Pukete Racing

This weekend I finally got to ride my new bike! The first race of the Hamilton Mountain Bike Club winter race series was held at the Pukete Mountain Bike Track on Sunday. It was only my second race (and third ride) since Oliver was born.
I employed my usual tactic of starting fast to try to get a good position before going into the singletrack. I didn't quite get in front of everyone I needed to, so was held up a bit in the first tight section. It didn't really matter though, because by about three quarters of the way through the first lap I started to run out of lungs and legs. After that I just had to keep pushing hard (but not too hard!) and do what I could to get through.

I discovered I'm a bit rusty with my riding technique, but I think I made some improvement throughout the race. My new bike felt great (even though I didn't!). It was light and responsive - even with the old and heavy front wheel. I had a few issues with the gears not changing that well, but I had expected that as the new cable housing would be settling into place. I was drinking from a bottle, something I haven't done for about 10 years, and had a bit of trouble with that. I chose a bottle over my camelbak as I wanted to practice for the Moonride.

The format of the race was to do as many laps as you could in 45 minutes, so if you crossed the line at 44 minutes you had to keep going and complete another lap! I managed to do 2 laps of the course (about 7.2km) in 54 minutes. That's about 10 minutes slower than I used to do it! I can't blame my equipment - it's really just me at fault!

Andrew did a great job looking after Oliver whilst I raced. I tried to feed him as soon as I finished the race, but either he wasn't hungry, or the sweaty salty boob didn't taste too good! It didn't matter though, as he was happy to have his Mum back and get some more cuddles (although the photographer failed to mention the blob of mud on my nose!).