Wainui Track Heaven: Tigerbone, Goldie and Rammer

Tigerbone's Tales

Ricky was off for another Hiss/Roar/Pain Box outbusrt but not before he flashed a bit of tush to the rest of the M1 class. We started off up the Crazyman Climb where it was on from the get go, I chanced it at the front making distance on the field before the water tower, where I spotted Josh pulling a sneaky one or just pulling one around the back of the water tower, gasing it I came around first. Along the rollers I had the lead over Josh but he was not to be fooled easily, about 3/4 of the way up he pulled past me. I looked down at my 'agenda' and this was not on it, Josh was not going to make it easy for me to claw this back.



All the way to the T-intersection he had me pipped. It was not to be for ever though, just as we hit the top of the rise I powered down to pass him and kept the preasure on. I was first into the Labrynth and made ground from there. For the next 30min I was alone and feeling great, down and up hills.

On the second time down Beeline I lost concentration on "Mono's Drop" (First major drop when going down Beeline) and made for a high tackle on a tree trunk with my bicep FAIL! saw 1st place flash before my eyes as I thought I had broken my arm, rider - REMOVE FROM CART. As you can see below this tree had bigger guns than me and I came off second best.



Down the rest of Beeline limping along like Angry after knee surgery. On my 3rd lap of Beeline I saw a site that put the shits up me and brought a smile to my face at the same time... a Bushloveracing Jersey came past me (I yelled out "Goldie you bastard! am I pleased to see a BLR Jersey"). Just coming into the bottom of Beeline for the last time he took the lead through the 4WD track, not wanting to let up that easy I passed him again before the single track of the swamplands. Goldie stayed in touch all the way up Jungle Gym until we popped onto the 4WD track where I was able to take about 100mtrs out of him. When his chain got caught up in his wheel, bugger!!! Would have been a great hard race FTW all the way home (next race Goldie ;)


Madcore ups to Ed Crossling for taking out the home ground win in Pro/Elite and Cam for an impressive second in Senior Mens. Now its back to the Beach and Snorkling in Rarotonga, life is tough.

Cheers, Tiger

Goldie Makes A Beeline For Wainui

I decided a few days out from PNP`s round 2 race in Wainui that i better get off my butt and get back into some kinda race form, my last mountain bike race was karapoti so its been a while.

I cruised on down Saturday arvo and met Warrick at Wainui so i could get a look at the track, we rode a few loops of beeline - jungles and finished up with Spoon Hill. The tracks were as close to perfect as you could get, stopped and had a quick chat to Tryfan who was busy digging. Big Up`s to that man!!

Up early on sunday morning and made the trek down from Levin. Had a bit of a warm up then lined up with a strong Masters 1 field; the hooter sounded and we were away.

Got to the first climb and set about my work moving quickly up to 3rd place behind tony and josh, i was feeling surprisingly good and kept them in my sights past the water tank and through the roller coaster.



Turned down into labyrinth on Josh`s back wheel while tony had got away, Josh was descending resonably well and I called out to "Cmon mate, lets catch him!" then seconds later oop`s little too much front brake and I was bouncing down the track, had a bit of a chuckle, picked myself up and quickly caught back up to Josh.

Stuck to Josh`s wheel until he let me past on beeline now i was on a mission to catch sight of Tones, did a loop at a good clip trying to negotiate the ever increasing traffic and still no sign of Mr Merida. Got up to the top again and marshal (Stu) said "He`s about 10 seconds" - sweet!!

Finally caught sight of Tones toward the bottom of Beeline continued along the gravel road section and Tones was having a swigg on his Powerade so i decided to swoop, raced past at a great rate of knots and took him by surprise. Once he finished coughing and chocking on his Mountain Blast he quickly rejoined my wheel and not long after re-took the lead.

I kept sight of Tones up Jungles for the last time, he was climbing bloody well and I was starting to feel the pressure (just a little). We turned right at the top on the last little climb of the day and he was slowly gapping me, i was`nt getting too worried because I felt I should have the better of him on the Spoon Hill descent. I started to dig it in, shifted up a gear when suddenly, CRUNCH!! my chain came off and wedged itself between the spokes and the cassette, in a panic i tryed to free it, ripping it, kicking it, swearing at it as Tones rode away to collect his chocolate bar.

After calming down a bit and dragging my bike back up the cliff i had just thrown it off, I removed the back wheel, calmly freed my chain and continued on my way, not before being passed by about 1400 riders.

I got to the finish line just on nightfall and thought to myself what if

Great win Tones, you're on fire man! Also a big thanks to Marco and the PNP helpers for another great days racing.

Goldie


Rammer's Tales

I did NOT come last.



This was my first attempt at a MTB race, having ridden 5 times
in the previous 3 years it was always going to be entertaining -
at least for the spectators - My strategy of starting at the very
back of the back was very, very flawed. I made great progress
weaving through the pack on the way up to the t-junction and
the short sprint to labyrinth was done out of the saddle and I
picked up a lot of places. This was where the good times ended.
My single track and downhill speeds were nothing less than
embarrassing, every place I picked up going uphill I promptly
lost. The drop-off on beeline was brown trouser time for me and
I had to bail to make it down.

Heading back up the family track was great both times, it was nice
to stretch the legs and grunt it up the inclines.
Sadly my enthusiastic attack of the double track leading up to spoonhill
did me in, my legs were in no state to deal with the pounding
they got given on that track. Again I had to bail early on and head
for an undie change while I watched the more capable riders (read,
rest of field) stream by me.

Clearly my awesome preparation work for this event showed in
spades. I had a lot of fun though and with a LOT of work I think
I can do better than second to last!

A few notes:
1) Dave - debt settled, that was a nasty trick.
2) Marco - Thanks for your high opinion of my abilities, sorry I let you down.
3) Ash - Awesome work on crossroad, your chirpy comments were great.