Wahoo! I sent my ‘a’ into ‘g’ for this final round of the South Island Cup and came up trumps. I had a good race finishing first, kept all my skin attached to my body and I walked away with a special white envelope!! Since this round was a selection race I made sure I didn’t have legs of lead on the start line, this made the race so much more fun – I could finally ‘go’ and then keep ‘go-ing’. Amy and I had another good battle for the first part of the race, once I passed her heading up a slippery bank I just rode at a controlled pace till the end.
I reckon this was the best National Series course laid on for us so far, it was pretty tough and good as. The course incorporated most of the tracks they had used for Nationals last year with some new ones thrown in to form one big mother of a climb, suiting local climbing gun George Bennett as he won the elite men’s race. Now it is a weekend off racing to be at home, finally and sleep in my own bed. Then up north and into some more racing as the North Island series begins.
Some good photo’s from this SI cup race can be found here.
It was the biggest Elite Woman’s field today ever. Standing on the start line I felt crowded by the nine other girls around me – crazy! Then two minutes later we were off into it, racing around the funnest track in Bethune’s Gully. It was the same course that Oceania’s will be held on in March so it was good to have a race on the track now to know what we will be in for later. Two days ago when we arived here in Dunedin it was mud slush city, the track was just loose everywhere but it had dried up heaps by this afternoon, making it pretty fast. Amy Liard cleaned up again, Sara McDonald was just behind and I finished up third.
I got a brand new Jamis bike two days ago, complete with everything flash - carbon this and Sram XX that it’s pretty pretty! The geometry is real different compared to the Dragon though, but hopefully it won’t take long to get use to. Having two chain rings is way better, having a gold chain makes it meaner too and having componentry that works again! You can’t beat that. Next weekend is the South Island Cup final in Nelson. This round is a selection race for Worlds meaning everyone will be going harder and less tired to begin with so it should be a good test!
Today was one of those days where I just didn’t get it right. Round one of the South Island XC Cup was in Christchurch on a great course with heaps of fun switch backs and rollers. It was a hot day out racing though, which stuffed my body up. I tried to keep pouring liquids into my body to stop it from cooking (like it did last year at Timaru), I must have over done it or something because when I was on lap 3 I couldn’t even keep water down so that was the end of anything going in. Me and Amy were having a good old battle once my goose was cooked she busted off ahead. I was hanging out for the finish when on my last lap (number 5) I broke my chain. I ran and pumped my way to the finish as the rest of the field passed me.
That’s how it goes; the chain didn’t break because of my ruthless power rather because all the running gear on my bike was past worn out. I am getting hold of my new bike on Tuesday and was hoping like mad my bike would hang in there for this last race. Sometimes hope just doesn’t cut it. Oh well it was a good hard day training at least. I will keep testing out some different drink mixes and goos until I can find something that works.
Amy Laird took out the Elite Woman’s title today with a stellar performance on her home track. Amy has fully switched codes for this year getting stuck into cross country and selling her DH bike. The Elite Men’s field was dominated by Brendon Sharratt with young Anton Cooper not far behind.
The next XC round of the SI cup is in Dunedin next Saturday. It will be held back in Bathoons gully on another great track! I’ll try again there and see if I can deal to a few hick ups, to make sure I am absolutely positively sorted by the time Nationals rocks around – that’s the big one!
