350.org and 400 years of Galileo ride.

HISTORY: John Randal and Simon Kennett had organised a 350km ride around the block starting from Upper Hutt and through the Wairarapa via Martinbourgh , Gladstone up to Pahiatua and over the Pahiatua track to Palmerston North, then back down via Shannon and over the Akatarawas to Upper Hutt then down the Motorway to Wellington, all up 350kms. This was to support the 350.org organisation which was having a rally in Wellington on Saturday afternoon, this ride was timing to finish at the same time as the march.



All week I had been mulling this ride over, half of me thinking that’s a stupid idea and the other half, my competitive half thinking woot. So friday evening rolls around and I decided to have a go so dropped Sifter an email secretly hoping he wouldn’t get it, DAMM he replied within 5 minutes so couldn’t pull out now. The ride was scheduled to start from Upper Hutt at Midnight, being the last train in from Wellington, now I have a dislike for public transport so found the other Bushlover with crazy endurance Mono and we decided to go for 400kms instead, firstly as; 350 just wasn’t a round number and also the target for 350 parts of carbons per whatever just didnt fit with our plans, however it is also the 400 year celebration of Galileo so this fits nicely as I like stars and we where going to see a lots of them.


So I underprepared by fitted my lights, stuck on 2 bottles of water and grabbed 2 bananas from the fruit bowl and took off to meet Mono at 10:30
in Karori.

We arrived in Upper Hutt bang on time to meet Sifter and another Vorber Brian, so without much ado we set off for the Rimutakas and soon realised it was going to be damm cold, like damm cold, and Mono without a jacket, FAIL, no hat FAIL, no Money MORE FAIL puts in an emergency call to Keryn who being pretty amazing came out from Wellington with some supplies.

Climbing the Rimutakas as was never quite sure how hard to push it with a good 350kms to go I didn’t want to blow up to early on so settled into a good climbing pace and just stuck behind monochops.

Riding down the Rimutakas at night with lights was 0 for Awesome, cold, but awesome, from Featherston we diverted off to Martinbourgh with Mono putting in a few attacks off the front I managed to secure the sprint finish to Martinbourgh, from there it
was a big of a cold slog through to Gladstone then finally Masterton at about 4am to watch the local yoofs hanging at McDonalds. As a reward for the first 6 hours I ate 1/2 a Banana and had a mouthful of water.

From there it was a real mind game I battled several times with just stopping on the side of the road and choose death by freezing or putting in a couple of attacks off the front to liven things up, so chose the later as dying wasn’t my style.

Into Eketahuna at about 5ish couple of shouts from the locals hooning past, couldn’t quite make it out but would imagine something like, hey Fagz hu hu hu..
From there the sun started to rise and we found an open servo in Pahiatua which had warm pies, Mono stuffed one on his Junk to warm it up and I stuck my gloves in the pie warmer to thaw them out, the lady serving was somewhat surprised to see 4 lycra clad frozen cyclists at that time in the morning, suspect she thought it was some sort of hold up as she didn’t complain about Mono warming his pits with yet more pies, expect to see us on Police 10-7 next week.

From there it was up to the Pahiatua track through to Palmerston North, everyone was still riding pretty strong, Sifter and Brian with Diesel engines, Mono with his V8 Supercharger, and myself more a V6 Turbo, came across a couple of South Africans climbing up the hill who after Sifter told them we had ridden for 250kms so far proceeded to try and smash us up the hill, however Supercharger boy pulled them back in and made them look shameful.

Down the road into Shannon Monos wife Keryan once again popped up with some V Shots and more supplies for Mono and the rest of us ransacked the local store looking for food, Sifter came out with Bananas woot!.. so I went to hunt for those couldn’t find any and was about to kill Sifter for his when I found some next to the Potatoes, was a close thing.

On towards Waikanae myself and Mono where cruising up ahead of Sifter and Brian and Mono puts in a little spurt, WTF I called out , are you putting in an attack after 300kms?.. Ha.. he couldn’t shake me on the flat, although he put in a full out of the pedals sprint just before Waikanae which I responded to, he may have got me if the lights hadn’t turned Red, I said may..

We met Simon Kennett at the bottom of the Aka’s who had come out to ride the last bit with us, he had been unable to ride the full distance as he had come down with a bad cold, but some extra company was always nice.

Into the Aka's I goaded Mono into racing up he was of course non committal as I was more like a poodle humping a Alsatians leg, but we "casually" rode up, I wasn’t sure where the summit was so started to climb a bit faster when I thought it was getting close, but FAIL I went too early so sat back down, Mono took this as his chance to attack and he sprinted to the top to claim the KOM points.

