Lisa Morgan - Kiwi Mountain Biker

After a week of unbeatable Wellington weather there was a bit of an eyebrow-raising moment when I woke on Saturday and heard rain falling.  Being 30kms away I wondered what the weather was doing in town, so after breakfast started texting for reports.  Light rain that had stopped already.  It didn’t even settle the dust…

With Celia racing in the morning but without her usual support crew (Scotty had to work at Bicycle) I headed in a bit earlier than usual just in case I was needed for anything - but I wasn’t, just a feed between laps.  Robyn was there early too as she was REO for a couple of hours in the morning while Marco was racing.  I was super stoked to have her at a race, and not just any race!  I only got told off for arriving too early, being on my feet and being in the sun (I was walking to the shade!) - it was awesome having here there :o)

The morning wasn’t without it’s share of drama… there were 2 available feedzones but only 1 would be used in the morning.  The drama for me was the suggestion that the top zone might not be used in the afternoon as all my bottles were set up for feeding up there - it was a few hours before that was confirmed.  Then the start was different to past races - starting above the velodrome and riding in to it instead of starting in it.  It was good to know that early in the day.  And the poor U19s who were only told on the line that they had been moved to racing in the afternoon.

And then they were racing!  One of the good things about being around for the morning race is that you can get a bit of an idea as to the factors that might come in to play in the afternoon.  This time it was starting to look like it might be a race of attrition.  Apart from the obvious factors of the heat and super gruelling course, the first casualty of the morning was Ricky who hugged a tree a bit too aggressively.  Next from our camp Nic pulled up with a lame bike and despite his best efforts and unfathomable knowledge Oli wasn’t able to fix up her rear mech and she opted not to try and single speed the remainder of the race (on Mt Vic, who would!).

Soon after that we spotted Laura Smith, also of senior women, at the rego desk instead of out on the course.  On the bright side, at this point it meant Celia only had to hold her position and finish the race to take out 3rd in her first national championship race :o)

Between races the time flew as usual.  Robyn would appear from time to time to check in and make bottle arrangements and KT, Gav and I sorted all our gear in the lower tech zone.  Not long before it was time to get on the trainer my parents arrived with my cousins who were coming to watch their first ever mountain bike race.  After the usual warm up, it was time to go and get called up.

The start was narrow so even getting called up 6th put me in the second row, and soon we were inside the 2 minute call.  The gun went and the start was frantic!  The flat part of the track was narrow and passing wasn’t particularly safe - I got myself in to 3rd off the line but quickly had girls coming around on both sides of me.  There was real potential for carnage, not something I’m in to, so I quickly lost places and came in to the velodrome in about 10th picking up one spot before we exited up to the start climb.  I wasn’t too happy at having lost so many places so early, but that’s how it goes.

The field seemed to stay pretty close together up to the summit, through the first downhill section and in to the ’steep climb’.  By the time I was at the walk section I was still in contact with most of the girls in front of me.  Around this point I saw KT walking her bike as she’d burped her rear tyre - not again after similar trouble last year!  She fixed it up once but ended up with another puncture and lapped out of the race - gutting.  But my race was still on.  The 3rd major climb of the course was the dove tail - just long and steep enough to be a real killer, followed by a short downhill and then back to climbing up to the feed zone.  My start bottle was well and truly empty by the time I picked up the next one.  There was a HUGE crowd up there making truck loads of noise.  I grabbed my bottle from Rob and tried to let her know KT had punctured as she was feeding her as well, and listened for her advice, which I think was mostly go hard and dig it in.  From the feed zone we crested the climb and headed in to another downhill through singletrack where there were still heaps of people making noise.

The next significant section of the course is the technical downhill behind the hospital - HEAPS of people up there no doubt hoping for a bit of dust ball action.  The trick is to ride it smooth and know your lines and stick to them.  But the top half had become so blown out my lines didn’t exist anymore!  Fortunately it was pretty well flattened out so avoiding the ruts wasn’t really an issue and it was actually much easier to ride than it had been any other time recently.

The rest of the course is fairly uneventful and I’ve always thought of it as a bit of a break with all the tough climbs in the first half of the course, so I settled in to complete my first lap.

