Auckland Champs round 3: Slater Road

When it comes to bikes, the saying "That's how I roll" actually makes sense. In my case, it was because Christmas had come early to the Page family household in the form of a custom built Stans Crest 29'r wheelset on Stans 3.30 Ti hubs. I'm not sure if it counts as a Christmas present when you buy it yourself, but nonetheless just riding around the cul-de-sac on these wheels, set up tubeless with my Racing Ralph tyres, was enough to make me giggle a little inside. And aloud too for that matter. I have always intended to put a lightweight wheelset on my XTC 29'r, as I have always known that the one thing that needed improvement was the wheelset weighing in at just over 2kg... Swapped out for the 1500g crests, the bike was down to 10.4kg, with pedals and a cycle computer. So, car packed and bike suitably blinged,  I headed off to Slater road to race the final of the Auckland Champs.

Slater road is not a place the general public get to ride most of the time, which is a shame as they are a combination of fast, flowing, steep trails on the sandy Woodhill surface; fun to ride on all but the driest of days. The course featured around 290m climbing per lap; with laps being 9.2km long there was plenty of climbing and descending packed into this course. On the start line, I couldn't help but wonder how this race was going to play out. Option A, I had just dropped 600 grams of rotational mass from my 29'r, so I should be going faster. Option B however, was that on the pre-ride of the course the week before I had felt out of breathe and lacking speed. In a few seconds I was going to find out which way this race would play. Off the start line, I found myself in the lead group of about 10 riders, and not struggling at all. Looks like if you picked Option A you guessed right.

Unusual for a race, the first single track section was in fact Downhill, a polar opposite to past years where the start has been straight into a climb. I personally think all races should start with a small Downhill before they make you climb, as it makes the race more than just fitness when it comes to winning. Pain merchants were not left wanting however, as the course soon changed it's tune as we hit the climbing sections. These ranged from a long fire road to a steep, sandy slope that took a fair bit of frantic spinning to conquer. Around 3/5ths of the way through the lap I was overtaken by fellow U17 racer Tom Coombes, and found myself in second. It wasn't long before 3rd placed rider Arran caught a whiff of where I was up ahead, not hard considering I am a teenage boy grunting out the miles on a hot day, and so began a fast paced game of cat and mouse. One wrong move would see you getting a little too friendly with the foliage to the chorus of "carbon fiber in tree sider." Luckily this did not happen and I still held a few seconds lead going into the second/final lap. Those new wheels were great!

Hitting the gravel road about half way through the second lap it finally sunk in I wasn't going to be able to beat Arran through sheer pushing power alone. He was putting everything he had into trying to overtake me and sooner or later one of us was going to tire. So, knowing the risks, I let him slip past and pulled in behind him for a while, taking the opportunity to eat and drink before we hit the singletrack again.

I knew that before the finish line there were 2 sets of 4WD track about 500m long each, just enough to sprint past and take a lead if you had the guts. It was here I was planning to make my move, on fresh legs from sitting in behind Arran letting him take the wind up the hills (I've clearly been doing too much criterion, probably why I chose to adopt this strategy). But, with 2km to go, with a sprint finish looming, the unthinkable happened; a catastrophically jammed chain that somehow appeared to be strangling itself. But, for the first race in a long time, it didn't happen to me. It happened to Arran. On the climb before the second to last fire road of the race. I found out after the race that the chain had jammed so badly he pulled out of the race and carried his bike home. To be honest I feel almost as robbed as Arran must have; I was looking forward to a repeat of last years Auckland Champs final at Riverhead! A sprint finish across the line, winning by less than a second... Next time, Arran.

Results: The top 3 positions in U17 men were all filled by Jafas, curiously in the order they finished on the day. Tom in first, with a custom made trophy by yours truly to be distributed amongst future U17 winners, Myself in second, and Peter Bethell in third. In the women's race JAFAKIDS dominated too, with the top 3 positions being taken by JAFAKIDS, a lot like the men's podium. Jemma Manchester in first, Harriet Beavan in second, And Charlotte Rayner in third. Unfortunately for some of the younger riders, there was no U15 category. However, they still gave many riders a run (or ride) for their money with some great lap times showing through. Well done guys!

So, the recap from the Auckland champ series in general:
1) When I train, I race fast. Seems logical, but it is something that does not really sink in until you lose a race you should have won because you decided not to train in the week leading up.
2) Ice cream. It works. Regular readers will know what I mean.
3) Wheels. When investing in a race bike, invest in some light, stiff wheels. You will not regret it. I guess that's how I roll: with the help of a custom build of Stans Crests...