From there we rode back down the Aka’s and along the rollers putting in more big ring attacks against each other I think I won a couple when I caught Mono recovering, but he’s been keeping up with the EPO so was pretty strong.

Back along the motorway Simon led and pretty much towed as all the way back to Wellington as I wondered at the sense of smashing my legs to bits on the Aka's, damm competitive streak. Both myself and Mono crawled up the hills to karori I opted out of climbing up Birdwood and went up though the main route to get home with still a couple of kms short of 400, so put in a couple of laps of the streets to get to 400, then headed home feeling pretty broken and tired, I was slurring my words when I regaled my triumph to Trudi and promptly crashed out for about an hour before having some breakfast, lunch and dinner at the same time.

All in all, extremely mentally tough ride, but enjoyable apart from the 2am to 6am ride though the Wairarapa.

Would I do it again.... Maybe..
Would I start at 10:30 pm again... Definitely NOT.

Thanks to Sifter and Brian for the company and Mono for the Competition, and also special thanks to Simon for the tow back to
Wellington and for jointly conceiving this madness with Sifter.

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Belmont Social / PNP Pre-ride

After seemingly months of shabby weather we got a couple of corker days this weekend and on the Sunday we were well up for a few hours sifting across Belmont Hills and taking in the Pre-ride of the Round 4 PNP race course.

At 7.30am BGA, Tigs, Harry Potter and Kah turned up at my place in Aotea an after a short gasbag we headed into them thar hills.




We ground our way up to the Dress Circle and moseyed around. For once my legs were not filled with lead and I felt surprisingly good and dealt to a couple of the power climbs I'd never cleaned before. We stopped to get some footage for the upcoming DVD "Epic Huck Freeride" and then dropped down the excellent Chopper and Big Weta (great track conditions) and joined onto the pre-ride just as tail end Charlie, our very own Wonderwoman, cruised by on her wonderfully inappropriate Surly Cross Check.

Great improvements have been made to Danzig, thanks to the efforts of some wonderful trail pixies and the contribution of gravel by PNP. Much easier going if it is muddy, especially on the upper slopes.

The pre-ride was very well attended with lots of the usual suspects and many new faces. We split into two groups with Peter Barnes taking the D Course dudes and the Godfather ably assisted by his BLR minions, guided the Kilmister loop. Conditions all round the course were excellent and the Kilmister Valley was a mint ride. At the front we herded cattle along like so many Brokeback Cowboys, while Nick-K the cow-fearer hung a good distance back, hiding between riders he deemed to be 'more attractive to cows'? Does he think they are carnivores?







After many joyous creek crossings for young Jonty to submerge himself in, we headed up to Hill Rd carpark via a very testing hike-a-bike with a beautiful creek section. If permissions can be secured, this will be removed and an easy alternative used on race day (watch the PNP spam for details).




After another cracking drop down Chopper and Weta we made tracks to get back to my place where my wife, Amie, was hooking the crew up with some eats as long as we made it by 1pm! We headed up the A Course bridleway which was far to steep and hard and will be revised. Then we trundled back over the hills watching Nicko get progressively further behind and more smashed in. I think physically he was fine, but the emotional trauma of a morning of cow spotting was too much for him.

We did an enjoyable 35kms which looked a bit like this....

We sat on my deck drinking lager, eating soup and scones and telling lies and stories for a while before the boys made tracks home.

Later that afternoon I took my wife and daughter up to Mount Vic with the trailerbike. Ella was stoked to have climbed her first mountain, and I was stoked to clean the steep slope at the end of the new zig-zag trail from the velodrome, with Ella on the back. Then it was off to Ashley's cottage for lager, lulz and pot-luck foods with the usual suspects, for more tall tales, lies and mockery. An awesome day.

See y'all next weekend for XC4.

Davo

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We Love This Game - Mount Vic PNP XC

Tall tales and lies from the boys who fronted for the 3rd round of the PNP XC series on Mount Victoria.

Tigerbone's M1 Hat-trick

After a week of 'rain dancing' from Davo & Hiskey it finally stopped pissing down the evening before the race. A technical course at the best of times this was promising to be a romp home for the experienced riders. So there was only one chance for me and that was to climb like Spiderman on 'E' and from the outset.

Got to the race start and decided to check out the dreaded Ski Slope, after all the rain it was not as bad as I had ridden if before. A little slick yes, but no more so than Slacky's baby-oiled legs for a Friday night romp of The Knob. To my surprise and maybe even benefit, Marco had taken the chute after the bench seat out of the race and turned us down after the top of the Dovetail.


Tks for Pic- Nige Sanders

The banter started... Slackboy was King of the Velodrome and was intending on repeating his efforts, why would anyone deny him that. Davo was keen to take a chocolate bar back from Angry but the rules had not been set out and Ed and I had a sneaky bet on the side as to who was going to do the fastest long lap, he conceded on the grounds that he had a shitter and ate mud the whole way round (Ed you owe me a bike clean, lucky for you I have already cleaned mine after yesterdays efforts).

