Continuously 'Cross

For the past seven weeks cyclocross races have been a regular fixture on the weekly calendar in Wellington. The Bike Hutt series has continued to blossom in popularity, and I have been to a mixture of Mike’s races in Upper Hutt interspersed with the first three of the national series rounds in the Hawkes Bay, Blenheim and last week in Christchurch. It is fantastic to have so much cyclocross available now to do, thanks to so many people taking on the role of hosting races and making it happen.

A few weeks ago winter seemed to decide it had had enough, and it’s been pretty warm since the middle of July. I made my way over to Blenheim towards the end of the month with the two JGeffeoffries, Geoffrey and Jeff, for the second round of the national cyclocross series at Wither Hills. Geoffrey and I made our way over with our bikes on the ferry, and rode the 25 or so kilometres from Picton with a delicious combination of bright sunshine and tailwind on our backs, following a hearty top-up of sweet treats at Picton’s answer to Holland’s Bakkerij. One of the things I was most excited about leading up to this was the anticipation of once again visiting the infamous Voodoo Lounge, full of odds and ends and all kinds of figures embued with occult significance. 

The Lounge.

This realm of curious sanctity is tucked away in the back of the garage at Jeff’s parents’ place, with entry limited to a select few upon careful invitation only. I was last here in a sandwich around the 2012 Kiwi Brevet, and while it was my virginal experience of the lounge, I didn’t undergo any formal initiation rites. This was swiftly rectified with the aid of a small taxidermied crocodile, a poncho-blanket and a certain je ne sais quoi of mumbo jumbo.

Ritualistic voodoo shenanigans

With the voodoo’s juju satisfied, the following day’s race was largely a success. Apart from tripping on the first of three sequential barriers at the end of the 2^nd lap, subsequently landing with all my weight and momentum directly on my thighs on the next barrier, I had a steady and enjoyable race. Unfortunately for Logan Horn, who was looking to be very competitive, he had problems with his tyres unseating on the sharp off-camber sections and as a result lost significant time swapping wheels. 

Photo courtesy Sarnim Dean - www.sarnim.com

Photo courtesy Sarnim Dean - www.sarnim.com

That evening provided some spectacular entertainment by way of the significant movement of the ground. A large earthquake centred close to Seddon shook like none other that I’ve ever experienced, causing lots of noise and violent tremors, and also the untimely decapitation of a delicate South American cowboy with a porcelain head. May he rest in peace in the garden of voodoo.

Back in Wellington the Bike Hutt series was reaching its zenith, with newcomers and more seasoned riders alike getting into the flow of it and improving steadily over the weeks. After a fairly big week of riding and massaging my bruised thighs I had some fairly stolid sensations in my legs for the next weekend’s race at California park, a soft but very windy course in the sun. Brendan Sharratt accelerated away early on and it was all I could do to lose only 10 seconds or so per lap.

During the week I was made a very generous offer from my friend and all-round bicycle-riding legend Kim Hurst, to help me get to the Southern Cross and next national series race in Christchurch the following weekend. So after a slightly easier week to freshen up I put my jumbled up bicycle into a bag and flew down for the race in Ferrymead. Kim and Lisa picked me up from the airport, and after a short ride to look at the course (although we were too early and it didn’t yet exist) and a visit to a bakery’s factory outlet on the way back for deliciousnesses, we checked in with our excellent hosts Michelle and Richard.

I hadn’t been to central Christchurch for a number of years before the big quakes, and when we went in to look around at the reconstruction I was almost completely disorientated. As we approached I felt a strange sensation of familiarity, on quite a subconscious level, as while I didn’t recognise where we were some sort of intuition told me that this was Manchester St, and sure enough we then went past a road sign indicating that to be the case. There is definitely the sense of a collective appreciation for people and company around the place, born out of the loss of so much I’m sure.

Ferrymead park, while largely a sort of wasteland, has a plump grassy knoll in the middle, with a small railway loop around the outside. These were some of the key features of the race, which involved crossing the tracks twice each lap – just as the small scenic tram made its way around in circles brimming full of small children and families. There was also an ex-Wellington trolley bus taking tours, and surprising riders, as it popped out of the gloom alongside part of the parcours.

Photo: Lisa Morgan/Cowbell Coaching - cowbellcoaching.com

We started, as usual, in an awful hurry and Scott Lyttle, Logan Horn and I got a gap ahead of the others through the first lap. I was feeling great and thought I could perhaps push a little bit harder, so started to creep away from the other two as we criss-crossed the railway line. After a few laps I saw the train approaching our crossing point just ahead of me, and soon found myself waiting as it passed, all waving hands, excited cries and puffs of steam. It was probably all of 10 seconds but I could feel Scott breathing down my neck and wanted to keep the gap growing. I managed to do this, and while the great number of people taking part meant the course was thick with riders, making for occasional queues to pass, in all it really grew on me throughout the hour and I enjoyed the race.

