Auckland Secondary School MTB series race 1 of 3 (sanders reserve)

Time as been flying so fast for me after the Christmas holidays. Since school started again, NZ Nationals and now the Auckland Secondary School race series have come in quick succession.

The first Auckland Secondary Schools race is being held at Sanders Reserve, close to Aucklands maximum security jail in Pareparemo. It is a relatively small venue but has awesome facilities, including free hot showers (yeahhh baby!!).

Approximately 5 hours before race start (5am) and I was twisting and turning in bed, surprisingly not thinking about the race, but suffering from a sore ear and a really bad headache - not good.

A few hours later when the alarm went off and the family finally woke up, I managed to get out of bed and get myself ready. I didn't tell the family how I was feeling because I was so keen to race - silly male!  In fairness, my little sister who is only 10 years old (last year of primary school), had got permission to race unofficially and she was really excited, so I couldn't let her down.

At around 9am we arrived to Sanders Reserve, unpacked the car and got the bikes all race ready.

I decided to go have a quick test ride around the trails and they were running so mint.  The course was great - a few technical hills and a lot of technical cornering, but great fun at the same time. Even though I was started to feel a little better I knew that this wasn't going to be a walk in the park, partcilalrly geven the guys I was up against.

As everyone crowded around for race briefing,  I saw old faces who have been racing these secondary school races for almost 5 years plus heaps of new ones that have never ridden a bike before - awesome turnout.   My direct competitors were looking amped and ready to take out the series.

By 10am everyone was down at the bottom of the hill ready for a nice hard sprint to the top of a reasonable gravel road,  before a quick turn into the single track.

One by one the groups started until it was the intermediate boys (years 10,11 and some year 12's) turn.  Like I said in my other blogs because it is my first year in the intermediates I am treating the races as a learning curve before next year,  where I plan to take it all out :)

3, 2, 1 Go!   A loud racket as the 25 riders clip in and start to sprint off.  There was no surprise to see the top 3 which included fellow R&R rider Robin Page make the single track first.

Around 20 minutes into the race and the top 5 racers were about 30-40 seconds in front of me.  At the speed they were going I knew I would need a miracle to catch them.  Half way through the first lap, and after a few people had withdrawn with with broken chains and blown tires,  I had manged to climb to 5th place, still feeling ok.

 Suddenly a friend of mine, Jason, made a move on me and manged to get past.  He started to get further and further ahead of me, and at the same time things started to get worse for me.  My back started to hurt (this was caused by lack of core muscle and me not keeping a straight back) and I wasn't feeling so flash again.

Getting dizzy and wobbly I realised that even though I was only 1 1/2 laps from finishing I was going to be luck just to finish.

Somehow I manged to keep going, but I was feeling horrible.  Just to make it worse I started to get the sharp stabbing pain in my ear.  This race was looming as a disaster for me, but I just told myself keep going, get to the end and it won't matter what you come  -  it was all about finishing the race now.

20 minutes later  I finally reached the finish line feeling totally wrecked!

While I was happy just to have finished, I was annoyed with myself that my core was weak and even in my decision to race. 

I wasn't overly disappointed that I didn't get a placing, and in fairness to me, everyone looked tired with heaps of people having a bad race just like me. It seemed more like a battle of attrition.

My little sister had a great race, even surprising heaps of secondary school students after she got 3rd place (only being 10minutes off 1st) - watch out New Zealand!   I believe we have the next world champ in the making.

 little sis on the left.

Next race will be good for me - I know it.  All I have to do is train hard and prepare for the unexpected. This race was definitely another learning curve.

Product Review: Giant XTC 29er composite 1 2013

 

Giant is a very popular brand and make wide range of bikes. What I've noticed with lots of bike brands they either give you a heavy frame with bad components - which is good for first time riders but when it comes to racing, all you want is a reasonably light bike and good components.  Of course you hope it doesn't cost too much.

The Giant XTC range For Mountain Biking is brilliant, starting with aluminum frames for beginners through to the carbon frame for the more full on racer type.

I was really lucky to get an XTC Composite 1, and have not had a single regret. It was definitely worth the money.

Firstly the frame. The Composite frame is quite chunky looking, but surprisingly light. It holds up very well in all conditions and handles the bumpy stuff easily. I was expecting alot more flex out of carbon but it's actually quite stiff, meaning you can get more power to the pedals. I also like the paint scheme, very blokey and simple. 

Components. The bike comes with a mix of both Shimano XT and SLX which I thought was down spec. I was wrong. I really can't fault anything on it (given the price). My only complaint is that the wheels are quite heavy but normally when you buy a bike it always has bad wheels unless you are willing to pay heaps.

I love the Fox forks - they pump so well on a rough downhill, and when it come to uphills the lock out button allows you to easily climb without the pumping.

This bike has lasted me for almost 1 year now nothing has gone wrong with it. I have made little adjustments with the bike just to save weight and noise. These included narrower 600mm wide carbon handle bars (more preferable for the trails I do).

Also, because I sold my old bike to my little sister, it also meant giving my Shimano XT Shadow Plus so I ended up buying another for the XTC. The standard XT derailleur is alot louder when it comes to bumpy sections (If you want to find out more about the Shimano XT derailleur check this link out:  http://kalenweir.blogspot.co.nz/2012/07/product-review-shimano-xt-shadow-plus.html )  and is slightly more expensive.

