NZ Cup Round two Napier

Round to of the NZ Cup in hot hot Napier was a good weekend away with a few mates. I liked the track and it was bone dry and bound to be a fast race.

I felt good riding around on practice day and was feeling confident, However as soon as the race started this went very bad I seem to have no go and really suffered. Making it not such a good day in the saddle for me finishing 11th. This was a UCI round so it had some meaning to me if I decide to go overseas.

Working a few things out in the next few weeks and will be expecting a good result down in Nelson (another UCI round) and Dunedin (nats)

Thanks to Peak fuel and Avanti Plus.

N-duro Summer Series Race One

The first mountain bike race for the season and it felt great to finish this race in one piece.

Todays race was a 45km one loop course spreading over some of the best trails that Rotorua has to offer, the pace was hot from the gun with Dirk Peters leading the field, I was sitting in 3rd right behind Carl Jones and 10m off Dirk. We caught Dirk at the base of the first hill and the KOM (King of the Mountain) of the race, I was third over the hill slightly behind Carl and Dirk took it out.

(KOM is a new thing to hit the N-duro series and mountain biking on a whole it mixes the event up and gives some people that can't race for as long but still have a chance up a short hill to get some sort of result)

Shortly after the KOM I took a slight detour losing 10 or so places that I was trying to make back up over the rest of the course only making it to 8th. I do have to admit I wasn't feeling the best at all today and put it down to my first mountain bike race since the Huka in November, lets hope next weekends NZ cup in Napier is a different story.

Today I was using Berry Blast Peak Fuel gel and hydration mix thanks to AvantiPlus.

Nice work to Marcus and the N-Duro team another great event.

Tour de Vineyards, Nelson

Happy new year to all, It was a hard start to my new year with Tour De Vineyards. Overall I had a tough tour finding it harder than last year. I did enjoy it though, I love hanging up the mountain bike and dusting off the road bike for some hard racing now and then and Tour de Vineyards is an outstanding event to kick off our summer Mountain bike season.

Our mission started on boxing day, Thanks to Waiariki for the van and ferry. We also had the helping hand from Sam as our manager/masseuses. The girls tour started on the 28th December and we started on the 1st January.

This is how my tour unfolded.

Stage one- 60km circuit race around "Hope circuit", I held in the bunch working on the front near the end, After this stage I was still feeling good and ready for the next day.

Stage two- 130km with Hill top finish on Takaka, by the time we got to the base of Takaka (16km climb) I was already pretty blown, the effects from yesterday where showing presences and I fell far back in the field by the finish. Ending up 64th ish.

Stage three- 120km stage race. feeling pretty gadded by now I held in there for 90km before a big group of us getting dropped on the 2nd King of the mountain seeing us to the finish.

Stage four- 50km "Hill street" circuit. The pace was on from the word go and I was hanging in there until around 5 laps to go. From here I started swinging off the back being dropped several times and getting back on only to get dropped again but on 3 laps to go I just couldn't get back on and the bunch drifted away from me and that was my Tour over.

Good tour once again and though out the tour I was using Peak fuel gels, bars and hydration drink mix, thanks to AvantiPlus.