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Sam's EWS Diaries
Sam Shaw is off-shore and on-the-road - hunting down the Enduro World Series as a privateer. He's had a stellar NZ summer racing singlespeed (winning the World Champs in Rotorua), Enduro (2nd in the NZ Enduro and 4th in the Toa Enduro at Crankworx Rotorua) and XCO (6th at the NZ Nationals and a cameo in DH).
Sam is despatching regular diary updates to us by pigeon post. Think Alistair Cooke's Letter from 'Merica - but without the toff grammar and political satire. The story starts at the NZ Enduro and progresses as the season unfolds. Stay tuned.
@samshawthing Photo: Tony Hutcheson
EWS Round 8, Finale, Italy
27/09/2018 Finale Here
Got up for a french breakie with Anthony's parents in Nice, packed all the gear and boys into Mort’s and drove off to Finale. Booked into Finale Freeride village for some high-grade camping life (pools, washing machine AND showers). We ended up squeezing three tents and the van onto a smallish camping spot keeping things cozy. Had a chill day to recover from my DJ gastro after party. Biked into town with Loui Harvey for a swim at the beach and some gluteny cheesey goodness. Spent the rest of the arvo at the campsite pool.
28/09/2018 Prachy Day
Loui and Jess scored the boys some cheap shuttles for prachy day which made things perfect (we were all still pretty rinsed, gastro, heatstroke, and all). It was a big day out, starting on the shuttle at 8am, with a lunch break in the middle down the coast in Sportorno (trying to beat the Italian siesta). Pizza, gelato, and brioche I don’t know how all the Euros are so skinny. We got back at a reasonable time, tidied up and headed out for more pizza with a big chunk of the kiwi crew.
29/09/2018 Ross’s birthday
No prachy today left a whole bunch of time for sleeping in, bike stuff, pool time, and food. We headed down the coast for a flat spin and while we were out school mate Ross turned up at the train station in Finale, so I headed back early to catch up (saw the biggest stingray I’ve ever seen). Found Rosco at the station and we walked into the pits to find the rest of the kiwis. Chatted for a bit before he mentioned it was his birthday (Ross doesn’t bike, and has just travelled 8 hours to catch up... on his birthday... and I forgot, haha). We woofed some gelato with the kiwis, headed back to the pizza shop and bumped into Sven and Anka Martin. Got some more pizza and carried on to camp. Managed to get the boys to sing happy birthday and found one very large candle that went good on one of those nutella tart things (jumbo sized).
30/09/2018 Finale Day One (and Only)
Race day, and I’m feeling back to normal and ready to go. Dressed up and headed out. Start time 9.30am. There was a 1.5 hour liaison to stage one. On the way my free wheel wasn’t engaging very well with the hub body causing the pedals to spin freely. I tried some trackside maintenance on the way out, but it didn’t really help. Bumped into Keegan Wright, who was stopped with a flat and tried helping, but his tire kept blowing off of his rim no matter what he did (unlucky).
Finally got to stage one. This stage was fun! A good mixture of pedaling, awkward tight sections and some fast straights. I raced well down the whole of this track while making sure to wait for the hub to engage before sprinting. Just before the finish checkout my hub slipped and I did a classic monk over the front of the bars and off down a bank full of blackberry (literally 2m before the checkout, I could nearly lick it). Boosted back up the bank and finished the stage, with a couple of scratches and a sore glute. On the way to stage two I was chatting about the hub and Kenta Gallagher mentioned it could be fixed if I took the hub apart and manually pulled the springs out to aid with the engagement of the free wheel to the hub. So I did exactly that and the thing worked like new (very lucky to not lose any parts in the dust).
Stage two was an open rocky start into a tighter rocky section with a climb rolled by dusty unburied corners to the finish. The stage went well with no major problems - started having some more fun! Three was one of the funnest with high speed sections on loose rock and the odd tight corner to catch you out (every stage has an amazing view of the sea to distract you).
Photo: Sven Martin
I had fun again, kept things tidy. Nice beach stop feed zone before heading up to the fourth and final stage, ‘Mens DH’. This stage starts with a whole lotta pedalling with switchbacks and then heads into step open rocky sections to the finish. The final part is lined with spectators and views of the ocean. It's an amazing scene. I had another tidy run and kept things fun, enjoying getting to the end of the stage and the end of a long season.
Photos: Sven Martin
Straight to the beach, pizzeria, and then back to camp to re-hydrate :) Both Charlie and I are now missing our sheep hats, those things were not made for after parties.
01/10/2018 Sheep, Pizza, and Les Gets
Tom Prier left first thing; we had a big clean up of the camp; sold some overflow stuff; Ed Curly joined us, and then we jumped on a shuttle up to Nato base for some shlaps. We were all fizzing, those tracks are so good. Had a stop by the pizza shop one last time and ordered some pesto pizza from our now favourite ’pizza girl’ (we are now regulars and old mate Tom-heatstroke-Bradshaw wants to marry ‘pizza girl’) - it’s the best pizza of our lives, not even kidding, and we made sure everyone in the shop knew. Cruised back to camp, all piled into the van and headed for Les Gets (Rosco replaced Tom, while Ed managed to jump in Jamie's wagon). Turned up at Seb's house in Les Gets (Charlie's French skier bud) - he cooked up a mean feed of sausages in cream and onion (so bon) and we crashed out.
02/10/2018 Peaking
Pretty early start to pack in all the planned activities. Bradshaw and I went for a walk to collect the fresh produce (pain au choccies and pommes). The team got their hiking gear on and we headed straight to another mean bakery, and then uphill to start a hike to one of the highest peaks in Les Gets (behind Mont Chery). Fresh snow everywhere, I have never seen this area like this before, amazing looking and all. Saw plenty of Chamoix on the way and managed to crawl up through the snow to the peak. So worth the hike for the view we got.
Bounced back down and straight onto the bikes for a quick evening lap of Les Gets. Cleaned and packed everything properly and chucked it into Morts for the early start tomorrow. Seb and Rosco cooked a raclette for the boys (melted cheese on potatoes and pickles). So good. Blocks you right up, haha.
03/102018 Home Time
4am start doing some final packing. Farewell to Seb and we hit the road bound for Pari. Caught up with Cam Osbourne and Becs Rolling at the airport to hand over the keys for Morty, and say by to the team for now. They drove off and I called them ten minutes later to get my helmet bag I’d left in the van :D. Checked in my mountain of luggage for free somehow, and then walked off to what I thought was the big bag drop off, but it was another check-in and somehow checked in all over again, getting charged this time - argh. Off home, via Tokyo.
