Karapoti 2010

The week leading up to the Karapoti had been really good weather and the track sounded like it could be fast. I arrived in wellington the night before excited about the race. That night it poured down and when we arrived at the race you could see that it was going to be quite wet and muddy.

I had a good start as I came out of the river crossing in 2nd place. The bunch split up pretty early and I was in the front bunch with about 5 other riders. I hadn't touched a bike all week but I felt pretty good. When we hit the 1st major climb I immediately got chain suck. I fixed it quickly but then it happened again about 10m up the track. I had to run most the 1st long climb and this put me back in the field and I could see that there wasn't a chance of getting a good placing in the finish. So from then on I still rode reasonably hard but had a lot of fun on the downhills and caught up with a few people who I hadn't got to talk to at Nationals. On the last climb I managed to pull a few places back because my chain had dried up and wasn't sucking as much. In the end I finish 5th in under 19 and did a time of 2hrs 47min which I was happy with. I have learnt that this race can be a lot of fun if you take your time and enjoy it. Its a great atmosphere and great to hang round and have a look at the end. Looking forward to next years Karapoti and hoping that everything is running good.