I'm back....!

In Elite that is. It was February 2007 that I last lined up for a National Series Elite race. Since then I've happily lined up in Masters. This year however, XTERRA Worlds loom large, and to be remotely competitive I will need career best MTB form. That in mind I'd decided use the 2011 NZ MTB Elite XC Champs as an interim focus.

I fully intended to make a stealth attack on the boys... and not take an Elite licence until that race. But with a few different training plans on the horizon, I decided I had best test where I was at, so I know what to work on. I've got plenty of endurance at the moment, and am skinny as ever. But Elite level UCI format XC is a different kettle of fish. So I decided on Thursday that Sundays UCI Cat #2 race at Napier would be the comeback.


The first time in nearly 4 years that my bike has sporting an NZ "Elite" race number. Somewhat lower than it used to be. In golf its apparently a great achievement to shoot a round that matches your age. This was my version.... the race plate matching my age. That'll do for me. I used to have a habit of having race finishes that matched my number plate. With 20 starters in Napier, I was quietly confident of at least beating the number plate


3rd lap or so up the steep climb. Strangely it was climbing that had been my biggest worry pre-race with the last 4-5 weeks dedicated to 1/2 ironman training. Instead I was climbing pretty well and actually enjoyed this section of the track. It was the descents where I was pretty average (literally riding like a triathlete), and lacking any real brute strength and punch. No suprises there. And plenty to work on for National Champs

For first 3 laps I was in the mix. My descending cost me, as did strength. Then I wavered mentally on Lap 4... drifting out of contention. Still, I am stoked with a result like that on limited specific prep. Lots to work on in the next 6 weeks and many areas to improve. And lots of ideas for how to do it.


4 years ago at my "farewell" at Mt Vic I was 5th.... so not much changes. I've certainly got faster, but so have many others. Fellow veteran's Stu and Mikey also shared the podium with me that day. Dirk on the other hand was 2nd in the U17's back at Mt Vic, while Patrick Avery (whom I batled for 6th at Napier) was 4th. Great to see such progress from the young guys. Exciting for the future in NZ.

The never ending education

I sometimes wonder what it is that makes me continue my pursuit of my sporting dreams, and it is really quite simple. It's searching for the performance you are entirely happy with. Where the result is somewhat irrelevent, it is putting together the complete performance that matters.......Which is why I'm a bit disspointed about my weekend.

Tauranga Half did not go to plan. Just under 4hr15 and top 25 overall. Within seconds I recorded an identical time to last year. This was not the plan. I swam faster, I biked a bit faster, and I folded on the run. It just wasn't happening. Coulda, shoulda, woulda? I didn't.

I just felt lat and struggled to get power down on the bike. I tailed off throughout, and by the time I started the run my hamstrings were already cramping. Not plesant. On reflection there were many reasons, and many contributing factors. Many of them I should've controlled better. I will bank those lesssons, and not make the same mistakes again if I front back at Tauranga again. The positive is last year I was happy as with Tauranga half. This year I was average, I struggled, and I still did the same time as last year. I'll take that as a positive. My base fitness is quite reasonable. XTERRA is 3 months of yet.

To vent some frustration I lined up for the NDuro MTB race the following day. Not suprisingly I lacked any 'zing' in the legs but was relatively strong. I just didn't have the punch or real top end speed. Rode upp to 2nd at about the 45min mark before fading a little, then taking a little unneccesary deviation and sampling some extra singletrack along with Patrick Avery after a course marking hiccup. Ah well. Extra training. 4th in the end so can't complain too much.

Time to rest up the legs then kick into phase two of the season. Developing some MTB speed for National Champs.


Bobbing round awaiting the swim start. One of the few times I would still be surrounded by the other "pro" swimmers for the rest of the day.


4km or so into the run. Trying my best to fool my legs into thinking they actually have some 'go' left in them.