04/10/2018 Lost a Day Here Somewhere
Arrived in Tokyo with the pile of baggage and had to connect flights, but at another airport 100km away. There was no way I was catching a bus or train with all this load, so jumped in the most expensive taxi ride of my life.
Got to the Narita airport (from Naheda airport) and my emergency card wouldn’t work... for anything. I couldn’t pay the driver (my normal card froze in Lenzerheide and snapped when I returned to Europe 5 weeks ago). After an hour trying to pay the taxi man I found some tape and mended the broken card, got it into an ATM and managed to get some cash, finally! Said sorry to taxi man and headed to check in. Re charged for all the excess baggage, again (poor bank account), and headed to the oversize to check the gearsies in. The main security man there was convinced that travelling with bike suspension in Japan was forbidden and that I had to remove the forks and shock off my bike and throw them out. After at least an hour of battling with this guy I got my bike checked in and am now on the last leg home. Time to enjoy some Ramen, addikimasu. Won’t be back in Japan with a bike.
05/10/2018 Kiwiland
Good to be home... kinda. Am now in Ohakune ready to go for a (birthday) ski tomorrow.
EWS Round 7, Aìnsa, Spain
Photo: Sven Martin
18/09/2018 The Sheep
7am start, way earlier than the usual. Headed up to Tom Priers whare (a last minute addition to the trip, he spent all summer in Morzine, so over dinner the other night Jamie and I convinced him to come on a roadie), loaded his gear into Morty, dropped excess gear at Jamie Nicoll and Elena Munstermanns’ house (aka Elena's house, the post shop, thanks guys!). Left Morzine, France at sparrow's fart (or what felt like it) enroute to Geneva to pick up fellow kiwis Tom Bradshaw and Charlie Murray for a last minute booked trip to race the last two rounds of the Enduro World Series. Arrived in Geneva on time and completed the usual too many laps around the airport trying to find them. Finally connected - stoked they came over. Tom was packing a team uniform for the two weeks that couldn’t be more kiwi (sheep shirts with matching sheep hats). His flatmate Georgia made them by hand, so rad, they’re rad. Chucked the boys and all their gear in Morty and boosted, destination Aìnsa, Spain (current time 9.30am, eta 7.30pm).
Six hours in we grabbed a swim stop at a beach down the south of France close to Montpelier. We jumped back in Morty and made a million wrong turns which took us to Barcelona before heading back up the continent to Aìnsa. Bradshaw kept us entertained with desert riddles (you can take a spoon to the desert, but not a fork). Got to our destination in the end, driving up a castle road to the top of king Aìnsa’s whare to find the perfect camping spot next to Loui Harvey and Jess Enlund (arrival time 11pm - 16 hours travel time, sheesh). Had yarns before shuteye.
19/09/2018 Aìnsa
Woke up at the top of the castle paddocks, taught Bradshaw how to percolate the morning coffee (big pro percolator here).
Kitted up and headed out for a spin around on the bikes. The terrain here is amazing, grey earth with mini rampage spines all over the place. Played around a bit and managed to pull a stop to scorpion in the process (would have been prime for jerry-of-the-day content). Biked down to the river for a swim, it had rained the day before so everything was pretty murky. After 10 mins of swim time a snake just floated on past, and that was the end of that swim. Headed to the supermarket, bumping into half the EWS field along the way for chats. Chilled out up at camp for a bit then picked up rego packs before heading down to kiwi Melissa Newell's (Mops) house for dinner, and some yarns.
20/09/2018 Practice Diaz Uno
Up and on the percolator for morning coffee duties at campsite take 2 (we got moved on from our campsite to another good site, still up above the castle). Spencer Cathman offered to shuttle us to the top of stage one, legend. The team piled in and headed out for a day of course recky. Team Manager Tom managed to score a team plate and came out for a blat. Stage one was a huuuuuge pedal, but pretty fun descents in between. Two was a rim destroyer, three was full noise flow and four was short as (800m long). Pretty happy with the stages after pedalling out stage one (flashback to XC days). Headed back home after a biggish day out on the bikes and straight to the river for a couple hours of chill time. The water was way clearer by now (no snakes) and such a good setting. Everyone ended up at the river which was a pretty cool scene for an EWS. Headed back up the top to get the bike all pretty and a little more prepped for race day (changing tyres and making sure everything was running smooth) - no correlation with Steve Murphy and Lina Skogould turning up for a visit.
Photo: Sven Martin
21/09/2018 Practice Diaz Dos
Spencer and Paris shuttled the gang up to stage five to start the day, bloody good day with no clouds in the sky and pretty hot weather! We headed down five which was a snake of a track, weaving its way down a grassy ridge. Onto stage six and seven getting it all done pretty quick. Headed to the river and got all the bike admin done nice and early. We then had to race a prologue event through the castle from top to bottom, but the time didn’t count towards anything. So it was a prologue that you had to race, but didn’t need to race? Pretty fun anyway. Headed straight to the river after with Tom Sampson for another swim.
Photos: Sven Martin
The Spainish boys in blue came by the campsite and noticed our awesome sheep shirts, we had a yarn and it was kind of funny, then the mood changed quickly to serious, Tom and I then got searched (Tom more thoroughly then I) for drugs haha. We were watching the nervous couple across the campsite that were actually smoking the weed that started this whole search. They ended up leaving and then some more officials came and moved us on again to another, even better campsite, still at the top of the castle. Headed into the castle for the Aìnsa sausage party (kind of ironic lol). The town had cooked a 900m long sausage to feed the locals and athletes for dinner, it turns out that is a huge amount of sausage so they let us take an extra three metres or so for snacks and tomorrows dinner - classic for us camper bums.
22/09/2018 Racing Day One
8am start with the sun pretty heated and no clouds for cover. Team sheep got kitted and headed out to start the day. We got shuttled to the bottom of stage one and then had to wait forty minutes before we could start our ascent, we then had two and a bit hours to climb the hill... so much time. We got there in the end after many breaks and a bit of heckling. Got to see team sheep drop in before warming up and heading down stage one. Stage one started with a straight rocky descent before heading up a fire road climb and then into three minutes of flat traversing. It then headed down a fast kind of chicaned trail before coming out onto another fire road climb which flattened out for a minute then dropped into fast single trail straights with tight corners around trees, flowing into another high speed chicaned trail, finishing with grey earth trails. I had a pretty good run down here apart from catching the odd person right at a climb and having to get off and run up, not ideal, but how it goes.
Photos: Sven Martin
Nice big feed zone at the bottom to top up the camel with water. Headed up the same climb to take us to stage two. I caught up to team sheep on the way up and Bradshaw had started sweating up a storm. We peddled on for a bit and he disappeared off the back, turning up a bit later at the top of the hill after a couple of cheeky vomits. He was still chippa as so we didn’t think much of it.
