PNP Mount Vic - Race Reports From Teh Team

Race reports from some of the Team competing on Sunday at the PNP Mount Vic. Ricky will surely pop one up once he has recovered from getting knocked down in a hit and run yesterday. Heal up quick Rick!

Mono’s Long Race Report, written in the style of a long race report.

Coming into the third round of the PNP series with 2 wins I was feeling pretty confident of a good performance on Mount Vic. I’d done a couple of practice laps and was very comfortable with the course – nothing too challenging, and lots of wee power climbs. Nice.

After a bit of pre-race banter I was off up the hill for a quick warm-up, then headed into the velodrome to get onto the start line. After watching the Elite guys head off I thought it would be a plan to get to the front before heading out of the velodrome to avoid any epic spills into the fence.

I got out of the velodrome first, and headed up the hill for the first time. I got passed after crossing Alexandra Road by a guy in Revolution Cycles kit (Rhys Musson???). We stayed together for the remainder of the climb, and he managed to get into the descent just ahead of me.

I snuck past him at the Macrocarpa rooty climb, and managed to pull a wee gap before heading down onto the north face. On the downhill I put a bit more time between us, and set about riding at a reasonable pace. All was well for the rest of the first lap, and through most of the second lap – nothing exciting, but staying out the front and enjoying the ride.

As always, I was chatting to people I was passing, trying to have a laugh. Most people were not interested in shooting the breeze when they had a chubby dude riding past them. Funny that.

During the second lap I sensed someone catching me when approaching the Matterhorn, and during the carry I asked which class he was riding… “Same as you” was the reply.

Damn. I’m a marked man.

I put on a bit of pace for the next few minutes, in an attempt to break him. This seemed to be working OK, as I had the length of the velodrome on him next time through. Up towards Alexandra road again and I stuck it in the dog and mashed it. My legs were feeling cooked, and I was out of water. I could see Hamish getting close again about half way up the climb, so put in another wee burst – this time I got about 40m on him by the summit. I got held up by a n00b near the top in a narrow bit, which allowed Mr. Collie to catch me up again. Down the grassy slope and into the rooty section we happened upon a group of tourists. I passed cautiously and hoped Mr Collie would be good enough to stop and offer them directions to Te Papa.

Out of the single track and across the field I only had about 10s on second place. As I turned up the dovetail for the last time my right adductor started cramping. Shit. He snuck by and pulled out about 30m before the descent. During the descent I started to peg him back, until he was only about 10m ahead at the start of the final climb up from Pirie Street.

At this point I got excited, grabbed another couple of gears and jumped out of the saddle. After about 2 pedal strokes I got my cramp back. Fuckit. Flicked into granny and spun my way up the hill, all the while trying to deal with the pain from the unrelenting cramp. Not much fun. Near the top of the climb 2 more guys came steaming past me – at this point I assumed I was now in fourth place.

Once I was at the top I could get a few moments rest on the singletrack. When I got to Alexandra Park I could see there was no way I was going to catch Hamish, so set my mind to just getting to the finish. The rest of the lap was uneventful, and I was feeling pretty down about my race.

Arriving back at the velodrome I casually completed my lap and went through the finish.
One of the first people to head my way was another racer from senior men – his chain had snapped on the first lap. While chatting he mentioned I had come through second in senior men. After some head scratching I decided the two that passed me in a hurry were elite riders. Still, I was pretty bummed that I’d been beaten on a course that should have suited me.

Over the next 30 minutes I managed to catch up with the Bushlove contingent, munch on Jude’s goodies (PG – Adult Themes) and down about 4 bottles of water. After going up to collect my First Loser’s medal I managed to catch up with my new coach (highly exciting for me) and a couple of other lurkers.

Looking forward to the next round at Belmont. I’ve got a bit more incentive to get back onto the top step of the beer-crate podium.

Chubbs








Whacko Jacko’s Race Report

After spending a while lording over Davo that he now has the most ghetto bike, I did a summit warm up with Jase and Davo.

I just love looking at Davo’s pulsing calves as he climbs on his singlespeed. He is so strong and manly. I love the way he smells.

I went as hard as I could in the race and my new bike was much faster than my old one with large holes in it from where the braze-ons ripped out. The modern shocks and disc brakes are the shizzle for teh XC.

Despite my best effort on my true 2:1 gear (probably harder than you ride) the 50kg whipper-snapper, Bryn Dickerson, pulverized me by about 13mins. But I don’t feel too bad about it as Bryn also flew past Davo and Josh like they were standing still.

I tried to pass the leader of Senior Women on the Matterhorn run, but she gave me assholes about not being elite enough to pass her, so I kicked her in the clam.

Another Bridesmaid spot on the podium for me. But I’m not complaining as I still did bloody well. I really enjoyed checking out Bryn’s sausage on the podium. Darn it, I’d love a taste.

Whacko Jacko.

NB – The above may not have been written by Jack as he was too busy.

Davo’s M1 Re-cap.

