from unclipping on jumps for no apparent reason is not cool, and I tightened them heaps on Saturday!

Levin National DH - Practice day (aarARAraRAAHHGHGH!)

2009-01-24T21:22:00.002+13:00

Yep that's a noise of frustration... or something? I did NOT have my brain in gear at all today, and it's very hard trying to learn a new (and difficult!) track in a day like that. And in the interests of trying to get my blog posts up sooner, I'm gonna tell you about it now...

It's been a very hectice week in Welly for me with lots of catching up with friends, and some less fun and very trying events too, and I've been sleeping on my sister's floor and trying to get on the bike a little bit in between everything!

So on Friday I headed up in the awful friday night traffic to Levin to walk the course. It's a good one, there are a lot of big features - step ups, step downs, chutes, doubles, off camber rooty stuff - nothing too gnarly but you certainly have to think hard. I took a lot of photos to try to get my head around some of the parts with multiple line choices.

On Saturday (today)... I don't know, maybe it was the KFC I had for dinner last night because the supermarket nead where I'm staying was shut, maybe it was white sandwhich bread toast for brekkie, or I was just tired? Anyway, I was NOT feelin very alive! I rolled through the course for my first run, and had a good look at some of the bigger things - the step up was looking do-able, and the big step-down was going to be an issue - either huck off it (and it's BIG, bigger than the Kapiti road gap which I've done, with a much flatter landing) or do a tedious, long, nana line around it. The marshalls were trying to convince me to do it and I could see it - but I decided to put it at the end of my to-do list after 'sort out lines into small doubles, hit step-ups' etc.

After a quick lunch break in which I probably should have added more than just a sausage roll and a latte to my food total for the day, I headed back up and started to improve things. I had a minor crash in a corner, then had a few roll-ins to the bigger step to get a feel for it. I nearly crashed in one run-in when my pedal hit the side of a rut, but went up for another try. This time, I hit it but my foot came out of my pedal and I did a mad one-footer up onto the landing and broke my seat off landing on the bike! Ooops. Anyway, I still did the step up, and continued to hit it for the rest of the day (I had another seat in the car).

Anyway I was feeling pretty tired and rubbish about my lack of riding ability today when it was home-time, but my complete inability to get the bike in the car, or carry things at the supermarket, and pay attention at traffic lights showed that it definitely was a brain-fade thing not just the track/my bike/riding skill. I've had a massive, delicious, nutritious dinner, will get an early night, and tomorrow is a new day and hopefully I'll ride better!

....not that it'll make any difference to race results, it's only me vs Harriet Harper in this round (Emmeline is kicking arse in Canberra this weekend and Gabby and Sheryl who were entered are out with injury). But it's not about results, it's just so much more fun when I'm riding better! BrraaaaapBRAAAAAAAP!!!!

The Luge Video

2009-01-21T11:09:00.002+13:00

Ok so here's the luging video, with some of the stupidity removed, now on Youtube! Me and Emmeline Ragot getting madcore on the 'scenic' track in Rotovegas. Gnarly... :P

Rotovegas Round 2 and beaucouop de stupidité!

2009-01-20T11:38:00.005+13:00

Since last weekend I’ve been riding lots more with Emmeline and improving heaps, it’s cool getting to spend time in Rotorua and work on my riding skills! And we have had LOTS of laughs too.

On Wednesday we went and walked the track, during a full on thunderstorm! It was sunny when we set out, but huge clouds rolled in with lightning and almost continuous rolling thunder. It was pretty cool really, and good to have a close look at the track. I knew most of it but you see it more clearly when you walk it.

On Thursday we did some runs in the afternoon, checking out lines and generally riding fast. I hadn’t been on my DH bike for a few days but it felt good straight away, and I was riding fast and feeling good. We did four or five good runs, and I left that day feeling confident for the Friday practice.

In my first run in practice, I was following Emmeline when she crashed in the first berm, and then I crashed about 100m later for no good reason. I got up to carry on thinking it was a nothing crash, before realizing my front brake lever was snapped clean off, my bars were sideways and had bent the rebound nob on my forks, and my visor was broken on my helmet. WTF! So much damage for such a little crash. So, another slow trip down jump track and back to camp to put the brake off my Heckler onto the V10. Emmeline had similar bad luck and had two flat tyres by the end of her run, so hd to come to camp too. By the time this was all sorted and we'd rode back to the shuttles it was 2pm and we’d missed most of practice!

The rest of my runs that day went good, I was trying more of the jumps and enjoying the track (FAST, mostly flowy and lots of jumps, and nothing really to brake much for!) and I didn’t crash again. We got to d Elite practice which was cool, getting a totally clear run at the end of the day. I didn’t get to try two of the jumps still, but they didn’t seem hard so I had no problem waiting till race day morning, if we got practice runs……

Race day, and we were LATE. Loading the shuttles starts at 7.45 on race day for practice and practice is until 9.30, and the holiday lifestyle I’ve been living meant this didn’t really work for me! I was also sore from the day before, particularly in my lower back above my right hip… Anyway, we just managed to get two fast practice runs in, I hit the other jumps, and was feeling good for the race.

In seeding I was looking forward to seeing how much I’d improved, but still didn’t want to crash or stuff anything up before my race run. Due to injuries, the elite women’s field was down to only me, Emmeline, and Harriet Harper. I tried to just relax and enjoy riding fast. For seeding I had a great time on the track, didn’t pedal too hard, got loose in some bits but stayed squarely on my bike, and finished with a grin. However, there’s one corner that’s almost a wall ride in a super fast section on the track that I like to jump out of, and as I was pushing into it, the sore part of my back when POPCLICKKKKKK and after my run it was hurting like crazy. I scrounged some painkillers and tried to convince myself that whatever it was, it wouldn’t affect my riding! My time was good though, heaps closer to Em and Harriet than the last race and faster than all the non-elite women, and I was hoping to take a good few seconds off with a bit more effort in race run.

Race run time rolled around eventually after a long lunch break. By this time I was still sore, and a bit nervous as some movements were really hurting! I warmed up around the carpark at the top and everything seemed ok for riding, it was just some movements through my back that were excruciating, like lifting my leg backwards to get on and off the bike.

Because I was slowest in seeding I was first down the hill, and made it through the first section before stuffing up a corner leading into one of the new jumps, so had to go around it… the next section I did fast, but was making mistakes and stuffed up the run in to the next jump too! At the big River Jump I decided I was riding to badly to try it (I’d only done it a couple of times and the landing can be sketchy) and rode around it and on down the track, just trying to keep it together and finish properly. Coming into the last chute I heard Harriet yelling far behind me (she yells LOUD!!) – we’d only had a 30 second gap and due to my crap riding she’d caught me. I waited till she was actually close behind me before pulling over to let her pass, then pedalled like fury into the last jump and the finish.

I’m still stoked with my seeding time, I’ve definitely improved and I am gonna claw my way up to being actually competitive with the others before the end of the season! It was cool to be doing all the jumps and all the good lines, and feeling actually fast this time. Also, the prize giving was hilarious – Emmeline nearly fell off backwards from her number one spot because it was wobbly, and grabbed onto me and Harriet to save herself - fortunately we managed to haul her back upright or we'd have all fallen off the podium!! Then we got beer and champagne to squirt everywhere, thanks to Dave Hamilton from the Rotovegas club. Of course we got to drink the rest of it - bubbles after racing, weeehheeeeeeee!! :P

I don't have any photos yet as I had nowhere safe to leave my camera while I was riding, and I'm being careful with my stuff since my car and lots of others were broken into at the campground (nothing of mine was taken, I had my valuables in the tent!), but I'll track some down and post them up. Next weekend is in Levin, I'm back in Welly for a bit till then.

Grins for the win

2009-01-13T22:08:00.005+13:00

On the weekend I did the chainless jumps race in Rotorua. It was just a fun event with around thirty riders, and was followed by a dual slalom that I just took photos of. I'd tried it the day before and not got my flow on for it, then I did extra runs for the jumps track rather than go and practice properly!

Riding chainless was heaps of fun, you really learn what effect your cornering technique has on your speed and have to think about pumping EVERYTHING and making all the transitions on the jumps. I loved it, and got to the bottom realising I'd been grinning for the whole race run - STOKED!

Here's some pics from the event:

Me doing the double in the Dual Slalom track the day before (just mucking around)

British pro Ben Cathro, aka the baby giraffe, racing a local rider (not sure who sorry!) in the dual.

Emmeline Ragot vs local grom Tom over the jump....

... and Emmeline leaving Tom in the dust around the corner. She's so good at cornering, it's insane how much speed she gets out of berms like this. On the top line she was pedalling the whole berm. She beat Tom and then lost to Craig Pattle in the next round (there was no womens category).

Matt Walker and Louis Hamilton were the final pair in the dual. Matt crashed in every run of the final (it went to three runs because of crashes) but always had a ridiculously huge grin on his face, as you can see.

It was my birthday on Monday and to celebrate Emmeline and I went luging... we made a video but it's only on facebook... Maybe I'll take out some of the stupidity and put it on here, or maybe not! :P

North Island Cup 2009 round 1 - Rotorua.

2009-01-07T16:15:00.004+13:00

My first race in Elite, and first nationals of ’09 – stress??!!?!?!

I came back to the North Island on the 30th and had one brief nigh in Welly before the longest drive ever up to Roto-vegas on New Years Eve. I had another friend in the car and we were travelling in convoy with Emmeline Ragot and her ‘super van’ (it’s a DH-only van I think :P) and this combined with the holiday traffic made for an eight hour trip. We did stop for a swim in Lake Taupo too though, and listen to some new CDs I got for Christmas to keep us entertained.

Emmeline helping me learn the foot-on-the-front-wheel balance thing. Well, sorta helping!

New Year’s was pretty cool, hanging out with lots of other Wellington MTBers at the camp ground. Then it was straight into the DH practice on New Year’s Day – hangover be damned! We had some idea where the course would be so did a few runs in the afternoon that day and the next, scoping lines and worrying about the weather. It kept raining on and off, so the tracks would get a bit dry then be drenched again!

On the real practice day the other competitors showed up. In the Elite Women category there was me, Harriet Harper, Gabby Molloy and Emmeline. All of the others have been riding and racing for years – yup, this was going to be a bit embarrassing when the times go up! Also, some of my good lines from the previous days practice were being destroyed by people making ruts across them, and although I tried to ride them anyway (stubborn!) I just succeeded in having a lot of crashes. I broke parts of my bike, and got several new megabruises (not as bad as the one from Wanganui, although one of them I got hit in the same place twice – that’s pretty bad!).

On race day, it had dried out a bit but the mud was still sticky. The non-elite women were all really disappointed that BikeNZ had decided to lump all the other categories (junior age groups, senior, etc) into one category. Which I think is a bit crap – it gives them really inconsistent results for the series if they are in a different field each race, depending on how many people enter which category. Nationals races should have age categories always, as a national standard. And imagine if the under 15 boys got combined with under 17 – there’d be crying and throwing helmets and protests, and that would be just the parents!

Anyway, I’d had a totally rubbish sleep for several nights at the campground, and after the morning practice I had a nice lie down under a tree in the shade and tried not to worry too much about the fact that I was riding poorly, doing the easy lines after crashing, and was about to come last in my first Elite race. I asked the others about their first elite races – only Gabby could remember and she said hers had been against Scarlet Hagen and Vanessa Quin, after they had both just come back from winning Worlds!

Emmeline doing what she does best

I seeded fairly poorly with a crash on one of the drops I’d crashed on already but was still riding, but rode well for the second part. Emmeline seeded first and then had a mad scramble to change to her dry tyres, just for a bit of extra kick-ass factor. My race run was sketchy, there were still lots of crazy ruts, and I was all over the place until about a third of the way through when I somehow got my flow on and stomped it through the last part… sort of! So it felt good in the end. And because there was only four of us I still got to stand on the podium and thank my sponsors. Emmeline thanked the organizers, and me and Ruth for teaching her English! Nice!

The elite women podium (me, Gabby, Emmeline, Harriet). Spot the lolz!

