The North Island secondary school Mountain bike event, took place on Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th with more than 70 different school's attending the Levin event. Riders were to take part in the 3 disciplines of riding; Downhill, Cross country and Hill climbing.
The downhill, which was a highlight of the weekend for me and the rest of the Burkes team, was strongly regarded by riders and spectators as the more extreme event of the weekend. With many spills, thrills and one competitor over shooting a berm, going straight into the crowd on race day. We all loved that one!
Practice day DH
It kicked off after the XC race. Unfortunately I was unable to race, not only because I handed in my entry late, but also because I was walking about looking for a prime spot for watching rider's come through the downhill section- duh!
As the first rider's started to come through the section I was standing at, which was considered the part "which would sort the boy's from the girl’s”. This was considered to be the steepest part of track and it came apparent that most girls mainly on xc bikes, with very high seat's ( I wonder why they don’t put their seats down although the view was great! ) were riding really well, which was great to see, as Downhill is a male dominated sport. After watching heaps of people fly through this section, including the Burkes rider's who were all on form, especially Jamie Lyall who was absolutely pinning, in only a bucket lid, I decided to call it a day and head back to the motel.
Race day
It kicked off and you could sense everyone was loving the track and feeling good after practice day. I decided that the spot I was previously at on Saturday would be pretty primo for photos so I headed back up there. Today was the day of the megaphone, I was certain to be calling out only encouraging things- “Yeah right!” I have to thank Simon Barratt for the loan, shot Sizzle! Just spectating was pretty cool, because some of the people were pinning it, and some people providing a laugh, with the odd things they would say as they came past.
The first age group to come down the hill, including one of the Burkes team member's was the u15 boy's. In this age group, Desmond Jones was representing the Burkes Team, He was looking fast all weekend and managed to pull off a 3:06.82 leaving him in 7th place.
Next up were the u16 boy's. Representing Burkes in this category was Michael Dodds, he was looking fast against the other rider's coming down the hill. He must have eaten something feral, because he got down pretty quick; pulling a time of 2:55.96 this put him in 5th place. Dodzy was stoked.
Finally the u19 boy's and the last 3 member's of the team consisting of Tom Ives, Cameron Bruce and Jamie Lyall were set to come down the hill. All 3 were looking quick as usual in practice, even though Tom was telling me how he hadn't been on the DH bike much at all lately. Tom came down not looking to happy, but did pull off a 3:17.04. Jamie came down pretty fast and even managed to back out a pretty sick drift after ski jump berm, he pulled off a 3:01.52. Last but not least was Cameron "Woody" Bruce who had been looking very consistent all weekend, even after running down the new technical bit on Saturday. He has been riding well all through the National's, and it showed at this event when he managed to pull off a 2:52.29 putting him in 5th place in u19 which was a great result.
All in all the weekend was a blast and the whole team did really well which was great to see.
I’d like to thank all the people who helped run this awesome School event in Levin, the Burkes Cycles team had a blast. I’d also like to mention Adrian especially for setting the whole Burkes Cycles grom search up. A huge shout out for Ben and Lachlan for coming out and supporting us, Pete and the rest of the team at Burkes Cycles.
See you out on the trails and at the races
Harry McDonald. |