And so it begins

In less than 24hrs it's all on again for 2011 race season. Except while most MTB'ers are choosing whether to go with the National Cup race in Tauranga, or the N-Duro in Rotorua, I've made the obvious choice....

.... Tauranga half ironman

Maybe not the typical choice for an off road athlete. NZ's premier half ironman, with a flat fast bike course that favours the strong swim/bikers. I'm on a bit of a hiding to nothing as while its a draft illegal race... the speeds are that high that the front of the race is a freight train, and I will have been unhitched very early (like in the first few hundred metres of the swim).

Nevermind, it becomes a very hard self paced time trial of swim/bike/run for hopefully not too much more than 4hrs. After giving it a nudge last year, its exciting to go back and try and improve my perfromance. I've got a time goal rather than a placing to strive for....And it should really benefit my "base" fitness for the upcoming MTB season... which will probably start the next day.



After a few visits to the candy shop that is the wideopen warehouse, my sweet Avanti chrono is now all decked out in vision parts, fast wheels, and all ready to go.

Unfortunately we can't afford wind tunnel testing... so a solid weeks training in Palmerston North between christmas and new years was the next best thing. I tried to have an easy week this week, but the weather didn't really cooperate. Stunning sunshine "forced" me into a couple of MTB missions... including the Moerangi trail. 36km of Singletrack epicness. Am sure that's a good taper? Will soon find out tommorrow.



Despite my mocking of triathletes and the "all the gear, no idea" mentality I'll even be sporting this piece of go fast goodness. Although judging by the name tag inside the helmet I'm not sure it will ever have been as slow as its likely to be tommorrow?!

Nic's sweet 2011 ride!

Woo! Check out my new ride for 2011...Avanti Team Competitor. Santa did his rounds early & I was one very happy girl when these two mint bikes turned up at my house last week! I am pretty excited about heading out into the forest to give it a good whirl. I have been getting well acquainted with my roadie in recent weeks but I will be getting this dirty soon - first impressions report to follow!

2011 Avanti Team Competitor...

Complete with XTR 28/40T 10spd groupset, the Fox F-series Terralogic 100ml fork, XTR wheelset w/ Kenda tyres & Zero/Easton components. Love it!

From another angle w/ my preferred 640mm riser handlebar.

2011 Avanti Questa 2.0 Roadie...an all important racing and training tool. Next up I have the Tour de Femme (Nelson), followed closely by the Elite Road National Champs (Chch)...yep, getting amongst it. I expect a damn tough day but a good test for sure.

A very BIG Thank-you to Avanti. They have an awesome range of XC, 29er, dual suspension & trail MTB's for 2011. Plus their ever-impressive road bike selection. Check them out.

In other news, time is fair flying & we have been head down bums up working, training & this last weekend getting pretty wet! Cabin is doing a good bit of running, swimming & riding fitted in around a busy work schedule as he prepares for the Tauranga Half Ironman (Jan 9th).

Hot on the heels of the Huka MTB Race, we travelled to Chch for the Armstrong Festival of Cycling event. We attended this last year and had an absolute blast, so were eager to return. It was a fantastic event yet again. We raced the MTB race on Saturday, approx 3okm including the uniquely testing single track of the Port Hills.

Following last year I was keen to get a bit of practice in ahead of the race. We skipped up Dyers pass on the Friday afternoon to get familiar with the terrain. We ended up riding far more than we should have on the eve of a race, but it was an awesome evening and we were enjoying the views and the trails too much!

This year the start of the course was changed to include some more off road riding in the way of farm track. Thank-you to the Scott Family who allowed us all to race through their property. With a few steep pinches, undulating farm track and a good bit of sheep shit to dodge it made for an interesting ascent to the top of Rapaki track.