Photo: Lisa Morgan/Cowbell Coaching - cowbellcoaching.com

Photo: Lisa Morgan/Cowbell Coaching - cowbellcoaching.com

On the way back to the airport Richard took me on a quick tour of the workshop where he has started up an operation by the name of Revolution Components finely cutting out chainrings, derailleur hangers and more or less any other particular small parts that riders need made upon request. My only prior experience of anything much mechanical and automatic was a small lathe at high school technology class in third form, which I used to fashion a sort of useless ornamental wooden candlestick as part of a failed project in something or other. Needless to say the tools and machinery in their workshop are far more sophisticated than anything I’ve ever seen, and more intimidating to the thought of a stray hand than anything I’ve ever encountered too. But they are making some cool and very useful stuff with it, and most importantly they know what they’re doing. They can also protect their hands by telling a computer to do it.

Yesterday was the finale in the Bike Hutt Cyclocross series for this year, and was a fittingly fantastic outing, but I’ll say more about that next time. Coming up is the week of racing down in Wanaka/Queenstown, featuring the national championships on Satuday August 24^th. I’m heading down by land a few days early, and it promises to be a historic few days with lots of racing. Not quite as much as the Christmas period in Belgium, but definitely indicative of a significant groundswell in the sport which is great to be a part of. Beyond that are some exciting plans and hopes, which I shall elaborate more on shortly.

Back in two it

New Zealand's cyclocross season has begun with a hiss and a roar, from the chilly southern depths of Otago through Canterbury to Nelson, Marlborough, Wellington and the Hawkes Bay. I've had races the last couple of weekends, the first being race one of the Bike Hutt series at Harcourt Park in Upper Hutt. I designed the course for this one, hoping to be able to re-create a little of what I experienced in my time riding overseas. It's a beautiful park, almost entirely devoid of dog shit, with a neat combination of grassy banks and treelined singletrack. Unfortunately the huge storm that I wrote about in my last post had barged through right the way up the Hutt valley and toppled many of the trees on the course. Because of this the lap was shortened roughly by half, but with about a hundred off-camber corners it managed to stay challenging and entertaining, without being too repetitious. There had been plenty of rain in the preceeding days to overload the draining capacity of the ground, so combined with a clear calm day it was the perfect introduction to cyclocross: whether as the beginning of another season or for the first time.

Photo: The Bike Hutt

There were about 20 people in the A grade race, most of whom were on dedicated cyclocross bikes. So far the growth of cyclocross in New Zealand seems to have come predominantly from those who otherwise ride mountain bikes. It was great to see some new faces out, exclaiming about how much more exciting it is than racing on the road, their usual mode of recreation and competition.

My last race was in Hoogstraten, Belgium in early February - hovering around freezing there was the most perplexing and excruciating combination of snow, mud, ice and water about the course that I could ever have imagined. I found it to be rather tough, and things didn't go my way.

Photo: Peter Schepens

Thankfully June in Wellington is a much more mild climate, and thus makes for a much easier transition into the lung-searing intensity that is a cyclocross race. There were a few of us together for the first lap, after which I managed to get a gap on Brendan Sharratt and Tom Bradshaw, which I was able to hold onto for the rest of the race.

Photo: David Connor

It had been a while since I'd ridden my tubular tyres, so as a precaution against damaging them through rough riding I put in a bit more air than I would have a few months ago, and did my best not to brake while skirting around the various twisting muddy bends.

Photo: David Connor

Andrew Kerr made this video of the B race, sliding around in the thick of it.

The following weekend I had hopes of getting up to Havelock North for the first round of the NZCX national series. In the week leading up to it I needed to warrant and licence a car I was borrowing, and renew my driver's licence. I was able to do all this just in the nick of time, and made my way up to the Hawkes Bay on Saturday.

It felt like about 5º warmer than in Wellington, and totally windless, and with the sun shining yet again it was another perfect day for riding in the mud. Not too much mud, but enough for it to get stuck in and around your pedals and cleats, and it also facilitated the unwanted gravitation of lots of the dry dead leaves that were lying around on the course. I knew to expect some very good competition, namely in Gary Hall, our current national champion. Also present were Dunedin's Scott Lyttle and Bay local Josh Page. I figured I had nothing to lose by going all out from the gun, and doing my best to keep up the pace. After a section of barriers that were only 20 or 30cm high, therefore within my range for bunny hopping, I got to the front up a steep climb and lead the way for the first 20-30 minutes of the race.

