Moonride 2010

Only the best bikes for us! This bike did only do the last tent village "victory" loop

After a 3yr absence I once again lined up at the Moonride. Filling in ambassador duties for our awesome sponsors at Balance, we fronted up for 12hr duty as Team Balance Elite. I was given a bit of stick for not taking on the 24hr but I've spent enough sleepless nights in that paddock that when you own a house in Rotorua your bed is a little more attractive. And besides, after 5 24hr wins in years gone by we were keen for the sligtly higher speed challenge of the 12hr.

Being only 12 hours we figured we'd only need 4 riders (Myself, Scott Thorne, Brendan Sharrett, and Dave Sharpe). We hid behind the excuse of being multisport athletes as we've all been running a bit recently. And 3 of us were also on those "slow and not suited for XC 29er bikes". Turned out we didn't need excuses as our experience (should that be age?) showed through in the end. The Rotorua XC Development team pushed us very hard for the first 6-7 hours before we edged away to an evetually comfy win. Our 2lap stints at 90% proving a smarter strategy of 100% one lap sprints of our rivals.

Big thanks to my team mates who showed great speed and consistency. Especially Mono who failed dismally in his attempt to sand bag and slow us down. Thanks to Keryn for her impromteau management. Balance for the nutrition products. And Steve for the sweet Supersprint 20" BMX I rode for the last 1km to the finish.

The revised Moonride course was fast. Very fast. Like 27-28km/hr average speed for a hot lap. Perfect 29er territory, so lucky for us thats what 3/4 of the team were on. I was pretty stoked with the performance of my Cannondale Flash 29er.... but then again it would be pretty hard not to be.

First time through the event village on the start lap. After consultation with others it was decided that the start of these evnts is taken far too seriously by many. So the infamous beige Skinsuit was taken out of the mothballs with a lovely pair of compression socks to top off the look. Seemed to work. The fastest lap of the race follwed. Perhaps the embarassment of wearing such a suit forcing the pace so I could get out of it as soon as possible?

I'd say we were slick with team work.... but I'd be lying. Not exactly F1 styles going on here. Thanks to Keryn for deciding to take on Team Manager duties after the race start when it became clear how well organised we weren't. Our sweet wee ezi-up setup must have looked enticing. One gentlemen ran a little wide on the corner and decided to come have a lie down in our foodbox in the middle of our tent. He could have just asked for a feed?!

Mr Thorne hammering on my other bike. He took to the 29" concept pretty quickly. Not sure how smart that was of me.... he now realises my advantage. Thorne, Whaka 100, 29er? Scary.