Makara Peak Rally 2008

Another local race done and dusted! :)

Like last year's Rally, Welly put on an awesome day today. But with a predicted high of 22 degrees, I was looking forward to it being slightly cooler than the 27 degrees it was last year! I spent the morning hanging around the event tents/start-finish line watching the Relay riders battle it out in the Creek to Peak Relay..




..then headed back home for some lunch before the afternoon's Tour de Peak event. I raced the Tour last year, where I said it was "the hardest and the longest race I've ever done". This year, I was going into it with a few longer events under my belt, and a couple of tracks had been dropped from last year's "Super Sport" category, making it a "Sport" category again. Still, it definitely wasn't an easy walk in the Park!

The start was pretty low-key and I wasn't too stressed about the whole thing. I was in the top third or so of riders heading up the climb into the singletrack at the start and was feeling quite strong on the bike. After pedalling the Nomad around all week while the Superlight was in for repair, I could definitely tell the difference between my 35 pound play bike and my 25 pound race on the uphills!

The point of the Tour is to ride all the tracks in the Park in the designated track directions, but you choose the route you want to take. I was entered into the Sport category which missed out a few of the more difficult and 'extreme' tracks in the Park. The route I'd chosen was nearly identical to the one I used last year, except this year we didn't have to head all the way to the bottom of Leaping Lizard (a rutty, loose descent) and climb up a techy uphill called Possum Bait. I guesstimated that not doing that particular section would take around 20-odd minutes off my time from last year (2:49) so was hoping for a sub 2:30 result.

So back to the race report. With people heading off into numerous directions, I found myself on Lazy Fern (usually a downhill track but an uphill for the race) heading up at a fairly good pace. When the rider ahead of me called to pass the person ahead of him, I took the opportunity to pass also and got the chance to up the pace even more. I had a rider behind me and offered to let him pass but he seemed happy at the speed we were moving along, so we made our way to the first check point. After popping out the end of Lazy Fern, I headed into Sally Alley and found myself on a track with no-one else around. This ended up being a common occurence throughout the race - I guess my route was sufficiently different from most other people that I hardly saw anyone else out there!

Along Sally Alley, then down and up Missing Link. A quick stop at the drink station to get my card clipped and to have a cup of water, then it was up the 4wd to Upper Leaping Lizard, down Leaping Lizard/Nikau, and back out of Missing Link again. Next was the climb up Aratihi. I really struggled up there last year in the heat, but this year there was a little bit of a breeze. My legs were also feeling quite good at that point and I found myself pushing a gear up there that I'd never tried before. Cool!

I reached the summit and headed down a gravelly 4wd down to Makara Road. A couple of weeks ago, I'd spotted a baby goat (kid?) down there, but alas, he didn't come out to join me today. Out onto the road and I made a concentrated effort to drink from my bottle before heading into the next piece of singletrack. I had conveniently left a full bottle hidden in the bushes before the start of the singletrack, so was very happy to swap bottles and headed up the hill on my merry way.

I was beginning to lose concentration heading up the climb. Varleys is switchback central and usually I don't struggle with climbing up there but I seemed to be oversteering or losing the front wheel while climbing up today. Before I was in "race-mode" but Varleys (and the next track Zacs) were taken at a slightly more leisurely pace - partly to do with the technical nature of the climb, but also because I was getting a bit more fatigued in the hot sun. As I approached the summit, I looked down at my speedo and saw I was bang-on 1:30 - sweet! I was well on track for a sub 2:30!

Along/down Ridgeline, Ridgeline Extension, SWIGG and Starfish - my favourite descent in the Park. I probably would have gone faster on my Nomad (6" travel bike) than my Superlight (4" travel bike) but the Superlight was the bike I was riding so it would just have to do! I reached the bottom and had to pass through the start/finish line to head back up the Park to do my final loop. A bit of encouragement from the people at the bottom and I was off again on the uphill. I was feeling a lot better after the descent and hammered my way up Koru (a familiar climb), along Magic Carpet (another very familiar track), then down Livewires. I dismounted my bike to walk across the creek - my last attempt at crossing on my bike a month or so ago resulted in me sitting in the water as I couldn't unclip quick enough when my front wheel hit a large rock and bike stopped moving!

Out of the creek, along a short piece of track, across the bridge and I was home sweet home. Looked down at my speedo and my ride time was 2:05 - wicked! Official time was 2:08:36 so I was pretty happy about that! I took 42 minutes off my time from last year, and I'm pretty sure that the extra piece of track we rode last year wouldn't have taken 42 minutes to ride so it was good to feel like I've made progress in the past 12 months. To top it off, turns out I was the first Sport woman home, and I picked up a MTB Skills Clinic voucher as a prize! I've been thinking about doing one of the courses for a while now, having done my first one back in 2004 (or was it 2005?). So it's great that I'll have the opportunity to do so now!

No races for a few weeks now. My next race wasn't going to be until the end of January (Round 3 of the North Island XC Cup), but I think I've decided to head up to do the first round of the NI XC Cup in Rotorua which is on the 3rd January. After last year's rather shocking race there, I feel the need to redeem myself somewhat! Plus, I'm sure a couple of days of riding Rotorua singletrack is just what I need before heading back to work after the Christmas/New Year break! :)