12/3/12
I was quite excited when I heard that the 2012 Oceania Champs were to be held in Rotorua, New Zealand. What better excuse to go and ride the trails in this place described as a MTBiker’s paradise! Of course the first few days of the trip, would be all business and riding restricted to course practice only. However I was determined not to leave until I had experienced at least some of the other trails on offer.
Ed and I arrived into Auckland on the Wednesday morning and drove the 3hrs South into Rotorua. On arrival we were greeted by what can be described as a less than pleasant sulphur smell, similar to off eggs. I had been told to avoid riding in the rain, so as not to risk permanent egg-smelling knicks! I thought the sign in our accommodation was quite funny “ please refrain from cooking spicy and odorous foods out of respect for others”. Haven’t they smelt the air!!
The following 2 days were fairly uneventful with several practice laps and plenty of rest in between. The course was quite a good one with some solid climbing, flowy up and down single track, a few cool berms and jumps and a gnarly rock garden thrown in. The rock garden actually provided some good entertainment over the weekend with several spectacular crashes! I attempted to nut out the best line down it, but in the end just opted to make sure the weight was back and just bomb down. This technique seemed to work well mostly, although I did provide some entertainment on one of the laps (not sure how I held it!)
Race day came around soon enough and with our event scheduled for the afternoon there was plenty of time for the nerves to build. I went out for a morning spin and, luckily for Ed, had no problems to report with the bike. The legs also felt quite fresh, so no excuses for me!
The race start seemed extremely fast, although maybe I was half asleep having been up since 5am. A gap formed to the leaders straight away and I just tried to remain positive and find a rhythm. Once the track kicked up and we headed into some single-track my legs started to come good and I was able to get on the back of Kath Oshea’s wheel. I then took a few minutes to regain my breathe before over-taking Katherine and then tried to keep the pressure on the pedals. I seemed to be stuck in no-mans-land for most of the race with a fair gap to the leading 2 out front and also a gap behind. I was able to keep quite a good pace the whole way through, but lacked a bit of punch to really accelerate over the tops of the smaller hills. So, in the end I finished up 3rd place behind the 2 Kiwi’s and 1st Place Australian home. I am quite pleased with the result overall and can be confident that I am peaking at the right time.
I felt like I had my own personal cheer squad out there, with 4 members of my MTB club, the Townsville Rockwheelers, out on course. It sure was great and really spurred me on each lap to hear their loud cheers!
The following day I got to go out and explore the endless maize of trails Rotorua is known for. I started out riding with the junior Ozy team, and then split off for an extra couple of hrs with Townsville rider Peter and Ed. I think we managed to find most of the coolest trails thanks to Pete, and then got a little lost thanks to me. 4hrs later, and a little hunger flat, we made it back to our accommodation and collapsed for the arvo. Now that I have tested the trails myself, I can highly recommend Rotorua as a fantastic mtb destination.
As I write this race report, I am on-board a flight to South Africa for the first World Cup race of the Season. I have definitely got better form than I have ever had and now just hoping the Euro’s and American’s have had a restful off-Season!