I'm not feelin the 'elite' thing yet, but in some ways it's better to be a small fish in a big pond, and that's what I feel like most of the time anyway! Now I've got two weeks of hanging out in Rotorua, riding my favourite trails, and trying to chase Emmeline down hills (and up them). I don't need a crystal ball to tell me there's improvement ahead for 2009...

My Christmas DH Training....

2008-12-30T13:37:00.006+13:00

Am I training over Christmas? Watch this:

It’s my Very Serious(tm) Christmas Holidays training video, for a competition FreerideFoundation.com have been running. (click the picture to go through to Youtube and watch it - I couldn't get it to embed on here...) If you had a lol, you can vote for me to win stuff at http://www.freeridefoundation.com/

But seriously…. I’ve been doing a fair bit of riding over the holidays as well as having some nice family time! I got to do the Rameka, and lots of xc rides. There really isn’t a lot of downhill in the bay but a young local rider Rhys Potter has been building a track on his family’s land.

Rhys and some typical Takaka rocks!

We had an evening of shuttles of there, I let Rhys ride my V10, and he let us ride his track. It’s pretty cool – tight and steep with lots of drifty corners, some jumps, and a super-ghetto corrugated iron structure over a fallen tree!

We also did a morning of shuttling in Nelson on the Kaka track, which was where Oceanias were last year and where National Champs will be this year. They’ve changed a couple of sections and it was very overgrown but otherwise good. I’m looking forward to racing there again, I seem to have a soft spot for off camber loose rocky steep stuff! GNARRRR!!!!!!

I also worked in the shop a bit fixing bikes, often my own (SERIOUS FACE):

Hung out at the beach and looked at seals:

Got lots of footage of my sister Chloe’s band Little Vices playing in the bay and in Nelson:

And taught my Dad to huck off the driveway. GO Dad!

I'm on the ferry right now heading back to the North Island for New Year and Round 1 of Nationals. Yay for mobile broadband - Bluebridge is heaps better than old Interislander but it's still full of shouting, shreiking, dancing, crying, staring, children! Their noise is almost a match for my mega headphones... but no match for The Distillers. ROCCCKKK!!!!!

I'm on VorbTV

2008-12-18T10:17:00.003+13:00

Ben Conway (a Wellington rider, cameraman, and very clever video editor)and I went on a mission up Makara Peak a couple of weeks ago to film this segment for episode 4 of Vorb TV. I got to session Ridgeline on my DH bike (something I don't normally do - ridgeline is pretty easy, hence the lack of armour!), and I learnt that I actually really suck at being interviewed on camera! Ah well.

Click the picture above to go through to http://www.vorb.org.nz/ and watch the episode I'm in.

More Santa Cruz Bike Porn

2008-12-17T10:52:00.004+13:00

I just got my Heckler running again - it's been out for two weeks while I moved then sent the forks away to get fixed (some kind of warrantee issue).

Pumpkin (the Heckler) up the Old Mill Road, Parapara

I gave Pumpkin a makeover - there are loads of orange Hecklers, Bullets and Superlights so I thought I'd give mine something extra. It now has a little touch of class, I'm going to try it out by heading over to the next golfcourse I come across and try riding around on it. I'm sure they won't kick me out if I'm on my argyle bike, but I'll have to wear my socks that match :P

And here's some more shots of my V10, all kitted out in Kore components. A fancy white B52 stem, some Kore DH/Freeride bars, an Ibeam seat and post that's heaps lighter than a conventional one (and Kore have come up with a design that a actually has flex so it's more comfortable than normal Ibeam seats). And the wicked BFD wheels which got through a weekend of rim-crunching rocky DH in Christchurch without even a wobble. Nice.

Christchurch Gravity Canterbury Race

2008-12-15T15:30:00.009+13:00

What a wicked weekend... again! I drove down with Dawn to do the final round of the Gravity Canterbury DH series, at Vic Park in Christchurch. Great riding and cool people made the 8 hr travel time from Golden Bay worth it!

Click to watch a video of it on Vorb, I'm at the 60 second point, Emmeline Ragot is at the start (20 seconds in)

I stayed with Michelle and Slim who were amazing, Slim even drove for Michelle, Dawn, Liv and I to do shuttles on Saturday. The course was tight and technical, but I was having a great time chasing Liv down the hill, and got the one big jump (the creek gap) nailed early on in the day.

One of the many drifty, dusty steep bits!

Dawn pinning it on race day

One drop was annoying me, I have crap technique for low speed drops and get all off the back outta control in the following section, so if it's steep and technical I tend to end up visiting the trees. I was planing to hit it up in my next run when Emmeline turned up on her xc bike at the top, and I jokingly suggested she try the DH track on her hardtail xc bike with semi-slicks. I didn't realise she really would until I crashed after the drop I wanted to try, to find her camly following down after me going 'ooooh you crash! Is slippery!' Yuh.

Emmeline going even faster on her real bike!

We did LOADS of practice on Saturday, probably too much - 9 runs or so. It was just so much fun! Dawn had come up with a theory that third run is the best run on race day, but in the end we both did an extra practice (so our race runs were our fourth and fifth runs), and then had crap first race runs. Mine felt slow, VERY slow, I felt like I'd kinda learnt to slow down on the course rather than speed up! I think the last couple of runs I did on practice day really worked against me, I knew I was tired and held back heaps. I won't do that again. In the results I'm behind lots of people I beat in Nelson (including Dawn) so it wasn't a fast race! I didn't crash though, and no bike probs, and you learn these things.

It was great to race so many fast women racers though - Olivia Johnston and Harriet Harper were second and third (Emmeline won of course, despite being literally blown off a cliff in her second race run!), and German Harriet was fourth followed by Dawn then me.

Next race is Nationals, just after New Year....

Nelson Top of the South Downhill Race

2008-12-08T19:11:00.005+13:00

Wow, it's been a hectic couple of weeks. I've moved out of my flat in Welly to be free to travel around for Nationals without the stress of paying my rent over summer. So I loaded most of my stuff in the poor 4wd, stored some other stuff in friend's sheds, and caught the ferry to the South Island.

I met up with Dad and a local ripper Reece Potter in Nelson, and we headed out into the wops with a van full of bikes and man-shopping - the guys had been to the supermarket and bought nutritious food like Rose's chocolates, Shapes crackers, xmas mince pies and (of course) beer. I wasn't complaining.

No handed beer-drinking trackstands rule!

We followed some signs down a gravel road and found somewhere to camp, but no sign of the track. We gave up looking and settled in for the night, with Dad and Reece opting to sleep under the stars (and sandflies) while I took shelter in the van. Dad woke me at 5.30 am to drive to higher ground because the sandfiles were biting. I HATE 5.30, in my opinion these hours of the morning should only be seen by intrepid explorers and crazy people - they're the daily equivalent of some kind of daylight Antartica. I was not amused.

So we drove further up the gravel road (so they tell me, I was asleep, the car clearly drove itself) and still found no sign of the track, but eventually gained some altitude after some creek crossings, and had breakfast and COFFEEEEEEE on a forestry skid site while the sun came up. I eventually became human around 8am. Other racers turned up from 9, starting with Chris Mildon who pointed us to the real start of the track (which was meant to be where we were, but had changed). This was definitely the most remote race I'd been to - we were in the middle of nowhere!

The track was short, with it's most notable feature being the end jump, and the extremely dark forest that created some dangerous dappled lighting - but we're used to that in Welly. I was stoked to catch up with Dawn again and see her new bike, and we had competition - Emmeline Ragot, World Cup Number 4 (Champs number 3), from France. Imagine that, racing a world famous pro at the most remote race evah! Wicked.

In the lunch break Dawn and I headed up the track a bit to hit the end jump, much to the amusement of the local groms watching. Dawn hit it first and fired herself waaaay over the landing and crashed but was ok (unlike another guy earlier who was arilifted out). I tried it next with less speed and still managed to pop off it far more than expected. From high in the air above the spectators in the finish area I delivered a short speech that went something like 'Oh My God!' (but may have contained more swearing) before landing on the flat finish area after the transition, a massive distance in height and length from the takeoff. My V10 took it in stride, and soaked it up like it was nothin, and I just rode off laughing (and shaking!). Mental note for race runs - pop less!

That's Dad riding around the end jump - hard to see how big it is from this angle. But fairly significant, especially if you jump it to flat...

We had two race runs and I took my first one reasonably conservatively, I was loving the loose, steep, rocky end section (reminded me of the Kaka Hill Nelson nats track) and was powering down that. I was hitting every kicker and jump in the course which was pretty cool. Both Emmeline and Dawn had clean runs, although Dawn didn't hit the jump and was saving it till last. Dad and Reece went well also, with Reece posting the fastest time for his U15 category (but he still got beaten by two girls :P).

Second race run I went a bit faster - 6 seconds faster to be precise. I also hit the end jump with a bit more speed in my first run, jumping to the middle of the down ramp, and for some reason one of my shoes unclipped as I took off. One footed landings are great crowd pleasers though. Dawn nailed the last jump and was pleased with herself, but didn't beat me in either run, but she didn't crash in race runs! Dawn always crashed at last years nationals, so I'm stoked for her. Emmeline was 18 seconds faster than me, but that's ok, she's cool and very friendly! And when I've been racing as long as she has maybe I'll be 18 seconds faster too...

I'm now mostly in Golden Bay until Christmas, wrenching at the Quiet Revolution Cycle Shop and generally hanging out. I miss my Welly mates already though!

Shuttle Day at Long Gully, and a Tara Llanes T-shirt

2008-12-01T09:37:00.010+13:00

I bought a Tara Llanes recovery fund t-shirt and it arrived in NZ in a matter of days! It turned out that the 'medium' I ordered was man-sized medium, so I cut off the sleeves and I have myself a ghetto hot-weather DH top, with ultra-breathability and excellent karma. You can check out Tara Llanes and get yourself one of these or a hoody at www.tarallanesroadtorecovery.com

Caro came too, and was really getting into doing the nana line on the DH track - she prefered it to Jawbone. Here she is levitating (I wish I could do that)

It was super dry with lots of drifty corners. Fun though. These two are of me on Jawbone.

Here's me hitting the Long Gully pig chute step-up, step by step:

The run in. Steep, lumpy, and steeeep (with some extra e's for eeemphasis)

The G-out (sudden high speed change of direction that compresses your suspension - g as in g-forces) at the bottom where you start to go UP at a massive speed. Feels crazy... and you can just see the wooden kicker on the left

Going off the ramp, it's hard to absorb much of the kick from this thing as your suspension is already compressed from the g-out. And if it kicks up as you go off it can get messy (click for my original encounter with this thing)

Someone really should measure how far it is, vertically, to the top of this step-up. It's atleast two bike-lengths, so four metres?? Hmmm...

The other side. YAAAAY!!

And the run out. If people overjump it they tend to bounce off the cliff to the left. Owies.

Rotorua DH Race

2008-11-25T10:45:00.004+13:00

Ahh, another race in Rotorua! Lucky I love it so much, I've raced there more than anywhere else and there are TWO rounds of naitonals there in '09, on the different lines of this track.

Practice

Me and Caro drove up on the friday, and practice day went well - the track was down new sections of soft track through the forest, and I was having a great time carving around the corners. Some rooty off camber stuff was catching people out, but I was liking it all!

I've felt like the big jump at the end has 'had my name on it' for a while - even though it's a massive jump it has a big table landing and an easy run in, I always feel I'm going fast enough. So on my second run I stopped and talked to some guys from Welly about it who gave me good advice, and talked to a marshall who'd been watching, and after a roll in to test it out, I hit it!

What a rush! It's easily the biggest jump I've ever done, you're in the air for a long time, and the gap you have to clear is BIG. To the downside it's apparently 40ft, but I was landing on the table so only going 25-30ft probably, but still! I didn't get any pics of me doing it, but here's someone else hitting it (if anyone has any pics of me doing it please email me!):

For the rest of the practice day I was buzzing from the big jump, and working on the assumption that it was going to pour with rain (as the forecast said!) so was practicing lines that would work with less traction. Only at the very end of the day did I realise I was riding round some stuff I could easily be riding, and tried to ride some drops but had one of those moments when your brain decides it's not a good idea halfway through, so instead of riding off the second drop I braked and fell off it over the front of my bike! Thanks, subconcious! :P

But that was my last run, so the drops would have to wait for race day practice. I realised I spent way to much time thinking about the big jump and not enough on the other parts of the track, but ah well! I was totally buzzing from getting the big one dialled. I did it in nearly all my runs but one where I was in the wrong gear out of the corner before it and realised I didn't have enough speed. So I was all set to hit it in race runs...