The men's race was hotly contested. Defending champ Brendon Sharratt was back and stomped up the climb to take the King of Mountain title. Not far behind was Avanti team mates Richard Anderson and Cabin and youngster's Brad Hudson, Anton Cooper. The single track is punctuated with a couple of road sections, including the last 4km to the finish. As it turned out, Brendon, Cabin & Brad were close at the bottom of Captain Thomas Track. They came together on the road and it was game on...so they lapped it out some until it was time for the sprint finish. Cabin hesitated, Brad jumped, & Brendon came around to take the win on the line. Nice! Cabin was 3rd, but happy enough.

I had a sweet ride, winning the women's race. I found the twisty rocky single track challenging to ride fast. This was brought to my attention rapidly when I was gettin caught & passed easily by a number of men who I had raced to the top. I was trying hard to go fast but didn't quite have the knack for it. There is always something to work on...

Day 2 of the Festival moves down town to the 'strip' with the feature races being the mens & womens criterium races. Oh, and of course the 'celebrity tandem race!'. Brendon Hart & I were racing for Benchmark Homes whilst Cabin & his stoker were representing The Heart Centre. Once again this was super fun and we have some photo's which we will post for you to see.

I had also packed my road bike and jumped in the Women's Criterium race..gulp! It was great fun! Being just my 2nd crit race, I was more than a little nervous but after a few laps I settled in and enjoyed the ride. I finished in the main group, and banked a few notes on crit racing. It was a great training session, and I will certainly look to do more of this too :)

That is all for now, some pictures to follow. In the meantime everybody have a safe & happy festive season :) Train hard & enjoy the goodness of Christmas!

Kids at Christmas Charity Auction: Buy us!

Right, so hopefully we have some wealthy and philanthropically minded fans reading this who are keen to come ride with us in Rotorua next year.

Nic and I are an auction item in the AirNZ Christmas Kids Charity auction (well… a trip to Rotorua, a ride/coaching with us, accommodation, shuttle pass etc…). @Heart are the benificiaries and we'd love to think they can get a good chunk of $ from this. Check it out at the below link.

Bidding closes next Wednesday (Dec 15th)

http://www.sella.co.nz/general/travel/other-travel/70mvn3

Cabin's big day out - part 2

.... I really would have liked to stay in Taupo Saturday night.... but I had to get home for a reason. Sunday saw the first race of TriNZ's Contact National Tri series at Blue Lake.

I've hardly run or swim in the last few months. As a hint I do need more than the fingers on one hand to count the respective runs and swims. But I wouldn't need my feet....

A demanding hilly bike course, and equally testing run were right up my alley, so what better way to kickstart my 1/2 ironman training? In perhaps logic only I would use I thought racing on smoked legs from the Huka would be great endurance training. Turns out it worked ok. But not after one of my most bizzare race experiences yet.

My swim was average (but to be expected). I would have enjoyed it except for the munter who seemed insistent on trying to read the model name on my googles. I can only assume that is what he was trying to do since he insisted on swimming on top of me for almost the entire 1500m despite my continual movements away from him, and the complete absence of other swimmers around us. Anyway, I survived, 6min or so down on the front, and executed a good transition before getting into my work on the bike. Until my race took the bizzare and unexpected twist...

.... a car on car collision occured at the bottom of Okareka Hill just moments before I arrived. I wasn't first on the scene, but was the first triathlete to stop. Someone quickly gave me directions to go rouse a local doctor who lived nearby. I found the house evebtually after some unsure circling and got him on the way. It seemed to take forever but was realistically only 4-5min. I was at a bit of a loss then as to what to do. Race was effectively over, and there was nothing more to do as accident scene was under control.

So I rode on, in somewhat of a daze, before deciding it was training and to start hammering again. I took a visual check when I passed the leaders on and out and back section. 20km later and it was only Mark Bowsted who had made any significant time on me. So it was nice to know I was one of the quickest on the course.

