Having heard that in Rotorua there were loads of new xc trails, and an uplift at the downhill track 3 times a week, I decided to skip the race in Wellington and get a solid 10 days of riding done in Rotorua. I find that there is always so much hanging around at races, and on this trip I just want to ride!

It was a great decision as I got to ride loads. I had my new rear shock from Rockshox to test so I had all weekend to do runs, and play around with settings. I also had my timing watch and poles so I was able to do some timed runs on the track. It was great training, and after 16 runs over the weekend my body was aching!! I also rode nearly all of the new xc trails that have been built since I was last here. They have just added more great singletrack rides to the ones already there, making nearly 70km of wicked singletrack in the forest!! This week was also going to be great preparation for the race I had entered this weekend. It was not a planned event and I only decided when we arrived into NZ that I would do it! I picked up a copy of New Zealand MTB magazine and saw a calendar of events in it, and noticed that the Karapoti Classic was on a weekend that I had free!! Next thing I knew, I had emailed the organiser, and had an entry sorted.

The Karapoti Classic is a legendary mtb race. It

New Zealand North Island National Series Final

Australian National Series Final

(Pics courtesy Ty Kona Australia)

I seem to always time it pretty well when leaving the UK as most of my local area was underwater as I drove to Heathrow !! It felt great knowing that in a few hours time I was going to be riding my bike in my shorts again, no more overshoes, leggings and woolly hats ! The flight to Sydney went pretty well even though I was travelling with 3 bikes and a massive kit bag !
We were met in Sydney by Kate and Ian Potter. Kate is an elite xc racer Australian but living in the UK. She was back for a few months to do some of the Oz races. We spent the first few days with her just north of Sydney and got straight into riding the bikes the day we arrived. It was great to be out riding and having some local knowledge to show us around the trails. It felt like we had brought some of the UK