Bike Heaven?

Race day, and it hadn't rained! The four of the last five dh races I've done have been in the wet if you include the Super D, so I was stoked.

But my luck didn't last. My first practice run was going great until my back brake lever started coming right into the bar.... and then stopped working altogether! I was part way down the track, and had brake fuid all over the rotor and caliper of my bike - it had come out somehow. F$#%#%#k!!!!!!!!

I pushed back up to a fireroad where I knew I could ride along and turn into jumps track - much easier to ride down than the DH track with only a front brake. But I managed to accidently turn into the new Corners track instead.

As anyone who's ridden it knows, Corners goes on and on. I hadn't ridden it, so found out the hard way that Corners, on a DH bike with only a front brake, goes on and on and ON AND ONANDONAAAGGHHH!!! It honestly took me about 20 minutes of winding around and pedalling through the forest, not seeming to lose any height. It felt like it went on for hours. I just wanted to get to the bottom, and I started to think I'd actually died and gone to single track heaven with the wrong bike!

Finally I came to the bottom and frantically asked around to see if anyone could help me with my brake. No luck, but we worked out it was just the little hose bolt on the caliper that had come undone somehow and let the fluid out. So I charged back to the car (a five minute ride downhill) and shot into town to Bike Vegas, who were open on Sundays. The guys there were awesome! They sorted me out including bleeding the brake twice in about 15 minutes, and put in some fresh Vesrah pads while I cleaned the rotor. And they even had posrnstar mo's for Movember. Now that's service :P

Back on track

So I got back to the carpark and powered up the hill back to the shuttles. My back brake still wasn't working properly, I figured it had a bit of oil and brake cleaner on it still, so pedalled with my brake half on for most of the way to cook it off - this is why you need to be fit to do DH! I made it to the shuttles just as the other girls were going up in the trucks and got on a van behind them. Phew!

My first race run was fairly poor, a lot of the lines in the tech sections had changed and it was really my first run of the day, so it felt slow. I nailed the jump at the end though, and was amping for my second run! There were 12 of us in womens category, made up of 3 seniors and 9 juniors but all lumped together, and a lot of them were FAST! I was only 19 seconds behind 1st (Charlotte Clouston) in the first run, but was placed about 5th. Tight!

Second run was waaaaay better, I was pinning it, carving the corners, sticking to my lines, and lovin it. I really had my Fast Mode on, and it felt awesome! I was about half way down when I spied a short cut new line through a corner and took it, but clipped my bars on a tree. It was a steep section and I managed to stay on the bike but was out of control about to shoot off the corner, and there was a tree on the outside of it that could have saved me from going off the track - there aren't many occasions when you TRY to hit a tree, but this was one of them!

I hit the tree but not straight-on enough to stop me flipping down the bank way off the side of the track. Ooooooh NOOOOOOOOOO! I was gutted, but grabbed my bike, and hauled it back to the track, and managed to get on it and go. Maddy, who won the last race, still hadn't caught me. But my seat was around sideways (managed to straighten it with my knees) and my bars were askew too. I knew I couldn't do the big jump with skewed bars, and since I knew my time was screwed I decided to stop and straighten them so I could hit it - me and a pro from Germany (Harriet someone?) were the only girls doing it!

Maddy passed me as I stopped and straightened my bars, and I sped through the last section, round the corner and off the drop, and pedal pedal pedalled towards the jump - but nothing happened - worng gear again! Nooooooooo! Without the pedalling I didn't have enough speed to clear it, so I rode around the jump, gutted! It's frustrating to not post any times that reflect how fast you can do a track, but overall I still felt I rode better than I have before, and I was lucky to be able to race at all after the brake failure!

Going around the big jump :(

Stoked

So it was an awesome race, and I learnt lots - including that flying in the air for ages is FUN, and I need to be more systematic at doing ALL the hard things on the track on practice day, not just the impressive-looking things with an audience! :P

Afterwards we had time to hit up the jumps track for a couple of runs before heading back to Welly, and I rode with Caro finally, and Alice who had done really well in the race.

All the way home in the car we just kept talking about what a wicked weekend it was, it was truly awesome! Race runs - some go good, some go bad, that's life. But DH racing, overall, is always awesome with all the riding you get to do in such a short space of time and improving every time you take part in an event.

Bring on Nationals! :D

New Sponsors! Kore Komponents, Vesrah Brake Pads, and Fly Clothing!

2008-11-20T10:28:00.000+13:00

Thanks to Stu at SR Cycles I've got some new wheels, bars, stem, seatpost, seat, all from Kore, some new brake pads from Vesrah, and some new Fly kit! Woo!

I've used Vesrah pads before, and they're GOOD! The Kore BFD wheels have a deeper rim than my old wheels so should be a bit stiffer. They also have a cool way of attaching the disc rotors that uses one screw-on part instead of six little annoying bolts:

The bars and stem look choice and are lighter than my old ones (white B52 stem - choice!) and the Ibeam seat is really comfy for an Ibeam - they are usually very stiff but Kore have come up with a design that has flex in it similar to rails on a normal seat. Wicked! Overall my bike has lost a pound and a half just from these new parts!

The fly clothes are awesome, click on the link on the left to check out their stuff. They have a great range for women, and I love my new long pants! The gloves are wicked too, and I have a jersey for practice and a helmet on the way. More pics to come of all this, of course :)

Thanks for supporting me!

A cool weekend of riding...

2008-11-16T19:07:00.002+13:00

This weekend has been wicked! Heaps of riding crammed into two days. I got to ride with Adrian, my coach from Santa Cruz, at Mt Vic yesterday. That was great - I learnt heaps! Then headed up to Makara to play at the skills area and then blast down Ridgeline faster than I ever have.

Today, it was extremely windy so a few of us did a couple of runs at Long Gully (exposed tracks with big jumps!) and then called it off to go hit some longer, more technical trails elsewhere. We finished off the day with playing at the Karitane dirt jumps (tables, kinda, and manageable on a big bike). Good times!

Can't wait till next weekend, I'm totally feeling like I'm used to my new bike now, and am stepping up to the next level of riding with it. So frikken cool. Progression is the best feeling.

Wild Wellington - The Santa Cruzettes!

2008-11-13T18:54:00.003+13:00

The Wild Welly MTB relay was pretty fun, I had a good time aside from having some nasty tummy cramps (I occasionally get them from running or riding but never 6 times in one day - every lap until my last 3! owwwwwwwwwwwww :( ).

These types of events always have a cool atmosphere, this one was particularly relaxed, with hardly any traffic on the tracks to get through either. The track was '80% climbing' - timewise, that is, or maybe even more than that for me as I was faster downhill and slower up than most people on the Heckler! My times were a respectable couple of mins down from my xc team mates Celia and Charlotte on their Santa Cruz Superlights.

So here's some pics:

Me on my first lap. I only wore those glasses around once, because they didn't help with the DANGEROUS DAPPLED LIGHTING CONDITIONS!

Charlotte looking happy! Her Superlight is the same colour as my Heckler

Celia. Styley and in control, as always!

Me beginning to drift one of the big flat turns. This was about as technical as the course got on the downhills!

Celia, riding for the Santa Cruz Syndicate?

CHILLAXIN! I like to think of these aviator sunglasses as being like ones Pink wears. But, everyone at the race referred to them as my Steve Peat glasses. Hmmmph!

Charlotte digging deep in the evening

Celia again... I love this pic (it's one of the official photographer's ones that we purchased online)

Charlotte... um..... dancing??!!?

Me looking goofy waiting for the changeover in the evening

Twilight riding, with my light on my head. Thanks to Rex for loaning me his one as extra brightness!

Cruzettes going to the podium. Woo second place!

The Santa Cruzettes are enterred in Wild Wellington

2008-11-07T12:41:00.005+13:00

Wild Wellington is a 12hr mountain bike relay race handily located only 5 minutes drive from my house, in Mt Victoria, Wellington. It's so nice to not have to road trip half way up the country for a race!

It's a cross country lap race around a short circuit, and myself and two other women who ride Santa Cruz's are representing for SC - Celia and Charlotte, both xc racers with Santa Cruz Superlights. I'll be on my Heckler - not the most xc race friendly machine, but hey, I'll chuck some light tyres on, and it'll be fine! Hopefully there'll be some jumps I can hit :P

It's going to be a bit brutal for the Santa Cruzettes, since there are only 3 of us sharing the 12 hrs. We'll be up against other teams of up to 5 women, and the Bicycle team (five girls, mostly pro-elite xc racers!) are highly likely to kick our asses.

Updates will be posted to Twitter, the race runs from 10am till 10pm tomorrow. Woo!

Interviewing Vanessa Quin, NZ DH legend!

2008-11-05T15:20:00.003+13:00

Yesterday I got to interview NZ's winningest downhill mountain biker, Vanessa Quin, for Martha Hucker.com.

I'm no journalist, an have never interviewed anyone in my life, so I was a bit nervous! But I shouldn't have worried, talking to someone about something they're really passionate about is easy, especially if you share that enthusiasm.

You can check out the interview and Podcast here: http://marthahucker.com/2008/11/05/voqinterview/

Hawkes Bay DH on my new bike(s).

2008-11-03T14:02:00.011+13:00

I got my new bike (see below) built up on the Friday, just in time to drive up to Napier on Friday night. Unfortunately it wasn’t built in time for me to test the rear shock setup before shops shut, and at 6pm I hucked it off a small drop and found out the spring was waaaaaaay to soft. I knew it was a bit too soft, but bottoming out off a 2ft drop? Faaaaark!

No bike shops were able to help at that hour on a Friday so I just had to drive up to Hawkes Bay with it like that. The next day, I called a couple of shops in Napier straight after registering for the race, and one of them had a probably-suitable spring. Ruth kindly drove off to get it while I had my first couple of practice runs.

The track was cool, steep and technical in a lot of places, but I like steep and technical… There were also some big jumps and drops which I wasn’t keen to hit with a mushy shock – even with extra air and everything wound right up it was still waaaay too soft!

Ruth came back with the new spring, and with some advice from my new Santa Cruz teammate Aari Barrett, I got the shock out and changed the spring. I didn’t have much time to change anything else, so just left it with everything cranked up – atleast it wasn’t bottoming out! Aari also lent me a SC DH top (they don’t have any news ones in the country yet, I only have a xc one) so I looked the part properly. I was definitely getting a lot of looks from people admiring my bike!

I got four more runs, and hit the big step down (the biggest thing in the course, other than a 30ft double) on my first run, so I was pretty stoked! I was wanting to hit jumps and go big too, but being on a new bike was making things a bit sketchy.

The overall consensus among the riders was that the track was very difficult, I enjoyed it but a lot of riders struggled with technical sections like the rock garden, various steep sections, and the chute at the end. I quite liked it though, and it wasn't nearly as hard as Nelson!!

The jumps were pretty big too. I was really enjoying them but wasn't used to my bike and hadn't got used to how it pops off jumps. I hit one big kicker and the back of my bike popped up way more than I expected. On my next run, I tried to do it better, and did it way worse – came in front wheel first, bounced, clipped a tree with the bars and slammed into the ground HARD. First aid came running, but I was ok, laughing and just getting my breath, but I really hurt my hip from hitting the ground, and my fullface helmet impacted so hard it mashed into my face and grazed it. I also bruised my arm UNDER my armour. Imagine if I'd been less protected - agh! Here's my 'racing stripe' from the crash, haha:

Straight after this was the dual slalom. I really wasn't keen to take part, since I was limping around and very sore from the crash, and wanted to go home and lie down, not repeatedly push my bike up hills :( But if I pulled out there would hve been no dual slalom for the girls - all the others had decided not to do it, as they had had a rough day on the hard DH track, and it was only me and one other rider in the womens dual!! Also, I have a new bike for this too, my Santa Cruz Heckler:

Anyway, we managed to get out of doing a seeding run (no point for two people) and got to do our race runs first so it was all over very quickly. I was taking it very easy, but we were still very close on the first run (Maddy, the other girl, is a local and it's her home track), and then in the second run she crashed in a crumbly berm and I took it out. I didn't know there was prize money up for grabs, so a cheque for $50 made the pain worthwhile!

