24 Jan 2010 Bike Vegas summer cup race 2

Ok this time round I felt a little better prepared, I had done a few short but pain inflicting training sessions since the last race to get a bit more race shape going. It doesn’t do wonders but it certainly helps the body get more used to race intensity.
I rode in through the forest this time round, instead of along the road, and did my warm up on the single trails. I prefer warming up on the trails as you already get into the swing of things and get a feel of what condition the trails are in.
I had a better start this time round and was reeling in a few riders on the first climb, felt pretty good. However I dropped 4 spots when I took a wrong turn down the first downhill single trail called Doctors Orders, it was very hard to see where the trail was going (that’s my excuse anyway ;) ). I found myself a little way back to the next few rides, Nic Leary and Michael May were two of them, when I rode out of Doctors Orders but there was another big climb ahead of us so I focused on getting a steady pace going and managed to catch up to them with not too much pain, but I was starting to feel the heat. It was surprisingly warm even before the race, probably more so due to high humidity. I was struggling with the heat as I was a bit dehydrated due to eating too many veggies the day before the race (so much for being better prepared!?!), very clever yep and I really should know better, but it makes it more of a challenge! ;)
So I was staring to feel the heat get to me and I was looking forward to getting to the top of the climb and into the shady and therefore cooler single trail. This was a little way away still as I was still climbing Direct Road and just behind Nic Leary. I was expecting the course to go all the way to the top of this climb past the entrance of Hot-X-Buns but instead we turned right, following Direct Road, to get to Sidewinder. This is where I made a move to try drop Nic, I was pushing it along the flattish road to the entrance of Sidewinder, and expected Nic to be on my wheel but she wasn’t; I must have picked the right moment to go. The next climb up Hill Road and then Frontal Lobotomy felt rather hard as I was getting really hot again, so going into Billy T was just a treat! ;) and I enjoyed the long downhill all the way to the end of Roller coaster and felt rather refreshed after it for the rest of the race, enjoying the trails and roads back to Waipa and the finish line.
The course was awesome!

Thanks heaps for your great help Nic and very sorry you weren’t able to focus on reeling me back in. Looking forward to the next race without distractions! ;)

BIKE VEGAS SUMMER CUP SERIES 2010 – race one

First of all; a very HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone! :)

Yesterday I had my first race of 2010! It was just a ‘little’ shock to the system, yeah right ;) But there is nothing like a bit of pain and suffering to get back to reality.

It was a pretty big field that gathered to do the first of the series of three races here at Whakarewarewa forest which was great. And there were quite a few girls amongst it too, so good to see!

It was a good hard race with a good pace and Nic Leary pushing me along for the big part of the race, thanks for a great race Nic!
I didn’t have a good start but managed to ride my way back up the field bit by bit to finish 15th overall and 1st women.

The thing that was missing was some more single track, the distance we covered on the gravel roads unfortunately was quite a bit longer then the distance through single trail, I am looking forward to more fun single trails in the next race. 'got my fingers crossed' ;)

It has been a fantastic summer so far with very little rain and pretty hot temperatures which shows in the rather dusty trails and you could tell by looking at the rides coming over the finish line, everyone was covered in dust it looked very funny. What a shame I don't have a photo of this to show you.

Congratulations to Dirk Peters who rode a fantastic race and cleaned up!
And Carl Jones got 3rd, awesome effort!