Wainui Track Heaven: Tigerbone, Goldie and Rammer

Tigerbone's Tales

Ricky was off for another Hiss/Roar/Pain Box outbusrt but not before he flashed a bit of tush to the rest of the M1 class. We started off up the Crazyman Climb where it was on from the get go, I chanced it at the front making distance on the field before the water tower, where I spotted Josh pulling a sneaky one or just pulling one around the back of the water tower, gasing it I came around first. Along the rollers I had the lead over Josh but he was not to be fooled easily, about 3/4 of the way up he pulled past me. I looked down at my 'agenda' and this was not on it, Josh was not going to make it easy for me to claw this back.



All the way to the T-intersection he had me pipped. It was not to be for ever though, just as we hit the top of the rise I powered down to pass him and kept the preasure on. I was first into the Labrynth and made ground from there. For the next 30min I was alone and feeling great, down and up hills.

On the second time down Beeline I lost concentration on "Mono's Drop" (First major drop when going down Beeline) and made for a high tackle on a tree trunk with my bicep FAIL! saw 1st place flash before my eyes as I thought I had broken my arm, rider - REMOVE FROM CART. As you can see below this tree had bigger guns than me and I came off second best.



Down the rest of Beeline limping along like Angry after knee surgery. On my 3rd lap of Beeline I saw a site that put the shits up me and brought a smile to my face at the same time... a Bushloveracing Jersey came past me (I yelled out "Goldie you bastard! am I pleased to see a BLR Jersey"). Just coming into the bottom of Beeline for the last time he took the lead through the 4WD track, not wanting to let up that easy I passed him again before the single track of the swamplands. Goldie stayed in touch all the way up Jungle Gym until we popped onto the 4WD track where I was able to take about 100mtrs out of him. When his chain got caught up in his wheel, bugger!!! Would have been a great hard race FTW all the way home (next race Goldie ;)


Madcore ups to Ed Crossling for taking out the home ground win in Pro/Elite and Cam for an impressive second in Senior Mens. Now its back to the Beach and Snorkling in Rarotonga, life is tough.

Cheers, Tiger

Goldie Makes A Beeline For Wainui

I decided a few days out from PNP`s round 2 race in Wainui that i better get off my butt and get back into some kinda race form, my last mountain bike race was karapoti so its been a while.

I cruised on down Saturday arvo and met Warrick at Wainui so i could get a look at the track, we rode a few loops of beeline - jungles and finished up with Spoon Hill. The tracks were as close to perfect as you could get, stopped and had a quick chat to Tryfan who was busy digging. Big Up`s to that man!!

Up early on sunday morning and made the trek down from Levin. Had a bit of a warm up then lined up with a strong Masters 1 field; the hooter sounded and we were away.

Got to the first climb and set about my work moving quickly up to 3rd place behind tony and josh, i was feeling surprisingly good and kept them in my sights past the water tank and through the roller coaster.



Turned down into labyrinth on Josh`s back wheel while tony had got away, Josh was descending resonably well and I called out to "Cmon mate, lets catch him!" then seconds later oop`s little too much front brake and I was bouncing down the track, had a bit of a chuckle, picked myself up and quickly caught back up to Josh.

Stuck to Josh`s wheel until he let me past on beeline now i was on a mission to catch sight of Tones, did a loop at a good clip trying to negotiate the ever increasing traffic and still no sign of Mr Merida. Got up to the top again and marshal (Stu) said "He`s about 10 seconds" - sweet!!

Finally caught sight of Tones toward the bottom of Beeline continued along the gravel road section and Tones was having a swigg on his Powerade so i decided to swoop, raced past at a great rate of knots and took him by surprise. Once he finished coughing and chocking on his Mountain Blast he quickly rejoined my wheel and not long after re-took the lead.

