Bushlove's Most Grand Traverse

Sunday the 5th was a busy day for the mighty, fun loving, Bushlove Racing Team. We had riders in the PNP Champs in Wainui, the Highlander Enduro in Vegas, and Tiger and Davo in the Porirua Grand Traverse. Was there another team competing more succesfully in more events in the North Island than the BLRT?

The PGT is a multisport race with a popular duathlon option which bikes 30ish kms to Porirua from Battle Hill, then has a tough run over some very testing terrain for about 20kms.

Tony was racing as a team with Glen Hughes, a talented mountain runner (2nd in 2008 NZ Mountain Running Champs!) who he knew from when he was actually fit. Davo was doing the bike and run himself and was hoping for a taste of the podium after being 5th in 2008.

Tiger was actually on time picking Davo up which considering the clocks changed was amazing, as this had been earmarked as fail number one. Upon arrival at Battle Hill, our intrepid Bushies caught up with Hiskey for a warm up and a natter before briefing and the gun...



Being used to the quick start of an XC race, the seasoned MTB specialists rushed forward and Hiskey led, followed closely by Davo, Tones, Nick Waring and Dave Rowlands. Mr Rowlands showed his hand early and got a furlong ahead on the start of the Pukitiro Loop climb. Hiskey, Mr Waring, Tones and Davo followed a short distance back until Hiskey and Mr Waring moved a few lengths up, the elastic broke and our Bushies Tiger and Davo were on their own with a comfy and growing gap back to the field. Davo interrupted Tiger's panting with casual comments like "stay on it" and "pull them back", and Tiger muttered some incoherent drivel that sounded like his 20 month old daughter complaining.



The climb was a great start and broke the field up nicely. Tiger had clearly improved since his 2007 effort, where random ladies perusing Women's Weekly, were passing him on the Pukitiro slopes. The long climb was followed by a nice little ridge descent with a huge crosswind and another longish climb. Before the main descent started Davo signaled his wise intention to let Tiger go, and save some gas for the run. The fireroad downhill to Flighty's Road was great - Loose, loose, loose. Davo nearly bought the farm on one of the off camber corners and held back a little bit more. Bald Conti Speedkings have no win on such descents. Tones smashed down it and his fancy carbon Merida 5000 was tracking and handling well after switching to a shorter stem. When he hit the Flighty's tarmac he locked out the shocked and opened up the taps.

Nearing the top of the Belmont Road climb Davo heard Tones a few corners up when he hollered a traditional Bushlove warcry. Too far away to catch him though as we were not far from the descent to Porirua, from which point places should hold firm.

Tiger arrived in transition in 4th place, a few mins ahead of Davo. Glen shot off and despite seeming to have forgotten his calves, motored off towards the climb. Tiger helped Davo through transition. Davo emptied his tranny bucket of run shoes and bottle belt and headed across the college field towards the bastard climb from Camp Elsdon to Colonial Knob via the steps of doom.



By this time Glen, Tiger's run mate, was probably nearly home. He was runniing to a smashing of the course record by 7 minutes. Crazy stuff.

Davo felt pretty great heading over the hard initial climbs but by the time he reached the beach he was flagging. He had not run for longer than an hour for about 6 weeks thanks to a back injury. It was no coincidence that once through the one hour mark, he was on the rack and his quads were threatening to explode into vicious shankgasms. Davo got nudged back into third along the beach by ace endurance man, Michael Beaumont. A very nice guy who when competing looks not unlike a threatening Roman warrior.

D-Banger was still 'enjoying' the event at this stage. But after a few kms of beach running and the next climb he was dehydrated and did a bit of a puke from the effort. It all unravelled from here and Davo was passed frequently, especially by team runners.

Tiger was going to be passing up a bottle at the Titahi Bay beach. Davo was out of water at this point and suffering like a dog. Davo had not explained himself properly and Tiger didn't know the area. Tones was a no show. Bugger. Mid way up the grim pinch climb in the Titahi cliffs ther was some dry reaching. Not good.

Fleur Pawsey passed Davo on his way down to Porirua estuary. At exactly the same place as in 2007. A reminder of zero improvement in a whole year for Davo. He looked pretty bent out of shape by the time he reached the water and the mask of pain was firmly afixed. A generous marshall gave him a bottle. Gold. A few hundred meters later there was Tiger. Wrong beach, wrong boat sheds, but Davo was still over the moon to see a friendly face.





Tiger rode with the hobbling/walking/nearly crawling Bushlover, past the kayak transition and out around the estuary to the finish. Davo had sworn he would never walk the road section this year. Fail.

All in all a great day out for the team, with Tony and Glen winning the duathlon Team event by a million miles with 3hr15mins. Davo finsihed in 8th place in the individual mens duo from 25 finishers, with 4hr32mins. Despite hoping for better, Dave was pleased to finish when he felt so shabby. You always learn more when you struggle to complete, rather than compete.

A couple of funny quotes from the day. Tones overheard a spectator as we passed saying "Is he the last one?". There were a lot of people still on the course at that point. Davo's wife, Amie, said to Tiger "I think it is about time he changed hobbies" after seeing the state of him towards the end. Maybe she has a point. Vin Diesel congratulated Davo for finishing. A lovely gesture, despite how funny and sarcastic it sounded!

Congrats to Tiger and Glen for their win. Also congrats to MJ from On Yer Bike, for her fine win in the womens duathlon and Dave Rowlands for winning the mens duathlon and breaking the mtb course record. More hearty Bushlove congrats to seasoned adventure racing campaigner, Liam "Vin Diesel" Drew who won the Multisport event. Tony guaranteed himself some company at prize giving by bringing forth a bag of cold beers, which everyone enjoyed whilst clapping the younger competitors who were refreshingly taking time out from My Space and texting to try something with more 'win'.

We are lucky in Wellington to have such a fine range of events from promoters like Michael Jacques, Marco "Godfather" Renalli and Shane Ross from Better Than TV. If you only ever do XC Mtb races, think about branching out for some variety and checking out some of the other stuff on offer.

Worth a mention - Many competitors including Tiger, took advantage of the free massage from the ProActive team, and by all accounts they were very good. Check out their website massage, physiotherapy, biometric testing, exercise rehabilitation programmes and more.

Happy Trails.

Leonidas Of Sparta.