Oceania Championships - Nelson, New Zealand

This week we spent another few hours in the little Bike Barn van along with a 3hr ferry trip across the Cook Strait to reach the South Island. My previous trips across the Cook Strait have been idyllic, sunning myself on the deck watching dolphins swim by the boat. This time it was pretty chilly and I had a big fry up breakfast just before we hit the open ocean so was not feeling too special for a while! However it soon mellowed out and I had chance to catch up on a little sleep.

As soon as we arrived at Picton, the weather really picked up and we had a great week of sunshine for the racing. Nelson was the venue for the Oceania’s, and it’s one of the most beautiful towns in New Zealand. It’s situated right on the sea, with mountains all around.

I decided to enter all the events this weekend just to maximise my time on the bike, so first up was the dual slalom. It was the most bizarre slalom I have ever ridden, only 15sec long and there were no gates to go around, just two taped lanes that were not very evenly matched! However it still turned out to be a great bit of fun, and after qualifying fastest I ended up finishing 2nd in the final, after running wide on the final few turns, losing out to Australia’s 4x champ Caroline Buchanan.

Next up was the 4x, and again it was an unusual track, very short, steep and loose. I was jumping an awkward double that the other girls weren’t doing which gave me the quickest qualifying time and gate choice for the final round. I knew the start would be crucial as I am not the fastest out of the gate, so I tried to pick the best line. Caroline as I expected got out of the gate fastest and I then locked bars with the girl next to me for most of the first straight, and by that time Caroline had got ahead of us. I managed to untangle myself from Sascha, the girl next to me, and out brake Caroline and move ahead in the first berm. However I did not have enough speed to jump the double and hit the face of the landing pretty hard. That gave Caroline the space to move ahead of me until the next turn when I tucked inside of her again regaining the lead. I then showed my lack of 4x experience and moved across off the main line leaving space for Caroline to once again move ahead of me. With only one corner to go I went for a last ditch attempt cutting inside the last turn and just edging ahead at the finish line. The crowd loved the race and for a track where I thought there would be no passing I managed to create a few opportunities!! It was great fun and I was really happy to win.

The final event of the weekend was the downhill. The track had been used for a National in January, and 120 out of the 150 competitors had visited the first aid tent over the weekend!! That just demonstrates how sketchy this track was! It was loose and rocky for the entire length, with some really steep straight sections where you were just on the brakes, fully locked up just picking up speed!! The bottom section was a series of very steep switchback that became really blown out as the weekend progressed. The track required complete concentration the entire way down as it was no more than a metre wide anywhere, and if you did end up off line you would end up falling a long way into a bed of gorse bush and then spend the next few hours picking the thorns out of your skin - Not nice at all!! Fortunately I really played it safe all weekend, did not take any risks, and just concentrated on riding smoothly and carrying good speed. It turned out well for me as I took the win in a time of 3.32min, just less than 4 secs ahead of Scarlett Hagen in 2nd.

I am now heading back across to Australia thanks to Kona Australia, to take part in the Victoria State Championships at one of Kona’s worldwide bike parks, Mt Buller.