Lisa Morgan - Kiwi Mountain Biker

Last summer was hot too, but my races were all done in an hour and a half so it’s fair to say I’ve never really been tested in the heat.  It’s better to find out now so we can start planning for fuelling/feeding/hydration when the key races kick in.

During pre-race on Saturday conditions were really warm and muggy.  It had also rained over night so the trails were greasy and not riding anything like they do in the dry.  I spent an hour just playing around doing little bits of the course here and there to get my eye in.  The main changes I was hoping for was a drop in humidity, and dry trails if it didn’t rain over night again.  Thankfully a sea breeze rolled in later in the afternoon which thinned the air out a bit and on Sunday morning the clouds had lifted.  Humidity and asthma don’t play well together.  It hadn’t rained either, and a quick reccy of the first part of the course for a warm up revealed nice dry trails.  Wicked!

A whole lot of the usual suspects were in the Bay for the race, in open women that included Nina, Michelle and Nik Leary.  Sonia Hill was there too, KC made the trip up and Hayley Robertson dusted off her riding shoes, Rose Johnstone capped off the line up.

We had a mass start for the 40k’er (which I joined in on this week!) which kicked up a huge cloud of dust until we got around the first bend and the field started to spread out.  I quickly hopped on Michelle’s wheel and stayed just on it in to and through the first section of singletrack.  That popped us out on to a gravel road climb where Nik passed me and I followed her and Michelle to the summit - the climb wasn’t steep, but was fairly long and energy sapping.  After the grassy ridgeline we went in to a track called ‘ledge’ - appropriately named as it was pretty narrow (this coming from someone who thinks Makara is plenty wide for passing…) and had a drop off on the side.  Following that was a fence climb and switch-backy downhill in to another short, gentle climb before Dam Canyon - a nice downhill that we’d ridden on Saturday.  It was flowing much better in the dry and had some cool little steep drops that were a bit like what you see from the top of a climb on a rollercoaster right until you start going over - way fun :o)

Following that we went in to what I felt was the toughest part of the course with climbs just long enough to take it out of you and not quite enough recovery time.  It was also really hot. This was followed by some flat track, which is definitely not a strength of mine.  On the brakes, off the brakes, shift up, shift back down, eyes open to see where the twisty track would go next… we came out of that and in to a steep climb (’Wahoo’) where I saw I was within 30-50m of Michelle and Nik who were still going wheel to wheel.  The climb was tough and some were walking parts of it but I like to back my climbing so gutsed it out before entering a nice downhill (’Switchback’) which we rode as an uphill last year - much more fun down!

This section dropped us out in to a marshal and first aid point - I didn’t hear about any major problems so hopefully they had a quiet day.  We then had a short flat road section before a short but technical climb.  I picked the wrong line and had to jump off, run a few steps up and jump back on.  The course was mostly undulating from here to the end of the lap so I was focusing on maintaining a good pace, climbing well and staying smooth on the downhill sections to retain as much momentum as possible.  There had been one guy riding either just ahead or just behind me since the long gravel climb and he’d been behind me for a long time but as we crossed in to lap 2 I eased off up the climb a little and he got past me.  I found some more energy when I caught site of Nik and Michelle again and worked my way through the singletrack.  I felt myself fading up the gravel but again saw Nik near the top but when I tried to pull something more out for the grassy ridgeline I couldn’t find the power to get any real pace. 

I was flying on the downhills by now, but losing valuable time on the climbs.  The tough section out the back felt even harder this time around.  By around 2 1/2 hours I was really feeling the heat.  I’d chosen to wear a camelback given the heat and length of the race but I was just craving water and felt reluctant to keep drinking the juice even though I knew I needed to stay hydrated - I just felt all sugared out in the heat.  After the Wahoo climb and Switchback downhill I was pretty well cooked.  I attempted the better line in the short, sharp section again but was out of gas to get up it.  After that, I felt like I was pretty much just trying to keep moving forward to get across the line to get to some water.  I lost 15 minutes on the 2nd lap, probably most of it in the second half of it, and crossed the line in 4th (Sonia had DNF’ed, Nina took the win by a few minutes over Michelle with Nik close behind) in 3 hours 7 minutes - long race eh?.

It’s funny because one minute I feel like the season is right around the corner (complete with thoughts of ‘but I’m not ready yet!’) and the next it seems like it’s never going to arrive (complete with thoughts of ‘but I’m amped now!’).  It’s different this season with the revised format of ‘nationals’.  The split in to two Island Cups has meant the races are more spread out than in the past so all the competitors are having to decide which races they’re going to do.  The obvious choice for me is the North Island Cup and it’s handy to have it followed immediately by National Champs, here at home on Mt Vic.  