Stage two was fun with a lotta awkward corners with boulders that you had to manuever around at speed and then a whole bunch of sniper rocks littering the trail. I had a good run down here and managed a 26th on the stage :) Caught up with Bradshaw again to find out he had vomitted more, and was starting to feel awful, but was still chippa as. A small pedal over to stage three, Bradshaw left after three and forgot his bottle, so I pocketed it.
Stage three was fun and flow on loose rocky corners. I was having a lotta fun down here really pushing myself and ended up having a huge stack on a tight right hand corner, losing the front wheel and throwing a scorpion for the crowd. Finished off the stage annoyed, but happy I was pushing my limit. Pedalled straight over to stage four all stoked to give Bradshaw his bottle back, I headed to the front of the line to find Charlie and group of people surrounding and cooling Bradshaw who was now in the recovery position. He was suffering from extremely bad heatstroke. I headed back up the road to find an ambulance and radio in some help. Headed back to the scene with Daniel Wolfe fanning air onto Tom saying he was his biggest fan haha. Tom was in a state though and started looking badly ill, the medics eventually turned up and stretchered Bradshaw outta the heat and onto a drip.
Charlie and Loui did a bloody good job and huge thanks to all the riders that helped Bradshaw out. We all dropped into stage four not long after (shot as trail on grey earth) and headed back to visit Bradshaw in the medic room. He eventually headed to the hospital just to be safe, and Spencer and Paris the legends picked him up at midnight. We headed over to Mops for dinner, minus one sheep and prepped for the next day.
23/09/2018 Racing Day 2
Another heater of a day. Pedal into the castle and loaded into the shuttle headed for stage five. Another big wait before starting the stage always leaves time for good banter. Stage five was grassland with a trail carved in with many sharp rocks and large rock slabs to manoeuvre on, it then headed into the trees for a couple of high speed sections and a few tight corners. I rode conservatively on this stage, but still managed to crash on one of the rock slabs - just losing grip on the light layer of dust that had been ridden on to all the slabs. On to the feed zone and stage six, the temperature was rising making this shorter day still kind of hard.
Stage six was a smooth trail with a lot of pedals for the first eighty percent of it then finished with an open grey earth section, with a fast rollercoaster like feature (rolling corners, quick drops). I started the stage fast and rode straight into a tree 50m in, on a fading left hand corner haha.. the rest of the stage went well! Back to the pits for smoko and then off up the last climb heading for seven.
Stage seven started out on a ridgeline walking trail before dropping into high speed open sections, it then had a two minute break (untimed section) before starting up again into high speed chicanes, followed by tight switchbacks and narrow trail. I had a good first half to the stage, but on the first corner after dropping into the second half I lost the front wheel on a corner and the bike ended up getting tangled in a bush haha.. After a lot of yanking it came out and I finished off the stage, a wee bit annoying, but just gotta stop crashing. Finished the day in 57th.
Photos: Sven Martin
Headed to le river for a swim and some recovery beers, Charlie tried riding his bike through the river for $200, made it about two meters before floating off downstream. The Germans were throwing rocks off the bridge, and the sun was out. Good times. The kiwis caught up for dinner at a funny restaurant called “The Recommended Meals” (Mops) or maybe it was the Two Rivers. We then headed to stage eight…
24/09/2018 Big clean up day
Tidied Morty up, had coffees, picked heatstroke Bradshaw up and boosted straight into the wrong direction with Charlie at the wheel. Corrected that and made tracks for Santa Coloma de Farners, Spain for a great camping spot next to an old castle. Heatstroke Bradshaw cooked up a mean bean pasta meal with all the accumulated leftovers, yummy.
25/09/2018 Gastro Boy
DJ Gastro Returns. Woke up after a very average sleep and headed out for a pedal around the trails, we hit the hills hard and got in three good trails, would recommend this place for a visit. We headed out of town bound for Nice. Charlie got hit early on with a fever and later on in the day I got hit. Feeling spewy and achy and overall a bit rubbish, DJ Gastro had returned. We turned up at Toms mates house Anthony for five star accomodation, couldn’t eat a thing though haha and I couldn’t sleep all night so the party was livid, you had to be there.
26/09/2018 DJ Gastro is gone
Still feeling average, but headed out for a hugey of a ride with Anthony and the boys to blow it out. Good times in Nice the trails here and scenery is amazing!
Photo: Sven Martin
EWS Round 5, La Thuile, Italy
16/07/2018 Morzine
Nice to have Mum and Dad visiting us for a couple of weeks. It means having a ‘birth fam’ and an EWS ‘adopted fam’ for the next round of racing in Italy. Good excuse for more touristing, and there’ll be double the yelling when we get to La Thuile.
18/07/2018 Morzine to La Thuile
Up and at ‘em with an easy pedal up Avoriaz and down Super Morzine in the morning, then Brooke, Mum, Dad and I left Morzine for Chamonix. We took the cable car up Mont Blanc for some tourist action! Then pinned it to La Thuile, to chill and prepare for a big four days.
19/07/2018 Prachy Day, Tahi
Awoke nice and early for breakie with the 'rents before checking the messages for the morning, quickly getting changed and heading out to catch up with (Daniel) Selfie and Alex Holowko for some prachy runs on Stage One and Three. The tracks were a wee bit damp making for some uncalled for jibs. Morning of practice done and dusted, I spruced up the rig before light refreshments. Alex, Selfie and myself piled into the Norco van (cheers Blenki) and headed up the other side of the valley to prachy Stage Two, my favourite stage for sure. Stopped by the pizzeria for some fuel with the adopted fam, headed home, and then took the birth fam around to the adopted fam's house for dinner. Thanks Dee! Bed.
20/07/2018 Prachy Day, Driez
Woke up feeling good. Yesterday's prachy was one of the easiest so far. There were long stages, but the liaisons were chill thanks to a chairlift assist. Had breakie with Brooke, geared up and headed out. Teetered my way down Stage Four before getting into a big hike-a-bike mission to Stage Five - actually my kind of gig. I was liking the liaison, to disgust of many, then straight up the chair to Stage Six. The day was done by lunchtime (this never happens). Got the bike and gear all ready before chilling with the adopted fam to watch ‘Now You See Me Two’ (second viewing). Tidied up before hanging' with birth fam for one of the best meals yet (tortini cheese wrapped in pancetta, melted on polenta, yum).