The race kicked off and I was boxed in from the start, but luckily everyone went to the outside of the 'drome and I snuck through on the lower track just in front of Hiskey, and sat in behind Slacky The Draft Machine. His 29er kept on rolling and he stayed true to his word winning The 'drome sprint. Then it was back into slumpdom for him as we started on the hills and I took over. Testing the waters, I started up the first hill vowing NOT to look back and I didn't until Josh pulled up next to me at the top of the first climb (Ohhhh to familiar ground once again!). First to the Ski Slope and I felt right at home. During the course of the race there were good vantage points to look back over at riders behind so I took every opportunity to do so. Davo was hot on my heals and nailing the down hills, the man can move for a girlie Single Speeder. Hiskey took over from Davo at some stage and I could feel the heat of him breathing down my neck.


Tks for Pic - Adrian Rumney


Coming into the Veledrome for the first time, I had about 3/4 of a 'drome lap on him, which in my mind was still not enough. Lap 2 and I had visions of me and the porcelain gods about to talk. I managed to keep it down (I think I ate tooo close to the race start). I was loving the course too much to throw the towel in and I have never DNF'd (touches wood - cheap lol). Coming into the final lap and into the last looong climb of badminton hall and Jordon (Pro/Elite) past me like I was standing still, much to his delight he made it obvious he was stoked to be passing another BLR member, I laughed.

Final lap of the velodrome to take out Master 1. Stoked to see Nick "I'm not a burglar" K cruise in to also win for BLR in the Senior Men's class.

Big ups to Slacky for designing a fantastic course, which will pretty much be the same course for the Nationals this year. Sadly for me Slacky is taking the Run/Walk out for Nats. What a great day out. Great friends, great racing, great weather and a few brews to finish off.

Next race and its back to my old stomping ground. Belmont Bronx where I grew up and used to run through the trails we are about to race Woot Woo!

Tiger

===============

Nick - Sandbagers anonymous

Hi my names Nick and I'm a dirty sandbagger.

I never meant to be one, it just happened. To be fair this was my first true xc race in a long while. I've never shaved my legs and think trainings a dirty word. Add to it a new bike and as Davo pointed out the least pro attitude of anyone on BLRT. Still with a 15min winning margin there's no two ways about it - I burgled that shit.

PnP with the help of our own trailmiester Slacky, put on a cracking course. Uncharacteristically I pre-rode the course, not once but twice, the week before and it was awesome, fast, technical and frankly brutal as hell. Torrential rains on Friday and Sat wouldn't change what surely the best race course in the lower NI. Lining up with the guns of M1 was excited to be back racing. Took it easy on the velodrome taking positioning over placing for the gate till some cunzor cut my lunch at the last minute. From there it was the a short uphill where I latched on to the back of the chasing group of Jonty, Davo, Hisky while Tony steamed off the front with Josh trying to hold onto him.

Mr October soon dealt to Josh though and he dropped back to our chasing group. Spent most of the first lap riding together till we dropped Davo as he realised SS'ing is a bit silly and Jonty with a crash down Badminton. Towards the end of the 1st lap Hisky and I broke away from Josh reaching the velodrome just as Tony was exiting it. The second lap was all about consolidation as neither Hisky or I had the will or form to try chase down Tony. Utilising my cross skills I used the climb from Badminton to the gravel road as run up putting a solid 50m on Hisky.



Tks for Pic - Adrian Rumney

Hanging on was the story of the 3rd lap as fatigue and lack of conditioning stepped up. Continued my run of a couple of spastic crashes per lap on the uber greasy downs but otherwise kept out of trouble. Crossed the line 1 min down on Tony but nearly 2 1/2 and 3 mins ahead of Hisky and Josh respectively.

Wellington had put on a great day as we sat around gasbagging and knocking a couple of Tigers back. Was a little embarrassed with my placing so didn't bust out a rambling speech or even thank my sponsors, what an amateur.

Cheers to all involved and see you in Belmont for round 4.

Harry Potter
==============

Dave - "I'm not as heavy as they say I am"

Apart from a couple of the Crosstafarian CX races, I had not raced since the Screaming-O back in March and then the bike leg of the PGT in April. I knew the lads would give me a beasting as they already had rounds 1 & 2 in their legs. I missed round one due to partying in Blenhiem, then missed round two as I was in the UK eating and drinking with family for three weeks. Still, I practiced on the course and could clean everything on the singlespeed pretty well, even in the wet, so felt confident of a good ride and figured if everything went well I might even sneak into the top 5.