The next day was race day, I'd spent a restless night not sleeping on my sore side then waking in the night to torrential rain. This sucked - I was worried it would be another Wanganui-type fiasco. Gagh. Fortunately it stopped, but first run was still very wet, with the final chute and landing for the big drop not being the safest. I switched to mud tyres, which were slower but gave me a bit more confidence, which I needed having lost some crashing the day before!

Neither of my race runs were totally satisfactory, I was nervous before the first one and I think this makes me race better. I felt like I was in a really good headspace unlike some races, where I'm just not really feeling it! I enjoyed myself, and just wanted to do it again straight after, which is always a cool feeling :)

I ended up finishing 3rd, Maddy the local ripper who also did the Dual took it our convincingly - she was charging off all the jumps except the 30ftr and was really aiming to WIN. There were 6 girls racing (ALL under 19 except for me, but there was only one womens category), 9 had come to the race (I think?) which is HUGE, but 3 had pulled out due to injury and/or the course being too hard. Initially there was no chicken line around the drop at the end, which sucks for newer riders, or even more experienced riders who have to come down with a puncture or mechanical problem.

That's me doing the end drop - you can see behind me the fence is now open so you can ride around it. One of the young girls broke her arm before they opened that up though, it shouldn't take an injury to make them be sensible about stuff like that. There was an incredible amount of carnage at this race - atleast 5 broken arms (all left ones from what I heard!), a broken hand and a broken finger, several concussions of varying severity, and a lot of grazes and strains putting people out of action. Lots of riders wrote themselves off before the race day, and the number of people in matching arm slings at prize giving was crazy!! I think this was the worst I've seen for injuries. Click here for a photo on Vorb of some of the broken people!

But, overall it was a good weekend - I don't think I'll race without getting used to a new bike first, I'm VERY sore still and am lucky it wasn't worse! I need to get my rear shock set up properly and get used to it. I love my V10 though, it's awesome. Thanks Santa Cruz!

I'm on the Santa Cruz NZ DH Team for '09!

2008-11-01T20:05:00.008+13:00

WOW. I am so stoked!It's a BIG deal, and more than I expected at this stage! I've only been racing for a year. So frikken cool though - along with getting sorted out with some choice bikes, I get coaching, and mechanic support at race, and race kit. Santa Cruz are really doing an awesome job of looking after their riders, it's gonna be an incredible year!

I only built the V10 yesterday, and it's already AMAZING. I have so much confidence in it, even though I'm not used to it yet. I've known about this for a while - was keeping it quiet until they announced it, and it went up on Vorb today.

And I upgraded my GT to a Heckler also, and I've had the for a couple of weeks. It rocks, I can do everything I used to do on the Glory on the lodal DH tracks on the little heckler! They are wicked bikes.

I'm at a race in Hawkes Bay right now, more on that later. For now -BIKES! WOO!

Owies!

2008-10-23T22:12:00.003+13:00

I fell off riding up at Makara today. It was only as I was 'resting' on the ground that I realised I'd been lost in thought for most of my ride, and had come nearly all the way down the hill with my rear suspension locked out (which was my my rear wheel had drifted out more than expected in a corner, causing the crash) and I hadn't put my kneepads on. They were in my pack. Clever!

So here's a nice pic of my bleeding knee. My stripey sock, as usual, protected me from further damage - it would have gone the whole way down my shin otherwise! Go the socks!

And here's a pic of my Megabruise from the Wanganui race. I have now learnt that the technical term for this is a hematoma, and if you get one you shouldn't take photos and show it off, you should go to the physio in the first week! Not the second week...

I'm currently having physio EVERY day to try and stop the big lump in the center of this bruise from hardening into a permanent feature. Newtown Physio are treating me with ultrasound, massage, and acupuncture. All free on ACC. Liz, my physio, is a total legend! :D

The Flybuys card is for scale! The bruise wrapped right around the back as well, I'm still not sure what part of the bike caused it. It's gone now except for the lump!

My injuries are totally lame so far compared to most downhillers. Yay for that!

Wrenching 101... Shimano Bike Mechanic Course

2008-10-21T20:44:00.004+13:00

I flew up to Auckland on Monday morning to do the Shimano course that Sheppard's (a bike wholesaler) run frequently. It's the main training you can do for being a bike mechanic in NZ other than just learning by doing. I've wanted to do it for ages.

After some hasty last minute swat of the Barnett's maunals on the plane (Barnett's is the defninitive bike mechanic guide), I met up with Dad at the Auckland airport, and we taxi'd to the Sheppard's building. Dad's done these courses before, including some of the very first ones - they have been running them since 1998, and they keep updating the content due to changing components and improved techniques.

It was a cool bunch of people -ten of us in the group. Of course mostly guys - in fact, I'm only the second chick to do it in ten years!! We all had a laugh though, especially on the second day. The course content was pretty broad, and focused on doing the basic stuff well, and systematically. I found it really helpful as I tend to work in the shop (or on my own bikes) really sporadically so I remember what to do but not what order to do it in! We stayed in a flash hotel, but had homework to do, and with other work stuff I didn't even leave the hotel room once we got there! It was cool to hang out with Dad too, and to have him around to ask dumb questions to rather than have to bug the instructor!

The test at the end was pretty hard. We had a list of seven things to do (e.g set up front derailleur, set up mechanical disc brake, etc), and the instructors had messed with the bikes so we also had to find all the random unexpected stuff they'd loosened. If we miss any of those things we fail immediately, and apparently they are also really really hard on how accurate your adjustments are - comes down to quarter turns of screws. A lot of good mechanics have failed, apparently! We find out if we pass in about a week, but I'm not too worried - I felt like I learnt HEAPS, regardless if I may have missed doing up a bolt by 1mm. And it's not like my job depends on it! Still, would be nice to have my name on a certificate :P

EDIT: I passed! With flying colours. Yay! Dad did too. Apparently a few of the ten people on the course didn't, however, and we were lucky. Well, not lucky, clever :P

Today was brought to you by the letter W...

2008-10-05T17:13:00.004+13:00

...For Wanganui. And WET.

It rained all night, and the race was a complete mudfest. Chutes that were slidey in the dry became impossible in the wet. No-one stayed on their bike for the whole run. It was fun, and good comedy value, but did NOT feel like a race! More like something uni students would dream up for a drunken O week activity :P

I slid out a lot, but kept getting back on only to slide a bit further down! I did make it through a few bits I didn't expect to, and fell off unexpectedly at times as well. My race run had a significant bit of time added to it when marshalls redirected me around a steep chute that I had practiced and intended to go down and probably slide out and bounce off a tree at the bottom, which I'd done in practice (yes, calculated crashing!) but it was quick. I thought they were doing it because someone had crashed, but as I was floundering around to get in the nana line, I asked why they'd sent me this way, and they said it was a better way! The nana line was way slower and I slid out twice (instead of my expected once, the other way. Thanks, 'helpful' marshalls! I don't think they're meant to be giving line choice advice to the racers anyway, that's what practice day is for.

Anywho, it was still fun, I'm sure I learnt from it even though riding in those conditions, where you're losing control all the time, feels like ten steps back! And it's always gutting when a track you enjoyed a lot in the dry gets fully destroyed in the wet. I couldn't do the big drop I'd practiced either,it was all too boggy and slippery.

It was really cool to see more new junior girls there - there were six women in total, with me the only senior. Which is an improvement on last year. And even though it was a different track, I didn't come last like last year - woo! :D

Wanganui AKDH series practice day.... please no rain!

2008-10-04T16:18:00.003+13:00

When I started it out from Wellington this morning, it was raining. Well just drizzling really, but from my last experience in Wanganui, I wasn't too excited about a wet race. So I was glad as I drove north that the rain died off.

The track is different from last time, and has lots of steep off camber stuff which I find myself actually really liking. There were several big steep chute sections causing traffic congestion for the first couple of runs as everyone checked out their lines. I found them fun in the dry, but couldn't help think how insane it would be with mud and offcamber roots if it rains tomorrow....

I'm stoked it's a track I like, and I got the big stepdown nailed too, after giving myself a bit of a talking to, it wasn't that hard! I had a really silly crash in the top section, got my wheel caught in a small rut while I was playing around pumping the bike and fully stacked myself into the ground for some high-speed roly polys. It's ok though, crashing is part of downhill, and it's good to have the odd one that catches you by surprise but leaves you still fine and riding - it was a nice little demo of how well all my safety gear actually works! After straightening my bars and pulling clumps of dirt out of my helmet vents, I was good to go. I have a super-mean bruise on my leg though from some bike part jabbing me!

We only got 4 practice runs due to slow shuttles and a long ride out from the bottom of the track. Hopefully we'll get a good day tomorrow, although it's not looking good:

Makara shuttles!

2008-10-03T11:39:00.004+13:00

Mud Cycles in Karori lent their van to the Makara Peak Supoorter's club for some shuttles of Makara Peak, as a fundraiser for the club. Thanks Muds! I'm so glad I don't have a real job anymore, and can do stuff like this when it happens!

Vee and I got in quite a few runs, it was a great afternoon, and even when I got a puncture I was still high on one of those 'holy crap, I love my life right now' buzzes. It was a wicked day, and so cool to get some shuttles without having to drive or travel to another part of NZ. I got two punctures in the end though, I think I need to run a higher volume rear tyre on my trail bike - I currently have a 2.1 (2.5 on the front, haha!) and have had a LOT of pinch flats lately acting like I'm riding my big bike and ploughing through sharp rocks!

This weekend is the first round of the North Island series in Wanganui. So, it's a year since I did my first downhill race there (Click here to read about it), it's going to be cool to go back and see how I go! Hopefully it doesn't rain this time...

Reviving an ole favourite

2008-09-29T17:21:00.005+13:00

On the weekend I rebuilt my Diamondback Voyager as a singlespeed. I've been meaning to do it for years - this bike was my only mountain bike from 1998 until late 2006, and has done everything from my first xc MTB race to cycle touring in France to a stint as a courier bike in London.

I've used lots of nice, lightweight parts off my xc race bike (which was being neglected, and is now dissolved....) and she's a thing of beauty. I had my first test ride today, and at 32:16 gear ratio it's fun at Makara while still challenging to keep cranking up steep sections. I was going to gear it down, but I might stick with it like that to push myself!

Still haven't heard about my excting new bike prospect... I'm now having dreams about it! Freaky!

Pssst! There may be a new ride, in my very near future...

2008-09-23T17:22:00.002+12:00

I'm in the very exciting part of maybe getting a new bike, through a maybe very exciting arrangement... Hopefully what I hope will happen, will happen - but if not, I have a contingency plan, that still involves a new bike! Though not as quite as flash, or as soon....

So I've been very unproductive work-wise today, and have mostly spent my time gathering good advice from people I know, and looking at bike porn. Mmmmmm **** **** ****s! Sorry, that part is censored for now :P

Watch this space - all will be revealed soon!

End of couriering, start of something way better....

2008-09-22T13:43:00.003+12:00

I've started a new job, writing and researching content for an Austrian company creating an online tool for filmmakers to find the most appropriate ways to promote their films.... Sound confusing? The most important part for this blog about my racing, is that this means I can work whenever, from wherever. Freedom! A job that works around my riding! I'm stoked.

But for this month, I'm still couriering, and doing my new job as well. It's pretty full on, trying to fit both in as well as ride and do normal social things. Also my courier company is having increasing problems with everything from staff behaviour (not mine!) to our communications devices playing up to our pay being delayed. Today, everyone's monthly pay is 4 days late and ALL the comms devices have gone down. It's chaos out there... I'm so glad I've already given my notice! Only 9 working days to go, woo!

