MTB worlds Rotorua

MTB Worlds... bad taste photo

Here is a comment from Geoff Kabush's diary... and the accompanying photo that explains it all...The Kiwis tried to cheer me up the steep hills but I was doing all I could. There were a bunch of hecklers in red capes that I was afraid to look at for the first five laps for fear that they were naked. It ended up that they did have Speedos on with big "merkins" hanging out. This word was added to my vocabulary this week: "Merkin" - a hairpiece for down under or you could call it a stunt bush. Anyway Mathieu Toulouse made it in for 48th place and local hero John Kirckaldie finished 21st in the DH in his big retirement race. He was the big TV celebrity all week.. http://www.cyclingnews.com/riders/2006/diaries/geoff/?id=geoff0606

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World MTB champs

World MTB champs last weekend in Rotorua Central north Island.
I only have a small camera so I had to throw it about a bit to get these shots.

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Tip Track Vertical challenge? 495 metres straight up!

The "tip-track" race was held a few weeks back with great success.
Its a race of legend in Wellington with talk of a time of 18 mins flat, from gate to gate by the legendary Trevor Woodward.

This was to be an entirely different event with the race starting at sea level and finishing at the golf-ball (radar station) itself on hawkins Hill - quite a bit longer than the original course.
The cool thing though was that runners and roadies were also invited, and they could use whatever course they wanted!

Obviously the roadies took to the tarseal and went via the wind turbine. I actually expected them to win, but a northerly and a TT format meant that there was no wheel sucking so no advantage there.

In the end, in form roadie Ed Crossling did a 27.45 to pro Elite MTBer Wayne Hiscock's 27.20...... pretty close eh? But no where near MTB hill climb specialist's Tim Wilding's 24.44 !
Ex World Mountain Running champ Melissa Moon did a 30.05, and I think if local World Mountain Running Champ Jonathon Wyatt had turned up, he would have given Tim a good run for his money.

The day was pleasant enough at sea level, but up top it was verging on hypothermia country. There was a great variety of fitness levels in this event which was a fundraiser for the Makara Peak MTB park. The most impressive ride for me was by world reknown unicyclist Ken Looi from Jville Cycles in around 38 minutes!

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Crazyman multi-sport triathlon duathlon

CMAN

The Crazyman is the biggest multisport event in this region, and at 574 competitors, 2006's race was the biggest field yet. More details here: http://www.crazyman.co.nz

I can hardly walk now, (the next monday) not from running pain, but from the damage the cramp spasms caused me! I think I have sussed out why so many people get cramp on the new course. When its wet, and you are not as fit as you know you should be, and its the longer course, its actually a good 20 mins longer than the old course. Most people are faking it quite a bit already with their training, but add another 10-20 mins, and they are actually way out of their comfort zones. Cramping competitors was pretty rare on the older shorter course.

When I exited the bush for the first time (Muritai street [47 mins] ) I was ready to go home, I'd had to stop to re-insert my contact lens, as I had installed it backwards before the race! While I was re-installing it I heard about 20 people pass me, then I grovelled back and passed half of them again.... only to have them repass me on the next downhill !

This was the pattern for the whole race, catch them on the ups, but lose more time on the downs. Very frustrating. Jill Westenra passed me about 20 mins into the race, on a downhill, after I had redone my lens. She was on fire as far as the ladies go. I came out into Wainuiomata and I felt like a dead man. I got through the transition in about 1 min, and looked at my clock, 1.42. So the run splits were like, 47 and 54 ? Getting on the bike was like heaven in comparison to the running. But then the cramp hit me, I could only push the granny gear, thank god most of the bike training I had been doing was on my fixed gear with a 39-16 ratio. I am sure it paid off being able to spin more efficiently.

I figured most of the people in front of me were teamsters, but was still surprised at the sheer numbers of them. I was impressed to see Matt Harvey (a very strong Masterton Cyclist) pass me on the run. Once on the bike, and going up the roller coaster I started to pull him in, until I had to dismount, and then I couldnt get remounted because of the cramp. I just had to grit my teeth, scream in agony and do it... cripes it hurt. Both calves and left quad simultaneously. You had to ride almost everything, because you knew that if you walked, you might not be able to get back on again. So it was like that the whole way.

I crept up behind Matt, saw him take a drink and casually attacked him on the right. I never saw Matt again, but he did win the open mens Du! So I was a 3.50, and I think Matt was a 3.53 or something. Probably the most impressive Du result came from Marco Renalli, with a 3.56.
50 years old and the 2nd fastest MTB split by less than a minute!

So what about the cramp? Whats the answer? There really are only a couple of answers.
1. Get fitter
2. Go easier
3. Dont do such a long race!

