Civil Defence - Queenstown Emergency

CIVIL DEFENCE EMERGENCY - SEND IN THE BUSHLOVE FIRST RESPONDERS

We heard that for some reason linked to heavy rains in Queenstown, that they are looking for any help they can get with the task of Sandbagging.

To aid the locals we are sending our best to do what they can for the community.

Naturally our mercy mission sandbaggers will ride there, despite never actually doing any riding. We are dispatching Tony Keith and Dave Sharpe for starters. They will leave on the bikes tonight from Wellington and are really unfit and chubby. They'll be there for morning tea tomorrow on the shores of Wakatipu.

Once they've pushed back a muffin and a couple of Gary Colemans, they'll begin telling locals how they might race Rec Men this year and how they've done no training for months.
A NZ Airforce heli gets into trouble in the sand cloud sent up as the Bushies head south


The locals can expect a great deal from these boys. But if even they fail to bag enough sand, we'll call in the big guns and arrange for Jase Goldie and Nick Kennedy to sift down.

And if even he doesn't sandbag sufficiently to solve whatever problem Queenstown has, well let Carl Patton know. He'll fix it in minutes.

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SS nationals - Queenstown

Just like all the best things in life the singlespeeds had moved South for the year. While not as big a field as Rotorua the previous two years a top field had lined up with Ex national champions, Olympians, Kiwi brevet winners, a seedy guy called Garth, hairy men in dresses, fairies, members of the village people and a fearsome looking bumblebee. Unlike these collections of freaks I maintained the bushlove flare for style with a subtle sophistication in a hot pink sequined skinsuit.

Not just being content with looking stylish the skinsuit also served the dual purpose of aerodynamics. Extensive testing at the bushlove high performance lab revealed a 1.6W/Min/m/kg advantage over a nurses outfit and fishnets. This was an advantage I'd need every bit of.

You see back in the day I was a proper singlespeeder. For the better part of 3 years I pretty much rode only singlespeeds no matter how inappropriate the ride. For much of the time I didn't even own a geared bike (although at one time still had 5 bikes) and never really missed them. The reason I got into singlespeeding was pretty simple, I hated cleaning my bike, but once its sucked you into its hard to go back. This all changed last year when I snapped my frame leaving me without a ss for a few months. Since then I haven't ridden a ss so had no idea how this race would go.

As with all singlespeed races a zany start was required so we lined up for a 500m run with our front wheels. Unlike some of the other Bushlovers I'm no Bi-athlete so was quickly dropped off the line by Garth and was well stuffed by the time I got back to my bike. After fumbling to get my wheel back on I was off.
The Queenstown mtb club had put on a phenomenal course for the race based at 7 mile delta. For those who haven't ridden the tracks I'll just say they are awesome and you should go ride them now. With 100% singletrack with a total of 10m of flat track it certainly was a riders course. Having never ridden the tracks before, I quickly found was massively overgeared, oh well I'm used to rocking more (gear) inches than most.

Back to the race a local Jimmy had got off to a flier getting a break on the field from the start. Garth, Andy Reid, Marcus Roy and myself formed the chasing pack and rode together for the first 3/4 of a lap till Garth showed his class and broke away. I kept riding with the remaining two till the first beer stop where they kept going while I stopped for my first beer of the day.
Up to this stage I was riding like a mong, running pinches and generally lacking any kind of ss class. Some stage on lap 2 though, my moment of zen occurred and I flicked back to ss mode remembering all the little tips to being a singlespeeder.

Sadly on lap 2 Andy who I'd been having a great race with had an epic spill breaking his collarbone and loosing a boob from his fetching netball dress in the process. Hopefully he's recovering well and didn't get too many strange looks at the local hospital.

I ended up riding the rest of the race solo and loved every minute of it. Jimmy was always just ahead of me but I could never close the gap. I could quite happily have kept lapping them out all afternoon as the course was that good. Showboating across the line I was pretty happy with my third place. Congratulations to Garth who is in amazing form at the moment riding better than I've ever seen. I'm expecting big things of him at the worlds.

Big thanks to the Queenstown mtb club for putting on an awesome race, all the racers and the Queenstown weather which held off from the torrential downpour of the rest of the weekend for the race.

Next race is the Cycle Surgery singletrack fiesta. I hope to see you all there (and I promise I won't wear my skinsuit)

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Bushlove discusses the moonride

Disclaimer: Whilst the Bushlove Racing Team does endorse both silly cheap laughs and complex comedy, it does in no way support the Nazi Party, or any associated groups.

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Mind The Gap - Grom in Training

Nothing to do with this post, but its been a while since we saw the pic of a liquored-up Tiger Keith, looking like Freddie Mercury.

After a great morning with my daughter, Ella, at the Revolve Willy-Free XC race series, I popped out for a sift around the locality.

