Craigs blog

I ran an event up at Summerhill on behalf of MTB Tauranga on Sunday.  We billed it as a fun family event, and ended up with about 50 people all-up including volunteers and sponsors, including aboout 12 kids that did the event.

I made up a hand-drawn map during the week, which showed 6 locations to collect cards.  We put a 2 hour cutoff on the ride, and only 10 made it all the way out the back to get all 6 cards, but the rest saw most of the trails on offer and came back with 5 cards.

Best thing about the event was the super fun atmosphere, and to see the kids riding the trails. 

We put on a BBQ for the prizegiving, and had a short meeting to ratify some important club things. 27 club members were present and the voting was unanimous.

This is the 3rd year that I have co-driven for John at Targa Rotorua, and in all likelyhood, probably the last time I will be sitting next to him in the 928.

Some 120 odd cars made the start for this event. Saturday morning was a typical 7.30am start, fricken cold, foggy, and damp roads.

All of Saturdays Stages had been used previously, albeit with some subtle changes. Stage 1 was by far the toughest of the rally. Only very short, under 6 minutes in length, but the conditions were treacherous in the fog, and it was very easy to out-drive the vision. Unfortunately there was a major accident very early on, about 10 cars ahead of us, and it turns out it was a fellow Tauranga local (and a cyclist too), Brent Hills rolled and severly smashed his 2dr Escort Zetec on nly the 3rd corner. His co-driver was unconcious for a while and has some spinal injuries, both went to Hospital for a while, that car is detroyed. We tip-toed through the stage but it was nothing flash.

Stage 2 and 3 were the same stage repeated, a much llonger stage this time, but roads still wet so no hero stuff. Then it was lunch in Rotorua before heading out to Rotoma to run the Manawahe stage, and once again it was repeated so we used it for Stage 4 and 5.  We remembered it well from last year, one section with a big crest in the middle of a long straight through a cutting, which we knew went straight so we didnt need to back off.  However....we were running it in the opposite direction to last year, and it turns out the crest was much steeper in this years direction. I was watching the speed on the Terratrip and we were on 170 kph on the way into it. 

Huge Air.

My greatest all-time Dukes Of Hazard moment.  Im surprised there wasnt any major damage, we continued the stage without incident. But at the Kawerau pitstop we discovered the rear muffler mount was munted, which necessitated a temporary fix.  Luckily we had Blake there to lend a hand.

Targa pitstop

The 2nd time through Manawahe we took the crest a bit slower. A wise move.  We also saw some 8 broken and/or damaged cars littered on the side of the road, seems with the roads now dry, people decided to go nuts and the toll was showing.

Sunday morning saw us head out to Te-Aroha way, for a revisit of a Stage we last did 2 years ago.  The rest of Sunday is a bit of a blur, a new stage after lunch I remember, which we repeated also. We did 10 stages on Sunday, finishing with the blast around Paradise Valley Rd before heading back into town. We were both pretty chuffed to finish unscathed, and patting ourselves on the back, when we should have been watching our speed. Cop coming the other way stopped us but we were lucky enough to escape a fine, very fortunate indeed.

Moonride 2008

This is the 4th consecutive year I have entered this event. This year I put together a team of 5 in the 24hour race, to represent the newly formed MTB Tauranga club.

Things were already looking ominous 3 days out from the event when rain had set in over Rotorua, and the forecast was for it to get heavier and continue out till SUnday, the worst downpours forecast for Saturday.

We had a team meeting on the Wednesday prior, organised a gear list, and talked about race strategy. The 5 were myself, Andrew, Ben, Ian and Steve. Andrew and I were the only ones who had done this event over 24 hours before, so it was fair to say we were pretty innocent to what to expect as a team.

I arrived after registration on Friday, and while the ground was sodeen, it didint look too bad. But it was only a brief break in the rain, and an hour later it was coming down as hard as ever. I retired for some dinner and quiet contemplation before returning to the event village at 8pm, to find all present, but a fairly torrential deluge in progress.

At race briefing, we were informed that due to safety concerns over the conditions, the course had been shortened, and a recently completed recce lap had been tricky but completed in 25 minutes. The decision among the team was to go out and do double laps. I elected to start 5th, so watched the start and then retired to the tent. I was expecting our first team member Steve to be through a little higher in the order, not down in the lower half of the field, but never mind, still 24 hours to go....

I set my alarm for 1.30am, got some good sleep, and awoke to discover the reason for Steves lowly position from the start, he had collided with another rider out on the 1.5km road section that was used to break the field up, and had hit the road hard, scraping both knees, elbows, hips, etc.  He had gone on to complete his 2 laps but they had been punctuated with several falls and some soul-searching. And now, after being cleaned up at the St.Johns, his back was in agony and he had pulled out of the event.

So, a quick rethink, down to four riders, should be ok from here on in. My first 2 laps in the rain were a challenge. The 2 easiest trails in the forest were now awash with a dark mixture of mud and filth that was like riding in freshly poured concrete.  Only had 1 small fall, which taught me not to use the front brake for the balance of the event.