Mudbuster DH - And car troubles!

2008-09-02T13:19:00.003+12:00

Through the wonders of Vorb I managed to get two people to share my journey to Rotorua for this race - Vee, a friend I ride with, and another girl who was just getting a lift to visit her parents up there.

Unfortunately for them (and more so for me I guess) my car broke down just north of Hunterville - the clutch had started doing strange things just out of Welly and continued to get worse until we were barely moving! Thanks to a friendly AA towie, the awesome guys at the Hunterville pub, and Intercity Coaches for making an unscheduled stop and not even charging us for the huge bikes and hastily packing gear we shoved into their storage compartment at 10 to 12 at night, we still got to Vegas.

So we made it to Rotorua at 4.30am, to stay with Alice who would also be doing the race. The next day I stocked up on redbull and after about 3 hrs sleep was out doing shuttles to practice the track. It wasn't nearly as wet as expected, and I was running mud tyres, but sticking with SPD pedals (which I prefer, but will run flats in really bad conditions). Practice day was ok, I was holding back a lot due to lack of sleep and knowing my reaction times were down. It was a great day for riding though, and I didn't feel nearly as tired as expected. Vee had fun on the jumps track, but popped lots of spokes on her rear wheel and wouldn't be able to ride for the next day.

Race day - Also a beautiful day, although the track was still soft enough for mud tyres to be a good idea. Alice and I knew it was going to be a close race between us - we raced here before and I won, but that was ages ago, and she's had a new bike and a lot of practice on her local track since then! Riding together we are very close in speed down the track, neither of us can lose the other if they are following behind. I had another go at doing a drop I knew would save me time but ended up having a big crash, so crossed that off my list. Alice and I would be doing almost identical lines down the hill... it was going to be tight! This doesn't happen that often in women's DH because the fields are so small it's unlikely the competitors will be so similar in speed. And it's even more fun when you're mates!

Anyway, first run - clean but conservative. I felt I was getting really puffed, and resolved afterwards to do more sprints practice. Alice went first and had a clean run too, and we weren't sure who was faster, but managed to sneak a look over the timer's shoulder - Alice had beaten me by about 8 seconds. Second run was better, but when I got to the bottom, something was going on - it turned out Alice's run hadn't been timed properly, and she may have to do another. After a lot of calculating, we worked out that my second run had probably still been slower than Alice's but only by a second or two. Alice decided to go and do another run, despite being tired, and put in an even better time. Legend!!

So overall, a good start to next season's build up. Alice may be racing pro level at this years Nationals too, which would be wicked - it's great to have competition to make yourself take that little bit more risk, and pick the hardest lines you can!

Vee and I had to take Monday off work to bus back to Hunterville and reclaim my car once it was fixed. My poor lil 'Rolla, I guess it will never make it as a shuttle wagon if this is what happens after reversing up a hill with a loaded trailer of furniture when we moved house last week!

Getting started again - 2009 season, bring it on!

2008-08-28T13:10:00.003+12:00

So this weekend is the Mudbuster DH in Rotorua. I'm kinda nervous - I have some new springs in my forks though, my bike is riding well, I've been learning to ride with flat pedals and Marzocchi Bomber shoes so I'm not stuck with clips if it's really muddy.

So I went out riding this afternoon. I managed to bribe my sister to drive me to do carparts/rollercoaster/that-track-that's-all-rooty(not backdoor), which was fun in the wet. The rooty part was really hard, I was losing the bike all over the place first run and getting frustrated, but by second run I was already improving and could have kept at it for hours! Unfortunately it gets dark early still. Bring on daylight savings.

Winter....

2008-07-22T13:02:00.002+12:00

It's winter. Couriering is going ok, I'm starting to get a little sick of the rain and the cold, but more sick of people helpfully telling me my job must suck whenever the weather is slightly unpleasant. In my less sociable moments I inform them I'd still rather my bike job than their desk job. Which is true....

I have a releif rider who covers for me one afternoon a week - we are private contractors, so any time off we have to pay someone to cover for us. It works out ok though - he earns money for me, I pay him, and go off and ride a real bike. Awesome!

I have been jumping a lot too...

Trip to (Roto)Vegas!

2008-05-22T14:48:00.004+12:00

A disaster happened - I sent my forks away to be fixed and the bloody couriers managed to dent them on the way back, putting a hole right through the lowers of my Fox 40's! Gutted! Fortunately, their insurance will pay, and Blueshark are sending me new lowers ASAP. Unfortunately, no DH bike for the trip to Rotorua.

So I took my trail bike and it was soooo worth it. We spent the whole weekend riding the jumps track anyway, and it was perfect for that. The jumps track is amazing - I kept count at one stage, and I got air 112 times in one run. It was also wicked to be doing sets of tables where I'm cleanly making the landings instead of casing stuff. Felt awesome. And my bike even handled an eipc over-jump of one of the big tables where I went sailing stratght past the landing and landed into the takeoff of the next jump - ow, for me, but no damage done.

Hayley and Caro had come too, and were having a wicked time - Hayley's new Bighit was getting well used and loving the jumping.

Caro, Hayley, and me

Getting back to Couriering

2008-04-10T11:54:00.001+12:00

I've started back as a courier - shadowing another rider for a couple fo days this week. Fark I love being out on the road - getting amongst the traffic, racing for deadlines, sprinting around... so much better than my desk job! I can't wait to get back to it fulltime. And Welly couriering is so much more fast-paced and sprinty than London - will be great for DH!

I'm riding a flat-bar road bike for it. It's going pretty well - it's quick, but it doesn't like stairs!

The Super Double D Cup

2008-04-07T10:41:00.002+12:00

So after a lot of orgnaising and a week of worrying if I'd remembered to organise everything that needed to be organised, it was finally the 5 April - Super Double D Cup Day! The forecast was a bit crap, but as it wasn't raining when I got up it was all go, and I headed out to set up the finish area and await the arrival of competitors.

It started raining on the drive out to the tracks and didn't stop ALL day. My first stop was the supermarket to buy plastic bags to keep the trophies and the hired radios safe and dry. People began arriving, and every one of the volunteers who said they would come did - thanks guys! And we had a good turn out of competitors too, and just enough shuttle space that no-one had to wait at the bottom too long.

Mel, who came all the way from Christchurch, BEFORE the mud!

People hanging out between runs

The atmosphere was pretty chilled out and fun, which was the whole point really! The tracks got torn up a bit but I was pretty impressed that nearly half of the entrants gave the more difficult track (Deliverance) a try despite the weather. Due to everyone getting cold, we wrapped it up early with timed runs, and gave out the hand-crafted disgutingly girly trophies.

Trophies. Piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiink! OMG!!1
Zoe, fastest down the Salvation track

It was a mint day, I can't wait to run it AGAIN!! Thanks to everyone who helped out, especially Mike from the Wellington Mountain Bike Club. And all the marshalls who stood out in the rain. You're awesome!

Oceanias - A Return to Kaka Hill, Nelson

2008-03-16T23:42:00.001+13:00

Ok so last nationals race report. Oceanias!

I was kinda in two minds about whether to go to occies because it seemed to be more for the pros, but a chance to ride with Dawn some more, and Amanda Pearce also (the third time the three of us have been the whole Senior Women field) and check my riding progress with another run at the Nelson track was too tempting.

I was feeling pretty good about my riding after the skills course and lots of fun on the bike last week, and was looking forward to it once I'd organised all the annoying logistics of getting there.

We went and watched 4x on the friday when I arrived, I was only vaguely wishing I was riding as it didn't look as bad as the wellington track to roll through, but the riders didn't seem to like it much so I was happy to sit back with a beer and talk to people. Dawn was telling me we ony had 1 1/2 hrs of practice the next day as it was seeding in the PM and I should've been there for slow practice, but fortunately I found out this wasn't the case. Phew!!! But better to make a mistake about that this time around not when I'm actually racing seriously...

Practice day, I got there early to register on the day, and found out rumours have spread about the Super Double D Cup. Grrreat!!! I got number 300 (THIS IS SPARTA!!!) and headed off up on the shuttles to face the demon that is Kaka Hill. First run - felt pretty good, I was way more in control of the bike with better body position, and Sheryl cruised past showing me a good line through a bit I knew I needed to sort out. Chur!

The track hadn't changed much from last time it seemed, although the overall times showed it had gotten a bit quicker somehow. We had seeding at 3, which was my 6th run for the day, and I was feeling really really good on the bike by this stage, I was charging through stuff at speeds I never would've let myself go at before, and feeling totally in control of the bike even on madly rough off-camber stuff (most of the track...) and my seeding felt like the best I'd riden a bike, ever. Which is a pretty amazing feeling. I had no crashes or dabs, and had been hoping this weekend to maybe, at a stretch, take 30seconds off my time from Nationals. When the time came up on the board I couldn't beleive it - I was 45 seconds quicker, and only 1.6 seconds behind Dawn who had also had a perfect run, and well ahead of Amanda, the other local rider who had won the nationals round here. So stoked!

Race day, and we only had an hour and a half of practice, so two runs each. I wasn't feeling very confident of repeating my performance from the day before, my hands were sore and I wasn't modulating my brakes very well in practice and riding pretty loose. Then we had hours to wait untill race runs at 1.30, during which time we watched the short course xc'ers, the standout of whom was some little guy on a BMX who podiumed in the juniors I think!!

So race run, I just tried to really focus on how I was riding and letting Vin (my Glory DH0) do his thing and stay centred on the bike, I kept finding my hands were getting so tired I almost couldn't be bothered braking as it hurt so I'd just come into sections waaaaay too hot but it would all be sweet, I had heaps more control than I was used to, without so much brake.

I overshot a rolldown/drop thing in the very top section as I hadn't braked at all and flat-landed, bottoming out the suspension with a weird noise causing the watching groms to go 'ooooh, hucker!' (most people would have pre-jumped if they were going that fast). I also got bucked off the back in another section as I'd been riding over a tree stump which had suddenly been knocked out leaving a great big hole which I hit already going too fast. I was desperate to keep hold of the bike though and didn't let go of the bars, just ended up kinda running behind till I stopped it, then jumping back on!

The rest of the run was great, super controlled even at speeds that kept shooting me off things I ddn't even think were jumps. My time, despite the running off the bike thing, was a second faster than my seeding time. W00T! I got called to the hotseat at the finish as I'd beaten Amanda's time, I'd just got to it and was looking for Dawn when Charlotte came through. Dawn must've crashed... I waited getting really worried, it was like over a minute, Dawn crashes a lot but usually just gets up and still wins...

(Me looking VERY worried in the hotseat!)

After ages she came down the track and I gave Charlotte the hotseat so I could run off and see she was ok, which she was apart from having a roll in some gorse, and a couple of other crashes. Dawn doesn't do well under pressure, hopefully something she'll sort out before next season, as she's crashed in every single race run this year!!

I was stoked to take the win as I felt I'd been riding brilliantly (for me) and that makes it really satisfying. It was a great way to end the season as it showed how much I've improved, and my times were within the pro field times, which bodes well for next year....

Unfortunately, back at the motorcamp I knocked my glass trophy mug off the car and it smashed Oh well, at least my win is on the internet!

National Championships

2008-02-26T00:18:00.001+13:00

Practice day - was basically just a fun day of riding, mostly did runs with Dawn, I wasn't hitting any more of the jumps, just focusing on getting my lines really really dialled, and was feeling good riding. The track was great too, good conditions and not too windy on the top jumps. Good news for Karen who took out the xc nationals - she'd come second at every SI series round and finally got a win, awesome!!

Race day - WIND, wellington-stylz! We had a couple of practice runs, and only a couple of the resource consent jumps were off the menu for me, all the other jumps I was hitting were ok, although one drop threatened to be affected by a crosswind. I was feeling alright coming into seeding but not super-good.

