More racing less modelling photo shoots.

Haven't done a lot of mountain bike racing of late, been too busy with press interviews and glamour modelling photo shoots, so decided to sort all that and get dirty and enter a round of the NDuro, so packed up Trudi and the kids under the guise of a "family holiday" and put the trusty Anthem into the boot.

After a quick stop to take in the view of the magnificent Mount Ruapehu on a stunning morning,




we arrived at the Alpin motel in Rotorua a truely great motel where the owner appreciates the needs of mountain bikers , with his fine hot pools and friendly service, hes even installed a MTB Wash pit and always invites us back after the race for a hot shower before we head home.

Jonny Waghorn/ Wonny Jaghorn can never remember which also decided to rip up the vegas trails on his single speed, so he and the lovely Belinda also stayed at the Alpin, for dinner we went to a wonderful rotorua restaurant and enjoyed the local bugers from the childerns menu.



Actually we didn't, the place looked shit, so went next door for a nice Thai meal.

Race day arrived and it was freezing cold, -1 on the mercury but the sun was shining, was going to be a awesome day. At the race start there was a large contingent from Wellington, presumably all coming up to score the free PNP entry, damn I thought I would be a shoe in for that.

Race starts and I got off to my usual poor start, about 20th into the first long climb, but felt strong so reached into the suitcase and pulled out a large serving of "Joels Tempo tm". I kept passing riders until I came into free air and up ahead all I could see was Garth, T-Rex, and Anton, I passed Garth rolling 8rpm in probably a 42/11 and scampered off up the track to the summit and into the first single track, however my lack of skill and local knowledge soon saw Garth steaming up from behind. I thought great I will stick with him for a bit and I did for 10 seconds before he steamed off into the distance never to be seen again. A couple other riders passed before we hit some more fire road where I could again use some more "Joel Tempo tm" and pulled a couple of riders back with some big ring action on the flat and rolling sections.

I sifted by myself until we hit Big Chevy and again, not knowing the track came across a huge drop off, I barely had time to consider the merits of Tubular vs Clincher tyres for my wheelchair before I was dropping vertically down the face of it, over I might add a large missing chunk, a quick undie check and a look over my shoulder at the cliff face saw a wee smile appear.

I head a panting from behind, no not the usual Bushlove kind, but I had been caught by someone who sat in for about 10 mins before passing when I monged up a small section, it was one of Wellingtons best and NZ Juniors Rep Tom Bradshaw, what a stormer.

Myself and Tom worked very well together for the next hour or so, hitting up the flat sections, I noted a top speed of 60kph on one occasion, until we came into the recently logged trail with a very slick base to it, I monged around a few times with my well choosen summer race tyres and had a couple of small crashes and lost track of Tom and got caught by another rider which pushed me back to 7th place overall, but importantly 1st Masters by about 13mins which I managed to hold till the finish. The 16yr old and the Dinosaur took out 1st and 2nd, with the World Champion SS Legend Garth in 3rd.

On the way home my lovely wife had booked a bach on Himatangi beach for a couple of days, very lovely,
We made shapes on the beach...




and swung on a swing (Yes the kids did have to queue up for a turn).



A nice ending to a smashing long weekend.