On Friday the first event of the weekend was the club team relay. This event had a good atmosphere and was competitive but friendly. The team Ben Henderson had organised to represent CORC consisted of Rebecca Henderson (female), Brendan Johnston (junior), Ben Henderson (elite) and the only non-Mongoose rider Graeme Albon (master). Graeme hit the track first and had a good lap and came in, in third position, next out was Brendan who had to catch Mike Baker a fellow junior, and Zoe King. It was tough but I managed to get past both of them before the descent. Rebecca was next and she had a clear track ahead of her. She improved our lead and was happy with her lap. Ben finished off with a trouble free run and maintained our first place, coming in with the fastest lap of the day. Thanks to all the team for a good fun event.
Sunday was an early start for the U/19 men at 8:30, this not a bad thing as the heat was expected to be increasing for the rest of the day. I rode out to the track to get a warm up in and I felt ok. There was a lot of U/19s warming up when I got there and they all looked keen. I was quite nervous as we were being called to the line. The start was fast but the pace eased off as we set off along the 2 km fire road start loop. I maintained sixth place throughout the first lap and was getting into a good rhythm. and then when passed David Johnston who had got a flat. I was now in fifth. I passed series leader Robbie Hucker who was dealing with a broken chain. So now I was in 4th and was starting to hurt and I knew Robbie would be chasing fast. On the last lap about 2km from the finish I passed Peter Braunsteins who also had a flat. This put me in third, but it was around the same time I saw Robbie about 200m behind me and he was catching fast. I put the hammer down and hurt even more but I managed to hold him off with a mere four seconds the final gap between us. I was happy with the 3rd but it wasn’t as sweet as mechanicals were a little too common for the riders in front. Charlton Durie took the national championship and Luke Fetch was in second Brendan Johnston in third. Thanks to The Henderson’s for everything, and MONGOOSE for their support.
Mt Beauty
We made the trip to Mt Beauty for the final round of the MTBA National Series. We got there on Thursday and it was raining but we rode one lap of the course anyway. It was a tough one with a very long climb and some sketchy downhills. I liked it though and I thought it would be awesome to race on.
I watched every race of the day as the U/19’s didn’t start till three thirty and I was getting really hot. I was cooking in the warm up, and with it being such a hard climb and such a hot day I new the race plan was critical. I decided to hold back on the first lap and that I did coming through in fifth place. On the second lap I passed two riders on the climb, first Luke Fetch and then Robbie Hucker. I held third place for a while and then the report from my feeder Rebecca was that Braunsteins was hurting. This made me ignore the pain and work harder. Heading out for the last lap I passed Braunsteins at the feed zone and I rode as fast as I could to get away and got a small gap. I managed to maintain this until the finish and it was about a minute to the third placed rider Peter. David Johnston won, Brendan Johnston second and Peter Braunsteins in third. This result was much sweeter than the weekend before and I was stoked with it. This result also gave me second place in the National Series, which I was happy to get as it is my first year in the category. Thanks again to the Henderson’s, CORC and also to MONGOOSE for all their support.
Sunday was the short course, it was pouring rain and I was not sure if it was worth doing. I decided I was going to race and the track was really muddy, but I came away with a second place in the open men behind Rob Eva which I was very happy with. This result moved me into second in the national short course series which I was also happy with.
