Friday, September 01, 2006

ROTORUA, 2006 UCI... and riding...

Where to start????

Vegas. The Worlds. Boxed up the Switchback and flew up Thursday last week. Watched some trials, downhill practice, and then the big event of the day, 4X on Friday. Saturday was the DH day, in the am when we got there we skylined up to top and walked rest of way to the start gate, then perched at various positions all the way down the course, watching the first drop from the start for a while, then the Kia Kaha jump, then down into the Larches, which was an INSANE section, then further and further down as the day progressed, to end up next to the Wall ride for the last few riders, seeing them hurtling past, inches away at probably 70 kph was amazing. then sunday was the XC, women in the morning, where we were positioned for their last little bit before the finish, and then afternoon the mens, We started up near the top of the course, in the wide open section then made our way down the trails again. all very good...

then, monday, round to Waipa Mill entrance to the Mtnbike park in Whakarewarewa. Tracks we hit first session: the Repco, the Creek, the vetta, Challenger, Diamondback, sidewinder, the Grinder, and i'm bummed i missed the Rosebank... took time out for lunch, then after chatting with Jeff Anderson(Jeffson), of kiwibikes he suggested we ride up the tarawera road and up hill road and down Hot X buns etc... so, took his advice, and did it. hot x buns, hot, then B rude not 2, and pig track, which strangely spat us out on Nursery road so we just followed that up and out the Exit.

tuesday, drove beautiful roads out to Murupara, then on to Minginui, and Whirinaki, brand new track, purpose built, very very very fun downhill sections, but mostly it needs work, packing down firming up... awesome country tho. north island Kahikatea and Tawa forest.

wednesday, back into Whakarewarewa, up to top of Gunna Gotta, down A trail, up Tickler, along Link(?) road to Hill road, up up up Moerangi road, top to Billy T, down Chesnut links to rollercoaster, then chopsuey, springroll and the other one. then down B rude not 2 and nelson and me went up Lions Trail, looped about in the sidewinder again then out the Exit/Rat/NDo trails... sweeeeeet. all up, only did B rude not 2 twice, all the rest once, and probably had 9 hours total of riding in there. thats pretty impressive. you'd have to cover the porthills and bottle lake to get something similar here. and still there was stuff in whakarewarewa we could have done. and i'd so love to do some of those trails again and again and again...

will fill in these details at a later date, by updating...

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