Mountain Biking at Hawea Flat
I love sport, so a whole weekend of watching and participating sport meant I was in my happy place. This was Wanaka February 2016.
When Wanaka was announced as the venue of the third round of the MTBNZ Cup I jumped onto the internet to see what camping options were available. Then a friend also pointed out the MTBNZ Cup race was the same weekend as Challenge Wanaka. Turns out that there are plenty of camping options in Wanaka at that time of year, so all good.
The course for the mountain bike race wasn’t going to be open until the Saturday afternoon (race was Sunday morning). So I had a bit of time to have my legs and head out of race-mode.
I had friends racing in the Lake Wanaka Half (half-distance of a long distance triathlon – which is still a flipping long day!), so Saturday morning was spent sitting on the shores of Lake Wanaka watching swim caps bobbing along the water, and cheering friends by the roadside when they reached the bike phase.
I also saw a blur of Torpedo7 athlete Dougal Allan on the bike. I cannot fathom the time and effort required to train, prepare and race such a big day. Kudos!!
Saturday afternoon was course reccy. Wow. What a course! The race venue itself was a wee way out of Wanaka at Hawea Flat (hint: not all of it is ‘flat’. They seemed to have found some hills for the race course, but I digress). It had EVERYTHING, up, down, around, long climbs, short pinches , ramps over fences (genius!! Ride over fences!!), and ROCK GARDENS. And the views of the mountains added to the….ambiance? For spectators the course was pretty amazing too and they got to see a lot, due to the course taking in sides of hills (as well as up and over).
Half a day is not a long time to get my brain around some obstacles, but I did what I could and knew that once race adrenalin kicked in I’d achieve a bit more.
Finally race day. There is an advantage to racing in the morning; you miss the heat of the day. The disadvantage is that it can be slippier due to dew. However, this burned off reasonably quickly. Right, finally the race! A fast start (they’re always fast!), and into it. As I expected, some parts were more rideable when the brain was in ‘flight’ or ‘fight’ mode – race adrenaline is so helpful at times!!
The awesome thing about ‘XCO’ racing (the ‘O’ stands for ‘Olympic’, as in it’s the type of race that they do at the Olympics. In other words, we ride laps of a technical course, rather than start at one point and finish at another), is that because you ride the same obstacles each lap you get a chance to get better at them (I should point out that the Elites would probably see things very differently than I do as an age-grouper! :)). As I was getting slightly better each lap, I was also starting to fade. I’m still working on my race nutrition, so by the third lap I was starting to go downhill pretty quick (ha! nutritionally speaking!) and heading into ‘bonk’ territory (a legitimate cycling term meaning to run out of energy completely). But I managed to eke out a final last blast to the finish line (every second counts right?!). Completely spent but so, so happy.
If another race is held on this course, enter! XCO racing offers heaps of challenges; physical, mental and technical (hint: it’s okay to walk parts you’re not comfortable doing), and this course in particular has a lot to offer you and your supporters who come to watch and cheer you on.
See you out there!!
Recent race helpers:
Camelbak ‘Podium’ 600ml bottles
These are perfect for XCO racing. You put enough in to get you around a lap and back into the ‘feed zone’. Lightweight, easy to drink from, and easy to clean.
It’s been a hot summer (at times….), so I purchased these so I could still protect the hands, but keep them a bit cooler as well.
As usual, my (2013) Liv/Giant ‘Obsess’ hard-tail got me through a great day.
Read Dougal Allan’s account of his Challenge Wanaka winning race
