Have a look in Spoke Magazine, there is a short write up on me- pg 74
Thanks Tiger from Bushlove for letting me borrow his mtb shoes, and Caleb's wife for lending me a bike for the photo.
Auckland Championships: Round 1: 4th September
I have never really enjoyed races at Woodhill as the courses tend to consist of my least favourite trails, but this time it was good. The whole atmosphere was amazing, the race organisers did a wonderful job with the running and setup of the event - one of the best I’ve been to. I was in such a good mood I have even committed myself to a new bike…
I left this write up too long to remember any details, but I was first overall female in time of 2.16hours-ish…on my Birthday…Wahoo J
Looking forward to the other rounds!
Day-Night Thriller: 6 Hours Solo: 10th September
Being sick leading up to this race seems to be a common occurrence with me, but everything seemed to come right on Saturday morning. On the start line I was relaxed and ready, my race plan was to ride until I was tired, and then ride some more. I knew I would be fine up until the 3 hour mark, having never ridden over 5 hours before. After the half way point I was going to rely on my GoFast to see me to the end. The start loop was a bit dramatic with all the racers pumped on adrenaline and ready to go, as soon as the race began guys and gals were jostling and elbowing for position. Understandably a crash happened to the rider in front of me, I had to jam on the brakes and swerve to avoid riding over top of him. By the time I composed and freed myself from the pile up I was near the back of the pack. The next few laps consisted of trailing behind trains of people. I wasn’t too worried as from previous experience I had wasted a lot of energy going off track to overtake. Instead this time I followed, taking opportunity to drink, stretch back, then overtake when space was available with a friendly “thanks” to the rider. I was surprisingly feeling really good, and continued steadily on lap after lap.
The sun was out, making it a beautiful hot day. I was very lucky with an incredible guy giving me bottles and food (a dad of one of the 24 hour races), couldn’t have done it without him. By the half way mark my legs were great but I was suffering,with my back becoming increasingly sore. I was standing up as much as I could, but my lap times were being severely affecting going from 20min (fastest) to 27minutes ish. After 14 laps I finished up 2nd to the consistently fast, legs of steel, Fiona Macdermid.
I was 14th solo (out of 79) and 2nd female overall (out of 17).
Huge thank to all the help I had from the Auckland MTB Club with feeding and looking after me during the 6 hours, and all my friends along side the track who cheered me on and even offered me food. Also thanks to Ash for all his support throughout the year.
It was a great weekend, will probably do it next year, maybe just not on a hardtail again...