I visited the Tawa jump track by the railway station. Was my third trip there. I've been trying to lift my riding a notch, as for years I have just ridden regular XC stuff. I've got a lush Ibis Carbon Mojo now. It really is the swiss army knife of bikes. I've been able to do a couple of XC races and not come last, in addition to getting the confidence to get into more threatening riding than before. Almost beyond XC!



I managed a couple of the quite small doubles which was great. Rob Willis, a very competent local chap, gave me lots of advice and a few demonstrations on how to do some bigger stuff. He sold me the 10ft gap jump into the main berm, much like a used car salesman would sell someone a car which they could hardly afford, and with far more power than they could cope with. I had a few run ins to check my speed, as Rob suggested, then gave it a crack, heart in mouth style, as Rob and a couple of the young fellas watched on (probably baying for XC blood).

After falling of once as I went too slow, then a couple of attempts where I cased the lip and nose wheelied down the other side a bit, I finally popped a few more psi in my fake freerider ball-bag, and gave it more juice. Just about got it. Felt awesome. A real tick on my route to becoming a proper grom.

Thanks to Rob for his help and advice. Now when they start putting big gaps in XC courses, i'll be dishing out the good news to my skinny, shaved friends.

Cheers
Dave

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Can't stop, Hanmer time!

First up sorry for the terrible terrible pun, its almost as bad as the infamous redrocks blown seal joke.

I've always been a big fan of racing of induro racing in Hanmer so as always was looking forward to it. Thinking way back to 2005 it was one of my first races in a mixed team with the foxy Daydreamer. I don't want to spread gossip so all I will say is we were young, impressionable, it was cold and the tent we had was small. It was also my first solo 12 hr back in 2006 and possibly the coldest, wettest 6hr in 2008.

Back to the future, the race has been taken over by the Hanmer mtb club and they had put on a great course that could be enjoyed by all. While there was nothing technical it still had enough in it to keep it interesting for more experienced riders. Being the unorganised punter I am at the last minute I realised my bike was virtually un-rideable so I owe a big thanks to Dr Bike for sorting the Titus out. With f all notice he serviced my forks, tuned my gears, rebuilt my rear hub and dealt to a severe case of nipple failure (which up until now I thought only happened to Slacky at Karapoti).

The day dawned frosty and cold. We were glad for our warm cabin complete with fire and I'm sure we had a much warmer night than the hardy people who had camped overnight onsite. We set up camp next to Tinkerbell's tent mansion and Mrs K was glad the sun was shining after our last cold and shelterless experience in Hanmer. Was great to see that Bushlove's reputation is spreading in the South, Tinkerbell even referred to me in her blog as "one of the legendary racers of the mighty Bushlove Racing Team"

With the 4 and 8 hr starting together the pace was hot from the start especially from the in form Jeremy Inglis who was riding the solo short course. There was no way I was keeping up with him so after the first lap I settled into having a good battle with Andy Reid on his Stigmata cross bike. It was good fun doing my best keeping up with him on the flat faster sections while trying to drop him on the downhills. It must have been pretty brutal going though, as after 5-6 laps he had to change to a bike with suspension.
I felt like I was riding well at this stage opening up a handy lead of at least a few minutes. By lap 10 it had all started to unravel (I even got stung by a bee!) and my lead had nearly disappeared. Not being used to riding more than 20 minutes at a time my back started killing me although some painkillers (sans vodka as I'm no singlespeeder) courtesy of Ryda and Jude helped.

By lap 11 Oli easily passed me and rode off. Once the painkillers kicked in I started to feel much improved and really enjoyed the last few laps. In the end I finished 2nd a few minutes behind Oli but a lap up on 3rd.

Overall it was a well run race and great value too. It was a very good idea have it based out of the Forest Camp again (a location much better for spectators) - I did miss Pizzacarto though.

Thanks to Sarah for being race coordinator extraordinaire. She did a great job organising all the details, feeding me and generally being winsome. Thanks also to Craig, Rebakah and all the Singletrack Christchurch crew making the day so enjoyable.

Post race the Titus returned to its always intended singlespeed state for my next race. All going well I even hope to have a special treat for the throngs of bushlove fans.

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Any Given Saturday - Bushlove Leave Pass Rampage

After getting a mammoth leave pass to hit the trails yesterday, I'm feeling a little jaded. Today's physical activities will be no more extravagant than a trip to the new playpark and maybe a swim. When I say 'swim', I am referring to the time I will spend lying in the shallows at Porirua pool with my groin over a pleasant warm water jet, whilst my 4yr old, Ella and her friend go down the small slide 500 times.


(MC Hammer soundtrack removed as it was sometimes being blocked for copyright! Doh.)


Last weekend Ashley & Marjolein held the first round of the Revolve Womens MTB Series. It was a great success and Willy-Free Racing proved to be very popular with 51 lovely ladies competing at the inaugural event. The awesome Karapoti race got 143 ladies in its 25th anniversary year by my count, which makes the 51 in attendance look very impressive. I'm looking forward to joining some other Bushlove pro-marshals at the second round at Makara next Sunday (25 April) to see some more oestrogen fuelled trail rampage.