I kept sight of Tones up Jungles for the last time, he was climbing bloody well and I was starting to feel the pressure (just a little). We turned right at the top on the last little climb of the day and he was slowly gapping me, i was`nt getting too worried because I felt I should have the better of him on the Spoon Hill descent. I started to dig it in, shifted up a gear when suddenly, CRUNCH!! my chain came off and wedged itself between the spokes and the cassette, in a panic i tryed to free it, ripping it, kicking it, swearing at it as Tones rode away to collect his chocolate bar.

After calming down a bit and dragging my bike back up the cliff i had just thrown it off, I removed the back wheel, calmly freed my chain and continued on my way, not before being passed by about 1400 riders.

I got to the finish line just on nightfall and thought to myself what if

Great win Tones, you're on fire man! Also a big thanks to Marco and the PNP helpers for another great days racing.

Goldie


Rammer's Tales

I did NOT come last.



This was my first attempt at a MTB race, having ridden 5 times
in the previous 3 years it was always going to be entertaining -
at least for the spectators - My strategy of starting at the very
back of the back was very, very flawed. I made great progress
weaving through the pack on the way up to the t-junction and
the short sprint to labyrinth was done out of the saddle and I
picked up a lot of places. This was where the good times ended.
My single track and downhill speeds were nothing less than
embarrassing, every place I picked up going uphill I promptly
lost. The drop-off on beeline was brown trouser time for me and
I had to bail to make it down.

Heading back up the family track was great both times, it was nice
to stretch the legs and grunt it up the inclines.
Sadly my enthusiastic attack of the double track leading up to spoonhill
did me in, my legs were in no state to deal with the pounding
they got given on that track. Again I had to bail early on and head
for an undie change while I watched the more capable riders (read,
rest of field) stream by me.

Clearly my awesome preparation work for this event showed in
spades. I had a lot of fun though and with a LOT of work I think
I can do better than second to last!

A few notes:
1) Dave - debt settled, that was a nasty trick.
2) Marco - Thanks for your high opinion of my abilities, sorry I let you down.
3) Ash - Awesome work on crossroad, your chirpy comments were great.

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Why New E PNP

Dawn broke upon the back of some glorious weather, and the Venga Bus was go. Cranking the sounds from the banging stereo in the Burkes Lovebus on the way to pick up young Cam, ACDC getting the heartrate up whilst I chowed down on a Slacky pre-race breakfast of choice - Bacon and Eggs.

Helped with some setup, strung some tape and hammered in some signs with Fatwombat and Lynsky, then prepped my bike with with some sexy blue ODI grips. Slapped my new glasses on and did a token weak warm up. Got to the start line and made with the frottage with Tiger (he's bringing sexy back.............and I hope he's better looking than DD now he's gone to the Crossling Bros)

The hooter went, and I sedately rode off. Pretty sure everyone else started in grany gear. Thats the only explanation I can think of for starting so slow. So as I presented by massive buttocks to everyone I graciously let them catch me up. Then the walls of the pain box went up, about the same time as the hill did. Surely just a co-winky-dinky?

Lots of people struggled on the lower steep pinch climbs, and I caught a bunch of people on them, however lots of people went back past me on the long climb and it was a case of settling into a rythem and throwing up.. Soon enough the top of the hill arrived and the walls of the box moved back a notch. I settled into a pace and set about riding down those in front. Sifted down Beeline the first time, with some traffic in spots. Hit the bottom and ripped out the wetland loop with Big Rich on my tail. Back up Jungles and the walls closed back in a bit. Uber Marshal Ashley cheered me on with an attempt to carress my mighty buttocks. Back down beeline again, faster this time, tho still enuff traffic to not allow to open the taps fully. Around the wetland loops and into jungles with Cam right behind me. I asked if he wanted past, but he stated that he wanted to stare a tthe calves of doom some more.