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Sarah Ulmer wins World cup by 4 mins

Wow. Sarah Ulmer broke away with 12 laps to go in a 20 lap race at the Wellington Round of the Womens World cup. It sure looks good for her change from the individual pursuit to the time trial at the Commonwealth games. Straight after the race she spent the next 30 minutes signing autographs for kiwi kids. You have to be a kiwi to understand how big an icon she is over here. The media puts incredible pressure on her, without realising the quality of the opposition. How does she do it? A bit like that other Kiwi icon Erin Baker, she trains harder than the other women. A very tight course with heaps of corners, very strong winds, and several testing hills meant that the bunch could not afford to slack off at all if they were going to catch her. At some point they must have decided that the chase was in vain, and they would sprint for the remaining points, Ulmer not having the World Cup series as one of her goals . If you want to see how strong the winds were, read some of the other riders diaries. This time last year they were hauling windblown girls out of trees during the womens tour that preceded the World Cup race.

Photo by me.

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Wellington Centre Track Champs Feb 06

It was a fun weekend. I am still recovering actually. The first night was rained out with thunder and lightning so they shoe-horned the rest of the events into the next 2 days. I did the 8km points race, the 500m TT, the 3000m Inividual pursuit and the 5km scratch race - all Vet 2 (45+). I also ended up doing the open 20km points race.... a bit harder than racing at Vets level, but I managed to stay on the same lap anyway.
http://www.pnp.org.nz/results/track/index.html?item=66
What did I learn? if you cant sprint with the best, (Malcom and Steve are pretty damn good) then go early! I also learnt that my gearing at the Track nats must have been waaaay out, cos I was only 1 second slower on the bumpy Wellington track for the 3000 metres (4.05). Thats 44km/h which doesnt sound that fast eh? I mean what does Sarah Ulmer do? 3.24 @ 52.93 kmh!!! Crikey!


Me after the open 20km points race!

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National track champs IP 3000m

This is a shot from the NZ national track champs. 3000 metres for Vet2 (45 +) Its the same distance as Sarah Ulmer did.... just a good 35 seconds slower in my case! The helmet is the same one I borrowed off Jason Eady for the TT champs in Ashhurst, a LAS. I think the rear disc wheel is Christian Wengler's.
Marcel Hollenstein won the event riding a particularly nice Dolan. Link here. I started too fast and couldnt keep on top of the gear. I should have gone down 2 inches to accomodate for the rising wind but this was only my second ever IP so I am a bit green. Marcels time was 1.6 seconds faster than my 4.04. Still a big improvement on my previous other only IP, a 4.11 on the bumpy Wellington track.

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Hope Gibbons 4-up Teams TT

The Hope Gibbons Shield. Started in the early 1930's. We finally managed to get our names on it this year in a slightly controversial manner. We were beaten by one team, but they werent all paid up members of the Centre, so didn't qualify. A real bugger cos the one guy that wasnt a member got dropped almost immediatley and it was up to the other 3 to lap it out for the 38kms anyway! They did a 54.01 to our 55. Like most teams, we dropped one rider as well.

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Waihi to Waihi 130km TT

It was a pretty neat weekend we had. Myself, Matt Gerstenberger and his wife Odile (Mo).
We stopped off in Taupo on the friday night, then bowled onto Waihi the next day. We had heaps of time so did a lap of the course in the car.
127kms. It was pretty wet so we didnt spend much time checking out the beaches. We made some mental notes of the big hills and decided on where we would get Mo to feed us.

We went back to the unit which was pretty nice, and watched as the rain just hammered down for the rest of the day. It wasnt a great feeling. Next morning we woke to a foggy but still day with mild temperature. Any ideas I had of winning my age group pretty much evaporated when I saw ex world duathlon champ Matt Bricks name on the start list... but.... as per usual, he never showed!

I was away as 4th man and despite trying to ride within myself had picked up the first 3 guys in 10 minutes. The 29km stretch from Waihi to Whangamata was propbably the most fun.
A fair bit of climbing, but smooth and fast surfaces with what felt like heaps of fast descending into Whangamata. (49 minutes)

Matt and I had decided to do split points at the major intersections or points or reference for the future, and Matt had his power tap on (after the day dawned fine). Whangamata to Hikuai was also pretty good, some lovely roads and good climbing (which actually seemed worse in the car). I got to the interstection at Hukuai in 1.30 (accumulated time)

By the time I hit Hikuai and started the Major climb I was aware a guy on my tail. He eventually past me and I got a shock to see his number - 7 . He had taken 3 minutes out of me before halfway.

He was either pretty good, or he was going to explode spectaculary. I decided he was pretty good..... He was on a Cervelo P3 with a zipp 404 front and Disc rear.
He seemed to slow a little at the bottom of the hill so I attacked him and passed him back. The weather was getting pretty hot by now... and after going back through my Heart rate readings I saw that at this point, for 17 minutes I was pegged at 186 bpm... thats 96% of my max Heart rate... hmmmm... maybe not so bright?

Somewhere after the top, of the hill, which I got to at about 2.07, he passed me back. He was a bigger guy and carried more speed on the descent. After a while the road surface roughened and I found myself making ground on him again. I am guessing the surface was hard work on a solid disc. I had Bens Hed stingers and they handled really well. We got to the Kopu turnouff at about 2.23, so the whole descent only took about 17 minutes. I thought I could pull this guy back on the way to Paeroa but not long after, I , like many others started to cramp.
I was basically battlleing cramp from there on in, and was forced to spin rather than push the gear. I was cramping in 4 different places, which worked well in distracting me from the intense pain in my groin, and the two hotspots on the soles of each foot! Mo handed me a botle of water as we passed the old house we used to live in at Puiriri.