The summer schedule looks like this:

16 December - Mid North Island Champs final - Napier: 2 laps of a 21km course in Eskdale Forest
28-30 December - Tour de Femme - Nelson: 3 day, 5 stage tour including Takaka hill climb TT, circuit race, road race, 14km ITT, second road race on day 3 to finish
20 January - SI Cup 3 - Waipara: 5 laps of one of NZ’s finest XC loop courses (where I have unfinished business)
27 January - NI Cup 1 - Opotiki: 2 laps of a 20km course - pre-ride is unlikely…
2 February - NI Cup 2 - Rotorua: similar course to round 4 in 2007 - Vegas single track…
10 February - NI Cup 3 and final - Palmerston North: K-loop action returns to nationals racing.
16 February - National Champs - at home on Mt Vic.
1 March - Karapoti (sub-3?)
15 March - Oceanias - Nelson. Selection is based on national champs - my goal for the season is to qualify for the NZ team.

What I can tell you is that I just managed to achieve the goal I set for myself of coming in under 5 hours, taking exactly 1 hour off my previous effort mangaging 4hrs 53minutes.  Conditions were pretty near perfect and all in all things went well.  The fuelling strategy worked well but I learnt some lessons, the first of which is that 2 bottles on the seat adds a very noticeable amount of weight, particularly when the race goes up hill for the first 5 kms.  I had an awful start and I think that may have been a factor.  So I spent a lot of the first hour trying to empty bottle number 1 (I was carrying 3) just to get the weight off the bike but still not run out of juice before meeting the feeder around the 130km mark.

Turns out I needn’t have worried as I threw out a full bottle to collect my new one (less in it but different mixture for the finish).  Next time, 2 on the bike!

So I spent the first 30-odd minutes getting passed by wave after wave of riders and trying to keep my spirits up.  Eventually a group came by and they must have had my legs with them because once I jumped on I stayed with them, cresting most of the climbs first, through to Kuratau which split things up.  I then found myself in a growing bunch heading for Hatepe, started out well but lost it after a couple of minutes and unfortunately couldn’t regain the bunch after the top.  But the legs felt good and I was able to push on through on my own to the finish for the last few k’s. 

Fast forward another week to Saturday’s race in Rotorua, round 3 of the Mid North Island Champs.  I didn’t do the first 2 rounds and am not contesting the series, but any excuse to race in the Redwoods… especially when it’s multi-lap format!

Last week I invested in a roof box for the car, something I’ve been wanting for a long time.  You can pack a lot in to a Commodore, but it’s nice when the passengers aren’t buried in luggage and gear.  Turned out it was just in time as we would have had to apply some major tetris talent to fit all the gear in otherwise!  On that note, I’d like to say a big thanks to Gary at Autostripes in Wellington for always looking after my roof/bike/rack/box needs at short notice.

We had 4 in the car for this trip - me, Gav, Jen (catching the race bug) and token Aussie Mark who was racing the downhill on Sunday.

So, boot and box full to the brim but plenty of room to move inside, we drove up to Vegas on Friday morning in time to go for a lap of the course in the afternoon and enjoy the thunder and lightening storm that passed over just to the west.

Saturday was race day and start time was an uncharacteristic 11am.  By that time a week previously I was half way around Lake Taupo!  So it may come as a shock that I have to admit that I missed the start!  Yes, again!!!  I was heading back down Longmile Road finishing my warm up when I noticed a distinct absence of people lining up on a start line.  Oooooh crap (yet according to my watch - 6 minutes fast by the way - I still had a couple of minutes… who knows?).  So I ditched my warm up bottle as I sprinted past the start and let them know I was joining the race.  A lot of the faces lining the road looked shocked, confused, surprised, even sympathetic (must have thought I’d had a mechanical). 

There’s nothing like knowing your competition are all up ahead to really get the focus dialled.  Basically I had 4 laps to catch as many people as possible, on a course similar in hurt level to the nationals course back in February.  Keep the hammer down and you’ll make time, let off for just a moment and you’ll be going backwards.  The course was really fantastic - fully rideable by all abilities but hard work if you wanted to take it fast.  It included a couple of sections I’d never raced before - one I hadn’t ridden before, and they were so much fun!

For the first couple of laps I was picking riders off regularly and getting my lines dialled.  By the 3rd lap I was flying and had worked my way up to 3rd place.  I’d passed junior girl Jesse Loe on the downhill at the end of the 2nd lap and she’d got right back on my tail by the bottom of the climb on lap 3.  She stuck to me like glue right up to a little pinch at the end of the first piece of singletrack - I held her off, but until that point I could not shake her.  It’s good to see some juniors improving so well.  She must have flown down exit trail!

By half way around the 4th and final lap I was really feeling the hurt on the climbs but felt I had my flow on in the down hills.  I haven’t had much time on the dirt this year so I’m not on it yet but there’s no doubt it’ll come back.

I finished up holding on to 3rd place a few minutes back from 2nd - too many for the late start to have made a difference.

The race was fantastic - well organised, great competition, a great course, and more great weather.  Thanks to the club for putting it on (and thanks for making a spectacle of me at prize giving - not!).

I’ve just completed 8 races in 8 weeks, so while I could go for 10 in a row, I’ve decided to take next weekend off (off racing, not training) so won’t be competing at the Makara Peak rally.  But you can be sure I’ll be there in some capacity.  Probably arriving on a wrong looking bike…  My final two races for the year are the final round of the mid north island champs in Napier, and then the Tour de Femme in Nelson between Christmas and New Year.