So that was June

Hmm. So June is at an end and no update on here since the Moonride. Well, I guess life got in the way and we've been, well, living! Nic has been really busy setting up her own business. Nic Leary Physical Therapy.... with a great wee physio clinic conveniantly located instore at Avanti Plus Rotorua. Now open so check it out.

Had good intentions of resuming training after the Moonride but after a couple of false starts decided the body just wasn't ready. I really did need that extended break I talked about way back after Karapoti. It really was a few years acumulated fatigue.

We've hardly been inactive. But any activity has been sporadic, unplanned, and certainly not structured. I would say there was no intervals, but I did volunteer to film the 3D multisport race with a helmet cam, and chasing Rich Ussher and Dougal Allen wasn't exactly easy. So I took the following week off after that too!

Looking to snap my mid-winter hibernation I did partake in a couple of events over the past weekend.


After a disaster at its last outing (when clutch basket disintegrated and jammed up the gearbox), $800 later the 125 was back in functioning trim and despite its rider having had only 30min ride time in the last month we were raring to go.

After a couple of hours and 80km odd of tight technical and muddy trails we were both still in one piece. I tried hard to break my leg on stumps and branches a couple of times (and maybe cartwheeled myself down a slippery clay descent, but no one saw it, so it didn't happen ok?!) but the protective gear did its job.

We even picked up this wee beauty of a trophy. It might only be intermediate grade, and I might only be finishing in the 40's (of approx 70) overall. But this ones goin straight to the pool room...

Sunday morning I was a bit stiff and sore. Figured I should try some intervals with the NZ CX champs looming and next to no quality training having been completed. Lacking the motivation for intervals, I instead cracked out the race shoes for the first time since XTERRA and towed the line at the RATS Winter Duathlon.

Of course I had to use the CX bike and it proved a good choice. Had a reasonable run, then soon took lead on bike leg despite a very average transition. Pro? yeah right. With Garth chasing in 2nd I figured with the luxury of gears I should be able to hold him off, and at worst I'd just have to out run him. Hung tough and grabbed a win. Good training session for sure and hopefully I'll last next week without blowing too spectacularly. We'll see.

Mudride 2011

Over the years, I reckon I must of spent well over a week camped out in a tent in the paddock at Waipa while my various teams took on the Moonride. Having done more than my fair share of time it shouldn't be a suprise it wasn't exactly high on the priority list... but its hard to avoid!

And after an approach from our good friends at Avanti Plus Rotorua, and a promise it was a casual team with no expectations we again found ourselves on the startline of the 12hr version.


Being a casual team I thought it'd be a good chance to give my brand new Avanti Circa CX bike a whirl. Fresh out of the box, the race start was literally the first time its wheels had rolled off road. Combined with legs/lungs that had done very little in 5 weeks, a track severely cut up from torrential overnight rain, and it was an interesting first lap


"casual?". Connor looking awfully focussed here. I think its more likely a pissed off look as he was hurried into action unexpectadly and had to put his food down when I lost my seat and had to send him out early.


Post riding and look at the state of that. Hard work for everyone pushing through the mud. Made a usually fast flowing track seriously hard work. A tough way for Nic to put herself back into competitive action. The CX bike was actually pretty quick, but after 3 or 4 laps I did woose out and "resort" to the 29er. Not a bad change.


Mid afternoon and the casual plan suddenly got a bit serious when we realised we were leading the bike shop category.... and it was Specialized NZ in 2nd. Suffice to say we made sure a few solid laps were then thrown down. Comfy win in the end and we picked up this nice decoration for display at the new Avanti Plus Rotorua store( Interestingly while we recieved a trophy to display for 12mths, no prize for winning, yet 2nd and 3rd did. Whats up with that event promotions?).

Thanks to team mates Nic, Saul "the Roadie" Webb, Connor "Osama" Corbett, and Patrick "bike destroyer" Corbett.

Mud, Shuttles, Hot Chips, and Crowns: Sunday in Vegas

It's officially. XC is clearly the best discipline of MTB sport, as proved yesterday as Nic and Dirk Peters were crowned King and Queen of the rapidly becoming iconic Triple Crown event in sunny Rotovegas yesterday.

Pitting riders of all disciplines against each other over 3 Super D runs the event really is an allround test. Too much pedalling to favour a DH rider, too intense to favour as XC rider, and varied enough to make bike choice confusing. If in doubt, don't change anything. Just ask Carl Jones with full XC hardtail set up in 5th.


