Challenges and a fabulous week

Last week in a nut shell: Tip tracking, Makara Peak, exploring Mt Vic, National Champs on Mt Vic, Karapoti second try. Everything fabulous. A bit of rain though, but that made the tracks a bit better, not speaking of Karapoti. But thumbs up for Karapoti this weekend, my next race after that will be the Rainbow Rage in 2,5 weeks. Tip Track in 30:35 so far, doing my best to get better. Simply have a look at the pictures on Flickr, they are much better than any words. I shut up now, some more riding before the evil race on Saturday, looking forward to that. And THANKS to Katy and Neil from Krank Dirtwear! I have proper shorts again, hopefully they last much longer than my last pair of Fox shorts, that bailed out after a year. Bugger.

Hardtailin again

My good old CUBE is back on the map. Ok, not as attractive as the lovely chick, and not even as attractive as a cold bottle of Hamburg's lovely Astra. But hey, just managed to get back on my hard tail again. What a difference to the Stumpy. Back to basic, back to proper CC. Quite cool to ride still. Too small handlebars though (o:

Just took it up the Tip Track, sweet climb to do without rear supension and half of the travel I usually have. But great fun. Might be the better bike for the Rainbow Rage this year, race number 2 on my schedule after Karapoti, and before the 24h in Rotovegas (with some more people). Not made a decision yet, takes a few more rides on the old lady to truly love her again. But the CUBE is that bike which followed me all the way from 2003 till now. It really still deserves a big race before retiring.

What else is happening in Wellywood? A lot! Just tested the amazing seats in the Embassy for a tenner yesterday, and watched a great Fringe show: Familiar strangers. Essentially you walk around town and meet strangers on your way, played by different actors. Odd people, but a lot of those places where the play is staged have a very different meaning to me right now. Just watch it, it's more than worth spending the bucks! (That's exactly the best length for a review, isn't it?) Starts 6.15 at the Paramont Cinema, be there 30 min before.

Another great show that kept me off the saddle in the beginning of January: PAUA. Great comedy thriller at the place that pays me: Downstage Theatre. Just watch it, it's amazing. What ROAM did to the mountainbike community, does PAUA in the theatre space. Discovering things in a complete new way, throwing old conventions over board and creating a great and unique creative product. A great alternative to a good ride. But hey, doing both is much better!

Karapoti and other adventures

So after that sweet training up north, we tackled the Karapoti Classic on Saturday. First time in my life, to see what to expect in three weeks when the race is on. Having a few drinks the night before wasn't a great decision, so getting up at 7 and getting ready was a wee bit hard. But after a nice Midnight Espresso Latte we drove to Upper Hutt and met up with Nick and Mark, two of Jan's mates, who joined us for the ride. Loved Mark's white fur covering his saddle, ride with style, ey?

But now to the Karapoti: Not expecting anything easy I was surprised about the first bit, which was fairly easy. But the first real climb was a killer. Bottom gear and picking lines were essentials, but some sections are better to push. Leaving Jan behind us, as his knee didn't feel like biking, we finally arrived at the Rockgarden, and descending with some pushing again. The last bit was sweet to ride, nice single track, and some tricky bits. But overall not too hard, so I was wating for the biggie to come.

And there we go, don't mess around with Devil's staircase. Pushing, carrying, pushing, some riding, a bit of everything. Actually the second devils' staircase I've been on, after the evil bit on the West Highland Way in Scotland named the same. A little bit of rest on top, and then a sweet downhill all the way to Doper's Creek. And then the last hill, bottom gear and iron will in my mind. And I managed to (almost) ride the climb as a whole, which was pretty hard work. Together with two girls we met on top we cruised down the rest, waiting for the challenge to end. All in all it was a great ride, thanks to Nick and Mark, who did gave me a ride back to town as well. Having it ridden now, I think the 4 hour mark should be possible, with some intensive training the next weeks. VIVA LA KARAPOTI.

What a week! Adventures in Fartopolis

"Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride." John F. Kennedy

Simple but true. Would John have had a fully, he'd have ridden the sweetest trails in Rotovegas, as we did last week. Taking a couple of days off and heading up to Taupo and Vegas with Jan and Marjolein was a very good decision, especially taking into concern that Karapoti is not to far away anymore.

Here the little training itenary: Saturday in Taupo, diggin our fat tyres into the Craters of the Moon trails, as a warm-up for the next day. Sweet stuff up there, I loved the structures built in the forest and the fast flowing single trails allover the place. Second day riding here was nice as well, more trails, more fun, and I hadn't come off the Stumpy in two days, hooray. Then we camped out next to the mud pools in Waiotapu, thanks to the friendly security guard named John who allowed us to pitch a tent in a public carpark in exchange for my Cateye. Together with Tanja, a lovely German girl who hitched with us down to the spot, we enjoyed an lovely evening. Anyway, she was more hardcore and wiser than us, slept outside under a net. We decided to squeeze ourselves in a tent, to experience that the combination of sulphur in the air and pretty warm temperatures doesn't neccesarly make a good sleep. But eating pasta fro the ground was cool, after Jan managed to drop them there and give them a bit more spice. Back to nature.

We were almost there, welcome to Fartopolis aka Roturua. Leaving our gear at the Funky Green Voyager the other day, and then off we went, to the magic Whakarewarewa Forest. And as expected, Roturua definetly deserves being called Vegas. Heeps of Trails, for each and every abilityand here are my favs: Grinder, Tickler, A-Trail, Dipper, Exit, B Rude Not 2, Pondy Downhill and Split Endz, just to name the best ones. Cranking through Dipper is so much fun, even more than last time on a hardtail. And this time, Jan an me took the evil drop on Tickler with style, one more, one less (o:
After riding for almost the whole day chillin in the backpackers was great, waiting for another days riding . And more cool stuff to ride the next day, as Hot X Bun and Billy T. Another whole day on the bike, and still managed to crank through Dipper on high speed. Sometimes stopping riding is so hard, especially on such sweet stuff. A quick dip in the hot pools after two long days was a .....pleasure. But paying 20 bucks for that is a wee bit too much, next time I'll soak myself in Hamner again, for less than the half. And more pools. And without security cameras allover the place. Getting up at 6 the next morning and riding more stuff was inevitable, before we headed back to Wellywood. Back there I couldn't stop myself: Thursday Makara, Friday off, Saturday Karapoti, but that's the next post.