Tks for Pic - Eventwatch

After the usual entertaining banter and catch ups, the horn went and we charged off around the velodrome. I managed to keep pace ok and true to form, I cut Nicko's lunch coming through the gate to put me into around 6th. I somehow found the strength to haul the bike up to Alexandra Rd pretty well and must have surprised Hiskey and Jonty by riding straight between the two of them on the steep section. I surprised myself.

I found the legs to get onto the back of the Tigerbone express heading towards the skislope and it was Tigs, Josh, Me heading down there. I traded places with Josh a bit and headed into the run up the Matterhorn in second I think, with Tones just about in sight at the top. These were all the best bits of riding from me. It slowly unravelled from there as I started losing power and concentration. I managed to nail all the tech stuff pretty well, but then made silly mistakes, usually involving trees leaping onto the track and giving my bars the good news, while I went over them. I also pulled out of my pedal on the dovetail climb during a hard effort and slammed my chest onto the stem. It has left quite a nice mark.


Tks for Pic - Eventwatch

I was always close to Jonty in fourth, but my stupid mistakes and lack of power kept me away from him and I was peeved at myself about that. It was only about 30secs at the end and some of that was me going wrong at the end and not crossing the finish line for a few seconds. Doh. Still, Jonty is a bit of a legend and if he saw me closing, he would have found a way to pull away again I think. Everyone was pretty much broken at the end. I rode the last part of the course with EdWIN Crossling and he was battered and walking the same as me on the climb up from the badminton hall. I enjoyed scraping mud off my tires and throwing it at him disrespectfully.

Great news at the finish when I discovered Tigs and Hinge had won their classes and got 1 & 2 across the B Course for their efforts. They really are the team hardmen at the moment. And many thanks to Mr October who in a blatant show of shameless self promotion, brought out a box of Tiger beers for the post race debrief - Good man!

I'm looking forward to Belomont now, where once again, I'll be campaigning as hard as I can and targeting another Top 5 result amongst the tough company of riders in this year's M1 field.

Good job everyone, and good job to the Godfather and his crew for such a slick event. In particular the excellent marshalling from Bushies Rammer and Wonderwoman. And great tailend action from Mono.

Davo

=======================

Angry utilises the seal gag.

I would be lieing if I said that Slacky's custom built Mt Vic course in the wet made me more nervous than queuing up to my first Blue Light Disco with 2 beers in my backpack. But it was race day, so I decided to have a go and concentrate on riding the tech smoothly rather that fast as I didnt want a date with A&E.

Race started in the velodrome and I couldnt clip in properly arrhh.. and the rest of the field shot off as fast as date night at the Aldred's, Slacky won his usual lap of the velodrome cementing his aspirations to be a "Good Roadie". Into the Ski Slope on lap one I ran it pretty hot keeping off the front brake, managed to squeeze between the log exit and launched off and landed perfectly on the other side, my 6yr old son, Alex, has been teaching me mad huck skillz which are now paying off now - thanks Alex!


Tks for Pic - Adrian Rumney

Caught up with Slacky towards the end of the first lap who was sitting on the side of the track foaming at the mouth looking pretty stuffed - Suspect he may have blown a seal.

The rest of the race went well, (loving the water tower DH!) only one stack on some slippy roots which wasnt bad and I managed to hold it together a lot better than I thought I would in the mud, for a well deserved Top 6 finish.

==================

SlackFail. Mysterious bodyfail hinders him on his own course

I always knew that Toight Tiger and "I only gained 1kg in the offseason" Hiskey were the men to beat at teh Mt Vic round. Even with me designing a course that worked for me a bit better. But I knew without a shadow of a doubt, that I, come the end of the day, would still be the king of the Velodrome. And after plenty of pre-race banter thats exactly what happened. Even with my fat arse throwing off a draft that would make a big rig Kenworth happy, no-one got close enuff to take advantage. Those small calfed weaklings need to bring some noise to challenge me.

Slackboy OWNS the velodrome.... Pic by Rammer.



Once outa of the Velodrome, I settled into to being passed by everyone. I wasn't feeling 100% so I settled into a good rythmn and paced myself, confident that roll of cheese Aldred would blow like a scout leader sooner or later. Unfortunatly that plan went by the way, and although I pulled back lots of time on the descents in the first half, my legs were falling away a bit. Going up the Matterhorn (bloody Tony!!!) and the 3 elite boys of Stu, Brendon and Jordy caught up to me, and I sat on their wheels until the dipper. Up the dipper and I wasn't feeling too hot, and the 3 gapped me a bit. Down the badminton single track and I caught them up again, super slippy in there. However going up the climb out I graciously let them go to preserve their ego's. And up the turn into the rooty section and blam, shortness of breath, black spots, lack of balance, not cool. Pulled off and sat down on the side of the track with head between my knees and tried to gather myself.

