Country Cycle Classic

This Saturday was the Inaugural Manawatu Country Cycle Classic. A 160k race starting from the center of Palmerston North and heading out through some nasty rolling back country to finish back on the outskirts of Palmy. I had seen this race about 2 months ago and was pretty keen to have a crack at it. Unfortunatly after all the mountain bike racing and traveling through Feb and March after a heavy road programme in Jan I was feeling pretty run down mentaly. I was fit but tired in the head. I took a week off. After a weeks training and two races, A local club race and West coast champs I was motivated and ready to get stuck in again. I kept my self fairly fresh all week leading up to the race. Weather was predicting wet and cold, but fortunatly the rain held off till late in to the race and was quite warm. A tough race panned out and after making the break away at the 55k mark I fell back out of it on a climb pretty quickly after not recovering from going across. I was a little disapointed but hoped to make up for it. The break seemed to stay at around 1-2mins through out the rest of the race. As we came to the final 30k I got stuck in driving the front and attacking hard to try getaway for a top 10. I managed to get clear in the final K with 4 others and clawed through to tenth place. Pretty pleased after a long tough race and form seems to be on good track for the up coming club road Nationals in a few weeks. This was a realy great event and I recomend it for anyone keen for a good challenge next year. Kerri-anne hada great race rolling in 29th overall in the 2nd bunch and first women. Shes on track for a good ride at the nationals and is training hard. Also young William Green who I have been coaching this year hada great ride in the Rotorua CRI junior tour getting stuck in and coming away with some good results for a first year U17. Hes looking good for the next few years and will be one to watch Josh

2 in a row

This weekend just been was gunna be a big one, 72k Colville Connection on Saturday followed by the re-schedualed N-Duro on Sunday. I have riden road races day after day and ocasional mountain bike race after a road race the day before but never doubled up on mtb so it was going to be interesting.

There was a little bit of concern Friday night with the horrible events of Japan and concern of possible tsunami especially since our 72k was to be along the coast the whole way. Fortunatly for us it eventuated to nothing.

Saturday was an epic day, bright blue sky and light wind. It was also due to be a scorcher. We were off on our way at 10am the hills came thick and hard from go, as well as the pressure. 2nd climb of the race and Scott Thorne and fellow Hawkes Bay rider Andrew Barlow were putting the pressure on early.
The race split early with a lead group forming of Scott Thorne, newly crowned National Champ Carl Jones, Comm games rider and all round Warlord Gordon McCauly and another young strong fellow from Auckland. Second group on the trail contained Justin Kerr Andrew Barlow Myself and another rider from Hamilton region. Groups didnt last long however with the constant climbing and decending taking a hard toll on everyones legs the groups shattered. With all the climbing I was pretty pleased to have my Ultra light and effeciant Carbon Competitor with Custom DT wheels and Ultra Fast Kenda Small Block tyres. By the 35k mark I had pushed clear and was chasing solo. By 40k I had moved my way in to 3rd on the road pulling back Gordy and dispatching him up a long climb. with around 15k to go I had closed down close to 2mins on Carl and Scott and had them in sight. I started taking time checks on them and rappidly dropped the time from 45s at my initial sighting to 20s in only a few ks. I knew I had to catch them before the road and the final climb so I could recover for a hard attack. I was confident that if I could ride across solo to the strong pair if I could recover and attack hard on the road climb with 1k to go I could win. Allas, with the final climb looming I was at 10s and they had hit the climb, I could see Scott attack and drop Carl, and with weary tired legs, My day and chase was done. I had to be content with 3rd.
Congrates to Scott for winning after being runner up last year. And good luck to Carlos for Oceania games this weekend coming.

Pretty Pleased with the effort though especiallyafter I have been strugling with form for the last few weeks.