Yesterday morning Mr Sharpe was delivered to my doorstep by his lovely smokescreen, Keryn. We were riding over the 'Best Of Belmont' and over to meet chums for even more guffaw-packed trail riding.

On the way we took in Chopper and Big Weta. Choppers has the start of its winter grease now, as we found out when our front tires went straight across the first corner and not around it. With Mono's encouragement, I nailed the techy right hand rock drop at Baked Beans Bend. Although did wish the rock was drier and I was better at mountain cycling as I began the drop, it went well. I'd always wanted to tick that off.

We met up at the new Miramar Trails, lovingly crafted by Slacky, Ben Wilde and many others. Thanks all. Good job. We had an awesome time riding Jail Break, the dh track. It is a sensational bit of trail. I can see me promoting more family trips to the inlaws who live nearby. I enjoyed cutting Slacky's lunch by hooning a drop and caught him of guard as he whined about being on an XC race bike with slick tires.

We headed over to Aro Valley for a coffee (which I have just remembered I didn't text Ashley and Dan about. Soz guys!). After some banter with epic mountainbike legend Carl James Patton we rode new Aro/Polhil tracks. I think it was Transient and Highbury Fling. Great tracks and a credit to the trail masters who built them.

I still had to ride home to Porirua and was running on an empty tank. Monochops rode up Ngaio Gorge with me before we farewell and I moseyed off home. Up Ngaio Gorge, Mono still looked like an idling, curb-crawling Lamborghini. In that he had a huge amount of horsepower in reserve, but also looked a little sleazy. I stopped at the Tawa Jump Track to do a few lame XC rider jumps with the locals. They were entertained by my plastic bike, but not my puny airs.

Davo.

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The Crazyman WOF for 2010

This was a simple outing with the idea to give ourselves a bit of a warrant of fitness before Crazyman 2010. Originally we were going to recreate as much of the course as possible and do a run/bike but for various reasons I will not go into, this was canned.

We did the full crazyman run in about 1.30. Timing was difficult due to the banter breaks, and waiting for Davo to finish showing us how to do pushups.

And how not to.....

Marco was inspiring in his usual running kit.

Jo took out the downhill section, no picture of this as there was absolutely no way of catching her. However pictures of Davo and Marco are available.

Jo showed her usual determination to reach the top first.

And Davo.... musing on perhaps accepting a ride to the event next time rather than going over belmont to begin with!

The full team of Marco, Davo, Sharpie and Jo (I am missing from the picture due to a lack of a long arm) at the top of the hill.

Marco chose this moment to get a head start on everyone leaving us looking silly before bolting after him.

A nice outing with full marks to everyone else who rode out to the nui to then do the 18km trail run. Also full credit to the godfather who decided to run the last road section in bare feet.

Some nice video action interviews happened. Although this is the only one that has "family" content.

And a small amount of house keeping....

Jo I have your drink bottle and orange

Godfather I have your drink bottle

Davo I have your pottle of vasaline...

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Makara Peak Grand Loop Challenge - post match analysis!

Well it was shaping up as a big night, and it certainly delivered! So instead of rambling on about it, here's a few pictures...

Davo gives the race briefing

...some people will come up with any excuse to get out of riding...


We had the young (Hannah and Jonathan Barnes get ready to start)

...and we had the old (Marco turns 100 this year)

...some people brought a friend along for the ride

The first rider is off... Tom Bradshaw obviously doesn't do lycra!

But the hot favourite pushed it a bit too hard for the win!

Last year's winner Edwin Crossling also got a bit carried away with his mad jumps!

Richard Leacock showed everyone how to ride downhill fast (and stay upright) recorded the fastest downhill split

Some people looked for more unusual ways to go fast!

From the summit, it was all downhill to the finish...


The fastest man round the circuit was Gav McCarthy

Fastest women (and winner of the golden bunny and a kiss from Kah) was Ashley Burgess

But the biggest award of the night, the "Clive Bennett Top 27" award, went to Rachel Ockelford

A huge thank you has to go to all the volunteers who made this event possible. People like our tail end charlie (and keen follower of fashion) Tom Lyndskey make these events happen!


We had nearly 40 riders and raised $180 that will go to the Makara Peak Supporters to keep the park and trails looking good.
We will be back with more fun races later in the year, but there is plenty to keep you entertained in the coming months:

Shane Wetzel (who with Jude Young were up at the Makara summit recorded splits so we could calculate the descent times) is running a 6, 12 and 24 hour race in May out at the Wainuiomata Trail Park
Wainuiomata Winter Weekender

Also for the ladies there is the Revolve Mountain bike series
Revolve Women's Mountain Bike Series

And if you liked these photos, there are plenty more:
Bushlove Grand Loop Challenge Gallery

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