After not doing round one due to supporting Jude at the DNT. Round 2 rolled around quickly and I had been a bit slack and not looked at my bike sense last seasons finals, yep I hadn't even cleaned it and it was friday night and Murray my cousin who I was going the event with is picky individual when comes to cleaning. (for you MTB'r along the lines of Big Gav, not sure who is worse) any way after last years success, I think I had been avoiding it as I was paranoid that some old issue's were going to come back to haunt me,
About 10 oclock friday night the bike was loaded into Murray's van the back home to pack gear, to be back at Murray's by 5 am for the trip to wiapawa were the event was to be held
The ground was very hard with a good covering of grass meaning it was going to be slippery, practise didn't go well it was slippery and felt very slow wheel spinning out of evry corner, not getting good drive etc, My back tire was showing its age,
Any way race one and I hole shot'ed it and lead for almost 2 laps but made a mistake on a section I never really sorted out all day and i was really struggling with rear grip, yes I need a new tyre, finished 2nd,
Race 2, 2nd around the first corner and at about the 1/2 lap mark 3 of us swaped the lead a couple of times with me ending up in front for the next lap till I was passed and as he went through he carved up my front wheel (don't think it was intentional but) it roiled my up a bit and pushed hard to try and get the lead back and missed a groove and ended up laying on the ground. By the time got up and restarted my bike I was back in forth where I stayed till the end.
Race 3 again 2nd around the first corner and manage to get the lead early but made a mistake in same plac as first
race which cost me a lead and ofter swapping the lead a few times I over committed my self into corner and he shut the door, i had lay the bike down or I would have slammed into him,i managed to keep the bike runing but still lost 2 places but managed to get one back, so with a 2nd, 4th and 3rd for the day I guess it wasn't to bad, considering I am the only one out of the top 5 at least who doesn't race a modern MX bike also. It is so hard to turn up 4/5 times a year and not be race fit.
the next round is not till feb next year! oh and my bike is clean already, but does need some TLC. Sorry he being Kev Hermansen
Sydney NRL finals
Work won a trip to the NRL finals in Sydney, it was the Stacy Jones / Mad Butcher tour
Jude and I got to go, we flew out at 6:40 am Saturday meaning we had to be at the airport at 4:40 am, the alarm went of a 3am,
arriving in Sydney at 8am we caught the train to central station, we sat down behind a couple who asked us if we knew which station they should get off at for Paddy's market, they were from Auckland ! we at that stage had no idea,
we dropped our bags at our hotel for the weekend and went walk about for the day
the building were amazing, the amount of block work, the size of the building etc.
With the 3hr time gain it made that day about 22hrs long
Sunday was NRL day caught the boat from Darling harbour about 15mins walk from our hotel, which took us up the river to Olympic park, and a bus to the studium
From memory there was about 80,400 in attendance and Manly Sea Eagles thumped the Melbourne Storm 40 nil
On monday we had a look around the Powerhouse Museum
we flew out that afternoon arriving back in Welly just before midnight, so another long day but all in all a great weekend
Ok I have meaning to do this for while now......
Especially after Jude's top result at the Jamis Day Night thriller in taupo. Jude won the Womans 12hr solo category completing 1 more lap than 2nd placed Megan Dimozantos, who won the 24hr Moonride where Jude finished 3rd in rain drenched mud fest. Megan also finish 7th pro elite female at the world 24hr solo champs in Canada this year.
At this point I must add in Jude's result wouldn't have been possible with out the help of Lisa Morgan who was Jude's main support person for the day, Lisa also managed to support Celia Lie who won the the 6hr solo woman cat. while I support Mike Northcott who won the 6hr solo mens and the 6hr event overall & Lee Poston who finished 5th in the 6hr mens solo cat, so all in all we had a good day in our tent taking wins in the 3 of the 4 solo cats
Unfortunaltly for me this event meant I missed the first round of the NZ MR VMX champs but with Judes result I didn't mind one little bit, I have sence done the second round with mixed results will post that up soon