Back up to the top again and once more into Beeline. Feeling a bit whupped at this point so the pace whilst pretty quick wasn't full noise. Cam pretty much stuck on my wheel which speaks volumes for the increase in his skill level over the last year. At the fast bit at the bottom I stretched out a bit, and pretty much maintained that small gap around the wetlands loop and up Jungles. Turning up the ECNZ road towards Spoonhill and Skinny Stu told me Hiskey wasn't too far ahead. Indeed I could see him in the distance on the road. Cam slowly caught me up and sat on my wheel for a bit. He realised that he needed to get into Spoonhill ahead of me to have a chance, and he put a big dig in. I clicked down 2 gears and stood up and unleashed the hounds. Unfortunatly the hounds this fine day were chihuahua's and he pulled out a handy gap. Into the downhill and it took me a short amount of time for the walls of the pain box to recede enough to set about closing the gap. Just after the end of 491, I caught Cam and Hans flailing about on the ground, I'm not going to judge them. Got past hans, but couldn't get past Cam, he had enuff pace to make it too hard to pass. Sprinted past him at the first chance near the bottom. Not enuff track left to stretch out a gap, I pulled out my CX skills for the hurdles to open a gap there. Didn't fall for Hickies try to flail over the fence, instead hit the gap and pedaled hard. Cam was trying to get on my wheel, and I was trying just as hard to keep the gap. Luckily I prevailed and we even closed the gap slightly to Hayden. Fully broken by the end. Much happier than the Makara round, with a hint of some legs coming back.
Of Note Hiskey was feeling better also and will be one to watch at the Mt Vic Round.


Later that day I put the Boxxers back on the Sunday and rode it UP Mt Crawford and down the Miramar tracks. Stopped and dug for 2 hours . Went home, had a feed, had a sleep for a few hours and got up to watch the Freecaster footage of the World Cup DH finals. Blinky pulling 2nd and Sam Hill walking away with the race AND the world Cup

Next week, Bushlove goes downhill as I come out of retirement for the Long Gully DH race. It should be full of epic FAIL!!!

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Guest Apperance - Big Ghey Al

After trawling throught screeds and screeds of Bushlove fan mail we came across the following item. This was sent to us by the infamous Big Ghey Al.

Much deliberation and a beer or two later, we decided it was too good an opportunity to pass up.

I give you Big Ghey Al (BGA),

I have it on good authority this IS BGA Baby bike Mechanic

---oo00oo---

Not everyone makes it,
Whenever you get involved in a sport the hardest thing to learn are the unwritten rules. Getting the basics right is pretty simple, but knowing how it really works can take months even years to go your head around. So after many years as a roadie, I felt I had a handle on what was expected of me.

Road cycling is pretty simple really:
• Don’t go hard in races, the glory is in winning bunch rides and fun rides.

• Make sure you have the latest kit, non-euro team kit could see you looked as someone who spends too much time riding and not enough time checking out cycling news.

• Most importantly, your status as a road cyclist is directly proportional to the exclusivity of the space age carbon fibre framed, silk tired, Campagmanoram equipped limited edition road bike that you remortgaged your house and sold a kidney for. You will be judged by your peers as you drink your trim chai double shot flat white at the café you and your peleton friends hijacked all the seats for and parked your Colnagarellos against the walls in a suitably inconsiderate manner.

Now mountain biking is a bit different. But I would have to work hard on this one, with the credit crunch I couldn’t just buy a new bike every week. I couldn’t even afford a titanium single speed with the latest fashionable wheel size.

This was going to be hard… I soon discovered that to be accepted in the elite of mountain biking, you have to be invited to join the ranks of the Bushlove Racing Team. So when I heard they were recruiting, I had to work hard to make sure my name was the top of their list. I was careful not to gloat about passing Ricky on muddy descent in the nationals, he was a Bushlover and self proclaimed downhill god, I might have hurt his feelings. I pretended to like whatever bike Mono had just got that week, even though I lost track of what bike he actually owned. It even came down to me trying to ride a completely impractical single speed like Davo, Kah and Nick in the hope that I would be seen as up to date with the latest in fashion biking.

It was not to be. Some girl called Ash turned up to a race with some t-shirt about loving bush, she was in the team. To rub salt in the wounds, it was announced that there would be not any more recruits to the Bushlove team. I was a broken man…

So with that door firmly shut on me ever making it in mountain biking, I’m in the market for a track bike for cruising along the water front. I’m sure I can fit into a set of Emo jeans, I’m going to get this one right.