Seeding - no crashes and I seeded second ahead of Amanda and six seconds behind Dawn. I felt I could have done better though and was adamant I could close that six seconds! In my race run, it was even more windy and I got blown off course (into the tape) straight out of the start gate and had to brake a lot before the uphill section, slowing me up. The rest of my run was fantastic though, one of those real riding euphoria moments where you just feel like you're totally doing exactly what you want to be doing, and doing it well, and it feels great! Dawn had an off on the tricky off-camber jump, but still came in 2 seconds quicker than me.

A few beers and some pizza at my flat and we got to share nats stories before Dawn and Karen headed back south. I've definitley met a lot of really choice people this year from riding, it's awesome.

The step-up thanks to Pete (Vert Photo), you can get more of a sense of the jump up if you tilt your screen until the people are actually vertical...

Highs and Lows of racing - a very intense 12 hours!

2008-02-22T23:38:00.001+13:00

So, Finally the Long Gully track has re-opened for slow practice, and I head out there in the morning along with Dawn who has come up from Nelson and is staying in her van in the vicinity of my house somewhere... We have a few runs and it's all going great, until this one jump (Dan's Double?) that I won't do as it breaks my don't-do-it-if-you-can't-come-up-short-and-survive rule that I'm sticking with this season. Trying to charge the nana line (a flat corner) I go down in one of those high-speed BAM! crashes that you don't even see coming, winding myself badly, bruising my ribs, and getting a good dose of whiplash in my neck when my helmet hit the ground hard, smashing off the visor.

I decided it was the last run of the day, and last crash for my already-battered helmet. I headed into town to try to get a new one for not-too-much-$$, and Burke's sorted me out with a great deal on a purrdy 661 carbon one. Nice! For some reason, retail therapy made me feel better about racing 4x....

I headed to the new 4x track, and had some practice. A crowd was gathering, with Dawn, Caro, and other friends turning up, as well as Karen from south island xc, who brought me some delicous dinner (yay!)

By race time the crowd was huge, and there were only 3 of us in women's dual slalom for some reason. The guy's heats took aaages and ended up being cut, but they let me and Emma race for 3rd spot, before I went up against Amy Laird for the win and lost, crashing in the final run on the top hairpin.

In the 4x, the final (based on the fastest seedin times of the people enterred) was me, Amy, Harriet, and Lene Fruwirth the Austrian - three pro-elite downhillers. I didn't like my chances! I'd been watching some major carnage in the men's heats and didn't fancy another crash, so my tactic was to stay out of harm's way.

I got last lane option being slowest seeded, and was on the far right (outside line for the first berms). We had to balance in the gate, which I practiced up against a van beforehand to make sure I wouldn't fall over with a crowd watching, and we seemed to be holding the pose forever in the steep starting gate before they finally dropped it.

The others pedalled into the berm and I held back having seen that this was one of the main crash spots, and sure enough Amy came over the inside berm wiping out Lene from right in front of me. Trying to ride through between Lene and her bike I accidently bumped into her and stopped, but managed to get going again through the rythm section. Harriet was way ahead - but I was faced with riding the whole track, unable to jump the jumps and expecting to get a flying pro-dher in the back of the head at any second! I was absolutely crapping myself and pedalling frantically, braking to jolt through the jumps, and swearing away in my fullface while frantically looking over my shoulder.

Amy nearly caught me at the last jump and had she jumped it she would've gotten ahead, but I was in the way (a perfectly legal tactic in 4x). Crossing the line in second I was ecstatic and on such an adrenaline high from the rush of it all, and wooped and danced around much to the amusement of the sound crew (not many of the audience could see that area). Super stoked!

And super exhausted. I was very happy to get me and my bike home, for a good sleep before the practice day for the real race...

Here's a clip of the race on TV, the women's final crash is at the end: http://www.tv3.co.nz/Video/MountainbikingColetakesout4crosschamps/tabid/317/articleID/47106/cat/70/Default.aspx?articleID=47106#video

Jumping is harder than it looks.... As is racing

2008-02-20T23:29:00.001+13:00

So the boys have built a 4x/dual slalom track and it's a be-arch. I can't make any of the doubles, and instead case EVERYTHING, banging my way around, or slow down dramatically to try to pump through stuff that is DEFINITELY not made for pumping :(

I'm getting really exhausted too, so much work, so much racing, I'm getting some kind of burnout thing happening. As much fun as it all is, I can see why people need a rest. I've taken a couple of days off work because I'm a bit of a wreck and only juuuust hanging on from getting sick - you know how when you get tired it seems like a cold/flu is hovering over you waiting to strike? Well one is looming... and I have so much riding to do.

I need a break after national champs!

4x and dual slalom for nationals? Should be fun!

2008-02-19T23:24:00.001+13:00

So after doing the Dual Slalom, I'm enterring the 4x and dual slalom for nationals. They haven't even built the track yet, but it should be fun. Like BMX on big bikes! And enterring random nationals events hasn't gone wrong so far....

Winning by default is LAME, coming last with competition is more fun!

2008-02-18T22:58:00.001+13:00

So I did end up heading to Dome Valley, Auckland for the final of the North Island Downhill Series. I knew that while we'd had a decent number of women at each race down south, there had been almost none in the North Island DH rounds, so I stood a reasonable chance of a series podium just for showing up!

I travelled up with Hamish, a Masters category guy who I met doing the SI rounds. We checked out the course the day before and I was looking forward to learing a particular gap jump and a drop that were in the course, and it seemed it would be a fun track. Hamish doing a jump

Unfortunately it poured overnight. And being clay, it became a mudslide. I had mudtyres but it was terrible, worse than my first race in Wanganui. You'd just be riding along and then suddenly, you'd be facing the other way and having a quick lie down! Most people weren't even attempting the steep top section, and those that were made a train of crashes into the trees there.

A guy was handing out flyers at the carpark for a Dual Slalom event that evening, on a track he assured us was dry. So after just three runs we knocked the huge lumps of mud off our bikes, hosed them at the campground, and headed to Maraitai for Dual.

The track was great fun - a series of berms with a couple of biggish doubles at the end, and four women were competing for it (Me, Harriet Harper, Jenna Macgill who I knew from that first Wanganui race and Abby, a local rider on a nice little hardtail). We got a lo of practice and for the actual comp, Abby and I quickly got beaten by the other two, and then raced for third. It was REALLY close, and in the second run I knew all I had to do to take it was actually jump the double at the end.... but it was too big and I couldn't bring myself to. Bugger! It was wicked fun though, and go Jenna for beating guys in the semis!

The race day for the DH was not so fun, the mud was still there, and there rain was intermittent in the morning, so I didn't practice as I hoped it would dry out as the forecast said. It did, but I barely knew the course in either my race or seeding runs, and rode terribly! Also, I was the only senior women, so was lacking in motivation to take any risks. Winning an entire series by default was actually really disatisfying, and kinda made a mockery of all the effort I put into placing second in the south island series :(

DH 4 lyf bol

2008-02-15T00:09:00.001+13:00

Ok so after a bit of thought (not THAT much, to be honest) I've decided to just do downhill for National Champs. It's what I really want to carry on with, xc requires too much serious attention to diet and heart rate and other things that don't interest me. Learning to jump and do skids - now that sounds like fun! Obviously there's fitness and nutrition aspects to DH but I prefer them as a minimal part of what I have to focus on, with ridng skills being what it's all about.

Speaking of riding skills, I FINALLY made the long gully step-up! Woohoo! I went shuttling with Dave & friends, who I met at the skills area ages ago and who talked me into doing the middle drop when I was terrified of it. He's great at explaining how to do things without the typical guy-lines of 'it's sweet, just roll in and hit it'. It took a few goes but I finally made it right to the top, perfectly. STOKED!!!

Looping Out

2008-02-11T21:29:00.001+13:00

I checked out the Long Gully Nats track last night. I like it, a LOT. It's gonna be a great test of my learning-to-jump project (which I'll be working on intensively for the next ten days down south for brake burner).

There's one bit that's doing my head in, I tried it 3 times yesterday, twice didn't have enough speed and the third time.. it all got very messy! Basically it's the new pig chute which isn't really a chute, just a bloody steep hill, into another steep hill that you ride UP and into a kicker which pops you the last 3m or so over the top. If you don't make it you fall back down (well just into the hillside, would suck on raceday but it's fine for practicing and getting it wrong). The charging UP something so steep and then hitting a kicker just feels so insane, when I hit the slope all my suspension gets compressed, then when I hit the kicker it fires me almost backwards and I roll back in the air ('loop out' according to my riding buddy yesterday, who swore it wouldn't happen!)

I'm not sure how to manage this and am asking people for advice. At the moment I'm mostly thinking 'AAAAAHHH!!!!' when riding into it because it's so fast and looks insane, with a bit more practice I might actually get some technique and thought into it! I'm planning to go ride up that chute on the mt vic xc course over and over today till I get air out of it, just to get used to the crazy G-forces and how to best weight my bike coming into stuff like that....

Here's a High Quality Scientific Diagram of my dilema:

Brake Burner, and other madness

2008-02-06T16:37:00.006+13:00

Caro and I went on a massive mission to the south again for Brake Burner, and to ride - LOTS. We spent a couple of days checking out Coronet first, some time at Seven Mile forest, and a lot of time at Sticky Forest. Very cool place to ride! There were lots of little doubles and cool switchback/bridge things.

We also checked out Dirtpark and I found it fun but my riding was somehwere in the middle of what the two tracks catered for. It will be awesome next year when I can clear all the big jumps in the harder track.

Brake Burner itsel was awesome. It rained the day before, so I was very worried it would be a mudfest, but it wasn't too bad, just a little tacky. The track was awesome - such good fun, and getting to do it over and over was fantastic. I had few problems with congestion being somewhere towards the middle/faster end of the field helped, as did being polite :P I wore armour and a full face and kneepads, while a lot of people didn't... and a few paid the price fairly gruesomely! I would go without the armour next time I think. It was a bit too hot!

I finished up second solo women (by one lap, I completed 14) and Caro 3rd with 12 laps. This was a pretty good effort really! I was stoked, and looking forward to next time... but totally exhausted:

My last (ever?) XC Nationals Race

2008-01-21T21:43:00.001+13:00

The Vulcaniser was COOL!!! I didn't go so well in the race, wasn't really feeling the vrrrrmVRRRRRRM yesterday but ah well. Sara and Karen were absolutely going for it to take the series (we were all equal on points) and I was dithering a bit...

Was great having lots of people cheering, go the Vorbettes (even if it took me 3 laps to recognise you Scatter) My dad did the race too, and as they didn't have a sport class so he just entered M50 (Old Farts, as he put it) and won Fastest Old Fart. Go dad!!

Spectating the pro-elites was wicked too, me and DirtDiva heckled from various points and saw a big crash when a junior guy hit a tree and exploded his front wheel. And we made lots of noise for Lisa at the drop especially: 'YAY! GO! NOSE MANUAL!!! AAAWwww nah that wasn't a long nose manual....'

I was VERY pleased afterwards to crack open a beer having completed all of South Island Nationals. HOOORAY!!!! And the best bit: Damage to bikes = nada, damage to me = nada, and it was more fun in a lot of ways than travelling the world last year IMO

Post Series Buzz - Cross Country or Downhill for Champs?

2008-01-14T22:26:00.001+13:00

I'm uber stoked about my results. Almost can't beleive it. I was quite prepared to be last overall in every DH race, and I was PASSING people!!

I'm really happy to come second in the DH series, Dawn (who came first) has been told she MUST go pro next year if she wants to race nationals (which will mean a serious lifestyle change for her!), so I'm glad to have the choice - I could apply to go up if I want. Pros get a lot more practice and have prize money in DH, but it's still a big gap between my times and midfield of the pro women... Not too sure I want to be bumped up in XC at ALL, that would mean a big change in my approach to training, but I still want to get another win in the series, so we'll just see what happens at the Vulcaniser! Oh and Mt Vic national champs. IF I do it. It clashes with DH practice day....