The road to Paeroa was basically constantly undualting up and down for the next 43 minutes. I was still averaging about 36kmh, but I was gutted to see that my average speed of 33.5 at the bottom of Kopu was not rising!!!! By the time I hit the Karangahake Gorge I thing I was up to 33.8..... Slow progress. The gorge was really nice. Billard table smooth surface, cool air from the river and it felt like a tail wind.

The last 10 kms was really hard as the elevation got up a bit, and you knew you were close. The final rise into Waihi was a grovel and I weaved my way thru town to cross the line in 3.46.

49 mins Waihi to Whangamata: 49 mins (34.7kmh) 162 bpm # Rolling speed av=34.7
+ 40 mins Whangamata to Hikuai: 1.30 mins (33.7kmh) 168 bpm # Rolling speed av=34.2
+ 37 minsHikuai to top of Hill: 2.07 (23.9kmh) 180 bpm # Rolling speed av=31.2
+ 17 mins Top to Kopu intersection: 2.23 (46.5 kmh) 166bpm # Rolling speed av=33.1
+ 43 minsKopu to Paeroa: 3.06 (36 kmh) 173 bpm # Rolling speed av=33.9
+ 39 mins Paeroa to Waihi: 3.46 (32.9kmh) 173 bpm # Rolling speed av=33.7

overall average speed 33.7 (roughly) av heart rate 170 bpm.

I ended up 4th overall, 2nd in age group. The guy I was dicing with came 3rd in 3.41. The guy who won my age group was 2nd overall. Dave Mann.
I am not sure if it is the ex english Pro who once once towed an aluminium boat on a trailer in the Hamilton to Waihi race.....

Matt was 2nd in his age group too with a 3.57.

The guy that won was on a P3 Cervelo with Zips front and rear, (disc) - Jason kelly from napier. I didnt see what Dave Mann was on, but going by his vintage Coors lite pants, it could have been anything.
The weather and scenery were great. The roads awesome. The prizegiving more like a get together for old friends. Gary Humpherson is a bit of a legend up there and won the MAST trophy for age adjusted times by a long way. It was a long way to travel, but I enjoyed taking Matt and Mo to a few of our favourite places on the way back thru Roto-vegas.

Unfortunately Matt's Power Tap went spazzy on him and he started making 1100 watts, pretty impressive but it meant that he conusmed 30,000 calories in one ride....
I think he tried to make it up eating potato chips for the nex two days...

I wondered if it might have been more cost effective to fly up to hamilton and get a rental.....
We decided probably not....
Until I got a speeding ticket (going downhill on the desert road) , the only time I broke the speed limit the whole friggin weekend.... : (

See attached HR/speed graph.

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Road and TT nationals: October 2005

The road and TT nationals were held in Ashhurst this year. Near Palmerston North in the North Island. We did a reccie and I did one full-on effort on the course with the Power Tap on. You could tell straight away it was going to be a slow course. I couldnt even crack 40km/h for the 20 kms. We had a fair bit of time to go to gather some more form for the actual race.
On the day itself the conditions were pretty good. As usual, 2 times World age-group TT champ John Alabaster just ripped everyones legs off

Vet 6/7 Men TT Distance 20 km
1 Garry Humpherson Port Nicholson Poneke 32:26.0 1 37.00 km/hr
2 Laurence Sunde Wanganui 33:00.0 2 36.36 km/hr
6 Harry Donker Hamilton 33:13.0 3 36.13 km/hr

Vet 4 Men TT Distance 20
1 John Alabaster Wakatipu 27:58.0 1 42.91 km/hr
4 Paul Lewin Port Nicholson Poneke 29:31.0 2 40.65 km/hr
6 Barry Gilliland Palmerston North Marist 30:11.0 3 39.76 km/hr

Vet 3 Men TT Distance 20
44 Ray Dunstan Otago 28:35.0 1 41.98 km/hr
70 Malcom Perry Port Nicholson Poneke 28:55.0 2 41.50 km/hr
43 Dave Sullivan Pegasus 29:08.0 3 41.19 km/hr

Vet 2 Men TT Distance 20km
1 Lester Settle Pegasus 28:43.0 1 41.79 km/hr
4 Andrew Townsend Ramblers 29:07.0 2 41.21 km/hr
5 Jeff Lyall Port Nicholson Poneke 29:10.0 3 41.14 km/hr

U23 Men TT Distance 40 km
1 Logan Hutchings Otago 00:54:47.0 1 43.81 km/hr
75 Matthew Haydock Counties Manakau 00:56:01.0 2 42.84 km/hr
72 Joseph Cooper Port Nicholson Poneke 00:57:23.0 3 41.82 km/hr

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Wheel Cover for Power Tap

Here is a mosaic of the wheel cover my buddy got me for my Power Tap wheel, it is an amazingly snug fit. Apparrently the guy in LA, at Wheelbuilder.com is the biggest supplier of Power Taps in the US.

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