New Zealand Race Report

New Zealand North Island National Series Final – Dome Valley, Auckland I thought I was going to have a nightmare flying to New Zealand with my 3 bikes, kit bags and my Torq recovery drink! When I arrived in Australia I ended up getting my shoes and some of my wheels cleaned as they are really strict about bringing any disease into the country. I knew this and had made a pretty good effort to clean my stuff, but I was not prepared for them to take away my Torq recovery drink which I had brought out from the UK in a brand new tub! I had not even tried the stuff and it was confiscated from me!! It has dry milk powder in it and because the UK is deemed a high risk country because of foot and mouth disease, they would not let me bring it into the country!!! So going to New Zealand who are known for being stricter was going to be fun! I was expecting the worst, but to my amazement I sailed straight through and was met by the guys from Kona NZ at the airport within no time!

Kona is imported into New Zealand by a chain of shops in the North Island called Bike Barn. They have always been super helpful to me every time I have been over here, and this time they have lent me one of their vans for my use during my stay which is such a great help. So, we were straight off in the little van on a few days trip up to the northland, above Auckland. I am travelling with my boyfriend, so we had a few days sightseeing and xc riding before heading to the race at Dome Valley.

I had read on the internet that the course was really short and not that good, but when we arrived I was surprised to see a great little track. It was short but only because they decided to pretty much go straight down the hill!! It was steep nearly all the way down, with some fun jumps and little technical sections. This part of New Zealand has had about a 2 month drought, so it felt like we had brought the weather from the UK with us when all morning on Saturday it just kept raining. As I have already stated, the track was extremely steep, but I didn’t mention that it is clay soil!! Not a good combination!! I arrived late on the morning of practice hoping to give the track time to bed in a bit, and when I arrived I saw the state of the people and the bikes that had already ridden. Their bikes were absolutely caked with mud, and the wheels could hardly turn…not good. When you are travelling, you don’t have quite the same facilities as normal, and with no bike washing facilities at the venue it was pretty much impossible to clean your bike. I have minimal spares and clothing so I opted to sit out practice and just walk the track to learn it.

I got up really early for race day and was first down the hill ,and although it had rained over night, it was a bright start to the day and I thought it would have dried up a bit…but no, it was like an ice-rink! I even missed out 2 sections, and still my bike was 3 times its weight in mud by the time I got to the bottom. So much for staying clean; I now had a very muddy bike and no way of cleaning it! I walked around everywhere in search of a stream, and finally found one which I managed to use to get my bike up and running again. By now, the sun was out and the track was slowly drying. I decided to wait until the elite practice session for my next practice run. It was even drier by then and for my seeding run it was great; nice and grippy. I had a good seeding run with a couple of mistakes just due to the lack of practice. I walked a few sections again before the race just to get them into my head, and was ready to go for the race!! It was even drier by the afternoon, and I was really able to commit a lot more. I got some good lines in the sections that I had messed up earlier, but then came down one steep shoot a bit off balance, got caught in a rut and the next thing I knew I was on the floor trapped in my bike. I struggled a bit to get going again but soon got back on, and pushed hard to the finish. Fortunately I did not lose too much time, and still managed to take the win ahead of Helene Fruwith from Austria, and Gabby Molloy from NZ.

It was certainly quite a novelty to do a race with so little practice, but I quite enjoyed the challenge.

Next stop is south to Rotorua; the home of the world champs in 2006. I have heard that they have loads of new xc trails and an uplift service 3 times a week for the downhill track, so that’s where I will be for the next week or so !