Fast forward to daybreak, the team had had some lights issues overnight, and had lost the better part of 40 minutes in total.  Also the transponder had been lost at some point in the mud, which necessitated getting a new one and having the lap info updated. A quick look at the results to date showed that we were languishing in the lower half of the field. Not to worry, it had stopped raining at around 3am, and my next stint proved that the course was now running much quicker.  The next few hours before the start of the 12hr event were great for the team, the 4 of us circulating well and pulled back a few spots.

The course went from 100 riders to 400 riders at 10am when the 12hr started. Naturally there was some congestion and the course deteriorated for a few hours again, before a fairly good hard line developed around most of the course. The day continued faultlessly for the team, making up time and positions, until late afternoon when Ians bike lost all rear brakes. He sent it off to have a hydraulic leak repaired, and did a couple of laps on Steves bike after some set-up adjustments.

On into the 2nd night, and I was expecting to start feeling the effects of lack of sleep, but still felt surprisingly good. As we started to calculate out our laps to the end, it became obvious that if we kept doing double laps, then we would be left with about 30 minutes for someone to do 1 final lap to the finish.  As I kept asking for volunteers, I chuckled as the other (younger) team-members let me know in no uncertain terms that it wasnt going to be them. So it was That I set off at the end for a 3-lap stint. I knew it was going to be a close-run thing, so asked the others to let me know the exact time at the end of the 1st and 2nd laps.  In the end I was able to start the final lap with 33 minutes left, and cruised home relatively comfortable with 5 minutes to spare. My only disappointment was that I missed seeing the team of 5 ladies from the 12hour area do a nudie lap of the race village.

MTB Tauranga finished up 24th overall in the 24 hour event, and 12th in the Open division, on a total of 49 laps of the 6.5km course.  Without our overnight problems we could have put 1 more lap in, but that would have only put us up by another 2 or 3 positions. But thats racing, and now we have something to aim at and improve on for next year.

Well the last few weekends have involved some road-tripping with the family, and some great fun catching up with friends and family.

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We shot down to Wellington for a long weekend 2 weeks ago. Stayed with our good friends Mel and Eddie, and their daughter Holly.  The main reason was for a big extended family get-together with my Uncle Geoff, and Cousin Danny.  Was bloody great to get perhaps 80% of the family there, including 4 generations of Davies.  Good to see no-one has changed radically, and everyone is pressing on with life and living.

Managed to sneak the Jeffson onto the bike rack for the trip down, and snuck away for 4 hours on Sunday for a ride around Makara Peak, where I hadnt ridden before.  Got the tour-guide special thanks to some good riding buddies, 4 of us on singlespeeds in final preparations for the inagural NZ singlespeed champs the following weekend.  Had a blast on the Wellington trails, a great mixture of native bush trails, rocky hill traversing, and techy step stuff. Also some fast flowing stuff on the way back to the carpark, my favourite was the caning down Ridgeline from the top.

Monday was a lesson on how to turn a 6-hour car trip into a 9-hour cartrip. Just add children.

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The 1st NZ Singlespeed champs.  What a great event!  Held in Rotorua, it was the perfect venue for this gathering. Although it primarily revolved around a very secretive race, that was only a minor part of the occasion, and there was so much more to the weekend than that.  I got there on Friday with Blake, after taking in the Anzac dawn service at Mt Maunganui beach. We headed out to the forest from Scotts place, the 2 of us on singlespeeds, with Blake sitting shotgun with me. Took in a nice 1 hour leg-stretch, and pedalled on back to Scotts before making our way to registration at the Pig and Whistle, and some time at the bar catching up with friends as they began to hit town.

As expected, there was a high quotient of freaks, zipheads and lobo's,  I seemed to fit in perfectly.  The absolute best part of the event, was all the intrigue and speculation surrounding the race-course.  The organisers had gone to great lengths to keep the course secret, right down to having 3 guys designing a part of the course each, but not being aware of what the others were doing.  All that had been published was that the winners were expected to finish the race in 2 to 2.5 hours, and a random hint at the prospect it might be a multi lap format.

We were required to attend a bike scrutineering in town from 10am,  this was just a way to keep all competitors out of the forest so they wouldnt be aware of any course specifics while the course was being marked. The next 3 hours were a protracted series of briefings, and movements to the next breifing, and finally to the startline at 1pm. We then got informed of the multi lap format based around a figure 8 course.  The first lap we turned right out of the 'race village' for an 8km loop, then Lap 2 we go left for a 7km loop.  Then continue to alternate until 6 laps were complete.  Also, at the end of laps 3, 4, 5, and 6, we had the option of taking a short cut which involved skulling a can of the sponsors finest product, but we could only take the shortcut option a maximum of 3 times due to liquor licencing laws?!?

