Wellington NZ Cup Round 3

Another impressive race held and organised by the PNP club at Mount Victoria in Wellington. The course was a typical Wellington combination of steep technical sections and sharp brutal climbs. For an idea of the track here is a video I made with footage from Ash’s helmet camera and my Dad filming some of the race http://vimeo.com/37405761

photo taken by Shane Wetzel

I had a great race and was encouraged on by the fantastic atmosphere and spectator support. By the end of the first lap I had made my way into 3^rd place in the elite women with a comfortable gap between me and the chasing group.  Half way through the second lap the leading boys started to the lap the women’s field. Dirk Peters (NZ’s National Champ) was coming up behind in a narrow bit of single track, I didn’t want to hold him up and got out of the way as quickly as I could. Unfortunately I wasn’t looking where I was going after he passed me and I lost my front wheel down a bank. I did a superman over the handle bars and crashed down the bank with my bike. I scrambled back up to the track and untangled my bike from the sticks and vines that were caught in the spokes, by the time I was back in the race I had lost about one minute and 3 positions.
I caught up by the start of the third lap and it became a battle between Bridget, Sasha and I until Bridget had an impressive crash which left Sasha and I battling it out for third. I was narrowly ahead for the remaining laps but managed to pull away on the 5^th and final lap to finish in 3^rd place – and my first Elite medal.  

Sasha and I at the finish after a good battle

Elite Women's podium