AL

---oo00oo---

Its not that we don't love you BGA, its just that we have one Token Half Ging in the team already, and our fashion consultant has advised us "Too much red makes us look washed out"

** BLRT Style and Colours are done by Wardrobe Flair. Guys & Girls get your dress sense back on track with Wardrobe Flair 'Your one-stop shop for colour and styling'.

We do welcome guest postings and are always looking for light hearted, funny content to post. So please feel free to e-mail us on Freakpostings@bushloveracing.com

NB: No Crossling Brothers were harmed during the making of this posting. But if the little pr!cks keep beating us they may just go missing.

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Mono signs off

Yo,

just a quick update from me.

I'm a bit fed up with riding, so pretty much flagging bikes, and any future events I have coming up. I'll still be around, I hope to marshall at some of the PNP races, and maybe help the N-Duro team at the Whaka if I can make it up.

Happy trails.

Dave

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Sandbagging FTW

PNP Round 1 at Makara

The start line of the was stacked with pedigree, pace and potential fail for punters like Angry and I. But what can ya can do but play the cards you are dealt, so off we went.

Up Arlington Rd where the Slackster steamed off the front... for 50mtrs at least, where after in surprising similarity to his date nights, he made his glory roar and slumped into the pain box. I found myself surprisingly at the front half way up the hill feeling great (The only other time I felt this great was when Davo changed his name to 'Great' and told me to grab a handful). So I let rip! Entering Rimu first totally dumb founded what I was doing in the lead and expecting the fufu valve to blow half way up Aratihi.


As the race went on my confidence grew and my puny pins did me proud. Top of Aratihi and I couldn't see a soul behind me (Ohhhh sh!t you say!, Oh sh!t I say!) Leaping Lizard things were about to change. Jonty steamed me down and by the bottom of LL he had caught me and asked to go past, I let him through thinking this was the end of my glory ride - it was fun while it lasted. Cruising through Nikau Valley I found myself knocking on Jonty's back door over and over again, reluctantly I asked if I could go through for the up hills and he could have the down back, good compromise I thought and he agreed. Off I went ahead up Nikau and dug deep, to make as much ground as possible before T3 & Ridgeline.

The Summit came and no sign of Jonty, thank f&*k for that. It was becoming hard work being chased. T3 he pulled time back, Zac's I pulled, Ridgeline he pulled, Swigg & Starfish maybe level pegging. Still having about 100mtrs on him coming into the 5th to last corner and I made the stupid mistake of looking back...Bam!! Lost control of the bike on a hairpin and ended on my ass! I jumped up and got the hell outa there, like Nick_K from a milking shed. But by this stage I had lost the 100mtrs I had worked so hard for and Jonty was on my tail again. We truck and trailer'd down the last part of Swigg and popped out onto the road for the 500mtrs road finish to the end. I thought it was now or never, Locked out the rear shock, locked out the front shock, locked out the drink bottle, let out a mighty Rooooaaaar and unleashed Bushlove Fury (Not unlike date night at Keith Mansions – Ed.). 200mtrs later I looked back and he had not responded. Woot Woo! - Ride on! Through to the finish with a huge smile on my dial, like the sweet arc of Slacky’s grubber.Masters 1 PNP Rd 1 = ADD TO CART
A celebratory beer from Slackboy, with Angry and my pregnant wife (Obviously she did not drink ;) (BTW - Baby Bushlove is due ON Karapoti day! Have a leave pass to race though, Win) ADD TO CART Thanks wife xx00xx

I am putting this win down to a bit of luck and a good winter for the boy with some cold days on the bike. Till Wainui when it’s all open again…

Also a big ups to Monochops for podium-ing at the N-Duro Series the same day, Bushlove Podiums - ADD TO CART

Chur
Tigerbone

oO---------------Oo

AngryBushlove

Against doctors orders and general common sense, I stupidly showed up on the start line. The track was dry and the conditions where good, so I thought why not put my balls in a vice and see what could possibly go wrong...