Dirt Park and Nelson rounds of DH Nationals

2008-01-14T22:09:00.001+13:00

I'm back in the shop in Golden Bay, SUPER stoked with DH nationals. I managed to ride the Nelson track pretty well in the end I caught up to Dawn when she was crashing in seeding and crashed off to avoid her, then NEARLY made my race run clean and crashed in the second to last berm because I was listening to the announcements and not concentrating on the track (DOH!!!!) but was fine and finished 3rd of 4. Was a really competitive top 3, great fun! I came second in the series overall, pretty mint for a first try!

The wanaka round was great, I didn't like the track at first till I started hitting the road gaps and realised it was the first track I'd ridden wihout using any nana lines! I had a great seeding run, and was having a mint race run until I washed out in a berm and got back on my bike wihout checking my handlebars, had to stop again and straighten them then ride the rest with another competitor close behind me and my bars still crooked so I couldn't hit the gaps or I wouldn't have my wheel pointing straight on landing!

Aside from the racing, I've truly had the BEST time, a lot like overseas travel - you're charging around, no money, not much sleep, and just meeting so many cool people in the same boat. The DH crowd was huge, and really friendly an chilled out! I think you need to learn to be pretty relaxed about things to deal with DH racing - it's all over so fast and the races are make or break on such tiny margins. It's madly addictive though! I'm already lining up transport options for Auckland round of NI DH, and maybe Oceanias to race this Nelson track again - in the end I really liked it!

Two of the pro women were out with injury in Nelson, Emma with a hurt leg from getting blown off in Wanaka, Kelly also hurt her knee on race day practicing with me - I was showing her a line me and Dawn were doing (which looked like a step down but could be rolled even at speed) but she was starting off on steep loose stuff and slipped over and landed on her leg funny, injuring her cruciate ligament again (she thinks). There were a lot of injured people by the end! Even Scarlet Hagen got taken to hospital - totally nailed herself on the last gap jump in Nelson and broke a tooth I think!

Me at Dirtpark in Wanaka.

Dawn at Dirtpark My mad roadtrip buddy Eric on his hardtail Surly.

Coronet Peak - South Island National DH round 1, and xc round 2

2008-01-06T22:04:00.001+13:00

Just got time for an update from an internet cafe in Wanaka. I'm a bit sunburnt. Oh noes!

I'm honestly have the time of my life on this road trip. So many cool people, such cool rides and such a beautiful part of nz. So for those of you who said doing both xc and and dh would be insane you were right when it's back to back race days like today. I was so shattered last night I couldn't even walk straight let alone think about what to eat for dinner, or how to find all my belonings in the van.

So the DH - SUCH a sweet track! The easist I've raced so far, just lots of doubles that I wasn't clearing so a bit rough on the landings there, and lots of big berms to rail. Fun! Practice day was awesome, I just wanted to ride and ride and ride but my braking fingers were giving out and I knew I was knackered.

Race day I had two practice runs and they were pretty good, in seeding I was second behind Dawn who's a super cool chick from Nelson, who has no gloves and no armour or goggles but rides like a demon. Unfortunately she had gotten the time wrong to turn up that morning and had no practice and ended up crashing in her race run, while I had a good clean run and beat my seeding time so took the win over her and Shannan. She was pretty gutted! But she will HOPEFULLY not do that again, and the last round is her home track. Then we (Dawn &I) watched the elites till prizegiving in the hot hot sun which probably didn't help the exhaustion levels, and did some x-treme downhill walking to get back down!

Today was xc, I knew I was shattered on the inside but actually felt ok on the start. I had forgotten my Replace and was too broke to buy a whole new thing of it, so mixed up a she'll-be-right haphazard concoction of raro and salt. On the start line we figured out that all the women there were going to podium (there were less than 3 in each category, only 60 people for xc compared to 280 for DH!!) so I knew I was sweet for series points as long as I didn't DNF. I felt ok for the first few minutes, holding off Karen, then went down VERY quickly into a shuddering whining wreck. I nearly gave up at one point, stopped and looked at the view thinking 'ah bugger it I'll just wait for Sara to lap me then I'll be fresher tomorrow for more DH' but got bored with walking and ended up carrying on riding. Anyway, the downhill of the course was really mint. Bring on brake burner!

So I came last/third and did a very waffly podium speech thanking the Quiet Revolution Cycle Shop and the organisers and Charlotte Clouston who's a junior (14 years old!) and did the DH and the XC and kicked my arse in both, so I knew I couldn't quit if she was still out there ahead of me! She's a frikken legend, she won her category, and she must have been shattered too.

Sweet, so Wanaka round of DH is next. Will be time to start hitting stuff, I wasn't doing ANY drops or jumps in round 1 as I didn't want to crash at all (crashes make me twice as exhausted!!) Nats road trip is seriously so much fun. Yay for meeting more Vorbettes too (Scatter and MissChaff) - cool to put faces to names at last and see you in Nelson/next round.

Arrowsmith XC race - A great start to xc season - will doing DH just ruin it?

2007-12-10T22:35:00.001+13:00

It was a very hard race, the most brutal I've done with mean long climbs (the initial one was 1hr10 for me, roughly) jagged rocks giving everyone pinch flats, and a howling nor-wester that made your mouth feel like it had been swabbed out with cotton wool even in warmup. The scenery was beautiful though - a gorgeous lake set in stunning mountains.

I actually made most of my gains on the climb at the start - off the start line I started at the back and quickly found myself at the front of the senior and non-series pack looking at a rapidly expanding gap between us and the pros drafting into the wind. I took a gamble and sprinted up to them - someone else tried to come too but didn't make it - but it backfired when we turned into a steep climb sooner than I thought and almost everyone passed me.

After a short while I started passing them back and by the top was in the lead (although I ddin't realise as we had started all together and I didn't know who was pro and who wasn't). I was playing swapsies with Nicole Swaine for a bit, but she took off on the flat while I was finding out that my seat was a bit high for rough flat pedalling!

After a few imaginary finish line experiences (I knew we came over a hill to the line, I kept expecting to see it on every crest but there were just more hills) we finally came over a hill and saw... nothing. No finish line, no lake, just flat farm land... but a tiny shimmer of water in the distance. The last several K's were a brutal slog into the wind again over slightly rolling rough paddocks. VERY hard work.

When I finished the announcers ddn't call anything, and when some confusion arose over my placing (some friends of Kazza_C were saying I won, but I wasn't convinced, and asked the organisers who told me I was 4th which was fine with me but I thought I had beaten at least one of the higher placed women...) I got worried they had mistaken me for a rec rider. I'm still not sure what happened, they announced Karen as the winner as she crossed the line (confused her too!) but I was down as first place when I queried it again!

I was VERY happy, I had been quite happy with fourth too (I was happy with my ride and knew I hadn't been embarassingly slow) so... It's still sinking in that I won, really. Hmm, so what now... I guess I should make the most of the good start to the series and not muck it all up playing DH too much right now. But... my new bike, it's sooo purrrdy!

And yes, this race and all the headwind stuff was the FIRST time I have ever thought 'Hmmm maybe lycra would be of slight benifit right now...'

The 'podium': from left, Karen Collins, Me, and Sara Taylor

First Cross Country Nationals - Feeling pretty good!

2007-12-07T22:31:00.001+13:00

Alright, I'm off down south with Dad to this first round of xc nats. Ooh scary...

Feeling pretty good about my fitness though, I did my first sub-30 tip track last week. Woot! Still, it sounds like a big race, being an 'adventure' format rather than a Olympic style lap race.

Still, not sure what to expect. Presumably, a lot of lycra.... I don't do lycra.

New bike, new springs...

2007-12-07T21:14:00.001+13:00

I'm down in Golden Bay at the shop, and was extremely excited that my new bike arrived before I did! Was a lot of fun putting it together, although it's the flashest bike ever to come in to the Quiet Revolution, and the first to have triples (we don't do much high-end stuff in these parts!) So we're a bit unsure what to do with the excessive steerer spacers for now...

My first ride on my new bike wasn't the ideal experience, the stock springs are waaay too hard. I get about 10mm of sag in them, when it should be between 30mm and 50mm. I would prefer closer to the max squishiness as I don't do mega hukz yet, and my skillz are rubbish. We'll see. Better get offline, go to shop, then head off down south for my first cross country race...

Here's a pic of the new bike, named Vin, after a certain mega-buff Mr Deisel!

Rotorua AKDH race - My first series done - and won?!

2007-12-03T21:23:00.001+13:00

So, I have now done my first DH series, and it was helluva good time! I learnt HEAPS and still have HEAPS AND HEAPS AND HEAPS etc etc to learn but dam it's a cool thing to spend a weekend doing. I can't wait to get my new bike....

The Rotorua DH track was pretty cool, Caro came to do the race as well and after the huge confidence boost I got at the last race from just riding the whole course straight up, we did just that - managed to ride the lot first go with a few stops to look down bits but not much. After another good run we worked our way through all the challenging sections to see if we talk about the best lines (for our putt-putt stylz, so not the mad hukz lines everyone else was doin) and that was cool. Caro crashed though and proceeded to crash in each subsequent run in different bits, which made her pretty sore by day's end!

At one point we were stopped on the track, and a whole load of top guys came through, it's INSANE how fast they go, the ground shakes, and they were pulling moves like pre-jumping this quite sharp kicker at the bottom of one setction - wo!! Anyway next day we both did one practice run and then Caro stuck to one race run, which she did clean, and I did two and had a crash on my second which only seemed to fill me with more adrenaline and I had a great rest of my run, and hit this drop that I had been needlessly wary of, so I was stoked.

A local rider had signed up on the day (they still had places) and Gabby Molloy was doing it too, so there were 4 of us open women - the biggest field yet! Now here's the silly part. With all my un-co baby-DH stylz and nana lining, I won the series, as I was the ONLY woman to do 3 races (I came 2nd in all of them). Caro came 2nd in the series because she was the only other open woman at the last round to be registered for series points - we had both registerred for them because the Rotorua race was limited numbers, and being registered for the series gauranteed you a spot. The third place trophy wasn't claimed - Suck! Someone's Dad put a lot of effort into making those out of old chainrings!

Anyway, my 2c from this - DH is great fun, it doesn't matter if you are arse at it as long as you ride to your limits, and ANYone with a vaguely suitable bike should give it a go! There's no reason why you can't do DH at a participation level, the same approach as people have with XC or road races when they are just aiming to finish as a personal challenge. I even became oblivious to the groms by race 3, and there are some really cool people to chat to as well. I find it really weird that we have some of the BEST DH women in the world yet there's very little base level of the sport coming to competitions?

I don't think I'll ever be really good at DH, but I'm gonna keep doing it coz it's great fun - and I'll help pad out the numbers!! Mmmmmmm new bike in 2 days....

It's New Bike Time!

2007-11-28T21:02:00.001+13:00

AAAAAH!! Dad just ordered the LAST 2008 Giant Glory DH0 in stock in NZ right now, with 15% discount. He decided it was the best value for money of any bikes he can get through the shop.

Wooty Wooty Wooty WOOOO!!!!

As Dad pointed out, even though it's not as cool-looking as some other brands(or Gucci, as he puts it - anything flash or exotic is 'Gucci') atleast it comes with flash components so I can change the frame later if I want to.

Apparently I'm not allowed to cover up the Giant labelling tho, since they gave me a discount. So there goes my short-lived kustomization plans...

So I'll keep my Disco Monkey, and put it's freeride forks back on, and that's my trail bike. Anyone wanna buy some 888's??

Oh my god I've done ZERO work today, just drool at bikes online!

Awesome Dad!

2007-11-28T20:59:00.001+13:00

One thing that was definitely a no-go for downhill nationals is my ailing 2002 K2 Disco Monkey. It won't handle much more hard riding.

I just called Dad at the Quiet Revolution Cycle Shop and tried to gently say 'uh... I'm thinking about maaaybe doing downhill nationals...' and he didn't freak out that I am going to seriously injure myself like I thought he would. In fact, he's really excited about it! And he is going to start looking around for a bike for me... WOOOOHOOOOO!!!

Maybe this DH racing thing is a bad idea.

2007-11-28T18:00:00.001+13:00

I've been talking to a lot of people about possibly doing DH nationals as well as cross country, with very mixed responses. It will be my first year of cross country as well, and I've been doing pretty well at it throughout the year.