Coming in to the velodrome I saw Gen Whitson just up ahead and I’ve always loved putting the hammer down through here.  I exited just behind her and was out of the saddle to make the pass up the grass bank.  It felt like a really solid pass and gave me the extra motivation to dig deep up the tough start climb to make sure it would stick.  Heading towards the summit I saw a couple of the guys walking their bikes back, obviously too damaged to even lap out.  This climb was open and 100% exposed to the sun and it was HOT.  I still had half a lap before my next bottle so had to be careful about rationing the juice - I could have easily used another 150ml or so per bottle.

As I headed in to the steep climb for the second time I saw Erin just ahead of me and she was dismounting much earlier than I was.  I became focused on catching her in the remaining 2 and a half laps.  On the downhill just after this section we came past Nina who had burped her tyre (remember what I said about race of attrition?).  I could see Erin up the dove tail and just kept focusing on her.  As I came up to the feedzone for the 2nd time Monique came past me having an absolute blinder (U23 for champs).  I grabbed my bottle and powered to the crest in a position to cut her off going in to the singletrack, but held back - we were racing different grades.

The next time I saw Erin was on the start climb and again she was just ahead of me.  In my head all I could hear was a voice telling me to keep in touch, keep in touch, close the gap.  The gap would open and close, open and close.  On the steep climb for the 3rd time I had her within all of 5 seconds, but it’s a tough place to close even a small gap like that.  Up the dove tail again she was still just in front of me with a few more seconds and I was giving it everything.  Coming across the top of the dove tail I knew I’d just surpassed the Christchurch race - I was officially in the hardest race of my life and I was loving it.

By this stage the boys were starting to lap me…  as we came through a technical root section just before the velodrome Erin was still in my sights when one of the guys cut me off as he passed - I had to dab, and lost both time and rhythm which was incredibly frustrating.  I still saw Erin twice more - on the start climb and on the steep climb.  It appeared we were both fading roughly equally but I literally felt like I was on empty as I struggle to keep the legs moving in circles up the steeper climbs.  By the time I hit the dove tail for the last time I had to concede. Erin had got away and I didn’t have anything left to try and catch her. I was ready to just finish it off and come home as strong as I could but I really had to let off for a minute up there for a bit of a break.  It was the only time in the race I wasn’t giving it everything, but it was about all I had at the time.

When I got to the feedzone for the last time it was much quieter.  Some of the junior girls who had raced in the morning had been cheering me on all day from just below the zone which was absolutely awesome.  Some of those girls are super quick and they are tiny little things!  Can’t wait to see them in another few years.  I grabbed my last bottle and got some last words of encouragement from Robyn and set about bringing it home.

As I came in to the velodrome for the last time I came past the maxxis tent and it seemed like everyone was there - they gave me a big cheer so I gave them one final effort on my way to the line.

6th place!  In my first elite national champs!  I was stoked, still am - just totally stoked.  I left everything out there.  In fact, it was a good 20 minutes before I got off my bike properly because I needed it to prop me up!  Half an hour later my breathing still hadn’t returned to normal!  I caught up with Erin - what a great race we’d had pushing each other - she was worried the whole time, and I was just dying to catch her but she was too good that day.

I caught up with Robyn (still propped up by my bike) and was really happy to see she was so pleased with my result.  I had been so stoked to have her out there supporting me and am really proud to have had such a good race with her there.

It’s left me even hungrier for more than ever, but what a great pinnacle race.  Yes, Karapoti and Oce’s to come, and I’ll give them everything I’ve got too, but I’ll spend at least another day thinking about this one.

And to top things off, Gav came 3rd!!!!  I think he surpassed everyone’s expectations with that one and we’re both just fizzing off our results.  Sam took out U19, Monique held her top form that I saw early in the race to win U23, Connor came 2nd in U23 behind Carl Jones.

That night most of us met up again as we had a farewell for Lee (Poston) who by now is in his new job in Rotorua (Cycle Centre).  Top quality entertainment with 7 of the boys taking on the 2 litre ice cream challenge which was won in a staggering 4 minutes and 33 seconds!  Ricky had his second dnf of the day, poor boy.  None of the girls were up to the challenge although Nic and I had kindly offered to be feeders to Robyn - 2 spoons on the go - but it wasn’t red wine flavour so she declined.

After not quite enough sleep, I went for a nice recovery spin on Sunday before the wind picked up too much, then headed in with Gav to watch the short track (talk about exciting!) and the DH.