I got pretty angry with some of the lead (top 10) competitors who were ignoring the race breifing to stay on the walking track and running on the road (open to traffic) and forcing oncoming cyclists to ride wide on the road. I yelled at a few, rode straight at a few, and even paused in transition to ask the tech official to send a roving marshall out. I might seem like a grumpy old man, but organisers have safety rules for a reason and it pisses me off when competitors think they are so special they can do what they want. If you don't want to paly by the rules.... Stay home.

Anyway, when I got running I put together a solid time. Top 10 run split, 15th overall, and when TriNZ correct me time (which they generously offered to do to account for my doctor searching mission) I was around top 10 overall. I was then called up at prize giving for a special prize to acknowledge my mid race detour. So big thanks to TriNZ and huge credit to them for a well run event and their care for their participants. Nice work.

I'm typing this on Monday. It was a big weekend. Not surprisingly I am a little smoked.

CabiNic's big day out

So it was a big weekend for us. The Taupo Cycle Challenge, with its 10,000+ participants it is the event that argueably holds up the NZ cycling industry so it is a pretty big deal. And we are pretty satisified with our respective 3rd places.

Having the Huka XL MTB marathon as a feature really makes it a must do. Rapidly gaining popularity, the (now) 82km single track fest is as gruelling and tough as it is fun (perhaps with the exception of Kergresse.... participants will now what I mean!). This year saw pretty much everyone who is anyone in NZ MTB line up to test their early season form. And we were no different. Despite a lack of "speed" training we were certainly both keen to put a good result on the board. After last year Nic was keen to finish, and do so with her sight.

A 4:40am start to shovel breakfast into our faces in the dark was quickly followed by an hours more precious sleep before rousing ourselves for the 7am start. At least that meant the race would be over in time for lunch. For the guys, the pace was on from the very start, and we took great pride in beating the roadies (who started beside us) to the top of control gate hill. I was pretty focussed on slotting in at the front... the epic abundance of Singletrack meaning positioning is important. Holding 2nd when we reached craters meant I was then in a position to choose my pace rather than play catch up. It was soon pretty clear Mikey and T-Rex had some very good form and they dictated proceedings. Soon it was they and Dirk Peters cleared off, I was solo in 4th...At halfway I got a time check. 2min down on the lead trio, but more than 1min30 up on 5th/6th. So it was a solo time trialled for the next 2hrs. I held it together, railed some singletrack, enjoyed my mint new Avanti Team Competitor 29er, and eventually picked up a fading Dirk and crossed the line 3rd, a mere 2min after Mikey won a sprint over T-Rex.

Nic's race was a little different. She was pretty conservative early and with "junk" feeling legs from the previous weeks training was in her words "creeping" back in 5th for the first 20-30km whilst Annika Smail and Karen Hanlen danced off the front. By 30km she started feeling pretty good and put the hammer down. Legs were better and she was loving the flowing, and challenging Taupo trails. Riding back up to 3rd but running out of time to chase down Karen. Stoked to actually finish, and see some good results from the last months training block.

The afternoon then saw the highlight of the weekend..... our appearance as escorts/celebrities for the @Heart 5km kids ride. These kids enthusiasm is amazing and saw everthing from small MTB's to 12" training wheel equipped bikes tackling the 5km. The boys from Pure Black were on hand to lead out and thanks to Mark Langlands mad skills (inherited from Paul perhaps?) was able to keep the kids in check. I accompined young Josh from Tauranga who wound up his Ben 10 16" and put in some mean passes out on the grass, took some sweet lines (he really wanted to MTB... I could see it) and consistently informed me how much we were "boosting it" to keep up.

Simply awesome to see the enthusiasm and pure joy these kids got and is a pretty humbling experience really. Also big thanks to the boys from the Avanti Plus team (Hisky, Scott Green, and Josh Page) for answering the last minute SOS call for extra guides. Much appreciated boys.

We then enjoyed a great afternoon laxing in the sun and seemingly catching up with everyone we've ever met in NZ cycling..... before finally making it home to Rotorua around 9pm to hit the hay and get ready for round two on sunday......