Oceania Mountainbike Champs: Nelson New Zealand 2008

4 laps, 1hr 26min 1st Place, (22seconds ahead of 2nd place Alex Mcgregor) .
One of the best days in my racing career. Its just awesome to think I'm now U19 Oceania XC Mens Champion!

I had to fight bloody hard to win this one. For the first three laps I felt sluggish. My legs were spinning fine but I didn't have any power. My mind was telling me don't panic you can still win this race.

After fighting my way back from 6th and starting the last lap 32secs behind Alex I knew this last lap was going to be a whole lot of pain. I was shocked, as halfway up the climb I caught Alex, but as we came over the top together, he again rode away as I was paying the price of catching him and I was trying to recover from my hard effort on the climb.

By this stage I threw caution to the wind, riding really quickly in the downhill (on the Santacruz Blur) to again catch Alex. I knew there was a small climb from the finish - about 50m long and fairly steep, so when Alex noticed I was on his wheel, he attacked just before the bottom. I waited patiently, and when I heard Alex changing down gears I pounced and kept it in my big ring and used every ounce of power I could get out of my legs. I looked back as I crested the top and Alex was out of sight I kept pushing for the last 500m to hang on and win. This was my last race on my racing calender so now it's time for some rest, Im really happy that I finished the season strong with 4 race wins in a row.

A few people I would like to acknowledge and thank!!

In no particular order
* My Coach Jeff- for getting me this fit and giving me advice
* Alex(Allco Agencies)- Being a true friend and helping me out
* Vic Cycles- Working on my bikes and helping me out
* PNP- My local cycling club
* Family and friends- They know who they are
* Mum and Dad- Where do i start

Without all of your help I wouldn't of being able to do this

Mt Vic Nat Champs

Ok, I thought it was about time I updated my site.
I had a great day at Mt Vic where I won, making me national XC U19 Champ so pretty cool tittle to have.

The race plan itself i'd been thinking about after finding out it was going to be a 4 lap race instead of 3laps. This would change my tactics as I now knew that every body would run out of fuel with an extra 26min lap.

Sure enough it happened, Ash drove hard at the front and everybody seemed to panic.
I however knew if these boys can maintain this pace i was going to get smoked. But come 2nd lap I just held the same pace as the first lap and everybody seemed to be slowing down. Anyway i just drove tempo all the way to the finish and i was suprised when i found out i was going 15secs faster every lap and i achieved the fastest last lap out of everybody.