First I've got to say to Mike and the crew who are putting this event on - all power to you! Great that someone is picking up cross in NZ and I hope that you get a good turnout and that it inspires people to set up a cross series.

To anyone who's thinking of having a go at this event, all I can say is - do it!! Cross is perhaps the most fun you will have bike racing. I'm currently in Canada and spent the last autumn racing cross up here. It took me from being a jaded "former roadie, turned mountain biker who isn't inspired to race mountain bike" into an absolute cross addict.

The racing is something like a combination of criterium road racing, mountain biking and - and this is the best bit - the sort of riding that we all used to do on Raleigh 20's or Healing Cruisers in the school grounds and parks when we were all growing up. It can be a serious workout - if you want to race to win, you need to go seriously hard - but it doesn't have to be. And the cool thing is that on a good course (like I'm sure has been planned here) there are bits where MTB-ers will have an advantage and a bit where roadies will have an advantage.

Like I say, I reckon that this is the best fun that you can have racing on two wheels. Give it a go ... I bet you'll love so much that you'll be pestering your LBS for a cross bike in the near future!

woot! Thanks to some left over airmiles, looks like i'll be making the trip down from Hamilton for this race, figure it'll be a fun little warm up before the CX "Champs" in the Waikato...

I just need to get the race bike and pit bike down there in one piece and we're good to go.

now if only we could get someone in Auckland to organise a cross race and we'd have a 3 race series spread the breadth of the country...maybe in 2010.

Geez mate. You're pretty committed. You know this is just 50min's worth of lulz around a park right?

You must be a keen practitioner of cyclocrossing. It will be great to have you bolstering the numbers and showing us some nifty moves.

You'll only need one bike for it I would have thought? Surely not worth bringing two on a plane?

95bonty wrote:woot! Thanks to some left over airmiles, looks like i'll be making the trip down from Hamilton for this race, figure it'll be a fun little warm up before the CX "Champs" in the Waikato...

I just need to get the race bike and pit bike down there in one piece and we're good to go.

now if only we could get someone in Auckland to organise a cross race and we'd have a 3 race series spread the breadth of the country...maybe in 2010.

And by country you mean North Island, right?

You don't want no dirty mainlanders stinking up our races

Hey did I say I was complaining!

There's a South Island?

Why wasn't I told??

It doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things.

We try to sweep it underneath the rug.

Flights are booked - see you chaps there

Bring the megaphone!

Oli wrote:Bring the megaphone!

I got a cheap Jetstar flight with walk on luggage only - so it'd be a trade-off between a megaphone and wearing the same clothes for 4 days

Megaphone.

forwards, backwards, inside out forwards & backwards.................Megaphone

But but but... it's Jetstar - and they probably have a rule forbidding megaphones buried in their leather bound tome of confusing conditions

Just do the Jedi "that won't be necessary" <wave arm> and you'll be sweet.
And if you do it though the megaphone it will be sweeter