The past couple of months have been crazy busy with planning, training, injuries, new sponsors, study, coaching, national champs and coming into the international season.
Since Melbourne’s UCI race and my last update, I had been struggling to get on top of my patellar tendon knee troubles. After MRI scans and meetings with doctors and staff, we slowly come to the conclusion on how to stay on top of and make progress with this knee. Two weeks of rest and recovery, it slowly became fit enough to be able to train again. Training has changed big time with having to adopt totally different ways of training to which I have never used or done before but it seems to be working and tracking just fine hitting new records and targets within training and testing. I guess the old saying goes; there’s multiple ways to skin a cat
Up till national champs which was over Easter weekend I have continued with my regular weekly coaching with the 30+ riders along with continuing working with my elite group of riders. Seeing these guys grow as riders and people is one of the most rewarding parts for me in this sport. . If you follow my Facebook and Instagram page, you would have seen I’ve also been sending some new gaps in training to scare myself. I’m a firm believer of doing what you preach and every single rider accomplished something that scared them to the point of almost giving up and pulling them through these fears and new accomplishments made me a proud coach for sure!!!!
Since Melbourne’s UCI race and my last update, I had been struggling to get on top of my patellar tendon knee troubles. After MRI scans and meetings with doctors and staff, we slowly come to the conclusion on how to stay on top of and make progress with this knee. Two weeks of rest and recovery, it slowly became fit enough to be able to train again. Training has changed big time with having to adopt totally different ways of training to which I have never used or done before but it seems to be working and tracking just fine hitting new records and targets within training and testing. I guess the old saying goes; there’s multiple ways to skin a cat
Up till national champs which was over Easter weekend I have continued with my regular weekly coaching with the 30+ riders along with continuing working with my elite group of riders. Seeing these guys grow as riders and people is one of the most rewarding parts for me in this sport. . If you follow my Facebook and Instagram page, you would have seen I’ve also been sending some new gaps in training to scare myself. I’m a firm believer of doing what you preach and every single rider accomplished something that scared them to the point of almost giving up and pulling them through these fears and new accomplishments made me a proud coach for sure!!!!
A couple weeks back the mountain bike event Crankworx came to Rotorua, New Zealand for the first time so myself and a couple of other BMXers decided to take on the pumptrack event and have some fun on mountain bikes. For me it was my first time on a mountain bike and damn I couldn’t stop sitting on the back wheel whilst manuleing from the bigger wheels. After qualifying 3rd, we went head to head racing seeing myself being eliminated in quarters to the guy who eventually went on to win. The event was unreal and I will definitely be competing next year.
Moving into the 2015 international season I have teamed up with a new gear sponsor, Alpinestars New Zealand. I’m super pumped to be wearing such a well established company moving forward. These guys have been working with royalty BMX to keep me looking fresh head to toe out on the track. I’m stoked with how the gear colour ways came together and my next race in the European season will see the release of the second colour way kit. Im rocking one of the new ride100% helmets this season which are due to be released in August this year. If you haven’t seen them or seen my one, it is super light weight and setting new trends in the sport of wheels.
Easter weekend seen the New Zealand National Champs take place in Hornby, Christchurch. The track was smooth, fast and it couldn’t have been any better weather wise. Practise came and went getting everything dialled in pretty quick. The Elite national title was up for grabs along with the third round of world selection trial. Motos came and went cruising through for 3 wins giving me first pick for the final. After picking lane 1, the gate dropped and I had my best gate of the day taking the holeshot and taking it right to the stripe to win the Elite National Title. It’s the first time since I have been racing all these years where I mentally felt this strong.
Moving into the 2015 international season I have teamed up with a new gear sponsor, Alpinestars New Zealand. I’m super pumped to be wearing such a well established company moving forward. These guys have been working with royalty BMX to keep me looking fresh head to toe out on the track. I’m stoked with how the gear colour ways came together and my next race in the European season will see the release of the second colour way kit. Im rocking one of the new ride100% helmets this season which are due to be released in August this year. If you haven’t seen them or seen my one, it is super light weight and setting new trends in the sport of wheels.
Easter weekend seen the New Zealand National Champs take place in Hornby, Christchurch. The track was smooth, fast and it couldn’t have been any better weather wise. Practise came and went getting everything dialled in pretty quick. The Elite national title was up for grabs along with the third round of world selection trial. Motos came and went cruising through for 3 wins giving me first pick for the final. After picking lane 1, the gate dropped and I had my best gate of the day taking the holeshot and taking it right to the stripe to win the Elite National Title. It’s the first time since I have been racing all these years where I mentally felt this strong.
Day two seen Superclass racing (open) and the same trend carried over. Cruising through to the semis with first pick I thought I would test myself and I picked an outside lane. Once again I got out strong and took the holeshot and the win moving into the 3 finals. After drawing lanes 5,3,1, I had some good battles down the front straight with buddy Kurt Picard taking 2 out of 3 wins giving me the overall win for the day. My goals for the weekend where to double up wins and not drop a lap which I did the double but dropped a lap in one of the day 2 finals. All in all, I’ve take some good confidence out of the weekends racing and super pumped to win the Elite national title. Day 3s racing seen the last world selection race but due to flying out the same day to Manchester, England, I skipped racing to pack and fly.
I then flew out and am currently in Manchester getting ready for the opening round of the world cup season. After flying in the night before our first practise, we got straight out there and smashed some laps. Track is fun, technical and pretty big considering its indoors. Today we had session two with the U.S., Great Britain, Australians and South Americans. A few things to tidy up in the last session on Saturday but can’t wait for the gate to drop next weekend and get into racing.
Plans for this next phase of ridding for me is race the next 2 world cups in England and Holland. I then will be heading to stay at Agile, Switzerland to train and ride at the UCI centre with the UCI team and stay with the royalty BMX guys between racing European rounds. I’ve never raced over here in Europe so I’m pumped to see what this series has to offer. The next step of this year is waiting for world champs selection. If I make the worlds team I will be staying in Europe for this race and if not, I will be flying home in July back to New Zealand to prepare for the last round of the world cup season in Rockhill USA.
As always, I can’t thank all who support me enough in this journey forward!!
All for now... #nine4nine
I then flew out and am currently in Manchester getting ready for the opening round of the world cup season. After flying in the night before our first practise, we got straight out there and smashed some laps. Track is fun, technical and pretty big considering its indoors. Today we had session two with the U.S., Great Britain, Australians and South Americans. A few things to tidy up in the last session on Saturday but can’t wait for the gate to drop next weekend and get into racing.
Plans for this next phase of ridding for me is race the next 2 world cups in England and Holland. I then will be heading to stay at Agile, Switzerland to train and ride at the UCI centre with the UCI team and stay with the royalty BMX guys between racing European rounds. I’ve never raced over here in Europe so I’m pumped to see what this series has to offer. The next step of this year is waiting for world champs selection. If I make the worlds team I will be staying in Europe for this race and if not, I will be flying home in July back to New Zealand to prepare for the last round of the world cup season in Rockhill USA.
As always, I can’t thank all who support me enough in this journey forward!!
All for now... #nine4nine
