Wainui..payback time.

After riding extra sections at Makara and coming 2nd, which is actually usual for me, Wainui was about getting back on track.
The predictions by the bearded ones of a Weather Bomb never eventuated and we woke up to a bright and sunny day, so loaded up the kids and headed over to Wainui for round 2 of the PNP mountain bike series.
Course was going to involve quite a bit of climbing and some reasonably techy descents, starting out with a climb to the water tower along the recently renamed from the crazyman climb to Konini. My usual adversaries Jonny Bushlove and Rob Kilvington would be hot on my tail so a fast start was required.
1 fast start later I hit the top of the climb with about a 50m lead, so headed along the various pinches and 4wd track and into Labryinth when I promptly got a bit excited and stuck a wheel over the side DAMM.. I got back on and did exactly the same thing again, its a funny thing race pressure turns an easy track into a hard track, so yelled out to myself to calm down (literally) and continued to the bottom via Snail Trail.



(photo kindly stolen from Hickie. thanks!..)

Back up Jungles I kept on checking back and Jonny and Rob where wearing their cloaks of invisibility so I thought I was in the clear, (Ed steamed passed at about here!) back up the 4wd track I picked up Liam from M1 and passed him before hitting spoonhill which like everyone else said was great fun, slipppy muddy with lots of places to axe yourself, I wasn't carrying a huge amount of speed down spoonhill and Liam just smoked past me and by the time we hit the bottom pulled out about a 200m gap!, not bad considering it wasn't even over a huge distance. (note to self to be more brave)

The new link track was interesting in its slimyness not well suited to my crossmark tyres but I survived that and hit the road to put my "good roadie" skills to the test, I wound up the big ring and hit 50kph and re-passed Liam again just before the school. Then up Konini to do it all over again , at the top by the water tower I again checked back and Jonny and Robs cloaks where still fully functioning which lulled me into a false sense of security and foolishly I didn't feel I pushed as hard on the 2nd lap, into Labryinth and Snails I caught up with Wifey who was riding with Alex in the Bushlove under 8 classification, Alex was nowhere to be seen and was way ahead and Trudi was playing catchup down snails, (that's my boy :-) ) , I caught Alex at the bottom of snails and he looked happy as larry.

On and up Jungles again when mid way up Alex Revell caught me from Pro Elite I let him pass and then the batteries in Jonnys cloak went flat and he suddenly appeared about 20m behind me!.. Damm that wasn't in the plan, so hit the gas pedal and caught up with Alex Revell just before the exit and gassed it up the 4wd climb to put in a better gap between myself and Waggers. I had a little more urgency down Spoonhill this time as I know Waggers eats this stuff for breakfast, I knew if I could hold him off here there was no way he would catch me on the road.
Down link track I calculated Jonnys trajectory, speed and gnar using this formula.



And used this formular and my rear wheel to place a rock on the side of the track as a backup plan, I exitted at Waiu street and headed for the finish in 1st place so very happy, Jonny (un)fortunately found my strategically placed rock which sent his rear der through the back wheel for an expensive running finish to his race for 2nd.

Next is Mt Vic in 3 weeks time..Charge your invisibility cloak batteries Waggers..