Giant 2w gravity enduro (Rotorua) 2014

Once is never enough I say for this race

Fun, Fun, Fun!!!   what better to do as a warm down from Nationals Racing than this?

The family had planned this race down in Rotorua (part of the Bike Festival) as a day trip, as only a week after the Nationals, the budgets were pretty much shot.

Very generously R&R were letting me borrow a full-sus bike again.  I even got to decide on which bike -Trek Fuel ex8 or the Giant Trance 27.5 slx - oh my god, bike heaven!!!!.

I ended up using the Trek as they had lent the same one to me for the previous race and I knew how it handled (best all-mountain bike everrrrr) which was important since I would have little or no warm up time before hand.

Arriving late into Rotorua I had to sprint to the race registration, who thanks to lovely cellphone calls on the way down, where aware of my predicament.  A quick change, gear on and pedal to the start/finish _ made it to my mates who were waiting to get going with minutes to spare - phew!!.

Once race briefing was finished we waited in line to tag on and go.  Its a streamed start in the centre of town followed by a beautiful ride along the waterfront to the forest trails. When we got to the first shuttle pick up area we found out we were some of the first people to the shuttles meaning we didn't need to wait in a huge line to get on a shuttle.  The resulted in us getting to the start of the first run 30min into our 6hour ride limit - awesome.

Stage 1: This was one of my favorites.  It started with Gunna Gotta (which was running mint with brilliant berms and drops) and then it popped onto the road before a short sprint across to the next track (Katore Jumps). This had huge gap jumps which, if I didn't have the full-sus,  I would not have done. At end of that track was another small road crossing before going into Tickler which had a few drops down before a short, quick full-bore climb to the finish of this stage.

Stage 2: Over to the other side of the forest where we again caught the shuttle to one of the highest point of the forest. This was meant to be the shortest stage following half of Tuhoto Ariki, but boy did it feel long with short climbs, hard wet sharp corners and a lot of pedaling.  By the end of the track everybody was very tired.

The organiser must have been having fun with this area because you then had ride a few km up the track to the next stage - ow! the lgs!

Stage 3: The longest stage of them all, also had a big queue at the start.  Starting with Hatu Patu with a very hard rutted downhill then popping onto a road a while before hitting G Rock which was lovely.  Pumping out of Chestnut into Roller Coaster with its nasty long uphills I was starting to feel buggered.  Heading into the final part of the track which was about 200m long before a straight down to the finish, I was toast!

We then had to head back to the shuttles at the same spot for the next stage.

Stage 4: This was probably the scariest stage for me. Starting on the National DownHill I felt like I had no control. Coming up to a drop which was full of mud caught us by surprise and made sure all competitors had a covering of mud (have to look the part).  A road sprint to the finish ensured all the mud and rock was flicking up into my face and by the finish I looked like I felt - well worn!

Not too far from the 4th stage was the 5th one.

Stage 5: After fluffing around at the start line at the top of Direct Road we finally got the energy levels back to get going on this stage. A road sprint section for 20seconds we then hit Hot Cross Buns, which for those who don't know it, is full of hard drops and sketchy corners on quite a slope down the hill.   Coming out of the track on Pipeline Road we went across to Bunny Jugs which only lasted a few seconds before it was a sprint to the finish.

For the final stage of our race we had to ride 10min back to the shuttles where we had originally started.  By the time we got to the start of Stage 6 we found out we had 45min left of our 6 hr time limit.  Boy had the day gone fast!

Stage 6: This stage started with Corridor and then went into Soak Hole, both great fun trails but technically challenging.  At this point I was the only one of my mates who hadn't crashed.   Murphy's Law - shouldn't have thought it (let alone the trash talk) - I lost it on a corner and went over the handle bars.

No damage to either myself or the bike but the pride was in tatters.  Worse, I had been seen by the others so I couldn't even hide it - epic fail!

As I got back on the bike, my mate Kim was coming up fast behind me, necessitating a very dodgy pass on a lady which made Kim lose me before we popped onto the road - pride restored a little.

Following the side track we had a nasty little climb before entering Exit Trail which was full of drop after drop after drop - OMG! arms, brake fingers, evrything was hurting now!

Getting round the lake front back to the finish I was out of energy, but the nature of this race is all fun - you just feel great for doing it.   As we all caught up and talked about our various adventures it was clear everyone had a great day.

Full credit to the organisers and the support crews for an awesome day.  Rotorua Council and business community, your support is just incredible - really leading the way in adventure tourism and events.  The start/finish in the centre of town was just brilliant - some an amazing vibe and atmosphere.

Thank you very much R&R for the bike for the weekend absolutely loved it!