Massive massive thanks to the riders that came past, all whom enquired to make sure I was ok. Thats why mountainbiking rocks folks right there. After a while I was ok enuff to get up and I shakily walked back to the velodrome. Walked cos i couldn't balance very well on the bike and it made a good crutch.
Not really sure what went on, I felt better later in the day, but what can you do.
That makes 3 outa the last 4 races up Mt Vic that I've DNF'd. Not a record I'm proud of.
But don't worry, I WILL own the nat champs. And the next day I will attempt to poduim at the DH as well (attempt that is)

==================



See you all for more lulz, tire buzzing and bar flying at Belmont.

BLR

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Its a motherwhaka - Whaka 100km

Due to the friendly locals in Rotorua this actually ended up the Whaka 32 for me (and 70 out of 100 competitors) so much like my race I'll keep it short and full of crap lols.

Trip started uneventfully enough after knocking off work a couple of hours early on the the Friday to get a clear run out of town. Had the compulsory feed stop in Bulls and wasn't held up by doche Lada drivers for a change. First disaster hit when I got to Vegas at about 10pm and realised I'd made the amateur mistake of having my bike a bit close to the exhaust burning my tire.

With the race starting at 8am the next morning I was royally fucked, how would I find a 29er tire at this time of the night? After much dramas and in retrospect lolz eventually found one. Thanks also to Blair (Slidecontrol on Vorb) who also offered me a tire. If the rest of society was like the mtbing community, NZ would be a much nicer place.

After the torrential rain of the Friday, woke to a grey, drab but thankfully dry Sat. After a slow start caught up to decent group and settled into a nice rhythm. Was fairly happy with the pace we were riding but the penny started to drop that things weren't going as planned. One of the local riders in our group was sure we had gone wrong somewhere but none of us knew where. After a huge road climb which I knew was meant to be in the last 10km it was confirmed we were lost but not knowing where or when we had no option but to continue on. Came to the finish line after 32km, less than 2hours, and some bemused looks.

As it turns out the course had been tampered with after the first few riders went through so most of the field went the wrong way. Unfortunately this is not the first time this has happened, but I still can't comprehend why someone would go out of there way to ruin other mtbers day. To the organisers credit they tried to at least put on some race for us so we were told we could rejoin the race at the 60km after the leaders went through.

After and hour off the bike in the cold my legs and head weren't really in it. The final straw was when even Big Gay Al was able to ride away from me on a climb, oh the shame. After a cleat issue had really had enough so bailed hitting up a few new tracks (Corners and Little red riding huck) on the way home.

All in all an epic fail. Consoled my self with Zippies before returning to Prizegiving to gasbag and snafu a Groundeffects voucher. Not to completely waste a weekend hit up the hotpools before consuming my own bodyweight in Ribs at Lonestar.

Next morning the weather had again turned to rubbish so after a big breakfast headed out of town. Had lots of snow across the desert road..

and only just made it through before they closed it off.

So not the the return to racing I had planned but at least I learnt that "not preparing is preparing to fail". Next time I'll take a leaf out of a wise riders book and write the directions on my stem. Oh course for a 100km it will have to be 200mm stem making my bike completely unrideable but at least I won't get lost.

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PNP Mt Vic bitch talk

Rumour has it that Tiger is terrified of the Mt Vic track and is freaking out about Hiskey smashing him.
I think that the 2 fast boys so far this series, Josh and Tiger, need to make sure they take enuff time on the climbs, else they will get ripped apart.
Will Cam take out Hayden on the more technical course of Mt Vic, or will Bushloves own Dr Hinge burgle Senior and take the win.
Will the rumoured showing of some Nelson juniors shake things up in the junior race.
Will Count Stylie show up on an inappropriate travel bike for XC.
I know Big Ghey Al in the elite class has been out doing walking pace downhill runs for weeks and is now approaching jogging speed on some of the downhill sections.
I've finally stopped needing my granny ring on the course. And have been going over tactic's with my crack team of blockers.
Davo "roll of cheese" Aldred has been desperately trying to lower his BMI from morbidly obese to plain old obese.
The new course is looking super quick and fast. No longer is 75% of the effort in the first half of the course, it's much more spread out. With some more singletrack in the 2nd half and less climbing in the 1st, it flows much nicer and is a bunch more fun.

Stay tuned, or even better, turn UP to the race and wonder at the magnificence of the Bushlove team

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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

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Double Trouble! - Trailer Bike Tales

Not long after arriving in New Zealand I saw the legendary John & Kaitlyn Randall riding a trailer bike set-up at a PNP XC race, with Sifter riding Captain and Kaitlyn stoking away behind. I was very impressed and resolved to get one of those as soon as my little girl, Ella, was big enough.