Nic hasn't raced her MTB since December but showed her skills certainly haven't diminished. It was a successful comeback on all accounts. Rode some mean trails, did a few drifts and jumps, and talked smack with many equally stoked riders. Threw a trusty Nevagal on the front of the XC race hardtail to give some extra grip, and bombed away on the trails. Won the womens comfortably and scared more than a few of the men with a midfield finish overall. Was gutted defending champ Alice was out with a broken ankle. Showed some pretty sharp skill and hopes to see more top Women take her on next time. The challenge has been laid down.


I was, well, average. I got better as the day wore on. On the first run (that should have favoured me) I was smoked from pedalling so hard after weeks of complete laziness. Nearing the end I must have been sub conciously looking for short cuts and took an unplanned diversion off the side of roller coaster. Wouldn't reccommend the route as was someway down a bank and had trees in the way (Apparently a few others tried the same line with similar lack of success).

Lost way too much time on that run and put muself well out of top 5 contention as Dirk, Des, Pattle, Byron, and Carlos all put way too much time into me. I got better the less pedalling was required. Here I am pretty excited and maintaing good focus and speed as the finish line, and the mean feed awaits.


Quintessentially Kiwi. Not only was I handed a steinlager by fellow riders at the finish, but the organisers had thought ahead and ordered $100 worth of hot chips, pre-buttered bread, and loads of tomato sauce. Mean.


Johnny Click wasn't shy to get amongst the chips. A wee bit of consellation for him after I pipped him for 6th place by 0.3 secs (over 24min)! Big thanks to Stefan Bennett and his team of volunteers for making the day happen. Really look forward to the next one


And a huge thanks to Gavin and Brent at Avanti for the loan of the sweet Avanti Torrent for the week. One very capable bike, and a bucket load of fun to ride. It certainly wan't the bikes fault I missed the top 5. That was simply being outclassed by an awesome bunch of allround skilled MTBers

Stepping out of the comfort zone

So it didn't take long. Competitive people, you can only "participate" for so long. In Nic's case, it seems one week is plenty long enough. Even when it is a brand new activity/sport. I was keen to give the first race of the Dirt Guide XC Moto series a nudge to see how bad I was doing... While Nic thought no point waiting to actually do a trail ride. Why not check it out in a race?


Thankfully I am a scrawny bugger so my Old Moto pant from age 15 not only fit me still, but with a belt did the job for Nic too. Nice. After the realisation of what she'd commited to kicked in at briefing, she coped remarkebly well. Decided during the event she needed to do some strength work so took the chance to lay the bike down frequently so she could practice lifting it. Beat a few people. Now keen as for more.

I lined up in the 2hr senior race in the afternoon. Fired the bike up first kick on the shotgun start and was ready to fly... except for the wall of people in front of me. Must stop being polite when lining up. Frustrated for 10min before making some passes and getting clear space. Until one dude crashed on top of me and did this to my brake lever. Made the next 70km interesting.


Got going again then messed up a corner and almost hit a tree all of 2min later. Glanced it with a shoulder, but twisted so violently away from the possible impact did some solid damage to bicep tendon and muscle belly. Check out this bruising from the strain....


Next 2hr went well. Pretty sore shoulders from trying hang on with bung arm and dodgy brakes. Started to ride pretty decent, but then got plenty tired so took the chance to lay down for a rest on the nice cooling forest floor and also a few bogs during the last lap. Made it to the end though. Maybe just sneaking into the top 60-65% of the Intermediate field. Kinda satisfying to be so well and truely rooted post event and only be able to declare myself as decidedly average. Keen to try and crack the top 3rd of the field by series end. Should be fun.

"Getting on with it"

What a difference a year makes. Easter was a pretty cool weekend for us, and far removed from the last 3 or 4 years when major MTB events were on the agenda. Last year Nic was in Dalby, England for her first World Cup, while I sat up late nervously waiting for results. Fast forward one year and we were both having a great old time blasting round the farm on dirt bikes.

We figure now would be a good time to officially announce what has been going on with Nic, as her absence from the entire domestic MTB season has left many questions. So here it is.

In late February Nic was diagnosed with Bilateral Illiac Endofibrosis. What? In laymens terms there is a narrowing and hardening of the major arteries feeding her legs. At high intensity effort(about 80% intensity and above), the plumbing is just too narrow to supply any blood to her legs and the muscles literally shut down. The problem becomes exponentially worse as intensity increases. As you can imagine this makes high level training and racing near impossible.

The positive is that she is otherwise perfectly healthy. AND, it ended a few months of extreme frustration and confusion as we struggled to discover why she was so fatigued, and couldn't train as she desired.

Can it be fixed? Yes. Via rather invasive and expensive surgery. Will it be fixed? We intend so, and May 2nd is D day when she visits the guru in this field down in Christchurch to assess the extent of the damage and discuss the path forward.

