Retirement is Boring

So a million years ago when I was in my twenties I was a pie eating downhiller. [trumpet blow]I even made it into Pro-elite in y2k[/trumpet blow] *unfortunatly I was injured at the first round and was able to mask my slowness with the valid excuse of injury*

However after 3 times in 18 months in plaster, Flagging the fully and racing hardtail and then the course's getting gnarlier with larger jumps and drops, my balls shrunk and I bloused out.

This is when I became the cross country legend you all know and worship.

Several months ago I became got my self a DH bike for skids and hucks. Around this time 5 time NZ DH champ, NZ's first DH pro Moto legend, NZ V8 and Porsche GT driver, Darryn Henderson got a new DH bike. He got my mind buzzing again and a lil bit of hunger. Not really enuff to jump back into racing full on, but local races took my fancy.
And the Long Gully Jawbone was my first DH race for quite a few years, and Darryn's first race in 11 1/2 years.

Practice day was windy (well it is Long Gully), it was a metric shiteload of shits and giggles. I was working my way into things at a nice even pace, getting used to riding a very big bike, and some gnarly stuff. Unfortunatly young Sarah Aitken launched herself of the wooden ladder drop near the top. My pride wouldn't allow this, so I had to go off it as well. Ummmm scary.

The slowness of the nanna line a tthe bottom ultimately meant you really had to do the big creek jump to be in with any chance, it was only a measly 6 meters......eeepp!! Luckily Hendi had given me the lowdown and I just had to give'r.
A flat tire in practice gave me a rest stop, which was greatly needed after driving to Rotovegas on the thursday night, then sitting in a room learning about Fox Forks and stuff, and then driving home that night. Another few runs later in the day, with young sarah following me into the the creek jump at the bottom of the course. Hardcore for any chick, let alone a 16yr old one. Mad props.

Aquick dash to work afterwards and fitted a Maxxis High Roller and Maxxis Freeride Tubes to my bike.
Race day was even windier and after putting up the Mighty Burkes Tent I snuck up for a few runs to settle myself in for the day.
First race run was pretty uneventful, no risks, a pretty intersting line around one of the jumps up top as it was gusty as heck, so I rode the wall full noise. Tutu'd off the ladder drop and then pedalled like mad. Rode my old race style of smooth and clean, as I wasn't really prepared to ride as fast as i knew I could (read wussy pants).
When we went back up for the 2nd and seeded run, somehow I had seeded first (hur hur) in the masters class. (although the hippy was faster but was sweeping). Again smooth and clean, peadlled even faster after the ladder drop and got 1 or 2 sections a fraction better, but still wasn't prepared to fully open up in some sections (read hanging out with the Crosslings too much and they've taught me to ride slow and wussy). Ended up being 2 sec's quicker, 2nd in old mans class, beating Hendi (tho he raced vet 2), beaten by the hippy (who helped design and build the track), but way off the elite pace.
DH is very different from when I raced, but then again, it's still the same.
I had a ball, and whilst i might not jump back in to DH all the time, I'm pretty keen on trying to top 5 in both the DH and the XC in masters 1 at the National Champs. Actually I wanna top 3, but while maybe do-able in the XC, the DH might be a bigger stretch.


pics by Mike the Hippy



















Last pics are from NZ Snaps dot com, Awesome photos, check his site out and buy some stuff
*note last pic is of DH legend Darryn (slower than slacky) Henderson