Cyclocross National Champs - Napier

I made the trip up to Napier for the main event of the CX season. It was well worth it. I finished first U23 and 3rd in the elites. Feels awesome to say I have a national tittle. Technically I crossed the line in 4th but the 3rd placed rider was an Australian so I could still clam 3rd place in NZ. I had to battle so hard for that 3rd place. I pushed myself further than I ever have before. Which is another good point to take out of the race. I was riding with Dan Warren for most of the race. Only edging him out for the 3rd spot on the last lap up a quad burning step section. I was on my limit the whole race. I don't know where the energy came from that pushed me through that last lap but I'm glad it was there. The course was super hard and had a bit of everything. A perfect course for a national event. The event was also run great. It was better and more official than our mtb nationals and this is only the first time cyclocross nationals have been held. I'd like to give Andrew and Gaby Barlow a big thanks for organising transport for me while I was up there. And also to Dave Molloy for lending me his carbon wheels and tyres. I definitely need them!

Round 2 CX national series Queenstown

This was the first race of the national series for me. I was really looking forward to it and hoping for a good result after a 1st and 2nd place in our CHCH CX series. I couldn't get the day off work on Saturday so I had to fly down on Sunday morning before the race. It worked out well because Dave Molloy was able to take my bike and gear down then pick me up from the airport. Thanks Dave! The race was run well and it was a fun, windy and technical course. It was very cold and frosty. So to start off with the ground was rock hard and slippy. And with the sun coming out and riders out on the course it was giving us even less traction. Also there were two icy stream crossings which created some good mud bogs. We all did a timed hot lap to get a seeding for the start of the actual race. My plan was too go hard but save energy. All I wanted was to get a front row start. I got the 3rd fastest time which I was happy with. Especially seeing I lost the front wheel once and slipped on some ice which rolled my ankle abit. The race came up fairly quickly after that. I had an ok start, holding my seeded third position for the hole shot. From here I found myself switching places with 4th while only being a couple of wheel lengths off 1st and 2nd place. Pro rider and husband of Katie Compton, Mark Leg Compton had set the pace and pulled off the front on his own. Soon he was hunted down by Wellington rider, Alex Reval. Who caught and past Mark then stayed there to finish first. At about the halfway point I was riding with our national champ, Dan Warren. We weren't too far of Mark who was currently in 2nd place. Through one of the more technical parts of the course, the "Specialised spiral" I managed to get a cap on Dan. In this section there were two boards. I was hopping these while the others I was riding with were running them so I could carry a lot more speed through the section. This helped me throughout the race. After getting past Dan I kept the power on and bridged the cap to Mark. I stayed with him for a half a lap. Then knowing I only had one more lap to go I pushed past Mark and again opened a cap through the " Specialised spiral". So now I was 2nd and I held it to the finish. I am very happy with that result and it gives me confidence going into National Championships this weekend in Napier. So far this week the pre and training was gone well. Really looking forward to racing my first cyclocross national champs!

Christchurch CX round 2

Great race out there today. Course was soo much fun. Best CX course I've ridden. Although I haven't ridden many. Quite different but in a good way. Rode well and felt pretty good. I feel like I have improved from the first round but still plenty more to do. I finished 2nd today behind a fresh new Christchurch resident, Andrew Barlow. He has come down here from Napier where CX is much bigger. So I was pleased to be with him for the first few laps. I had a bit of trouble being held up with lapped riders and Andrew got a small gap on me. After already pushing hard just to stay with him I didn't have the energy to bridge the gap. He got maybe 30sec on me by the half way point but I started to feel a bit better and kept that gap from getting any bigger for the remainder of the race. Nearing the end I was able to dig it in a bit more and finish strong. Looking ahead I have the Queenstown national round next weekend followed the national champs in Napier then the 3rd round of our Southerncross series in CHCH. So I have plenty on.




One of the different sections of the course. Running through a hay stack???

Christchurch CX round 1

Had a good race today at the opening round of the Christchurch Cyclocross series today at living springs. Managed to get the win. Total full body workout! Had cramp in my arms and hands to the point where I had to get my dad to open my hand for me at the finish. Definitely something to work on before the next race. But still great fun. My Focus Mares bike was awesome! Didn't hold me back what so ever. Can't wait for the next race and to build my form. I'll be making some uci legal hops so I can get my rabbit style dialed

No such thing as an off season

So, seeing I'm back into a training routine and coming into some form I thought I'd get back into the blogging scene. Now some may think 'Coming into form now? It's the off season.' Well,  I have a theory which I'm bringing into play this winter. That theory being, carrying form and fitness out of winter and into summer is extremely beneficial. The last two winters I've sat on my arse and gotten fat and slow. Then when summer comes around I have a huge amount of training to do if I want to be fast. So if I'm fit in winter I'll be faster in summer. If I look back to the last season I had which was actually good it would be the 2010 season. In the winter of 2009 I went to the world champs, so I was training all winter. Unfortunately that training didn't show at worlds and I felt slow and had a shocker of a race. But all that effort I put in in the winter really showed in 2010. We see the same thing happening with all our international athletes. They train and race hard here in summer then go overseas and train and race hard while we are in winter. These are the guys and girls who are always winning. So I'm going back to putting a good effort into my training in winter so I'll be a force to be reckoned with in summer.