Photo: Sven Martin
21/07/2018 Race Day, Uno
Huge amount of rain over night - wholley cow - thunder, lightning, rain, sideways rain, torrential rain, hail, more lightning. An email was even sent out from the EWS outlining plans to avoid this rain. Turns out it wasn’t too bad in the end. Breakie with the fam, got out all my Ground Effect gear to avoid getting caught out on track. Jumped on the lift, headed to Stage Three (the stages were reversed in order to magically stop/reverse the bad weather!!!?). Stage Three was a well-ridden-in track with an alpine section to begin with before dropping into a rocky, rooty, niggly trail all the way to the bottom. I crashed at the first corner… great start! Enjoyed reasonable flow for the rest of the stage, but suffered one more niggly crash on some slippery roots. Great stage, but it definitely broke some people. A two hour liaison to Stage Two. With no stops, we only just made it with five mins to spare before start (a lot of people didn’t make their start times). Stage Two was seventy five percent alpine. The rest trees and a pedally, false flat, rooty section that blew the doors off me. I rated it and had a good run with only a couple of tiny errors - so much fun! Just a chairlift away to Stage One, but the rain creeped over the ridge line and the jackets came out. It started raining five minutes before drop time… churrr. Stage One was fresh track with off camber rocks everywhere and a whole lotta roots with added log rolls into steep sections. Add rain to this for a huge starter pack. I relished this stage and felt in control/outta control (due to the wet). Unluckily the rain stopped straight after the finish. Good day out, but the arms are feeling it a bit!
Photos: Sven Martin
Back home to chill with the birth fam and out for another round of delicious snackies (repeat of last night's tortini number).
22/07/2018 Race Day, Rua
Huge changes in the race plan due to many complaints from day one's load and physicality (didn’t know that was a word). The order of stages now jumbled some more. Did the usual morning tributes, then into it. We caught a lift up to start with Stage Six, an all out speed kinda track with quite the hard (about seven minutes) pedal. That completely blew everyone up (who I talked to anyway), and then dropped us back into three more minutes of techy steep dirt sections with tight corners. I had a pretty good run on and kept everything upright. A good start to the day. Another lift to Stage Four, a half new alpine trail mixed with an old open farm cut single trail. I managed to lay 'er down sideways, but without losing too much time. Cruised downhill to a revised Stage Five which consisted of a flat 30 second pedal on grass and nothing else. Definitely a highlight of the weekend and good reason to be eating so many carrots (the goal is carotenosis). I got pumped on this stage - haha - 3 seconds off the leader, but one hundred and twentieth :)
Photos: Sven Martin
Onto Stage Six again, but without the pedal. Turns out Jordyn Prochyra and I had not only been riding together all weekend, but were on the exact same time leading into this final stage - it's crazy how that happens. As Jordyn is Australian, the pressure was on to defend some positions from the Aussie. I had a good run with only a couple of small mistakes and just managed to pip him by 5 seconds. Holla holla. Race done. I finished in 48th, which is my best result of the season, holla. Big dinner out with pretty much everyone, making for a grand time in La Thuile.
23/07/2018
Potato day.
24/07/2018 Morzine
Back in Morzine to catch up with Jamie (Nicoll), Elena, Teresa et al, and to start the prep for a big ol’ trip to Canada in a few days. Squeezed in some rap video mr world wide thing with the Pivot crew that evening for a bitta fun.
25/07/2018 Morzine
Piecing a couple more things together for the trip to Canada and catching up at Jamie/Elena’s house for a bbq with a whole lotta good m8s. Morzine is definitely a place that feels like home (away from home). Big ups to Jamie and Elena for putting up with us.
26/07/2018
Packed all day, said goodbye to the Morzine crew, and then drove outta town. Turns out Maccas does a pretty good caeser salad (if anybody was wondering). Let the sleep deprivation begin.
27/07/2018 Canada - home to Celine Dion
Booked the van into long term parking but turns out the underground parking and our van do not fit. We left Morty with them anyway, aha. Jumped the plane, found a good movie called ‘The Isle of Dogs’, from the same crew as ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’ - would highly recommend both these movies. Am currently on the bus to Whistler after many delays and the sleep deprivation is hitting hard, Good to know we are in good hands with the Bathgates on arrival (thanks Chazmaz, and Bathgates ya legends). Now for pancakes and some Celine Dion…
EWS Round Four: Pretzen-Jaminca, Austria/Slovenia
27/06/2018
Turned up in Petzen, Austria. Bubbleys (Brendan Clarke) booked a couple of us privateers a house for the week (huge thanks bro!). Big Lez (Shane Leslie), Selfie (Daniel Self) and Ameal (Emil De Vries) all checked in with Brooke and I.
Sam and Emil sport the Ground Effect-Zerode twin set.
For some reason Selfie and Lez chose to sleep in the same bed, good on em. Headed over to rego to catch up with everyone and pick up race numbers and a complementary staff top (definitely a keeper). Brooke cooked up a seriously good spag bol while I cleaned and stickered my bike with a starry blackhole enduro stickerset by hasdesigns.pt, how gooood. Finished the night off with some carrots.
28/06/2018 Prachy Day One
Emptied Morty (the van) out and filled 'er back up with bikes on bikes for a day of prachy with Big Lez, Bubbleys and Selfie. Tracks were wet and slippery, but not too bad. Stage One and Two seemed bound to blow out come race day and Three was an absolute gem! Got home for some RC car time and went over the bike, changed to shorties (looking to be a wetty!). Headed around to Bubbleys, Dees and Nikkis for dinner, and carrots.
Spot the actual car.
29/06/2018 Prachy Day Two
Jumped outta bed and loaded Morty for a day of prachy. Some big ol' liaisons made for a hard day out. We had a bit of a wait to ride stage six, so took out the RC car for a hoon on the world's biggest flow trail. Finished off the day on the bike with a pedal back home. Headed to Bubbleys, Dees and Nikkis for dinner again (holla) then a lotta bike prep for tomorrow's racing (packed some enduro carrots). Looking forward to it!
Photos: Sven Martin.
30/06/2018 Race Day One
Mushroom omelette for breaky, el-yumo. 10am start, how good. Had some quality talks with the MC before dropping into the liaison to Stage One. Somehow a bunch of us missed a turn along the way, ended up following our noses to the start with an extra climb and couple of extra ks (more training for the World Cup cross country). Stage One was one big pedal and a lotta slippery rooty corners, I had a pretty bad brain mechanical down this and found the ground three times on the way to the bottom.
Photos: Sven Martin.