Three years on, and about 9 months after getting the thing, and just a few days before her 4th birthday, Ella and I took our first tandem outing today. It was awesome!



It has only been in the past three months that she has really had the confidence, and extra height, to be able to get on board and not mind it's inherent little wobble, and of course my eratic steering and turn-down 360 tailwhips ftw. She has to climb up onto it horse style, but can turn the pedals all the way around (doubling our watts). I cut the regular bmx bars down to size too. I put the rear tire at 20psi, but Ella lambasted me and insisted that we drop it to 15psi, the same as her weight in kgs. She admonished me thoroughly for my lack of understanding of rolling resistance. I should have known better as I run my Nobby Nics at 33 psi, and you guessed it - I'm 32.



After a little testing of her confidence round the block, we packed a bag with spare jumpers, water and of course a bag of "Biker Lollies" and set off for our adventure.

We went up to the top of our road and all the way down the track from Aotea (lh yellow track) towards Porirua Train Station via the Bothamley Park track (see Tracks.org). We rode through every puddle and stopped on each of the 5 or so bridges for a lolly or two. Ella loved every minute of it and It was a very special Daddy/Daughter outing. I can think of several other trails we can head out to at the weekends too. There's Deliverance, Trickle Falls and of course the Rock Garden. All dread the Aldred tandem hardcore massif!



If anyone reading has kids young enough I can't recommend these trailer bikes enough. If you want to try one out, give me a yell on davo@bushloveracingDOTcom. You are more than welcome to borrow ours to give it a whirl.

Davo & Ella

PS - Randall: How many years will your Karapoti Challenge tandem record stand?...

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I'm not dead!

After a couple of DNS's at the first two rounds of the PNP and more siteings of the Lockness monster than me out on the trails the rumour seems to be that I'm dead. No doubt the Crosslings (or maybe even daydreamer?) are behind this in a plot to get onto the BLRT. Well its not going to work!

To prove I'm very much alive heres a pic of my new ride for the season, a lovely Niner EMD. First rides are promising and if I get around to it I might write up a ride report.

Hope to see all you Bushlove racing fans out at the Whaka 100km this weekend or round 3 of the pnp at Mt Vic next weekend.

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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.

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Why New E PNP

Dawn broke upon the back of some glorious weather, and the Venga Bus was go. Cranking the sounds from the banging stereo in the Burkes Lovebus on the way to pick up young Cam, ACDC getting the heartrate up whilst I chowed down on a Slacky pre-race breakfast of choice - Bacon and Eggs.

Helped with some setup, strung some tape and hammered in some signs with Fatwombat and Lynsky, then prepped my bike with with some sexy blue ODI grips. Slapped my new glasses on and did a token weak warm up. Got to the start line and made with the frottage with Tiger (he's bringing sexy back.............and I hope he's better looking than DD now he's gone to the Crossling Bros)

The hooter went, and I sedately rode off. Pretty sure everyone else started in grany gear. Thats the only explanation I can think of for starting so slow. So as I presented by massive buttocks to everyone I graciously let them catch me up. Then the walls of the pain box went up, about the same time as the hill did. Surely just a co-winky-dinky?

Lots of people struggled on the lower steep pinch climbs, and I caught a bunch of people on them, however lots of people went back past me on the long climb and it was a case of settling into a rythem and throwing up.. Soon enough the top of the hill arrived and the walls of the box moved back a notch. I settled into a pace and set about riding down those in front. Sifted down Beeline the first time, with some traffic in spots. Hit the bottom and ripped out the wetland loop with Big Rich on my tail. Back up Jungles and the walls closed back in a bit. Uber Marshal Ashley cheered me on with an attempt to carress my mighty buttocks. Back down beeline again, faster this time, tho still enuff traffic to not allow to open the taps fully. Around the wetland loops and into jungles with Cam right behind me. I asked if he wanted past, but he stated that he wanted to stare a tthe calves of doom some more.

