SS nationals - Queenstown

Just like all the best things in life the singlespeeds had moved South for the year. While not as big a field as Rotorua the previous two years a top field had lined up with Ex national champions, Olympians, Kiwi brevet winners, a seedy guy called Garth, hairy men in dresses, fairies, members of the village people and a fearsome looking bumblebee. Unlike these collections of freaks I maintained the bushlove flare for style with a subtle sophistication in a hot pink sequined skinsuit.

Not just being content with looking stylish the skinsuit also served the dual purpose of aerodynamics. Extensive testing at the bushlove high performance lab revealed a 1.6W/Min/m/kg advantage over a nurses outfit and fishnets. This was an advantage I'd need every bit of.

You see back in the day I was a proper singlespeeder. For the better part of 3 years I pretty much rode only singlespeeds no matter how inappropriate the ride. For much of the time I didn't even own a geared bike (although at one time still had 5 bikes) and never really missed them. The reason I got into singlespeeding was pretty simple, I hated cleaning my bike, but once its sucked you into its hard to go back. This all changed last year when I snapped my frame leaving me without a ss for a few months. Since then I haven't ridden a ss so had no idea how this race would go.

As with all singlespeed races a zany start was required so we lined up for a 500m run with our front wheels. Unlike some of the other Bushlovers I'm no Bi-athlete so was quickly dropped off the line by Garth and was well stuffed by the time I got back to my bike. After fumbling to get my wheel back on I was off.
The Queenstown mtb club had put on a phenomenal course for the race based at 7 mile delta. For those who haven't ridden the tracks I'll just say they are awesome and you should go ride them now. With 100% singletrack with a total of 10m of flat track it certainly was a riders course. Having never ridden the tracks before, I quickly found was massively overgeared, oh well I'm used to rocking more (gear) inches than most.

Back to the race a local Jimmy had got off to a flier getting a break on the field from the start. Garth, Andy Reid, Marcus Roy and myself formed the chasing pack and rode together for the first 3/4 of a lap till Garth showed his class and broke away. I kept riding with the remaining two till the first beer stop where they kept going while I stopped for my first beer of the day.
Up to this stage I was riding like a mong, running pinches and generally lacking any kind of ss class. Some stage on lap 2 though, my moment of zen occurred and I flicked back to ss mode remembering all the little tips to being a singlespeeder.

Sadly on lap 2 Andy who I'd been having a great race with had an epic spill breaking his collarbone and loosing a boob from his fetching netball dress in the process. Hopefully he's recovering well and didn't get too many strange looks at the local hospital.

I ended up riding the rest of the race solo and loved every minute of it. Jimmy was always just ahead of me but I could never close the gap. I could quite happily have kept lapping them out all afternoon as the course was that good. Showboating across the line I was pretty happy with my third place. Congratulations to Garth who is in amazing form at the moment riding better than I've ever seen. I'm expecting big things of him at the worlds.

Big thanks to the Queenstown mtb club for putting on an awesome race, all the racers and the Queenstown weather which held off from the torrential downpour of the rest of the weekend for the race.

Next race is the Cycle Surgery singletrack fiesta. I hope to see you all there (and I promise I won't wear my skinsuit)