N-Duro Winter MTB Series Race 3 - Final

Photo: Helen Brumby

It was with some trepidation that I drove out of the driveway on Sunday morning, heading to Rotorua for the third and final race of the N-Duro MTB Cup Winter Series. Having the petrol station attendant remark, “have fun… and look out for those trees!”, added to the sombre and ominous feeling I had. The night before I had a house full of Andrew’s relatives to celebrate his 40th birthday and I was feeling a bit jaded. A sugar free Red Bull and a good dose of Metallica soon had me feeling a little more neutral and in a headspace more focused on having a good day out.
“Training” had been sketchy – in the previous 5 weeks I had done two mountain bike rides, two short runs, a few sessions on the wind trainer, and plenty of sitting around. I wasn’t feeling fit or fast. Okay, well I don’t think I ever have felt that way, but I certainly wasn’t feeling ready for 25kms of riding at a good clip.

As usual, I had left as late as possible from home, so I rolled into Long Mile Road, found a parking spot and got kitted up. I ripped down the road to registration, just in time to see the tail end of the long course racers roll over the start line. I got my number plate sorted and then sat about chatting to Helen about how awesome the weather was. It was raining. MetService and MetVUW had both predicted light rain that would ease off some time around mid day. Half an hour later after a token effort for a warm up, I was waiting on the start line in the light, but steady, rain.

GO! We were off… rolling slowly, snaking our way up the Nursery Road hill, trying not to overlap wheels with the rider in front. I was standing up and trying to pick my way through the people spinning in their granny gear. I rode all the way to the top, finding the pace just a bit slower than what I would feel comfortable with (to get on top of my gear a bit more, increase the cadence, and not have to struggle so much). It was a stop-start ride through Genesis. At one point the two people ahead of me stopped, leaving a gap in the middle of the trail between them on a short pinch climb. I gave it a couple of good stomps on the pedals intending to ride between them and up the hill, but slid out, lost traction and toppled over, sitting down on one guys rear wheel and derailleur. Take that! (Whoops).

I apologised and carried on with a little less gusto. A bit of pushing, running, and walking ensued to get through to the end of Genesis and out on to Challenge. It was the good bit of Challenge; downhill. Unfortunately I was held up by someone taking things pretty easy. I love this little section of trail, and I love to let the brakes go as much as possible. Not today.

Photo: Helen Brumby

A little fumble at the end of Challenge meant I took the wrong line onto the road and was faced with a short, steep, rooty looking drop that was not very welcoming at all. I tackled it CX style (I got off and ran down) and then hopped back on my bike to chase down the slowpoke in front of me. A bit of a grunt up a pinch climb over some roots around a tree on Dipper allowed me to get past him. Then it was time for fingers to relax on the brake levers again to enjoy the berms and turns on this nice flat bit of trail. We went all the way through to Tahi and on to Rosebank. Vivid memories of my early days some 10 plus years ago, riding in Rotorua on an aluminium hardtail with 75mm suspension forks circled through my mind. Ironically I was riding a hardtail with 85mm suspension forks, that weighed more, and had less gears. My, how far I had come!

Somewhere on Rosebank I got caught up and passed by a woman on a singlespeed. I had spied just two other female SSers on the start line. This woman had started a little way in front of me, so I knew if I could follow her to the end and stay on her tail I could beat her on time. I got past her on the tricky little descent bypass (around the really ugly descent) and was hoping that was the last I would see of her. Not so. She caught me again at the water crossing and slippery slide exit before leading the way through Tahi. Oddly, she sat up and cruised the first bit. I couldn’t work out why at first, then I realised she was eating. Good plan! I scoffed a gel while following along behind and pretty soon she sped up and got back into it. My body was not feeling like it had a lot to give, so I decided to just sit in for a while and see how the pace felt.

She finally faltered on a short pinch climb on Tahi and I put in a few extra stomps to get up the hill and past her. It was a bit of a gruntfest, but I did it. I put a little burst on and didn’t look back. That gel better bloody do its thing! Next up was Creek track where I decided to just keep the flow on, use the momentum and try not to lose ground. I felt pretty good and couldn’t see the other SS woman behind me anywhere. I hit the road and took the opportunity to eat a chunk of powerbar. A big climb loomed. Red Tank Road. I knew I had to use it to open up a bigger gap before Be Rude Not To where I hoped to further increase any gap I had. I had one tactical walk on Red Tank Road (more eating, a bit of a leg stretch while walking, and a chance to have lots of looks to see who’s behind). As I rode the last bit of Red Tank Road, Garth passed me and plunged into BRNT. I say "plunged" because of the huge puddle at the entrance – you literally had to “dive on in” to the trail. I could hear Garth yelling and talking and making all sorts of noise down BRNT. Kinda odd. Then, when I got near the bottom of BRNT, I could hear Garth over on the other side of the valley, going up Lion Trail! What a nutter.

Photo: N-Duro Events

I rode through the river that had formed at the bottom of Lion trail and then started the long walk to push up the first few bits. I passed a young guy on a new full suspension Specialized 29er who looked to be pretty blown. Lion trail was stink. I was conserving energy where possible, so I had something left for the last bit of the course. I walked quite a bit, as I could feel my legs were very close to empty. I finally rolled onto Katore Road, ever grateful that I didn’t have to climb the hill up to Gunna Gotta. I climbed into Soakhole, and started to really look forward to the end. It was close. Somewhere in soakhole I ran out of front brake pads. It came on quite suddenly, like someone flicked the switch to “turkey gobble”. The noise was horrendous. I tried to favour the rear brake, but it just couldn’t be done – the noise was the sound of money being ground down into nothing but dust and metal filings.

I only had Club and Exit trails to go, so I rolled on, trying not to go too fast, so I didn’t have to brake too hard. There were places that I just couldn’t avoid using the front brake – a mixture of habit (good), being too chicken to go fast (bad), and not really having the skill to skid with the rear brake and just hang it all out. I found Exit trail to be in much better condition than at the first race and rode everything quite well (considering the lack of front brake) until I spotted a Marshal standing on a straight and flat bit of track. Then the yellow and black striped hazard tape dangling from the trees caught my eye. “Tree down”. “Try to stay out of the rut”. The rut was big and there were two of them. Which one? I jumped off my bike and ran down the hill. The fallen tree didn’t look like anything too bad, as there was a muddy bypass to the left of it. As soon as I stepped in that mud I knew I had done the right thing to walk. I sank right up to my ankles. The tree was lying at an angle in the mud and was polished from all the bike tyres that had been across it. It also bore the scars of a few chainrings biting into it. If I had tried to ride that section, I too may have been bearing a few new scars. Safely past the “trials” section, I remounted my bike and spun off down the hill to the finish line.

I was 1st singlespeed woman, edging out second place by 5 minutes. I was pretty happy with that I was also 14th out of 26 total women who started, so didn’t quite manage a top 10 this time around. I was soundly beaten by some fast young ones and some even faster oldies!

Next up is New Zealand Cyclocross Champs in Hamilton this weekend, then the Whaka100 in Rotorua (which I’ll do one of the shorter ones), followed closely by the Singlespeed World Champs in Rotorua. Then it will be time for something different. I’ll keep you posted.