However we are not rushing things. If anything the whole ordeal has understandably led Nic to some soul searching. If anything it has led her realise how lucky she has been to be able to pursue her sport to such high levels. But it has also helped her realise there is more to Nic Leary than Mountainbiking. Don't get us wrong, she unfinished business and goals to achieve there. She will be back. Fitter, faster, and stronger than ever.

We are very grateful for the best wishes and support expressed by friends, family, and our loyal sponsors.

But life is a journey, not a destination. There is no point being railroaded down one track (MTB) that in reality is a hobby. It is not a job for us, nor some noble quest for the good of the country as some tend to paint the picture of young athletes on the world stage. It is a hobby (albeit one we are passionate about). There are many more roads to explore on that journey, and for Nic these include opportunites in business, farming, hunting, chances to give a bit back to the MTB community, and many other as yet undiscovered adventures. So any decision on the timing of surgery will consider the "whole life" balance. We are pretty determined to ensure that these decisions do not limit future opportunities in all aspects of life.

Just one week ago we heard that a fellow "Elite" MTB'er was expressing the opnio that Nic should "stop being miserable and get on with it (the surgery)"... At first we were pretty pissed off at such uniformed and misplaced comments. But on further reflection I just feel sorry for that person who has developed that tunnel vision.

This (below) is Nic, getting on with it. Look's like the polar opposite of miserable if you ask me!

XTERRA Preparation unmasked....

I spent Sunday morning after XTERRA playing in the forest with Richard Ussher. He was keen to upskill himself on the MTB and learn a few of the finer points. I suggested he might want to try some of my preparation which even XTERRA's greatest/winningest athlete dabbles in regularly.

Here is me "training" one week out from XTERRA NZ. Not looking too bad I reckon?


The beauty of a photo shoot means you get lots of attempts at making things look good. The flipside is that it'll also catch some less composed moments. Maybe I'm not that good on a Moto afterall....


Big thanks to Fraser at DRD for the images.

Season done.... Moto time

An exhausted, and relived wave and acknowledgement to the crowd as I round out my season with my 5th straight podium at XTERRA NZ

It is a very broken, but very satisified me that can now officially sign off my season on a positive note, after a hard fought 3rd place at XTERRA NZ on Saturday. I was out classed by Richard Ussher and Scott Thorne, but I gave everything I had on the day, and am more than happy with that.

In reality I bluffed my way through. I was way underdone in training, and was forcing myself through it. 5 weeks ago I'd had enough, and it was only the enjoyment I get from the XTERRA concept that got me back training hard for one last season goal. It was really quite fitting as things kicked off way back in October... when in a similar scenario I bluffed my way to a win in the Whaka 100. If anything this last 6 months has taught me the importance of

a) base training. Without it quality training and recovery becomes near impossible.
b) This is a hobby... its not job and no one pays me to do it... so I had best make sure I pick fun events and targets and don't "force" it

On Saturday it my mental game I was most proud of. My swim was average, and while well down on the leader it was the 1min30 I gave up to Rich and Scott that was most damaging. Anything more than 30sec and you just don't see someone on this course. Without that visual target the chase becomes very hard. The two of them were battling each other while I was battling myself. I held them at a couple of mins by 2/3 of the bike before they edged out late in the ride.

Onto the run I was over 3min down. They were visably flying and I knew the catch was impossible. That is a tough thing to deal with as I focussed on holding 3rd. That is a difficult mindset, and I bumbled through the first 3-4km I felt awful and was running heavy. Aussie Ben Allen wiped out 1min30 of my near 2min gap in the first lap and it seemed all over. But somehow I dug deep enough to pick up the pace, run a 22min lap (maybe quicker... the first was 23 something) and hold him off.

Somewhere in the last week I found my Mojo again. Somewhere between ice-cream, a few beers, the moto, or just talking crap with mates. Maui's World Champs in October now seems exciting and top 10 result a real possibility on a proper committed buildup (Just need to find a few thousand dollars from somewhere first).

But for the next few weeks its couch time, and Moto time. Looking forward to it


Relative calm, before the Chaos of the swim


Halfway through the run, and trying hard to maintain my gap over Aussie Ben Allen


Of all the places, this is where I found my Mojo... lunchtime Friday, and a net session withe the kids at Broadlands School.


LAst week and the Meridian Kids Jam. Cool to see such entusiasm. Also stoked to see a big group of the Rotorua Junior Development group riders (12/13/14yr olds) turn up and volunteer. How come the rest of our Elite athletes aren't that professional?