As TigerBone said, M1 was stacked with guns even having the mighty Hiskey coming down to read us our Horoscopes in M1. Slacky with his winter weight on was out to hold everyone up on the climbs but took off with a Roar!

Race starts and it was a smash fest from the get go, into Rimu I let Tigs go as a) He was faster than me and b)I didnt want to hold the big fella up on the downhills, as I didnt want to push it too hard on the downs, to save my fragile knees from assploding. "Left Man Card on start line!"

So it was Tigs, Jonty, Josh then me hot on Josh's tail into the lap of Magic Carpet all good, past a few of the other M1 riders coming back around. Blew Sifter a kiss with unlucky #13 on. Josh was feeling pretty good at this stage and considered a 2nd lap of Magic Carpet, he decided against it gifting me 3rd position going into Missing Link. I rode like a Short Spartan Stallion up Aratihi and down Leaping Lizard. On Nikau I pulled out a handy lead on Josh, before munting it a bit on the last corner, allowing Josh to get a closer look at the rose bud tattoo'd just above my crack line. I held him off till mid way along Aratihi for the second time before letting him pass as I didnt have his pace. I kept in touch until T3, where in knee preservation mode completely munted it up and allowed Hiskey to catch up not quite close enough to kiss the rose. By the time I exited onto Zacs, Josh had a huge lead, probably 3-4 minutes I reckon but I managed to nail Ridgeline, RLE, Swigg and Starfish to the bottom. Probably one of my best rides of that section ever and wound up about 1 1/2 mins behind Josh for 4th place. Bit gutted to miss out on 3rd, but at the same time pretty stoked as the other riders in M1 where no pushover.

Cheers
AngryBushlove

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Ohau i love the south

So this trip was all about snowboarding...don't worry bike fans, it didn't turn out that way...read on for the adventures.

I flew into christchurch to meet up with a friend Amanda (yes amanda is a girl and yes we are just friends, although we did get closer than intended- read on). She is a fellow Saggiarian (Saggie if you will)so we naturally have a great time together.

Here was the plan- head out early to Ohau for 2 days snowboarding then off to Wanaka for Treble cone before making our way over to Duniden for a wedding.

With the Ohau being closed (Oh-how i hate the wind), we moved onto plan B- borrow a bike and go for a ride at Ohau (oh how i love to bike). So here i am on the sweet Marin Quake 9.0. A fine beast i must say, suspension completely ceased, derailer not railing properly and a rustly chain. Best bit was the plush seat i had. Not to mention the sweet outfit i was rockin.

We even did a couple of river crossing:

But alas the Quake 9.0 failed....

that's me pointing to my chain (notice the unusual placing)

Lukily Ohau lodge was sweet and for $80 each we got a room (2 single beds, but of course we only used one in true bushlove style) with a lake view, 3 course dinner, hot tubs, ping pong:and a full breakfast! all of which was very romantic. and there soap was funny:

Next day Ohau closed (Fail) went to Queenstown (Win). Planned to stay with some guys that amanda knows (Win) they live in an old school - i thought how exciting! Turns out old school is slang for "here's your room, you have to go through that guy's room, and there is one single matress on the cement floor that has sheep poo in the corner, and you have to put the towel under the door or the rats will come through, oh and if it rains the room will flood". (i really wish i had taken a photo of that). with that lovely into, the car looked like a fantastic snuggle fest. a couple beverages out of a bottle and we looked like this:

The next morning we went snowboarding! it was heaps of fun, and great to get out there again. after that we drove 4 hours to duniden- lots of driving on the trip- we met up with our friend Daisy..since we last saw her she won the National Women's Surf championships! she is awesome. Eat your heart out boys:

The rest of the weekend was filled with potlucks, wedding helper outering, stories of stag nights with wax strips, piercings, boysenberry ice cream, and elephant underware (yes all at the same time), and of course chillin...that's what it's all about. (that and winning)

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