Despite best spinning efforts I could not keep up round the track lap. But mysteriously the boys all seemed to wait for me before the club rooms and I snuck through into the lead. I thought then that I had the chocolate all wrapped up and that Clive would be my bitch at the summit. For a second I considered what to shout at him, if he was close enough, once I had reached the summit. Sadly I ploughed amateurly straight into the only ungraded part of the first climb and blasted my legs slowly extricating my SS from the rocky gutter as the chaps span their merry way up.

I went super-hard on the climb to the summit. I didn’t want to be buying Clive chocolate, but he left me no choice. Caramello for Clive. Had me by about 50m damn it. Clive stopped to wait for me after the steps. At least I think that’s how I closed the gap so quickly by the macrocarpa tree climb, where I dismounted and trotted off in a(n overly) hopeful pursuit of the leaders.

I rode really well to start with and for a lap or so was riding around in 3rd behind (prob a little way behind judging by the results) the speedy Mr Patton and Jonty. I yo-yo’d with Josh Wrigley for quite a while which was good. Josh’s steep climbing skills were very impressive, but I managed to get back to him a few times before he headed off for good. Ricky and Tony passed me heading out onto the third lap. I never got back in touch with Slacky, but I had Tony in my sights for most of the last lap but could never stand hard enough on the pedals to close. What a son of a bitch course, my shanks were cooked.

I wanted to get on the podium but knew that I’d have to do a stella ride to manage it considering the class riders in the M1 on Sunday. Still very proud of my 6th. The next three dudes, Slacky, Josh and Tony, were all within one minute. So near yet sooooo far. I couldn’t go any harder though.

The bike was great. The slick Maxxis Wormdrive I ran out back was good fun. Gave no traction on the gravel downhills so I was all over the place, a bit like a film I saw on Sunday called Fast & The Furious – Tokyo Drift, only at Mount Vic. Doubt I lost time with it though, and I reckon it helped on the long climb to summit and a few other places. I think I will run something with more grip though next time as it tended to slip when standing and forcing it on the climbs.

Great to see everyone and be able to cheer three Bushlove men on the boxes at the end. And I won a Timex watch. Bonus.

Looking forward to the suffering at Belmont.

Davo

Angry Clives VERY short race report.

Lined up at the start at the Velodrome ready to smash it too the summit, had a bar of chocolate on the line with Davo. On the first lap of the velodrome I couldnt get into top chainring.. grrrr.. (maybe something to dowith Ricky clicking my gear shifter on the start.. hmmm, start of bad things to come).
Was second out of the velodrome behind Ricky, on to the climb up to Alexandra road where quite surprisingly Davo comes out of nowhere saying "I wasted the first chance", then proceeds to make an awesome line choice in the rough stuff at the side of the track. His smart words and technical skills spurred me on, so dug deep and pedalled like buggery, beating him to the summit by about 100metres (Davo said 50m, but hes got bad eyesight). woot, at the summit I paused slightly to see the look of losing in Davos eyes..
Next was off down I never know the tracks names, Davo passed me at the bottom of a descent and I passed him again at the top of the hill climb, only to get passed again with Davo running with the SS up a particually steep rooty section.
Onto the Ski Slope, no dramas, then up a pinch, unfortunately 2 other riders had stalled on it, and with no way around was forced to walk it costing valuable seconds.
Ricky caught up shortly after this passing me downhill, I got him on the next climb though.
Was following Ricky down and around the water tower then up the dipper.. then my chain promply snaps, f*&uk , I figured my race was screwed as I didnt have a chain tool handy and faced a short walk back to the velodrome, so DNF'ed myself and went to hang with my wife and kids.
Enjoyed my short race all the same. Looking forward to Belmont, as its just hills hills hills.

Later
Angry.




Jase The Ace Reports...

Arrived at Mount Vic feeling reasonably fit and looking forward to a good hit out.

Had a quick warm up and checked out the new part of the course (that ski jump part) which was all new to me and then cruised down to the start line.

There was a fairly good turn out of 13 top class riders including a couple of top roadies Edwin Crossling and Silas Cullen.

The hooter went and we were away i settled in at a fairly good pace, there were 7 of us that kind of got away from the rest of the field and then cabin and Hisky gradually broke away.

My aim was to do 30min laps and i was doing so for my first 2 laps ( first lap 29mins, 2nd lap 30mins), i was hanging on to Gav`s wheel but he started gapping me towards the end of lap 2, he was about three quarters way around the velodrome just as i was arriving.

The 3rd lap was when things started going backwards, i got up to the summit feeling bloody toasted and realising i still had over half a bottle of drink left i had`nt been drinking no where near enough to function properly, i managed to crawl my way round to the end and holding my 7th position, my last lap was somewhere around 35 mins so lost a lot of time and suffering from a bit of dehydration.

I`m not overly disappointed with my result but just put it down to experience, the relentless nature of the Mount Vic course and trying to keep in touch with some of the countries top riders is never going to be an easy day.

Good to see some great results from you other boy`s and look forward to some more success at Belmont.

I`ll hopefully have my new bike built up for Belmont so will look forward to breaking her in.

I`m trying to decide on a new light weight 100mm fork to replace my 80mm R7`s any suggestion`s fellas?

Jase