Back on the normal liaison for the following stage. Feeling mega bonked so early on in the race, not the norm. Drunk about 10,000 litres of Xeno energy drink at the feed station and got the juice back. Stage Two was much like stage one, except somehow a lot more fun (I think one prepped us). Had a good time down the steep sections and then just as I got to the pedals I jammed my chain on a stump and it bent out the chain tensioner (this is close to impossible with how tight it's tucked away, but Enduro always finds a way to wreck stuff). I didn’t realize straight away and pushed for a bit, Big Lez came past and gave a holla, finally realized what had happened and got to bending everything back and jumping back on to finish the stage, catching Big Lez who just blew his whole bike to pieces lol. Unfortunately lost a big chunk of time for the overall on this stage.
Photos: Sven Martin.
On to Stage Three, feeling well-bonked on the way back to the gondy. Another 10,000 litres of Xeno - whatever it is - and some carrots. Three was nice - long and steep, consisting of barely any pedaling (what a stage). I had a fun time down here keeping things very safe and under control, onwards to tomorrow.
01/06/2018 Race Day Two
9.30am stage start, carrots on my mind. Missing Big Lez (Shane Leslie) this time, biked off to stage four (already practised this route). Had over two hours to get there with a nice hike a bike at the end. Four consisted of fresh-cut loamy lines through low-growing shrubbery and a few open sections with slick roots and tight turns. Aimed to ride consistently, make no mistakes and test out the shoulder after yesterday. All went well. Not my best effort, but a good confidence boost.
Into the mines for the tunnel liaison, 20min of tunnel vision passed a couple of molemen on the way through. It was cool for 5min and then it just got cold and narrow, so the peloton took off to get outta there asap.
Stage Six had a good gradient the whole way down with a mix of Stage Three and a good amount of loam 'n' roots. I started out feeling good and strong and getting my lines, but 2 mins in I heard the classic ssssssssss, as the rear tyre went down. Was still keen-as and kept 'er going to get 68th after 14min of riding the flatty out (the Enve held up, ayo).
Stoked to salvage some positions, from yesterday but bummed for what could have been. Happy to see some speed there and catch up with everyone and ride some sick trails (minus Stages One and Two).
Brooke ended up racing the Challenger and finished third!! How gooood :D.
Brooke on the podium. Photo: Sven Martin.
02/07/2018
Woke up feeling like a potato as per usual after four days of big ol' rides (my favourite thing to do), combined with bubbles b'day festivities (happy birthday bru). Packed up the team Zerode van and drove off to Lake Bled, Slovenia (maccas first (sin)) and a carrot. This place is amazing, would recommend. Special mention Nikki Clarke lol.
03/07/2018
Woke up early for a run around Bled - a very busy tourist town that seems completely empty at 8 in the morning - some exercises and carrots before a big day of tourism with everyone else in the 11am rush. Am now at a bike park in Slovenia and have no idea where we are (just followed Bubbleys in the car). It's one of the best stops so far!
EWS Round Three: Olargues - Montagnes du Caroux, France
Sam has scored a van and friends (the VANSACS) to maraud the Continent. Round 3 was at Montagnes du Caroux in France. A quintessentially beautiful french village in the Massif Central with an abundance of long rocky descents, and (on day two) wet ’n’ slippery trails. Thanks Sven as always for the bangers.
09/05/2018
Picked up Dan Self from the airport with Bubbles (Brendon Clarke). Had a small look around Toulouse, got a message from my Cousin Amy Shaw after she saw I had tagged my location. Whoops forgot she lived there! Headed back to Orlargue for a wee ride and chill and snickers.
Photo: Sven Martin
10/05/2018 Prachy Day 1
Weather is lit. Up and into it. France changed up the format a little this time and we were getting out on stages 5 to 8 today instead of the usual stages 1 to 4. Bubbles drove his car and I drove Morty (the van) to the top of stage 5 with our crew for the day (Dan Self and Shane Leslie). Stage 5 was fast with a good mix of rock, dirt, and roots on reasonably smooth trail with a flat pedal towards the end. We pedalled back up to stage 6 and then into it. 6 had a lot of solid pack dirt corners between tight trees, making for another fast stage. Baguette and snickers for lunch.
Photo: @samshawthing
Photo: Sven Martin
Towed a whole crew up this time with Brooke Thompson (Miri), Nate Corrigan (Bifi), and Megan Rose (will get in trouble for nickname here) added to the group. We managed to fit 7 people and 7 bikes into Morty for the last round of shuttles. Leaving the door open for a bit of ventilation in the back, we nearly took out multiple cars on the way up to stages 7 and 8 on wee tight Frenchy roads. 7 was steep, rocky and rooty. Not really any dirt in this one, and the hardest stage of the race (although 8 comes pretty close). Climbed back up to 8 on le bike to find a lot more dirt and the odd technical rock feature towards the bottom - finishing on big slabs of slippery wet rock taking you all the way into a small stream at the end. Snickers to finish the day.
Brooke & Dan do french history. Photo: @samshawthing
11/05/2018 Prachy Day 2
Looking at Snickers for breakfast, nahh body’s a temple. Muesli and coffee (sessions at Ground Effect got me hooked). Packed into Morty and headed up to stage 1. Another narrow Frenchy road got us to the top (patience). We mucked up the vehicle shuttle idea on this one a little so Bubbles opted to miss prachy on 1 and drive Morty down for us (thanks Bubbles).
Bubbles dabbles in french fashion. Photo: @samshawthing
1 was pretty straight with flow, two tight Frenchy corners, one speed section and a couple of wet rocky chutes towards the end. We all gathered at the bottom and biked up to stage 2, everyone’s favourite trail. It consisted of mainly loamy dirt and rock sections that could be jumped or flowed. A good mix of play and speed, getting steep at the bottom right after a climb. Lunch stop at LIDL, which won't allow shirtless entry fyi. Chaussen aux Pommes, bananas, and baguettes (and snickers) for lunch followed by a big ol’ pedal up to 3. This was the rockiest stage of the weekend and seemed to just follow an old Frenchy horse and cart path, full of big rocks for a good 7mins of racing and then into some climbs and dirt towards the end. 4 was a short stage from the Orlargues church (race village) back down to the pits, a 1min urban stage with a couple of narrow building sections. Best weather we have had since arriving. Back home to get everything cleaned and ready for race day tomorrow (snickers).
Photo: Sven Martin
12/05/2018 Race Day 1
Overcast for the day (classic EWS). Had the same start as Shane (Big Lez, guy from Chile that I met breaking into his house). We headed to the start and I got some last minute maintenance done thanks to SRAM for the brake calliper parts. We got a shuttle to the bottom of stage 1 and pedalled to the top with Alexander Kangas (dude from Sweden who loooves the nicotine). Had a good start to the day feeling comfy, but not pushing hard enough. Losing only a small amount of time and still in the mix. Stage 2 was the same story as 1, feeling really comfy and not getting loose at all. Getting a reasonable time, but not quite where I want to be.