Back up to the top again and once more into Beeline. Feeling a bit whupped at this point so the pace whilst pretty quick wasn't full noise. Cam pretty much stuck on my wheel which speaks volumes for the increase in his skill level over the last year. At the fast bit at the bottom I stretched out a bit, and pretty much maintained that small gap around the wetlands loop and up Jungles. Turning up the ECNZ road towards Spoonhill and Skinny Stu told me Hiskey wasn't too far ahead. Indeed I could see him in the distance on the road. Cam slowly caught me up and sat on my wheel for a bit. He realised that he needed to get into Spoonhill ahead of me to have a chance, and he put a big dig in. I clicked down 2 gears and stood up and unleashed the hounds. Unfortunatly the hounds this fine day were chihuahua's and he pulled out a handy gap. Into the downhill and it took me a short amount of time for the walls of the pain box to recede enough to set about closing the gap. Just after the end of 491, I caught Cam and Hans flailing about on the ground, I'm not going to judge them. Got past hans, but couldn't get past Cam, he had enuff pace to make it too hard to pass. Sprinted past him at the first chance near the bottom. Not enuff track left to stretch out a gap, I pulled out my CX skills for the hurdles to open a gap there. Didn't fall for Hickies try to flail over the fence, instead hit the gap and pedaled hard. Cam was trying to get on my wheel, and I was trying just as hard to keep the gap. Luckily I prevailed and we even closed the gap slightly to Hayden. Fully broken by the end. Much happier than the Makara round, with a hint of some legs coming back.
Of Note Hiskey was feeling better also and will be one to watch at the Mt Vic Round.


Later that day I put the Boxxers back on the Sunday and rode it UP Mt Crawford and down the Miramar tracks. Stopped and dug for 2 hours . Went home, had a feed, had a sleep for a few hours and got up to watch the Freecaster footage of the World Cup DH finals. Blinky pulling 2nd and Sam Hill walking away with the race AND the world Cup

Next week, Bushlove goes downhill as I come out of retirement for the Long Gully DH race. It should be full of epic FAIL!!!

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Guest Apperance - Big Ghey Al

After trawling throught screeds and screeds of Bushlove fan mail we came across the following item. This was sent to us by the infamous Big Ghey Al.

Much deliberation and a beer or two later, we decided it was too good an opportunity to pass up.

I give you Big Ghey Al (BGA),

I have it on good authority this IS BGA Baby bike Mechanic

---oo00oo---

Not everyone makes it,
Whenever you get involved in a sport the hardest thing to learn are the unwritten rules. Getting the basics right is pretty simple, but knowing how it really works can take months even years to go your head around. So after many years as a roadie, I felt I had a handle on what was expected of me.

Road cycling is pretty simple really:
• Don’t go hard in races, the glory is in winning bunch rides and fun rides.

• Make sure you have the latest kit, non-euro team kit could see you looked as someone who spends too much time riding and not enough time checking out cycling news.

• Most importantly, your status as a road cyclist is directly proportional to the exclusivity of the space age carbon fibre framed, silk tired, Campagmanoram equipped limited edition road bike that you remortgaged your house and sold a kidney for. You will be judged by your peers as you drink your trim chai double shot flat white at the café you and your peleton friends hijacked all the seats for and parked your Colnagarellos against the walls in a suitably inconsiderate manner.

Now mountain biking is a bit different. But I would have to work hard on this one, with the credit crunch I couldn’t just buy a new bike every week. I couldn’t even afford a titanium single speed with the latest fashionable wheel size.

This was going to be hard… I soon discovered that to be accepted in the elite of mountain biking, you have to be invited to join the ranks of the Bushlove Racing Team. So when I heard they were recruiting, I had to work hard to make sure my name was the top of their list. I was careful not to gloat about passing Ricky on muddy descent in the nationals, he was a Bushlover and self proclaimed downhill god, I might have hurt his feelings. I pretended to like whatever bike Mono had just got that week, even though I lost track of what bike he actually owned. It even came down to me trying to ride a completely impractical single speed like Davo, Kah and Nick in the hope that I would be seen as up to date with the latest in fashion biking.

It was not to be. Some girl called Ash turned up to a race with some t-shirt about loving bush, she was in the team. To rub salt in the wounds, it was announced that there would be not any more recruits to the Bushlove team. I was a broken man…

So with that door firmly shut on me ever making it in mountain biking, I’m in the market for a track bike for cruising along the water front. I’m sure I can fit into a set of Emo jeans, I’m going to get this one right.

AL

---oo00oo---

Its not that we don't love you BGA, its just that we have one Token Half Ging in the team already, and our fashion consultant has advised us "Too much red makes us look washed out"

** BLRT Style and Colours are done by Wardrobe Flair. Guys & Girls get your dress sense back on track with Wardrobe Flair 'Your one-stop shop for colour and styling'.

We do welcome guest postings and are always looking for light hearted, funny content to post. So please feel free to e-mail us on Freakpostings@bushloveracing.com

NB: No Crossling Brothers were harmed during the making of this posting. But if the little pr!cks keep beating us they may just go missing.

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Mono signs off

Yo,

just a quick update from me.

I'm a bit fed up with riding, so pretty much flagging bikes, and any future events I have coming up. I'll still be around, I hope to marshall at some of the PNP races, and maybe help the N-Duro team at the Whaka if I can make it up.

Happy trails.

