Winter miles....

Check out those pine cones.... They are actually a trophy. How cool is that?! It's 9 days ago now, but we shook off the winter blues with a trip down to Palmerston North to take on the Manawatu MTB Club's Santoft Sizzler. They are a great club, with great people, and with really cool (relatively low key) events. We kinda miss hanging out with this lot so it was great to be able to get back and enjoy catching up... as well as taking ain a pretty cool event.

The Sizzler was a 5hr teams race (well 4hr30 + a lap). Held out at Santoft which is a sand based riding area with little elevation. This = Hard! As there is no rest. It also pissed down all weekend making it slick and somewhat heavy going in places. Nic and I entered as a 2 person team, with Nic kicking it off with the first 3 laps. Neither of us felt lightening quick, but we were solid enough. Eventually taking the overall win, and with it the two prized golden pincones.

Back home and training is ticking along. Hard work for Nic in the Worlds build up. Miles (Road and MTB), Gym sessions,intervals, and a bit of BMX. I tag along for only some of it.... and not all of it. Great thing about Rotorua is its central location and all the other opportunities to play.

So when Craig Corbett kindly offered to take me trail riding on Sunday my planned MTB session was quickly ditched. 100km ish of high speed "play" on a KTM SX125 later and I think I've got my mojo back (although maybe moto skills, rather than MTB). The video below gives an idea of what my Sunday looked like....

(disclaimer: This is not me. This is Chris Birch. He is very good. He just won Redbull Romanics. I did not. I just went trail riding. About 60% of his speed feel's very quick to me...)

Onboard with Chris Birch from NZ Greenroom Productions on Vimeo.