Photo: Sven Martin
On stage 3 I finally found some speed and went for it, unlucky to crash in a tight Frenchy corner losing the time I had made. Still my best stage of the day. By stage 4 it had started raining (ayyye). Took the inside line Loui Harvey was too scared to do and got down for a reasonable day in 51st, less than 10secs off the top 40 and 20 seconds to the top 30. Times are tight like a tiger. Amped for tomorrow (and some snickers). Pizza for dinner with the team, Bubbles shouted. Sticker set turned up from Has Designs to add a Frenchy touch to the Zerode, pretty much a child about this kinda stuff, froth.
13/05/2018 Race Day 2
Rained all night, looked out the window, still raining. Mildly worried about riding stage 7 in the wet. Headed to the start and it was feeling winterish with a bit of rain and sub 10 degrees temp, along with fresh snow on the surrounding hills. We pedalled up to stage 5 with a tiny shuttle-assist and then into it. Was supposed to be an easy one, but water on the rock made it pretty challenging, I started the day off being taken for a ride instead of riding my bike. 6 was much the same as 5. Back to base for some snickers and back up the hill for 7. Really taken for a ride on this stage, full of steep rock and rooty sections. Control was minimal and I just went with it managing to not hit the ground, but did hit a camera man (sorry old mate), stoked to get down there without damaging anything. Big ol’ pedal up to 8, I was getting tired by now and me arms were worn out after battling the slip slip all day. Got down 8 with dead arms. Stoked with the weekend’s riding, still figuring out how to go faster as I moved back to 59th in the overall. Think the snickers are gunna have to go.
Photos: Sven Martin
14/05/2018
Completely rekt potato for the day. Dropped Big Lez at the airport in Toulouse and visited Amy (cousin) and Tebo (her boyf) along with Leo and Flo (the kiddies). After a mean platter of French snackies at Amys, Brooke and I took off for Sospel.
Coffee and Colours of Colombia
27/03/2018
The bikes have arrived, holla. Put everything together, then got out for a track walk with Shane and the Cube team. Headed out to a local restaurant for some local cuisine which consisted of Colombia club beer, a giant piece of pork, bean soup, plantain, rice thingies and a bunch of avocado on the side - would recommend. Every team in town managed to also pick this restaurant on the same night.
Photo: Sam Shaw Selfie
28/03/2018 Coffee Trails
Early start to the day to jump on an old school bus shuttle (probably still flasher than Jamie Nicoll Adventures’) with a rack on the top, we picked the day for it!
Photos: Sven Martin
Photo: Sven Martin
After the last run down Charly (Murray) and I biked back up the shuttle hill. We realised that we are still at 2500m so there was no banter on the way up, just gasping for breath. Got to the top for some beersies and rode the trip home sitting on top of the shuttle bus with Mops and Charly. Coffee tally: 0
29/03/2018
Blobbed out.
30/03/2018 EWS Round Two, Practice Day
A huge’normous day on the bike, getting in 7 stages of an 8 stage race for practice. Met up with Shane, Mops, Martha and Ella and headed out to get the day done (it was raining, and had been raining a lot throughout the night). The tracks were slippery, but not too bad and manageable on dry tyres. Riding around in a jungle was the hard part as the humidity was pretty intense, and the high altitude made for sweats on sweats. We got through stages 2 through to 5 and then made the liaison to 6, which was a big mish up a fairly steep hill. It started to rain a bit more heavily at the top so I waterproofed up in me GE gear. By now I was starting to feel comfortable riding fast. Half way down stage 6 there was a steep straight. I asked the marshal what it was like he said "ride the line and go fast" (honest). So I went in no brakes and from the top it looked like a good run out, but as I got closer to the end of the straight I noticed the track in between me and the flat runout at the bottom just kind of vanished. I tried bailing and slipped up, literally just sending it to being flat on my face. This seems to happen whenever I put a fullface on. Lucky to walk away just really muddy. Finished the day off and headed home for some cleaning.
Photos: Dave Trumpore
31/03/2018 EWS Round Two, Urban Prolog
Met up with Ted Morton, Chris Hutchinson, James Hall and Charly for a coffee before heading downtown to practise the Urban Prolog - a race through the streets of Manizales. I have never raced an urban stage before, so even lining up for practice was making me hands sweat. Heading down the course it was a mixture of steps with wide corners then onto roads with hay bales and sandbags to add a slalom of corners to the straight sections. The course was short and not too technical, making it pretty fun. We had 4 hours to chill between practice and the race, so I biked around a bit of downtown Manizales and tried some local cuisine with the lads. Headed back to the race venue with a bit of panic setting in as the rain clouds threatened to open up. Which they did, luckily only for 5 mins. The roads dried up quick as. I got my race run in nice and safe, and headed home to change the tyres to muds and get some rest.
Photos: Sven Martin
01/04/2018 EWS Round Two, Race Day
Rain on rain. It was wet. I gobbled down some breakie, chilled out, got ready and biked down to the venue to join the crew for the day - Ted, Loui, and Charly. On the way up to stage 2 (prolog was stage 1) the weather wasn’t actually looking too bad, and then we got the first glimpse of the track and wholley hecka, people’s wheels getting caught in bogs and there was quite a bitta walking/crashing. We just carried on like we didn’t see that. Stage 2 started out with a run, as it was uphill, boggy but steep so the rest was rideable, unrideable climb part way down and then the rest of the track was fast and fun with slick sections. I managed to loop out for the crowd in a fast corner. Got to the bottom and felt like vomiting from the altitude for the next 30mins. Stage 3, mud mixed with bamboo bridges, off-camber straights and paddock. Apart from the run in the middle this was a fast rideable one. Stage 4 was completely fudged with massive ruts, the best way down was to tripod 90% of it, nobody enjoyed this one haha. Stage 5 was like a bobsled track, 50% was a chute that you could ride at max speed and then finished off with steep off-camber corners through pine forest. I scraped the side of the chute in the bobsled section and had a big wipe-out hitting my visor upright and then struggled through the off camber section - I was a squid on this stage. Stage 6 was cancelled. Heck yeh. Stage 7 was actually fine and had not been damaged that much by the rain. I caught Loui and Adam on the final climb and we rode in a train to the bottom. Easily the funnest stage of the day. Stage 8 was a 30 second sprint on a grass field with a tiny liaison. Perfect way to finish a big day on the bike. Got down and finished in 66th.