Dave

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Sandbagging FTW

PNP Round 1 at Makara

The start line of the was stacked with pedigree, pace and potential fail for punters like Angry and I. But what can ya can do but play the cards you are dealt, so off we went.

Up Arlington Rd where the Slackster steamed off the front... for 50mtrs at least, where after in surprising similarity to his date nights, he made his glory roar and slumped into the pain box. I found myself surprisingly at the front half way up the hill feeling great (The only other time I felt this great was when Davo changed his name to 'Great' and told me to grab a handful). So I let rip! Entering Rimu first totally dumb founded what I was doing in the lead and expecting the fufu valve to blow half way up Aratihi.


As the race went on my confidence grew and my puny pins did me proud. Top of Aratihi and I couldn't see a soul behind me (Ohhhh sh!t you say!, Oh sh!t I say!) Leaping Lizard things were about to change. Jonty steamed me down and by the bottom of LL he had caught me and asked to go past, I let him through thinking this was the end of my glory ride - it was fun while it lasted. Cruising through Nikau Valley I found myself knocking on Jonty's back door over and over again, reluctantly I asked if I could go through for the up hills and he could have the down back, good compromise I thought and he agreed. Off I went ahead up Nikau and dug deep, to make as much ground as possible before T3 & Ridgeline.

The Summit came and no sign of Jonty, thank f&*k for that. It was becoming hard work being chased. T3 he pulled time back, Zac's I pulled, Ridgeline he pulled, Swigg & Starfish maybe level pegging. Still having about 100mtrs on him coming into the 5th to last corner and I made the stupid mistake of looking back...Bam!! Lost control of the bike on a hairpin and ended on my ass! I jumped up and got the hell outa there, like Nick_K from a milking shed. But by this stage I had lost the 100mtrs I had worked so hard for and Jonty was on my tail again. We truck and trailer'd down the last part of Swigg and popped out onto the road for the 500mtrs road finish to the end. I thought it was now or never, Locked out the rear shock, locked out the front shock, locked out the drink bottle, let out a mighty Rooooaaaar and unleashed Bushlove Fury (Not unlike date night at Keith Mansions – Ed.). 200mtrs later I looked back and he had not responded. Woot Woo! - Ride on! Through to the finish with a huge smile on my dial, like the sweet arc of Slacky’s grubber.Masters 1 PNP Rd 1 = ADD TO CART
A celebratory beer from Slackboy, with Angry and my pregnant wife (Obviously she did not drink ;) (BTW - Baby Bushlove is due ON Karapoti day! Have a leave pass to race though, Win) ADD TO CART Thanks wife xx00xx

I am putting this win down to a bit of luck and a good winter for the boy with some cold days on the bike. Till Wainui when it’s all open again…

Also a big ups to Monochops for podium-ing at the N-Duro Series the same day, Bushlove Podiums - ADD TO CART

Chur
Tigerbone

oO---------------Oo

AngryBushlove

Against doctors orders and general common sense, I stupidly showed up on the start line. The track was dry and the conditions where good, so I thought why not put my balls in a vice and see what could possibly go wrong...

As TigerBone said, M1 was stacked with guns even having the mighty Hiskey coming down to read us our Horoscopes in M1. Slacky with his winter weight on was out to hold everyone up on the climbs but took off with a Roar!

Race starts and it was a smash fest from the get go, into Rimu I let Tigs go as a) He was faster than me and b)I didnt want to hold the big fella up on the downhills, as I didnt want to push it too hard on the downs, to save my fragile knees from assploding. "Left Man Card on start line!"

So it was Tigs, Jonty, Josh then me hot on Josh's tail into the lap of Magic Carpet all good, past a few of the other M1 riders coming back around. Blew Sifter a kiss with unlucky #13 on. Josh was feeling pretty good at this stage and considered a 2nd lap of Magic Carpet, he decided against it gifting me 3rd position going into Missing Link. I rode like a Short Spartan Stallion up Aratihi and down Leaping Lizard. On Nikau I pulled out a handy lead on Josh, before munting it a bit on the last corner, allowing Josh to get a closer look at the rose bud tattoo'd just above my crack line. I held him off till mid way along Aratihi for the second time before letting him pass as I didnt have his pace. I kept in touch until T3, where in knee preservation mode completely munted it up and allowed Hiskey to catch up not quite close enough to kiss the rose. By the time I exited onto Zacs, Josh had a huge lead, probably 3-4 minutes I reckon but I managed to nail Ridgeline, RLE, Swigg and Starfish to the bottom. Probably one of my best rides of that section ever and wound up about 1 1/2 mins behind Josh for 4th place. Bit gutted to miss out on 3rd, but at the same time pretty stoked as the other riders in M1 where no pushover.

Cheers
AngryBushlove

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