Coming into the 2011 season I had put expectations on myself. There were a few reasons why but for one I had been training hard and putting a lot of effort in and so was keen to see this pay off and to get some results that made the effort worth it. Also, my 2010 season was not ideal and I had been quite disappointed with my results and so I wanted to prove to myself that I had the speed to be competitive at this level. I also now had Burkes Cycles as a new sponsor who had sorted me out a Brand new 2010 Giant Glory 00 to ride. Needless to say I wanted to impress and make it worth their while sponsoring me.
At the start of the season I had a few goals in mind. I wanted to podium at every race I attended and to ideally be on the top step for at least one of the rounds and to be in the top 5 at the National Championships. I also wanted to post at least one top 10 overall time (out of every competitor that raced) throughout the series. I thought that these should be achievable goals considering the amount of time and effort I had put in throughout the lead up to this series. For those of you who don’t know I have spent the last year doing a bit of globetrotting, first I was in Chile for 3 months from March till June working as a trail-builder living the dream working and riding. I was then shipped up to Whistler, Canada for the best 3 months of riding and hanging out that I can remember. After this I went back to Chile in October-January for some more digging and to earn some money for university and prepare for the national series.
While I didn’t achieve one of the reasons I went to Chile (Come back with money in the bank!) I did something that was just as important . By spending time after work training as well as digging hard and making sure that I was pushing myself I figured I was in the best environment possible for becoming fit. With the rides to work in the morning being a solid 40 minutes of steep uphill trail giving the legs a good workout followed by 9 hours of digging giving the upper body a working over by the end of my trip I was definitely feeling fit. So between the technical skills I gained in Whistler and the fitness I gained in Chile I felt that I was more than prepared for a solid season that was hopefully going to be an improvement over my last one which, I consider was a poor one, so I was going all out!
The first 2 races of the series had some unexpected events My 1st place in seeding at Napier 2 days off the plane came as a bit of a surprise. Considering all the effort I had been putting in it really shouldn’t have, but it was just not what I was expecting and so caused me to increase my expectations of myself. Having never been in this position before and especially not 2 days off the plane, unfortunately I suffered and ended up 5th. While not a bad result for a jet-lagged zombie it wasn’t really what I was after and I was determined to better the next weekend in Rotorua. However, after an awesome practice day at Rotorua, a weather bomb rolled through overnight transforming the track into more of an army obstacle course, with trees down and massive puddles the size of Lake Taupo to cross. After inspecting the course the organizers decided to call the event off due to safety concerns.
So two races down and now we were off to the South Island for the final 3 rounds of the series and the one-off National Championships. The First two races were in Nelson on very different tracks to the previous rounds in the North Island and they presented a whole new challenge to me. I haven’t really had the best of luck in Nelson over the last few years with a trip to hospital and some off the back results. This time around I was determined to change this and after qualifying 5th on a track that I was feeling good on, I stepped up for my race run, took 12 seconds off my seeding time and won my first ever National race. To say I was stoked with this is a bit of an understatement, I had been trying for so long to win one of these things and to finally make it happen was a huge relief!
At the second Nelson round I was out for the win. I had tasted what it was like to be on top and I wanted nothing else other than to get back up there. After seeding 5th again and not feeling very good on the bike, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to put in a good race run. However I managed to sort my head out and took 16 seconds off my seeding time to win my second race in a row. This win (by 3.5 seconds) was even more satisfying than the first as it proved that my first win wasn’t a fluke and that I did have the speed to compete at this level.
Onto Christchurch for the final round of the series and the pressure was on. At this stage, despite winning both of the previous races, I was only leading the South Island cup by 2 points and I was tied for 1st place in the Series overall. This was due to the points for seeding being worth half of the points for a winning race run. I hadn’t realised this and so it came as a bit of a shock to see it was so tight. Seeding 3rd this time resulted in decent points but the second place rider had seeded in 2nd, gapping me in the overall by just one point. Due to the North Island cup being cancelled because of the weather, this meant both the titles (South Island and Overall) would be decided on this race run. When I crashed heavily in my run I was sure I had blown my chance and pedalled furiously across the line. Fortunately for me I had still taken a decent chunk off my seeding time and while I would finish second on the day (.25 down) I had done enough to take out both the titles.
Winning these titles was a huge achievement for me. Coming into this series, winning the overall title didn’t feature on my horizon and I focused on taking each race on its own and trying to do well at each individual race. So to finish the series with results of 5th, 1st, 1st, 2nd and 2 titles left me in an idea state of mind heading into the National Championships in Dunedin.
For the Dunedin race I really wanted a top 3 result and felt that given my current form I should definitely be able to achieve this and anything less would be a disappointment. From the track walk I came to the conclusion that the track should suit me given the mix of technical riding and 2 decent pedalling sections that should play into the fitness side of my riding. I had a good practice session and felt confident for race day. During my seeding run I forgot where the finish line was and ended up stopping before it (rookie move) and qualifying in second .2 down on first place. While this annoyed me because I really should have seeded in first, It was also probably a good move as it meant that I now didn’t have to leave the top last and was spared some of the pressure that comes with it. Having said that, because I knew that I had a very good chance of winning I had put myself under a lot of pressure to do well and I was feeling it at the top. I almost blew my title hopes about 20 seconds into the track but luckily managed to get down in one piece and cut 9 seconds off my seeding time and take the title of National Champion by a comfortable 4.5 seconds over second place.
The win in Dunedin really capped off a great season for me and apart from my crashes in Christchurch and Napier it couldn’t have gotten any better. I had achieved all the goals I set out to accomplish at the start of the season and then exceeded them by winning all the available titles. Now that I have done so I will be moving up into the big kids category (Elite men’s) for next year and hope to carry all my current form into the rest of this season and the overseas season by training well and getting out on the bike as much as possible.
I would really like to thank everybody who helped me out this year because without you guys it simply wouldn’t have been possible:
Pete, Shane, Jodi, Ben and the rest of the crew at Burkes cycles for the awesome bike, kit and belief throughout the season, without you guys I wouldn’t have had a bike to ride for these races so thank you so so much.
Darryn Henderson and the rest of the Monster Energy Downhill team for letting me travel/sleep/eat and hang out with them, I don’t know if I would have been able to get to some of these races if it wasn’t for you guys, cheers for all your help.
Adrian Armstrong for believing in me from the start and helping me immensely throughout the series. without you none of this would have even been set in motion so thank you very much for all your hard work.
Mum and dad for always chipping in when you just need that extra little bit (or in my case a rather large extra bit) and being there to cheer me on. Thanks very much.
What were we to do but convert this bike into an electric-assist steed? The pictures bear testament to the hard work of our "man on the ground" the "doyen of Dutch-styled velocipedes" Simon Legge. After much scratching of head and many frustrating twists & turns on how to accommodate the desire to go battery powered the final result is a thing of beauty. Challenges were faced & conquered, in particular how to convert the existing Gazelle front wheel, mudguard placement & wiring routing. One of the most elegant features of the finished product is the very tidy battery storage. Rather than attaching the battery to the usual down-tube position, it has instead been encased in a Brooks leather saddle bag & hung off the bike rack - perfection!
What about the cost I hear you say (or think)? Well, nothing like this comes cheap, the bike cost $2300.00 & the Daahub electric kit $1900.00. On top of this there was the custom wheel build using the original Gazelle bike's front wheel & project managers Simon, along with a sprinkling of our erstwhile mechanics' labour costs.
Worth it? Some people will baulk at the cost or even idea of such a conversion, but I think the sight of the huge grin on our customers face, as they peddled off into the sunset will give you the answer to whether or not they thought it was worth it.