The Giant XTC 29er Composite is a great bike I give it a 4 1/2 stars. The only reason I left out 1/2 a star was because of the heavy wheels. It has proven to be a robust and capable MTB for racing and everyday use. Prices range from $3000 to $4000 nz. Weight is between 10.5kg to 11kg.

I reckon that if you added a good wheelset at around $1000 you could drop it below 10kg. That is good value for money in my opinion.

Mototapu/ Rangitoto Dual 50km 2013

The family and I had been planning this race for quite a few weeks. Dad and I had decided that we have to do the 50km since we found the 30km race easy the year before. Mum and Paige (little sis) decided to do the 30km because they thought the bigger distance would be too much for them.

Mum had been worrying about her fitness and had decided that she really wanted to do well in the race so for the weeks ahead she'd made Paige and I her trainers.  We set up a training regime of long and hard rides and runs, which of course helped yus as well.  Quite a lot of fun actually.

Race day, becuase we were catching the ferry, a 5:30am wake up - aagh! Arriving in the city to meet the ferry we ran into our neighbours that live down the road from us and we also caught up with fellow R&R rider Robin page who was planning on doing the race as a fun event with his mate.  in fact it was quite a big crowd in downtown Auckland at 6.30am.

The ferry ride to Mototapu (which is an island linked to Rangitoto - famous old volcano in the Hauraki Gulf) took about about 40min.  Arriving into Home Bay we could see quite a large set up (over 200 competitors across 8 events) with the international off road triathlon competitors already warming up to go.  Even by 8am it was starting to warm up and I could tell it was going to be hot ride.

As we headed over to the Fletchers tent site (this is the team that we got to go with thanks to my Grandpa who we all call Pop) the triathlon started, and a few minutes later the 50km mtb racers were called up for briefing.  It was all go.

At this point I admit I was starting to have my doubts about the race - nervous that if I got cramp and I wouldn't finish the race. After briefing was done they got all of the 50km racers (about 300) to get ready for the start on the long gravel road that extends the length of Home Bay. Given the crowd size I decided that it the smartest option would be to start in the front instead of being crushed and slowed by all the slower hill climbers. An incredibly short count down before the horn went off, before a mad flurry of MTB riders all trying to clip in against cheering from the crowd of spectators and other competitors.

After a frantic sprint I managed to be the first person up the long tiring first hill.  I was able to keep the lead up for about 100-200meters before all the pro endurance racers started to pass me. Luckily only around 7 people passed me while the rest of the 50km pack were slowly falling back.

The race is largely gravel roads or farm tracks and quite high speed for mountain biking. About 3km into the race as we started to go down a steep gravel road section, I was practically all by myself and could only just see a couple of the elite men ahead of me.  My coach from Jafas had kept up a fierce pace and was out of sight.

We crossed over the bridge which separates Mototapu and Rangitoto and as we started up the hill trail of Rangitoto the 1st place triathlete runner went past with heaps of speed - amazing! A couple of minutes later the rest of the top 10 went past.

Up and over Rangitoto with seriously high-speed gravel down-hill (with ambulance waiting at the bottom!) had taken 1hour and I was feeling good.  As we started to head back to Mototapu around the base of Rangitoto, I started to worry if dad was getting closer.  I was determined not to lose to him (because I find that he is way better then me at long endurance races) so I upped the pace a little - still on my own.

As I started to head back down towards the bridge again on a 2-way stretch, all the 30km riders started to go up the hill. As i passed them going the opposite way I kept an eye out for mum and Paige. Sure enough, there they were, ripping up the hill not to far from each other followed closely by Robin and his friend (who was struggling on his down-hill stead).

The round continued around Motutapu and back through Home Bay on gravel roads for about another 10km before we hit farm land. Everyone had been going on about how hard it was and they weren't wrong - it was one of the hardest 20km on grass I have ever done! Not technical - just tough.

As I approached the the last hill of the race, we combined the 30km racers and I suddenly saw Paige and mum racing together ahead of me. As I passed I tried saying encouraging things to keep them going for the last 5km of the race, but it was getting pretty hard to breathe (heat and exhuastion) let alone speak.

I few minutes later I could hear the music in the event camp, and felt relief knowing that I was soon to be successfully finishing 50km.   The last section to the finish line was one large, bumpy down hill on which you could hardy see straight and that sucked all the breath out of you. Going down the hill my hands started to hurt and I want toasted -  It was tragic - I was just hanging out for all the food and refreshments at the finish line.

Less than 5min after I finished, mum and Paige crossed the line having the exact same time of 2:05 hours (not bad for 30km) then around 12min later dad comes back with doing a 2:58 hour race which was also great.

Placings and time:
Paige: 30km overall 4th + 1st in under 20's (amazing for an 10 year old!) time 2:05hours
Mum: 30km 32nd overall  and 14th in masters (40-49 years) - time was 2:05hours
Dad: overall 28th and 15th in masters -time 2:51min
Me: 7th overall  (3 places behind my coach from JAFAKIDS, Jesse Voza) + 1st under20's  - time 2:29hours.

The event didn't finish until about 3pm and we were all shattered.  I was very pleased with my family's results and especially my Grandpa pop who is 70 and successfully finished the 10km walk and with a 5th in the legends.
 
Once we got home, we all crashed on to the couches completely exhausted but happy - great day, great results, great event.