N-Duro
Next up on sunday was N-duro, I rode to the start line from Scott Greens and could feel the fatigue in my legs. I was hoping I had recovered enough. Pretty quickly the legs told the story, I moved in to the single track 3rd behind Dave Mann and Dirk Peters. However I could feel the zipp wasnt there and I was slowly giving way to the pressure that Dirk was applying. I pushed on hard byt slowly gave way and over the corse of the race lost 2 more places. I couldnt push my heart rate up and rev the legs out like I had yesterday. I crossed the line 5th in 2h9m about 7min behind the winner Dirk.

Josh

KARAPOTI

Karapoti, Not a race iv ever contemplated doing in ten years of Mountain Biking. Im not really sure why, Its a race and I love racing, I think the prospect of it being not to disimilar in filthyness to a wet Paris Roubeix or a deep winter Belgian Cyclocross race dosn't really apeall to me.

As the day drew near I was feeling pretty nervous not really knowing what to expect other than the worse. The night before the stress was chucked on hard when a chain ring rubbed my tyre side wall causing it to leak. I didnt want to run tubes as Id heard horror storys of 10 punctures. And I realy wanted to use the Slant 6s because of their tough heavyer carcus seemed perfect for the rocky terrain Id heard about. Quick thinking I patched the inside and Hiskey took the wheel home to add more Stans sealant and pump it up before the big day. Extra stress was added by having the number 13 plate. I was never superstitous till one day I got number 13 and 10k in to the race smashed my self to pieces and had an early flight home.

Race day dawned and it was happening. Tyre was holding air sweet and come 5 to 10 we were standing in the river awaiting the gun. I hada shocking start coming out of the river last but wasnt phazed as I knew it was going to be a tough day and my goal was to finish, hopefuly under the magical 3hour mark and learn what this race was about. Hopefuly never to come back again.
Once the first off road section was hit I quickly descovered why this race was so filthy and lethal. Rocks and a fine gravely silt paste that gets everywhere. I slowly set about passing riders one by one. Come warm up climb I had caught up to team mate Sotty and we spent a fair bit of time cruzing together really. On these big super steep climbs I was glad to have my nice light efficent Avanti Competitor Hardtail and the Kenda Slant 6 tyres kept things turning smoothly. The rock garden was a new experiance with rocks the size of heads and houses just waiting to rip your tyres apart or limbs from your body if you came down. Come the top of the devils staircase it was time to get some chain lube on as my poor chain had taken a beating from the lovley riding conditions. A fist full of jellybeans at the feed zone and I was on my way, a quick stop to hook someone up with a tube. With a quick prayer and hoping id get some good Karma from my good deed and not have any flats myself and I was off to start the dopers climb, another quick dash of lube on the way up and I found my self on the finial decent to the gorge. I was pretty tired by now and just willing myself to that final road section and it came none to soon. When I finaly made the finish in a time of 3h 1m 46s, I was a bit dissapointed not to crack 3 hours but more pleased to finish. Initially I wasnt keen to even think about a 2nd Karapoti. But on quiet contemplation, and the fact that it was apparantly the "Worst" conditions ever for the race I decided that It was way easyer than Hail and Snow of Tour of Southland or Wind and Rain at 3500m above sea level of Qinghai Lake tour, any Karapoti after that must be easy.

Pretty thankfull for the great choice of the Kenda Slant 6 tyres as they kept my wheels down and air in side so no need to stop for a repair.

Home

Well im actually home now. Bit earlyer than expected, but due to many different things I decided to come home early. Manly as I was tired and needed to get away from full time bike riding and back to some normality.

It was defanatly a good experiance, and whilst I had highs and lows, I have discovered that full time bike riding is not for me, it became a job and not the fun I enjoy. I am back at my job at Avanti Plus Hastings now, which is great and im realy ejoying it.

For now im taking things a little easy and just enjoying riding my bike.