Photo: Cycl1n

Gary and Scott were close behind me for this time and as is always the way in a race such as this, I was going as hard as I could while questioning whether it was too much and could I hold them off. I imagine they were feeling pretty similar, and after what I think was about half an hour Gary came past me and accelerated off ahead. My chain slipped off below my little chainring at the top of a bike carry section, and after a few seconds' worth of floundering I got it back on and was able to pedal once more. However the mud had crept its way around my cleats and the gummy grass was thick in my pedals, making it difficult to engage them together. I started to lose focus and went a bit wide on a corner, wrapping my crankset up in course tape, ruing the simple errors that were now costing me valuable time as I untangled my steed. We now had three laps to go and Gary was out of sight from nearly all points on the course.

Photo: Cycl1n

I strung together a couple of steady and accurate laps, and before long was able to see the figure of our national champion ahead of me again. Towards the end of the last lap I soaked up the support of my friends and family who had staked out several points, and drew forth numerous ragged breaths to make it back to Gary. It was only in the last 50 metres or so of the race, as we slid through the boggiest section that I managed to get a faster line and slither to the final corner just in front. Unfortunately because of the angle that I approached it by I didn't think I'd be able to make it in an upright fashion. So I jumped off to run through, only to then lose my footing as well on the slippery ground. I don't know if I took Gary out exactly, but I definitely got in his way, and I felt bad for this. It was totally unpredictable so I don't think it justifies feeling this way but it was an anticlimactic final few metres over the finish line. Gary wasn't phased and we both aknowledged the great race that we'd had, and next time I'm sure will be another close affair.

Intended course of action. Photo: Cycl1n

The next few weeks' races will be back in Wellington, before I potentially go to the next round of the national series in Blenheim on July 21st. My hopes of getting to America to race later in the year are still smouldering away, and I may have some more to say on this in the next while. Likewise with Belgium, it may be that de snor is niet achter de rug.

Acrosstic

As the rain comes down, torrentially of course, I find myself at the beginning of yet another cyclocross season. Tomorrow is the first round of the Bike Hutt series, which is going to accomplish two things for us. It will answer the question we are always seeking an answer to, namely how long is a piece of string? because the series will be in a string 8 weeks long. I think it's been tricky to answer that questions in the past because I've always thought of length as a measurement of distance, rather than one of time. Perhaps some of the Iyenga yoga I've been doing lately at Wellington Yoga has increased the flexibility of my thinking as well as that of my hamstrings. The other thing it will accomplish is to satisfy a city that has waited almost a year since its last cyclocross race, desperately champing at the bit to get going again. The addition of two rounds to compensate for the unfortunate demise of the Hot CX series (due to land use restraints) has gone a long way to keep chipper everyone who was so looking forward to getting muddy and exhausted from slightly earlier in the season.

It seems quite some time since my early races in Belgium last year, riding under sunny skies and with wide-eyed wonder. I wonder how different the races here at home will feel now, after such a contrast of cultures.

Neerpelt, my second race against the pro's

But in terms of the season and the time of year relative to the northern hemisphere, now would be right at the peak of it - December, with the kerstperiode or Christmas period. It's a pretty different climate, and while I didn't see any snow in Belgium until January it's pretty far off being icy right now. Although saying that these past few days have seen an amazingly powerful storm ravage the country, in particular the South coast of Wellington, moving the footpath from one side of the road to the other:

Formerly quite an ordinary-looking street

In the lead-up to this season I have been for some lovely rides in relatively unfamiliar places:

Making the most of my time and the opportunities presented by a generally kind onset of winter.

I have a mixture of new and old bicycle riding necessities to take me through the next while, from my trusty Yeti ARC-X, to Mavic shoes

And a supply of Vittoria clincher tyres for general riding and in races where I'm not using my pair of Dugast tubulars

Lately I've been doing a bit of work at the Makara Peak MTB park gravelling and tidying up some of the tracks with my friend and entrepreneur Thomas. Here he is making the tank engine work.

My plan for the season has roughly taken shape, based mainly around the Bike Hutt series and a few of the NZ national series rounds. In and around Queenstown in late August there is a week of racing which includes the Winter Games NZ Cyclocross Series, so that will be the busiest part of the year. At least in New Zealand - I am hoping to arrange a period of racing in America later in the year as their season builds up, and if possible a return to Belgium for December and another taste (hopefully somewhat more acquired) of things over there. But these international plans depend an awful lot on things like money, so at the moment are looking rather limited.

On another note, it looks like we may not have a UCI-endorsed national championships this year, which is a great shame after the success of last year and the momentum that has been generated around the country. I'm looking at a way of facilitating the growth of the sport from all fronts - riders, race organisers, industry representatives and the national federation - to come up with a plan that suits everyone, in order to keep it going. There is huge potential in the sport, and already a lot of interest in New Zealand so it can't be let fizzle out. If the international success recently of some of our cross country mountain bikers is any indication, we may not be far off in 'cross if we steer it in the right direction.

Creamy mud
Yikes
Conglomerated mud
Languishing brakes
Oh my
Crestfallen
Riding on a rim
Oh well
Superfluous
Skids