After another less-than-satisfactory build up, I found myself drifting onto the back of the start group for Race 2 of the N-Duro Winter MTB Series. The temperature was a smidgen above freezing, but with the sun out I could pretend it wasn’t that bad. After a bit of smack-talk, sandbagging, and philosophising, we were rolling over the start mat. I stood up and chucked my legs up a gear into ‘flail’. I wanted to get past a few people before the traffic jam into the first forest uphill. Orangecruz tucked in somewhere behind me, with a few hoots of encouragement. I also heard a cry of “Oh! Its Mel! – GO MEL!!” and an echo say, “Go Mel!”. I have no idea who that was because I was too busy trying to pick my way past some people on the last couple of inches of track and not get caught up in the blackberry!Surprisingly, we all managed to stay on through the traffic jam, as we snaked our way up the hill and out onto the road. We ducked into the singletrack at the bottom of Rockdrop, linking through to Challenge to take us further up the hill. Straight away people were off their bikes, struggling with the first little rise with a couple of tiny root steps in it. I heard Orangecruz shouted out from a little way behind me, “woohoo, go Mel!” and I was off like a startled rabbit. I jumped off my bike, leaped (leapt?) over a fallen pine branch and got ahead of the two traffic jammers who were strewn across the track like a roadblock as they slowly got themselves sorted out and their feet clipped in. There was a big jam on the first pinch climb as well, where everyone proceeded to walk their bikes slowly up the hill in a procession. Frustrating! Then we flowed at a somewhat sedate pace through the rest of the trail until the next longer, more significant, climb reduced everyone to walking again. Speed walking or jogging got me past one or two people, then it was back in line for the next section of singletrack. At some point someone tried to yank the trail-carpet out from under my wheels – at least that’s what it felt like. I almost took a diver, my front wheel skipped out – way out – in a corner and I very nearly went down. I shook it off and got back into riding again.
The climbing was hard work. I was cold. My fingers and toes were numb within the first 5 minutes off the line and they weren’t going to thaw out any time soon. Despite struggling on the climbs, I was handling things okay. My less than satisfactory build up had included just two rides on my mountain bike (in the past month!), so either the gradient was more complimentary to someone who hasn’t trained much, or I had miraculously found some fitness somewhere along the way.
I dragged my arse through Soakhole, just waiting for the end to come… then into A Trail. Finally. I had been looking forward to this part of the course since I woke up! And oddly enough I found myself all alone – no one in front, no one behind. Fab. U. Lous! I flowed through that trail and lapped it up. I pumped the humps, I carved the berms. I caught up to a bunch of blokes near the end. Then the hard part, climbing up to Tickler. It’s not too hard, really. It’s just that you have such a fun time on A Trail, that it’s not easy to accept that the fun has to end some time. I got past the blokes on the way into Tickler, pulled an “awkwardface” for the cameraman (with a mouth stuffed full of energy bar), and slid out on the following little uphill. Two people got past me as I ran my bike up the hill. I followed then for the rest of the way through Tickler, passing in the most silly awkward places as they changed into a smaller gear and I stood up and stomped. Free at last I rolled into Dragon’s Tail and got my groove on again. What a cool little trail. We hooked left at the clearing (or kind of straight-through, really) and onto a little climb out to Red Tank Road.
We got spat out onto Nursery Road and here I knew I was on my way home. 99% of the nasty pinch climbs were done and my legs were about 99% toasted too. Perfect. I just had to keep making circles and I’d get to the end soon enough. Through the good bit of Dipper, shortcut into Tahi and then… braaapp! BraaaapppPPP! The lead moto was on its way. I hate the lead moto! It stinks! I had really hoped I would have been fast enough not to get passed this time. I let the moto past and then got back onto the trail, inhaling the toxic fumes. Yuk! Still, I only had to follow those fumes for another 2 or 3 km – that’s nowhere near as bad as the elite riders having to follow it for the whole 40km.
I got all the way through to the top of Rosebank before I got passed by the lead 40km rider. Then I kept checking behind me to see where the rest of the fast guys were. There were none. I walked down the ugly bit of Rosebank, with overpowering bad memories of crashing there multiple times when I last rode it about 6 years ago. It has been tidied up a bit since then and as I walked down I realised I probably could have ridden it after all. The photographer also looked pretty disappointed. Back on the bike, I dropped down the last root-steps and splashed through the pond at the end. I clambered up the slippery slide and cranked my pedals hard to the finish.
That felt good. About 10 seconds after I had finished, the fast guys turned up. It turns out that the only person to pass me (from the 40km ride) was Mike Northcott who is well into preparations for the World Cup. Not bad. Feeling pretty pleased with myself, I headed back to the car to get into some warm gear. I completely missed Orangecruz finishing, but was fast enough to walk back into the forest and catch Nagem tip-toeing across the pond, keeping her feet dry in the process. Class.
It was a fabulous day out in Rotorua. I earned another $50 in N-Duro money for 1st place Female Short Course Singlespeed, placing 10th woman overall for the short course. I capped the day off with a massive salmon bagel at Zippy’s, before the long drive home to Hamilton.
Next race is 15 August – see you there!
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