Sounds confusing.   Then we had to disappear 500m up the road for a running Le Mans style start. Running aint my strong suit, still it was the best way to split the field into the singletrack, which was plentiful, infact I believe there was only approximately 800m of gravel road over the entire 15km course, the balance being sweet Rotorua singletrack.  The majority of trails were the inner network, but doing them at racepace on the singlespeed bacame quite taxing. For me the race went well and I was going hell strong for the first 90 minutes, picking off riders in front of me constantly (yes I had a shit run), until I blew up spectacularly on my 4th lap.  I had it in my mind that I wasnt going past the beer tent at the end of lap 4, and goddammit I stuck to my guns.

The organisers have resolved to make this event annual, and have already set next years date to Anzac Weekend, in Rotorua, again.  While I have my doubts that they will be able to top this one, I am sure that they will be doing their best, and as such I will be there for certain.  If you only ever race 1 mountainbike race for the rest of your life, this should be it.

And for the coup-de-gras, I will now break every single coyright law known to man, by ripping this video off www.vorb.org.nz (look closely and you might even see me)

Well well well, what a great day.

A planned trip of biking in Rotorua. We decided to start over on Longmile Rd, to avoid the crowds, wow there must have been over 100 cars parked up around the big area there which I thought was odd, turns out there was some kids mtb event up around the grassy part od Radio Hut Rd, but was winding up not long after we arrived, so it thinned out. First time for Heidi on a bike at Vegas since the birth of Amy, 6 weeks and 2 days ago, and Amys first time in the trailer, so was sure to be interesting.
Amy fell asleep instantly and stayed that way for the next 2.5 hours so that was great.
I towed the trailer with Amy and all the baby things and our picnic lunch, as well as Blake on the top tube seat, on my old 14kg singlespeed. So, fair to say that the slog up to the Radio Hut Rd intersection was a slog of a warmup, still...bring on the SS champs, thats some resistance training right there let me tellya.
Heidi took a run down the Avenir trail while we went down the road and met up at the start of Dipper. Then we switched Blakes seat over onto Heidis bike, so she could take him around Dipper (which she was a bit nervous about). I towed the trailer around to Bakers Hollow and entered Dipper there, where we met up again and rode the rest of Dipper back to the start point.
Then we played swapsies, and I rode Heidis bike with Blake on back up to Radio Hut for a speedy run down Avenir (even got some air at one point ) Then we parked up on the grass for some lunch, yumm.
Then we loaded my bike up with all the kids and stuff again for a trip back to the car, Heidi detoured off to blast down Exit Jumps on the return. A bloody great family day out, hopefully next time we will have some more company.

Well its all about routines lately.  After Amy was born, Blake spent the next 3 weeks in daycare Monday through Friday. But since then he has only been going twice a week, on Tuesday and Thursday.

Tough on Heidi, but its really working out well now, and he is thriving.  His mates at daycare miss him, and he has become a bit of a parttime celebrity when he is there.

Amy is now having great weightgains, turns 6 weeks old tomorrow, which means I get to take her in for her first 3 immunization shots.  Its a good thing she wont remember it.

We had a great old time over Easter. I got to ride in Rotorua for a good 3 hours with a friend, and was the first time in about 4 weeks I didnt have Blake sitting on the top-tube, so had a bit of a hitout.  Then we spent a few days at Mum and Dads farm in Taupo.  Blake loves the freedom there, and all the new things to explore. Calling a couple of the dogs by name, and has really taken to his Grandma and Granddad.  Infact they took him for about 4 hours on Easter Sunday, Heidi had a short mtb ride at Craters of the Moon, then we popped into town for coffee, a nice relaxing time.

Heidi is now getting a bike ride in every day, and starts spin classes next week, all part of the build-up for her to make some achievements of her own this year.

Blakes vocabulary is going nuts, learning 1 or 2 new words every day.  Now we are getting 'wheel barrow', 'motor mower', and loads of other equally amazing words.

The last few weeks has been a bit of a blur;  a taxing mixture of inadequate and broken sleep, tag-team crying, and general chaos and disorder.

I get the feeling this little lady is going to be the boss of the household. 

I have been spending plenty of time with Blake, car shows, kart meeting, demo derby at the Speedway, and have taken him along on the last 2 Monday Night MTB rides, which is awesome.

Looking foward to an extended break over Easter. Meantime, heres some gushy kid action.

Well, after some negotiation I am back in the stupid seat again for the next 3 years. Im doing Targa Rotorua in May with my friend John, in his Porsche, again. But from then on I am committed to a deal with Richard Schouler in a new car thats currently under construction. Series 6 RX7, with an engine thats a secret at this stage.  With luck we might have it together for some testing, possibly even a shakedown event later in the year before the main Targa at the end of October.  Looks like its gonna be a pretty exciting adventure!    Some pics of the cage.....

A warm welcome to our latest addition. This gorgeous little girl came into the world at 9.51am on 21 February 2008. Her name is Amy Heidi Davies, she tipped the scales at 3.24 kgs, or 7 lbs 2 oz in the old measurements.  She is perfect in every way, and we love her.

Heidi is into the 40th week of her pregnancy.  She's coping well, but we're both just wishing the baby would come now.  Next post will be news of the big arrival.

B&W