Yesterday I went to Rotorua with Kerri-anne Ben and Scotty. Vegas is one of my favourite places to ride. We were there for the final round of the N-Duro, a race which last year I won, which made it kinda hard not to be racing it again however this time round I was there to support Kerri-anne and ride with her as well as see how Benny was going. Iv been coaching Ben since the start of the year and hes been making some impressive progress. Next week is his goal of the winter, The Flight Center Epic in ausi where heil be racing a 50k race on Saturday and 100ker on Sunday. Needless to say he should be on good form and he was taking out 4th over all, his best result ever in an N-duro round.

Kerri-anne also surprised racing the short course 30ker and taking out 4th in the womens catagory in a pretty filthy race in only her 2nd ever mountain bike ride. I spent the race following along behind her and was pretty impressed with her ride and the way she handled her self. Could be a future for her on the MTB perhaps??

I have a few plans for the next few months but nothing realy solid yet. Will just enjoy riding my bike for now

Josh

Cooked

Well had two races over the weekend and unfortuanatly it seems the body is cooked. I was going backwards fast!!! My week off obviously hasnt fixed my fatiugue and at the moment the only thing to do is rest, reset which will mean reavaluation of the seasons and its goals unfortunatly. Will be taking a minimum of two weeks off.

Josh

Pamplona Bayonna

Well first race back was a set of two criteriums in Vittoria on Saturday night, bit of a laugh realy as we found out part way through that these races are rigged and the winner is already decided before the race begins. Pretty Gay I reakon as racing should be about battling it out and the strongest or smartest wins. Any way good laugh as we had no idea about the rigged winner and my Polish Team mate who we call Vortek or "The Vortex" (Not spelt Vortek the polish spelling is incedible) went about doing what he does best and eliminating everyone in the sprint (first race was an elimination race, which means last rider across the line each lap is out) He ended up 2nd and the funny thing was he eliminated the guy who was ment to win. People wernt to impressed about this and we got a bit of an earfull for it and hounded in the points race, but we decided to be spitefull and attack them anyway. I ended up roling acros the line perhaps 6th or 7th.

Pamplona Bayonna was the big race of the weekend. A nasty 138k from Pamplon, Spain to Bayonna, France. Which meant a nasty traverse through the low Pyrinesse. Thankfully being my first race back it was downhill since we were racing out to the coast. Probley would have to describe this race as being simliar to Round the Lake Taupo race or K2 or both mixed together. I think the only flat part of the race was the carpark we rolled out of in Pamplona. I was pretty pleased with how I went being my first race after a week off. I suffered pretty bad up the climbs and the last 30k was taking its toll. Found out why when we got home as I had picked up some wire in the back tyre and was slowly loosing pressure through the whole race. Oh well.

Not sure how many started must of been at least 100, and only around 50 finished. I rolled in 44th.

I have 9 weeks left here now and at least 15 races. SO looking to make the most and I hope I can go home with some nice fast legs for the NZ summer

Josh

Rest over, Up and Away

Well my rest is done, and im feeling a lot better for it. Iv been turning the pedals for around 5days now and feeling good which is tops. Hopefully I can turn the fast on and finish this season with a bang. Even managed to get joined by top Casse Depargne pro tour rider Jose Vecente Garcia Acosta yesterday, this guys on another level and super nice dude as well so hopefully can go out for som emore rides with him later as one of my team mates and good friends is mates with hime

We took advantage of the rest to go and join in with the San Fermin celebrations, and even got to see the bulls run which was pretty cool. The hole week long party is pretty undescribable but the entire town center is just one HUGE party. Theres some pretty funny sights to been seen as you can imagine with people drinking solid for a week. A lot of people asked me what spain was liek after the soccer win but to be honset with the San Fermin celebrations going on you wouldnt have known.

First race back is a Criterium this friday in Vitoria which should be an interesting affair and then the Classica Pamplona Bayonna on Saturday. Bayonna is in France which means crossing the low pyrinesse, so that should be a good hit out.

Anyway time to fly as the rain and thunder is coming and im using the internet in the court yard after ours got blowen up by a lighting storm

Josh