Photo: Sven Martin
Bike wash (gotta get that bike blinging) before heading home to Shane’s place where I had left all my junk for the week, and we started drin… I mean packing bikes which took up the next 4 hours of the night. Rafeal (Gutierrez) came over, and we headed out to the after-party.
02/04/2018
Got home nice and early, setting many alarms. Waking up not very long after and unset alarms, then heading back to sleep only to wake up in a panic that we were supposed to be at the airport, but had just woken up. Dragged the boxes and all that out onto the street to catch a taxi. A man at the hotel offered me a ride and we jammed the bike in (which didn’t fit so hung it out of the boot) and he got me to the airport - he called himself a Gutierrez so assumed he was Rafeal’s Dad. Jumped on the plane and got out of Manizales headed back to NZ.
03/04/2018
Caught up on sleep and the force, with the three new Star Wars movies. I find it funny how they just understand robot beeps and Chewbaka’s chewbaka noises.
04/04/2018
Arrived in New Zealand 5:30am with a bike frame, but no wheels. Found out they are still in Bogota, Colombia. Headed straight to BP for a butter chicken pie and three chicken bites :)
05/04/2018
Back home catching up on the real world, giant slap in the face. Hella worth it.
Chilli, Chilly, Chile
23/03/2018 Arrival day
Flew in to Santiago with Charlie Murray and we got our tetris skills out and packed up the city car with three bike boxes and luggage before heading up to Lo Barnechea where the Enduro World Series round was being held. We noticed on the way up it was a bit higher than expected. The race village sits at a sweet 2600m altitude. Dropped Charlie off and headed to my accom at Valle Nevada, even higher at 3000m. Upon arrival a Chillean man was waving and came up to my car asking if I was the third person. I was staying with a Liam Moyniham, James Shirley (from Scotland) and Joseph Nation so I just thought there was a language barrier and mentioned James and Liams names which got a very excited reaction from the man, "si si". He was a hotel carer and took me down to the room as the boys were out riding.
24/03/2018
Sleep-in with a couple of laps on the Lo Barnechea activity park, trying to get used to 3000m altitude as quick as possible.
Keeping it local. Sam and his Rotorua-bred Zerode Taniwha. Photo: Sven Martin
25/03/2018 EWS Round One, Practice Day One
Stage 1 started right outside our house - hola hola. Got on the bikes with the lads and headed to the gondy, first stair section on the way claimed Joe's tyre and we were one man down before even getting on the gondola. Stage 1 was open, fast and drifty as. I managed to slide over on two loose corners, bitta "wholley hecka I’m actually in Chile riding my bike" kinda nerves.
Photo: Sven Martin
Headed up to Stage 2, 11km of downhill that actually doesn't have a climb. Biking down thinking to myself wowwoweewow what a track, before getting to the last section where I toppled over in the rocks - luckily not hurting myself - but smashing my frame, stem, and wheel. Wowoweewow what the fudge? Big, sudden wake up call. Luckily the only thing that was immediately stuffed was my stem. I found a replacement for Stage 3 prachy then headed home to catch up on a lot of admin.
24/03/2018 EWS Round One, Practice Day Two
Another perla of a day, scoffed down some eggs on toast before jumping in the car with ze bike and Liam. We stopped by at Cody Kellys to pick up a new stem, whacked it on and was good to go for the day.
Chilly winds on the lift and yarns with Jamesy boy on the way to Stage 4. Watched a photographer in a red jacket taking stills of pinners on a wall ride, he then moved from his safe spot onto a liaison road and was quite promptly bof'd in the back by a rider at speed. I saw his camera fly at least 5 metres. Luckily everyone got up. Got onto riding bikes and the tracks were running mint - another day of fast loose and bouldery tracks. Stayed on my broken wheel from yesterday (I wanted to save my race wheel) and fully fudged it down Stage 5 losing the tyre off the rim completely. I chucked a tube in (thanks Liam) and finished the stage still on the same rim. Back up the hill, chucked a fresh wheel on and boosted Stage 6. Thoughts: Stage 6 is going to take out half the race, rock bombs everywhere. Caught up with the kiwis for some chinwags before boosting back Valle Nevado to spruce the race rig up, and down some chicken sammies.
25/03/2018 EWS Round One, Race Day One
10am check in and 12.30pm Stage 1 start time (due to time delays) made for a pretty relaxing entry into the first bit of serious racing for the year. I was teamed up with a stella crew - Kiwis, Loui Harvey, Charlie Murray and Jake Paddon along with Shane from America (the guy whose room I’d broken into earlier in the week). Stage 1 was loose and drifty - I took a reserved approach to avoid any misshaps and got down clean.
Photo: Sven Martin
We caught the chair up to Stage 2 with a small push in between and then right into the biggest/longest stage the EWS has ever run. It started with rocky park type track, then changed to more natural terrain part way down, picking up speed in wide open sections and finishing with a very technical tight rocky section followed by tight switch backs (this part destroyed most people's race).
Photos: Sven Martin
My hands gave up half way down the stage and nurse mode engaged. Crawl mode was unlocked for the final section. Big ol’ pedal up to Stage 3. We were rewarded with a shorter final stage with wide blown out corners and rocky park sections - pretty satisfying getting to the bottom with no spills for the day. Riding into 65th. Sleep mode engaged.
26/03/2018 EWS Round One, Race Day Two
Slightly earlier start and everything running on time today made things feel a little less faffy. Headed up to the day's first stage with the crew and had a skid off comp at the top for the media squids. A couple of the riders nearly ruined their day in the process - true enduro spirit right thur. Stage 4 was fast with minimal pedalling and enough bumps to vibrate your eyeballs. I came into the top section in true kamakazi style and just held on luckily, riding the rest of the stage with quite a bit more control. I had a good singletrack liaison to Stage 5 with a minimal rest period before heading down the steep switchback, off camber track. Had a lotta fun managing to stick on line most of the way down and bring the back wheel back from the brink of wash out a fair few times. The same big ol’ liaison again today that we had to Stage 3 yesterday, except now we had an extra pedal, chairlift and hike-a-bike to 3600m for the final Stage 6. This again had a mixture of everything that a loose, rocky, dusty mountain could provide.
Photo: Sven Martin
I rode well down this stage and felt like I was having a goodie until I hit a tight corner quite a bit too fast and washed the front out right underneath me, twisting the bars in the process. After fixing ‘er up I jumped back on and finished up the stage cleanly. Bummed about that last hickup to what could have been a crash free weekend, but then found out I had ridden into 50th and things seemed a lot better ayo. Sloth mode engaged, followed by rushed pack mode, intensified by lost passport panic.