I am training this winter for the next mtb season in summer but also training for something that is just as fun, cyclocross. I'll be getting round Canterbury and NZ as much as I can trying to get some great results in the new Canterbury and NZ CX series and hopefully the national champs. Also doing some duathlons which I use to do a lot of back when I was a junior.

I have been up to a few things lately, the classic winter workout "Bluedog night racing world champs". Where each one I have raced so far I have won open men. So pretty happy with that. And just today I have completed the MT Isobell challenge for the first time which is an off road duathlon. It has an insane hill run to begin with then a mtb to finish off. I have wanted to do it for the last couple of years so getting out there this year was great. I finished 4th open men and 9th overall. But the thing I'm most happy with is getting the 3rd fastest bike time. Only being beaten by Anton and Brad who were both in teams. So I had the fastest ride time of all the individuals. The only thing that really let me down was the decent on the run. I don't have the technical skill or commitment to run like the others that I was with. I lost a number of places and minutes coming down off the top of Mt Isobell. Oh well next year with more practice I'll be up there on the podium!

Basically the jist of this is, I'm back and enjoying training more than ever and finally getting my head around training while working full time.

Just casually

Ok. So I haven't blogged much. But that's cause I haven't really been doing anything. And for those of you that don't already know, I am back riding for Pushbikes. Seeing I'm working there it makes it easier to be riding the bikes we stock. So I will be out on giants and focus bikes from now on.

I did the short track series which was really cool. I didn't have a lot of form for it but I noticed a difference in my form at the last race so I am improving. I just need to get into the mindset of training again. Although, I'm just taking this season casually and I'm not worried about results etc. I'm just going to have fun and do my best to train while working full time.

Winter up date...

Long time no blogging. Haven't blogged since nats and I raced the second round of the cyclocross series today so I thought it was about time for an up date.

I took a big break after nationals. Pretty much going straight into nothing. Which was always the plan. The plan being to have a good rest, then do some running for training for the MT Isobell challenge, the night racing world champs, the cyclocross series and any thing else that popped up. I followed this laid back plan well to begin with as I got out on a few good hill runs. Then the night racing started and that caused some problems. The first race I crashed resulting in a DNF and a battered body. I recovered for the next week where I had built up a SS to race the rest of the series on. I never test rode it before the race which was a bad mistake, seeing it was slapped together which oldish parts. As I was warming up for the race I put the gas on to test out there gear ratio I was running. The chain slipped massively sending my quad flying into the handle bars and knocking me off the bike. This hurt a lot. But I got up and prepared to do the race. But, I got caught up in another crash at the start of the race landing on the same quad and dropping my chain. Once I got the chain back on I was in last and very sore. Again resulting in a DNF. My injured quad turned out to be a hematoma. And having one of these before in my other quad I knew I was going to be out for a few weeks at least. Also with the hematoma being so close to the knee I didn't want to damage my knee by riding on it too early like I was warned about last time. So, I went back to doing nothing again and losing even more fitness. I was hoping my leg would come right for the MT Isobell challenge but I still couldn't ride on it let alone run so I flagged that away. The the next event on me plan was the first round of the cyclocross series. Again I wasn't able to do this so I had to settle for a spectator/marshal which was extremely hard. Watching everyone having fun in the mud was demoralizing! A couple of weeks after the first round I got back out on the bike for the first time. Just an easy spin on the road. My leg held up ok but I knew if I raced on it how it was I would fell the pain after. So I put off the next few night races in hope that I could race at round 2 of the cyclocorss series. This worked out to plan (finally). Today was the day of that race and right now I am felling pretty good. My leg is a little sore, but I think that is just because I have lost a lot of muscle in it and so it is taking longer to recover that my other quad.

More on the actual race ae, instead of my boring health issues. I raced my roadie at this one. Being a fast and dry course I could get away with it, and it would feel wrong riding my mtb. I started ok, keeping up with a few of the guys on mtbs for the first lap. But the stream crossings and ruff ground lost me time, places and energy. After the first lap I was pretty tired. My laps were getting slower as the race went on. The road bike was a slight disadvantage. The slicks cause me to crash and lose a few places, but he main issue was my lack of speed. seeing I had been off the bike for while I was quite slow. But I wasn't too tired at the end which proves I still have some general fitness.

Hopefully now seeing I can ride I will get some more fitness back so it isn't going to take as much to get race fit next summer. The next report won't be so far way so it wont end up as long as this one, I promise. I do want to keep who ever reads these things riveted.