Napier National XC

A wee bit late in posting this, but life's busy schedule has a habit of delaying such things! Wind the clock back about 10 days, and we made a whistlestop trip down to the Hawkes Bay for the final round of the NZ National MTB Cup series.

For Nic a chance to see where fitness was at. And for me... well an excuse to ride on my awesome new 2012 Avanti + ENVE carbon wheelset. I'd only ridden once since my arm injury and figured I may as well jump in Masters and have a non-pressured play on what is always an awesome race course laid on by Hawkes Bay MTB Club. Off course it also meant I could make my recent once per season appearance in the series, keeping the 14 season streak of National scene appearances going. Man I'm old.


Race went well. Followed the fast starting Weasal for the first climb before skipping ahead into the first descent. Didn't want to get the sharp looking new Black Dirt Kit dirty from roost after all.


Was able to pull a good gap and pretty much ride my own race after that. Which was nice, because my repairing arm was getting pretty angry with me by the final laps. Was a good fun hit out, and man are those wheels impressive. So stiff the handling of the bike was much more precise than I have been used to. Highly reccomended.


Nic took a wee bit of time getting acustomed back to the lap race XC format. A late and rushed arrival at the venue wasn't the best prep and she was feeling kinda flat. Still, was great to get back into the scene and put some good consistant laps in during a race situation. And helped her define some specific goals and targets for the coming months.


Thanks also to everyone who has made nice comments of the new kit/brand. There has been a few questions, and yes there is some kit available (in a variety of sizes). Flick me an e-mail if interested. cabinracing@gmail.com