27/03/2018 Travel to Colombia
Found my passport at 1am (in my bike box), went to sleep for two hours and woke up at 3am to travel to the airport with Shane (remember, the guy's house I broke into). Came across a search party on the way down looking for a man lost on the hill, not ideal as it's pretty chilly at night. Got to the airport at 4.10am with more than an hour to kill so we headed back into Santiago for a McDonalds mission. Bad fail in the drive-through when we couldn't overcome the language barrier and were ignored even though we took multiple laps around trying to place orders. Hah jokes on them, body’s a temple anyway Maccas. Filled up the car and bought a Coke, that I decided to drink whilst I was driving. To my surprise what I thought was the motorway was not the motorway and just as I was opening the Coke a speed bump popped up out of the dark and we hit it at 80. Coke was now everywhere, but the steering wheel grip was unreal. We got back to the airport. Got the car ticked off (somehow ) and joined the rest of the EWS riders at the airport for check in. Got on the flight completely pooped, but watched movies the whole way as per usual. A guy fainted next to me on the plane - drama followed. We sorted him out with water and juice and the lucky bugger was upgraded to business. The whole EWS squad landed in Bogota, Colombia way behind time for our connecting flights, so all 50 of us had to run through the airport, loosing two frenchies along the way - lucky they found us again just in time for the connecting flight. The plane to Manizales from Bogata was filled entirely with EWS riders, and as expected there were absolutely no bikes when we landed, haha. An hour filling forms and Shane and I were back on the road in search of Maccas, but had to settle for Subway before spending another two hours finding our accom as Colombia likes to have many streets with the same name and numbers. Found it, still no bike. Beer item earned.
Chur Sven, as always, for the banger photos.
NZ Enduro
Thursday 08/03/2018
Early start for packing and taking the bike into Bike Culture for a tune up and some fresh rubber. Spent a wee bit too long there before heading over to Keegan Wright's house, chucked him and his gear in the surf (ute) and boosted out of Rotorua bound for Wellington. DJ Keegs kept things entertaining and we made it to the Ferry bang on departure time, jumped into my good mate Matt Miller's van (the BFM) and got on the Ferry to bridge the gap to the South Island. In three hours we managed to solve most of the world's problems and then made our way to Liv Bishop's house in Blenheim to crash on the floor for the night.
Photo: Duncan Philpott/NZ Enduro
Friday 09/03/2018
Big ol' sleep-in on the floor with a couple of visits/face licks from Ruge (the Bishop's family dog). Made a smoothie with all the healthy stuff for Matt and I and have never seen a smoothie give someone the shivers before (must have been delicious) alongside some duck eggs from the Bishop's ducks. All three of us jumped in the van and headed to Whites Bay for race rego.
Nate Hills grabs pre-race coffees from Liv Bishop. Photo: Boris Beyer/NZ Enduro
Registered up, jumped in the ocean, jumped on the bikes and headed up to stage one. Yarns on yarns with familiar and new faces is what's good about the rides between stages. On the way up my pedals came loose so I gave 'em a tighten. Got to the top of stage one, loose again. Tighten. Rode 50m, loose again. Put dirt in thread, tighten. Stayed tight finally. Stage one was rowdy with a million wet roots going in every direction, no traction and corners without catches. I love this kind of riding!
Photo: Cameron McKenzie
The second half of the stage was super pedally, not so much a fan of that. Pedals - loose again. Took it to B-Rad, Oh sh$t my cranks were on the wrong way around. Never making that mistake again.
Photo: Richard Goldsbury
Stage two was a straight downhill track with a bit of slick and a bitta catch berms, fun fast and slippery. Good way to finish day one of racing. Back to Whites Bay for food and beers. Sitting 5th overall.
Photos: Duncan Philpott/NZ Enduro
Saturday 10/03/2018
Slightly better smoothie today, Matt made his own this time. Nydia Bay day, we were shuttled to the top of stage one where Elvis and his disco ball sent us off for the start of day two.
The Chris Burr and Brenda Clapp 'send off' at the top of Stage One. Photo: Boris Beyer/NZ Enduro
This track was tight and fast. Very hard to ride fast as there was a lot of vegetation and line of site was short in most places. Towards the end there were some hard pedals and you really had to dig deep to keep speed, or just run.
Photo: Tony Hutcheson
Stage two was a lot more fine with slick rock gardens and cheeky highlines all over the place. I got caught out straight away and had to run the first section, but got the hang of it after that, just letting the bike move around on the slick rock surface. Got to the bottom and old m8 Charlie Murray was getting a jab as he had swallowed a wasp and got stung in the mouth, must have gave him a kick as he was second overall on that stage! Lunch break at Nydia Bay for venison burger snackies and chinwags. Then off on a big ol' liaison.
Exiting Nydia Photo: Boris Beyer/NZ Enduro
Stage three was my favourite of the day, just a steeper version of stage two and then the final stage was open and down the whole way so you could really fire it up. Sitting 3rd overall.
Sunday 11/03/2018
Sam Gaze wins South Africa World Cup, Anton Cooper 6th and Ben Oliver 2nd U23. Good start to the morning, thanks for that boys. Headed up Wakamarina Road to find a couple of Helis picking people up with their bikes to head to the top of stage one.
Photo: Boris Beyer/NZ Enduro
Had a wee dip in the river, a chai latte (thanks Liv) and jumped on the heli to start off the first stage, awesome!
Photo: Digby Shaw/NZ Enduro
Stage one was super slick and impossible to hold a line so it was just foot out no brakes and commit to the corners. Pretty dam fun, except there was this big climb somewhere in the middle which was damn unfun. Hike a bike to stage two, this stage was the highlight of the race. Entered the stage and saw Connor Mcfaralane off in the bushes somewhere (wrong turn), sent it into a rooty section, getting caught up losing my grip, hands off the bars, did a Richard Goldsbury and otb, got up quick and straightened the bars back up, boosted off and crashed again and Connor came past.
Photo: Tony Hutcheson
Rode with Conner in a two man party train for the next couple of minutes until he stopped to let me through. It just kept going! A never ending trail of steep rooty sections and tight switchbacks. What a track! Got to the end with armpumpanitus and dead brakes. Stage three was also sick and super fast with a techy bog rut section and a couple of rock sections towards the end. Got a cheeky inside on the guy in front. Finished up, had a beer and went for a dip, what a race! Couldnt be more happy to find I had moved into second place overall. Just pipping Joe Nation by 0.4 of a second with Jerome Clementz taking the win. Headed to Picton and blew all my phone data streaming the XC world cup.
Photo: Digby Shaw/NZ Enduro
Monday 12/08/2018
All day travelling back to Rotorua getting back at 10pm and straight into an hour and a half of work :(
Tuesday 13/08/2018
Work :(