Published by Tristan on 01 Mar 2009 at 01:16 pm
National Champs – Nelson
Ian Paintin’s race report after stepping onto the top of the Masters 2 podium in Nelson:
The rain set in at 8 am, and judging from the rain radar I downloaded off MetService’s site, we were going to get a decent hosing. I’d have preferred some better mud tires but was committed to the WTB Wierwolf [front] and Crossmark [rear]. As it was my last year in M2, I was keen to get near the podium but there were some heavy hitters on the start grid. The decision was made by BikeNZ to shorten the number of laps for all grades by 1 in light of the conditions.
Rob Kilvington set a smoking pace up the shingle road and I struggled to hold his wheel. The single track through the creek was awesome with so much water running down the track the wheels were not clogging with mud. At the end of the first lap, I was in fourth place, but still in sight of the leaders. I closed the gap on the shingle road climb to follow Chris and Rob into the creek single track. Through the forest switchbacks, I had Rob and Chris Gaze in sight 30-50 m ahead. I managed to get past Chris on a steep root section through the top of the course. Trevor had me in his sights on a steep descent where I was slowing for the corner but Trevor sailed through the corner and took a while to reunite with his bike.
I managed to pass Rob on a flat section before hitting the single track and the descents back to the start/finish.
Rob and I extracted maximum effort each other with Rob slowly pulling me in on the descents and I’d get away slightly on the climbs. There was no let up and I was not going to give up the lead easily. Back markers from the earlier starting grades were generally very accommodating letting us pass where they could.
We never lost sight of each other from half way through the second lap and so coming out of the forest descent on the third lap into the finish paddock Rob was right on my tail.
I was probably in a better gear than Rob and managed to hold him off, despite my rear end mildly fish tailing on the sodden grass.
The rain was actually a blessing as it kept the track well washed and the mud very sloppy. Any less rain and the mud would have clogged the tires making the descents much more exciting. There was surprising grip on the climbs as long as you were smooth in the pedal stroke.
Apart from a small flat section in the big ring I did the whole course in the middle ring using momentum to get up the short steep pitches.The bike behaved very well and the Stans ZTR wheel set was easy to spin up quickly.
ciao
Ian
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