ToraTora Mountain Bike Park

I know I am meant to be recording my training for the Taupo Ironman in March but this week I had the opportunity to get some cross training in. Greg decided he would show me around the new(ish) ToraTora mountain bike park just out of Martinborough. 
The weather was looking dubious as we headed over the hill, we arrived just before 10am, about the same time as the rain.  We had a quick chat with the owner and were off.  The ride started with a quick warm up along a gravel road, turned left onto some farm land (Greg's group missed this turn off last time resulting in them biking a few extra kms down the road - you DON'T want to miss it!).  After a few hundred metres the track headed into the bush and onto a nicely prepared track.  I took my cross country  bike, some other riders we met took both their XC and single speeds.  I think the track would be suitable for cyclocross bikes as well.  We did the main loop, which is about 14km including the road section to and from the start.  The ride itself was enjoyable, pretty much all rideable with some neat little down hills and I'm sure there would be some stunning views on a good day. On the way out the weather packed in.  Back at the start, the owner showed us some true Wairarapa hospitality and let me use the shower attached to the cottage.


I had hoped to take some great photos and record some action footage but the weather and constant chain suck didn't allow it.  It just means that I will have to go there again, bummer!  Greg and I are thinking about taking our cross country bikes to ride the main course followed by another lap on the downhill bikes to explore the other down hill tracks. Overall it's a track that can be as challenging or as easy as you want to make it.


To visit their web page, click here


The loop.

ToraTora in relation to Wellington.

North Island Cyclocross Champs

All week I had planned on NOT racing the North Island Cyclocross Champs as I didn't see how it would benefit my Ironman training, surely a long run would be more useful, wouldn't it?

After another quiet week of training, I was feeling fresh for the weekend (nice change).  On Saturday, Andy and I popped over the hill, around the lake and back over the hill, hopefully a practise for the Vets race in two weeks time.

Sunday morning rolled round and the thought of missing out on a race just across the bridge was too great.  Upon arrival, I was impressed with the atmosphere, C grade had just finished and the kids were lining up to start.   I raced B Grade on my cross bike and as a little reward those on cross bikes got to start at the front.
Below is a video of my first lap of 12.





The great thing about living so close is that I was able to watch the start of A Grade, pop home have lunch then return to take some great action shots.  Below is Stuart Stent, clear jump, nice height, level pedals, I score him 8.9

To see all the other photos, chick here

A Grade start.

A Whole New Playground!

I got into mountain biking as a way of exploring the hills around Upper Hutt and thought I knew most of the tracks.  The weather on Monday didn't inspire me to ride on the road so I thought I would try a track I had heard about even though it is just around the corner.  It's the section of the river trail from Twin Bridges to Te Marua bridge that goes through a nice section of bush, some farm land (sheep grazing if you are lucky), through some more beautiful bush, then it pops out next to SH 2.  It must be one of Upper Hutt's best kept secrets.  What makes this piece of track really exciting is that I can now ride from Upper Hutt to the top of the Rimatakas mostly off road, perfect for the cyclocross bike!

Oh, as luck would have it, it is perfect terrain for me to run on which will see me doing some great adventure runs, maybe to the top of the incline, Mt Climie or even over to Kaitoke Regional Park via the Ridge track.

Pretty average week for training, Saturday saw me get smashed again in Break two. It was a real eye opener, I couldn't keep up with my bunch on the flat which obviously means I don't have any speed and rightly so because I have been concentrating on Long Slow Distance.  The silver lining was I banked a 150km/5hour ride and I felt fine when I got home.  The large bottle of coke Luke bought and shared may have influenced my state of mind though.

Below is my Sunday run along the track I mentioned earlier, the two dark shapes are the Twin Lakes.

Someone forgot to read the script!!!

Someone forgot to read the script and when I say someone, I mean EVERYONE else!!!!-:)

I have parcipated in this race for the last couple of years with the same script. We cruised to the bottom of Wainui Hill, the odd Pantani attcked the bunch going up while the rest of us groveled to the summit.  As it is  a slight downhill to the coast,  those that got dropped would work together, catch the riders out in front and then we all worked together back up the valley into the head wind.  Once we got to the rubbish tip enterance the odd attack would start but the real contenders wouldn't start sprinting until leaving the dip with 100-200 metres to the finish line.  Sounds like quite a pleasent race, doesn't it?

(In the Balfour Pennington Series, the bunches are handicapped with Scratch being the fastest and Break four being the slowest.  The powers to be put me in Break two).

This year 'that script' was thrown out the window on the start line! All it took was for one person to jump on the "Go" and the bunch was all fired up, dropping people before the start of the hill.  For me, I was able to hang on along the flat and limit the damage going up Wainui Hill. A gap of 50m opened up quickly which slowly became 100m.  Any hope I had of rejoining the front bunch before the top was dashed about 3/4 of the way up on one of the steeper corners.  I tried to bridge the gap but my legs had nothing in them, leaving me to look around and join forces with three others.  We worked well together down Coast Rd closing in on a few riders just ahead of us.  WOOOSH, about half way down, Break 1 caught us, we worked  with them, caught Break 3 just before the turn around.  A few kiometers later we caught Break 4.  I never saw what happened at the front as I was tucked in neatly near the back of about 40-60 riders.  The pace suggested that we were riding into a very strong head wind.

It was a good day out, my first raod race in about 8 weeks, didn't crack or crash and I was able to bank a 4 hour ride.