the perfect Sunday ride

we decided to head out to Whirinaki to ride the Moerangi track, here are a few pics:

it was well worth the trip as always :)

Bikevegas Summer MTB Cup Race 2

so last sunday we finally got to race the 2nd race of the N-duro Summer cup!
it was good to do a race again, it felt like it had been ages since the last one!
it was a nice hot and rather humid day (it was in the thirties!), i think most of us were struggling a little with the heat, well i was for sure. i was dreaming of jumping into the lake for  a refreshing swim  but there was none close enough, so the river crossing at end of the race was as close as i got to a swim, never mind it did help cool me down a little :)

the race start was delayed by half an hour so i ended up catching up with a few people, some i hadn't seen for ages so that was nice.
the race started with a few people getting tangled up in a crash, i was lucky enough to stay out of it but nevertheless had a really bad/slow start. i wasn't too worried about that as i knew the race didn't go straight into single trail so there was still time to get into a better position in the field. i gained a few spots on the first steep and rutted uphill before heading into Genesis for a bit of single trail action.  i had Karen Hanlen chasing me and knew i wasn't going to drop her easily, if at all. i was pushing hard and as a result felt the heat get to me ( having goose bumps due to the heat is not a pleasant or reassuring feeling) . there was quite a bit of single track in the race, these are the bits i look forward to the most and have the most amount of fun on. i was hoping to make a bit of ground on my competition in the single trail so was trying to keep a good pace while enjoying the flowy and fun trails. but soon we were back to gravel road climbing - up Direct Road all the way to Billy T - and i knew that Karen was going to chase me down (or 'up' shall i say?) i was passing a couple more guys and saw Garth Weinberg ahead of me, grinding up the hill, unfortunately he was too fast for me and i didn't manage to catch up to him (despite the fact that he was on his single speed). it wasn't until i was almost through Frontal Lobotomy that Karen got close to me again,  and she didn't catch me before heading into Billy T, it was my plan to try and stay ahead at least until the single track so i had a  free run down the fun trail (it was more or less a free run as there were a couple of guys i caught to up but they let me pass, thanks :) ). after Billy T we went back up the hill to Split Enz, it was nice to have had a bit of a breather down the trail so i felt semi recovered for the climb which was quite important as the next step was to keep in the lead going into the Split Enz and from there on it was more or less all single trail all the way back to the finish. i kept in front but Karen caught up once more just before heading into the single trail. i stayed in front and enjoyed the nice flowy single trails and managed to get a bit of a lead.
in the end it wasn't Karen (she got 3rd instead) who got 2nd behind me but Katie O'Neil, nice work! :)