This week I am having a blast in Switzerland – thanks to Mario, the team at Intercycles, Matt and Wolfy (who I am yet to meet)! Mario and his wife Franci have been very kind in letting me stay with them and making me feel comfortable here. So I thought I would show you what has been happening… This is Franci and myself feeding their pet Ginny pigs!
Intercycles is a big distributor of bikes and accessories throughout Switzerland. I recieved the grand tour inside their headquartres and it is amazing, original signings, bikes, jerseys, cars, it is all there…
Last night I was invited along for a ride with Mario and some of Intercycle’s sales reps. We went for a great 2 hour tour on a flat “hill” nearby Sursee, it was quite a nice change from riding up all the mountains in Morzine. Afterwards we all had dinner at a local pub, yum!
Today Mario gave me a present from Intercycles!!! After getting my Tifosi riding glasses taken in Champery (someone must have known how good they were!) I have been without eye protection… until now. Check out these flash Rudy Project – GENETYK sunnys! Thanks Intercycles!!! Looking fast?
This weekend I will be partaking in the 55km Eiger bike challenge (Swiss Marathon Series). Intercycles are one of the main sponsors for this series and Mario has informed me of the great course it uses so I will have to check it out. After the race I will stay with World Marathon Champion – Esther Suess for the week leading up to Racerbike on the 22nd of August! Lucky Luck I am so Lucky 
Over the next 9 weeks I will be taking my bike for an educational tour through Europe and Canada. Morzine in France will be my base, this is a small town surrounded by mountains full of ski/mtb trails. It is summer there now so an ideal place to stay and get some good fun training in… Not to mention a chance to see the TdF LIVE!!! I have four races lined up – the Champery and Val di Sole World Cup, a Swiss Power Cup and the World Champs in Mont St Anne, Canada. These will certainly be tough races with the World’s top riders lining up… I have so much to learn so why not learn from the best? The experiences and UCI points I hope to gain will be a huge help for my final race – the 2010 World MTB Champs (2nd of September). I will keep my site up to date with all the goss so watch this space!
Our 2010 National Mountain Bike Championships is tomorrow! After a 12 month wait it is finally almost happening. Nationals is the pinnacle event of mountain bike racing in New Zealand, drawing our country’s top racers together to fight for a National Champion title. It is D-Day. Top form will be brought to the start lines as many are looking to looking to cash in on months of hard training. Selectors for Worlds will be there – each anticipating to be WOWed by some fast racing on great tracks and this is all happening right here in Wellington.
On Saturday I will competing be in the Cross Country event on Mt Victoria. This is a multi lap 7.3km circuit race that incorporates tough climbs with tricky descents. PNP Cycling club have done a great gob creating this challenging circuit into a top class racing track. It is such a good course to have Nationals on!
Preparation for this very event has been ideal. I have ticked off all the hard training, racing, bonded with my flash as bike and have progressed well with the guidance of Waiariki’s Academy of Sport and my coach Trevor.
I’m looking to do well on my home course, in front of my home crowed but I know this won’t be easy. Competition in my Under23 Woman’s race is tight; Monique Avery and Katie O’Neil will certainly be hard to beat. It is going to be an exciting battle out there, everyone biting tooth and nail to get that National Championship title – Bring it!
Word on the street is that Christmas is not far away now. So it is time to fill up any empty spaces under the tree (if there are any left), get those bbqs cranking with your friends and family and eat as much yummy food as you can get your hands on! It’s all go now, I’m off into the Sounds with the whanau for a three day Christmas, before traveling to Nelson where the racing begins… Then it is back into more holidaying! Whether you have three days or three weeks holidays off, these days are the best; jam packed with as many good times as possible in our good old kiwi summer weather.
I for one am definitely looking forward to another visit from Santa this year; you never get too old for that. Luckily for me Grandma’s house in the Sounds has a fire place so there are no excuses why my stocking couldn’t be tapped out. For all the people out there who modernised your heating methods this winter (like my Mum and Dad) or don’t have a fire place, you might not be so lucky?
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
Check this out, it is my new Samara Sheppard logo! After a lot of time thinking about getting one it has finally happened. I initally tried to come up with the design myself, but after a good six months had gone buy and I still had produced nothing I was happy with, it was time to turn to an old school friend – Ashley Wicks for help. Ashley is super talented at designing and drawing and worked with Craig Guy (another mate from school doing Graphics Design at uni) to produce this awesome logo that repersents me. Four batches of cookies latter and I am now the proud logo owner! This logo is splashed all over my flash new riding kit (photos to come) and it is soon to be up and about on my website too… That’s me, I’m branded!!
Huge thanks to Ashley Wicks, Craig Guy, Anton and Hurbert Burian for making it possible.
As the weather begins to warm up and the full bloom of summer is only moments away it is time to start thinking about skin protection. Not only is wearing sunblock a good idea but wearing Troy Lee knee socks as well, is even better. To avoid additional unnecessary scaring on my beautiful knees I received a set of these knee sock babies from the team at Blue Shark. Since then I have found numerous practical uses for Troy Lee knee sock so I thought I would share my top 5 with you…
Use number 1: Looking good – There is no better reason to own or wear something, if it looks good run it!
Continue reading ‘So HOT Right Now!!!’
The mountain bike national series dates and venues have now been confirmed to line up another action packed road trip over summer. Following the racing circuit around the country creates a chance to revisit the old favourite swimming spots, ice cream stalls, towns, sleeping bag sites and an opportunity to get up to some more shenanigans as we venture into new territory. Continue reading ‘2010 Summer Racing Schedule’
It sounds like a loopy wild beast! But actually SpiroTiger is a state of the art training device that trains your breathing muscles – it’s the coolest little gadget!! Alana Joe from Inform Fitness is the New Zealand importer and she gave me one to try out… Continue reading ‘SpiroTiger’
The World Champs are only days away from commencing now! The hardest part of this journey is behind us all now… all the hard training sessions and prep has been ticked off and the long day travelling to get here is done! We even looked like a team travelling for the first time, Sadie gave us each black NZ hoodies to wear, choice. The best thing though, was that my bike (and everyone else’s) actually made it to Australia when it was meant too! As for my laptop and all my school work they had somehow been left in Des’s car boot, back in Auckland??? So there is no probable way any assignment work could possibly be done on this trip…I’ll just have to fill in my time doing fun stuff instead. Continue reading ‘Made it to Canberra!’
It has been rather a late decision but I have decided to pack up and move to Rotorua. .. To live the kiwi mountain bikers dream of having the Redwoods as a back yard. Rotorua also has the best BMX track in the country (you never know where I might find my niche…), a smooth Veladrone and heaps of good quiet roads to go road riding on AND hot pools! As of this weekend I won’t be returning home after the N-Duro instead I’m moving myself, all my bikes, a cook book and Dad’s credit card into a new home. Continue reading ‘Moving to Rotorua!’
