North Island Cup Round 2, Napier

Eskdale Forest has always been a great place to race, and the Hawkes Bay mountain bike club once again put together a course that was fun, challenging and unique to any course we had raced at Eskdale. Adding to that the intense heat of a Hawkes bay summer and we had a sweaty, dustbowl of a race to compete in.


(photo: Michelle Bellamy)

The addition of Dirk and Carl to the field since Tauranga meant the competition would be stiff. But none of us knew quite how each other were really going, the tension was certainly there.

I would have to say that the first 2min of the race was some of the fastest Ive had to cope with. Part of the reason for this lay in the first half km of the course. We had to contend a straight, false flat drag strip for several hundred meters before it funnelled into singletrack. I was swamped after starting on the left side of the front row, but managed to find a place in the line and followed wheels until the climb.

I dug deep on the main climb to make a few places up and chase down Dirk, Mike and Carl, who had got together at the front and created a small gap. Just as I was making headway, Dirk attacked the other two and opened up a small but significant lead, which he continued to build on as each lap went by. My efforts succeeded in firstly bringing back Carl on lap 2, followed by being passed again by Carl, but then passing Mike on the 3rd, to eventually being passed again by mike and resorting to chasing the pair of them again as they held me at 20 seconds.

The final lap saw me close right in on Carl who had let mike go. It was a thrilling race to be a part of, and although I was 4th, I was happy to have put so much into the race, while being close to the front. My lap times showed I have form, as the times were pretty consistent. I have gained clarity on where I can improve and now have time to knuckle down and do something about it, I am excited!!!