But I'm not in it for the results, I'm in it for the riding and experience. I mean, even if I did win SI xc cup, that doesn't actually get me anything. Well not from how I understand it. And yeah it would be bad for my results if I did both - but I've hardly been doing DH for very long so it doesn't matter results wise there! The 'investment' (meaning money and effort) I see as being put towrds fun, like the money you'd spend on a holiday, so it's probably a good investment from that sense, unless it's way too hard and I just get laughed at :(

I really enjoy DH racing though, and I have such a truly epic summer of riding planned that the prsopect of more races just makes it even more exciting. But I also don't want to seem like I'm pretending I can actually win or do well at both, I'm defnitiely no John Kirkaldie.

Dare I even think about downhill nationals?

2007-11-27T20:50:00.001+13:00

Ok so I just happened to check out the when and where of SI cross country nationals, since I seem to be confusing everyone with WHAT nats I'm doing! I will have to be in Queenstown for round two, then will be heading back to nelson to go home to the bay... essentially, it would be very easy for me to get to the DH races.

Is this a REALLY REALLY DUMB idea or no? It would improve my riding, but be bad for my xc performance... but since I'm doing it all to check things out and am not TOO worried about how well I do, that doesn't matter much. I really WILL want to take it easy, for my body, my inexperience, and for my poor old Disco Monkey (which is now old enough to go to school - even in Australia!) The first track sounds good: http://www.bikenz.org.nz/Article.aspx?ID=24469

Jawbone Race - Rain again, but I got 5 seconds of fame...

2007-11-05T20:45:00.001+13:00

I done gots on the tele! http://www.tv3.co.nz/News/SportsNews/Story/tabid/415/articleID/38406/Default.aspx#top I got home just in time to catch it, but the flatties and I were laughing and shrieking too much to hear what I actually said, so will check it tomorrow at work (my dialup loaded the sound but not the picture, dammit!)

It was my funnest DH race ever (hur hur hur), shame that it rained because I was looking forward to riding the track LOTS today but only got one warmup and one race run. Ah well! Still learnt lots about drifting in the mud (and drifting in the dust too yesterday! That was more fun....) and am looking foward to heading up there sometime when it's not windy to session the top jumps. Fun times!

It wasn't nearly as exciting as last time being not a brand new thing, so I won't do a full race report. Crashing into a whole lot of gorse on my warmup was about the most eventful thing! I didn't crash at all yesterday which is lucky because it was super fast, and I had a clean race run. Managed to go reasonably quick and flowy but not as fast as in the dry! And everyone was really really friendly this time, more so than at Wanganui, I think some people recognise me from last time, and know that I'm not a total hard-out or some complete lunatic (and today they recognised me from the news!) Even a couple of the groms themselves talked to me, which was surprising because they never spoke a word to either me or Caro at the last race - on trips up on the shuttles we constantly felt like we had intruded on their turf and interupted some conversation that couldn't be continued in front of girls...

Good times anyway, I still felt like a newbie but was getting much more of that fully stoked riding feeling which is what it's all about for me! And the ingredients for that are a good track, a bike that works, and riding riding riding.

Next time, hopefully better weather will mean MORE riding!

Jawbone Race - Practice Day

2007-11-04T19:34:00.002+13:00

WOW!!! I have a new facourite Welly track! The course for the long gully race is super fun! And it mightn't be tooooo bad in the wet tomorrow either (if it rains like it's meant too).

The track is the newly built Jawbone track, with the 'resource consent' jumps first and some rutty 4wd at the end. It was very windy so the jumps were sketchy, but rollable without getting too much air! There's a little uphill right at the start that lots of the groms can't get up - muahaha! And there's one sketchy rocky little corner going into jawbone which was the only bit that made me go hmmmmmm a lot, still didn't find a fast way to do it.

The track map is here if you know the area: http://www.vorb.org.nz/ftopic-60170-days0-orderasc-0.html and they drilled out 'bastard rock' apparently!

I got interviewed by TV3, if you're watching the news tonight spot me (if they put it in....)

Chute me please!

2007-10-27T19:30:00.001+13:00

Feeling pretty good in the lead up to the next race. Had a great run down Ridgleine today, DH stylz!

And even better - I made it down the tricky chute in Deliverance today - FIRST TRY! AHAHAHAHA Sooooo stoked! I thought it would take a few goes, a bit of a session, y'know, talk myself into it, but I was just having one of those GREAT RIDING days and then my favourite ever downhilling song came on my mp3 player (which was on random) so I knew the Goddess of Ride was smiling on me and everything suddenly looked eeeeasy so I just rode it, along with the other hard bits! The only bits I DIDN'T make in the whole track where the last parts of the two longest pinch climbs, didn't quite make it up....

So, feeling about more confident now about facing Long Gully. Well kind of...

Lucky (Muddy) Last! Wanganui AKDH Race

2007-10-15T19:21:00.002+13:00

Ok, so that was HEAPS of fun! But it was also maaaajorly ‘the deep end’! Here’s a race report, it ended up being a bit long, sorry. Too much fun!

I had talked Caro into coming to Wanganui too to shuttle and ride even if she wasn’t keen to race, so we drove up on Friday, and made the most of not having to ride up hills fast the next day by drinking when we got there, something that has been missing from xc trips to Rotovegas! The weather was dodgey, meaning we didn’t stop at Kapiti as we’d planned, but it seemed like it was clearing. Our cabin was right between two families with bikes and teenage boys, which was to be a theme of the weekend…

Next morning (practice day) and we didn’t even have to get up early to make it to the very haphazardly organized shuttle day. The shuttles didn’t come till and hour after they were due, so much time was spent talking to other vorbers and Welly bikeshop boys and watching the groms argue about bikes. There were a lot of groms, very few guys seemed over 20, and when the shuttles came I soon understood why so many people detest the groms – they were pushing and shoving to get on and expecting everything to be done for them (bike stacking, putting mats between bikes etc) while they fight for places on the sides of the truck.

We got on the last truck and headed up (pretty sketchy sitting on the sides of a loaded truck charging up a hill…) and at the top waited for the others to go so we wouldn’t be mown over. The track wasn’t good. We had been told it was pretty cool with some steep sections, but apparently it had been changed. It was a series of mud pits at the top, then a short but steep muddy chute, lots of rutted muddy corners, into a ridgeline with some little jumps (the funnest part!) the down into trees with steep dirt into small berms. Then the real madness began, with a steep off camber section, follwed by a very steep bit with lots of short, rollable, but very soft little drops in deep topsoil stuff, followed by a big drop into a tight gap between trees with a corner that was also VERY steep.

We walked most of the first run, and a lot of it looked completely un-doable for me (and Caro too), and I was gutted and questioning WHY I had ever thought this was a good idea. We went back up though, and the second run rode quite a bit more. And with some advice, we found the nana line around the final drop (other steep sections had nana lines that were taped off, to make it ‘more challenging’).

By the end of the day, I had just two bits I couldn’t ride, the muddy chute (rollable on one line in theory, bit still freaking me out!) and the soft soil drops parts which I crashed trying and then was a bit scared of. I decided I would try them both the next day if I was feeling good and it was a bit drier. Everyone else was saying the course was far harder than expected, and spectators at the big drop were saying roughly half of those who tried it were crashing! It was stink I couldn’t ride it all, but I was having fun and pushing myself which is great, and I was SHATTERED by the end of the day!

The only other girl racing was Jenna (Don’t know her last name but someone will) who had just come back from Worlds and had decided at the last minute to come down with mates to do the race. They (and lots of others) were also staying at the same holiday park. After we’d had showers we got pizza and went to find a park to eat it at and just happened to end up at a park where lots of the groms were doing these HUUUGE dirt jumps which was pretty impressive actually.

Back at the holiday park groms were doing all kinds of things like chasing the park ducks, crashing the park’s 3 wheel buggies, riding their bikes on the air pillow… as one of their mum’s said, it’s amazing they’re allowed back each year!

Anyway, Saturday was a pretty nice day, but in the night it POURED. And the next morning it was nice then it POURED, then the sun shone then it POURED. This continued all day. The already muddy track was an absolute mess, and there were a lot less people for the actual race than the shuttle day. We did one warm up, and I’d decided I would only do one race run and spectate for the other run, but they cut it to one run for everyone because of the mess.

Jenna and I were seeded last (as Open Women) so we had a long wait in the cooooold rain and wind, but Jenna was clever enough to get mats (that they stack between the bikes on trailers) to shelter under so we were the warmest of all the shivering riders at the top! My race run was good comedy value, I had been sliding on my arse for much of the warmup run and in the race run I just did that again, but with feeling! But I rode the less steep parts, and Scatter’s speedway analogy made a lot of sense with the mad mud drifts (I didn’t have mud tyres).

I was laughing most of the way except the last bit where I decided to run my bike along a narrow slippery off camber path where there where lots of spectators and groms who had finished already shouting ‘aw go on just ride it’! They did cheer when I got back on though.

So I came last, but not by, y’know, half an hour or anything! I was 20seconds behind the next slowest rider I think. Which is fine by me, for a first race!! I was also second open woman, for which I got a mention at prizegiving (unlike a certain much larger xc event recently…), a bar of chocolate, and a purple certificate to put on the fridge, just like ones you get at school! Stoked!!!

After that we drove back to Wellington to do some ACTUAL riding at Makara (as opposed to my hydrosliding and Caro’s spectating) which was a complete WOOT, Ridgeline = pwn3d!!! Awesome weekend though, I’d totally do it again, it really can’t get much worse than that in terms of conditions and track difficulty (or so I’ve been told by fairly knowledgable sources), so presumably will be more fun next time? Oh and apart from a couple of bruises, and sorer muscles than after the Nduro 100, (seriously, DH is HARD!) I didn’t munt myself. Or my bike. Sweet!

1st Race Nerves

2007-10-13T19:10:00.001+13:00

I'm pretty nervous about this race, and am asking lots of dumb questions on Vorb to more experienced riders. I've learnt what 'cutties' are, and WHY you wear a DH top over your armour (although I'm not entrirely convinced). Another rider sold me one for a bargain $10, and my race gear is as pictured -

I'm not trying to do well in terms of results, at all. I just hope to get better from shuttling, and be able to make it down the whole course in the race (this is seriously my main aim, speed will come later...) and meet people and talk sh!t about DH all weekend!

We're leaving soon to drive to Wanganui, will be a muddy race by the looks of things, I don't have mud tyres, ah well. Good times! I will do a race report of my misadventures when I get back on Sunday.

Going in at the deep end...

2007-10-04T19:03:00.001+13:00

After some research and the help from the Vorbettes I've decided to head to Wanganui weekend after next and go in at the deep end... I've even convinced my regular riding buddy Caro. We are going to go up and do the shuttle day on the Saturday ($10 - good deal!) and then decide whether to race on the Sunday. Caro has a GT Idrive 5 and I have the Disco Monkey with 888's... should be fun!

Apparently the course is nice and has lots of good nana lines and nothing too mental And 'only small jumps' of 6m but thank f*k you can go round them!!

My first thoughts on racing. Maybe.

2007-10-03T18:58:00.001+13:00

So... I have a bike with tripplz, some armour, one o those big ugly spaceman helmets, and I kind of want to do some DH races, mainly for the shuttling and just to try and improve my riding... It's not like a Special K triathlon though is it? 'Participating' along at your own pace may still require you to ride down scary mad stuff, or at least that's my impression.... and I don't really want to munt myself, just get mo' skillz!

The north island DH series are coming up and sound fun location-wise, of course there is no women's rec grade, and a quick squizz at last years results show very few women entering. But they include Vanessa Quinn in one round, and other vaguely familiar names, who I may have read in the NZ worlds DH squad... not the kind of people I can imagine rocking up next to on my Disco Monkey.

So how DO you start out at DH? Just eat your pride, go slow and be prepared to walk the scary stuff until you get better? Or stay away altogether till you can atleast do an 10ft huck?? Or is it not as bad as I think (the Unigames DH this year in Chch was awesome, and I could ride all of it in the wet, well with a few nana lines, but apparently that was an 'easy' course)...