The first races back after the off season are always an exciting, albeit daunting time. I’d felt strong in training but that means nothing without being able to convert that into a strong race performance.
We were racing at Halswell Quarry, in Christchurch, just 10 minutes from my home and the venue of my first ever MTB race at just 11 years of age. With 100 UCI points on offer for both Saturday and Sunday’s race and a good turnout of friends, family, and fans to spectate, it was important to have a strong performance, especially in my first race for my new team. There was some strong competition, in particular from Sam Gaze who I have had some great battles with over the years.
In the first race on Saturday, everyone had fresh legs and the pace was high. I looked to put my home advantage to use and kept the pace high on the descents, opening up a few metres here and there which meant the chasers had to expend extra energy on the climbs.
On the second lap I was able to make a decisive gap stick and kept a high pace for the next few laps, both up and down the hills to solidify and extend that gap. With a couple of laps to go Sam, who was in second place got a puncture which gave me some breathing room, and I was able to back off a bit to try and save a bit of energy for Sunday’s race. I was very happy to take the win, and a good confidence boost to start the season with.
On Sunday we were back at it again. It is always hard to find the motivation on these back-to-back race weekends, especially when the body is feeling extra fatigued and a bit ‘hungover’ from the race the day prior. I’d had an especially tough night with a bad stomach for some reason. After vomiting and little sleep I was finally able to get some food down which I knew I would need.
Changing weather conditions throughout the weekend meant another emergency tyre change just a couple of hours before the start (the fifth of the weekend!). Thankfully, once the race started, I could tell I had made the right choice as it was a bit slicker than on Saturday after some heavy rain overnight.
Sam had an issue with his wheel off the start line which allowed me a bit of a head start. After the first lap I had around a minute lead. I knew I would not be able to back off and although my legs felt pretty heavy, I was still able to hold the gap and increase it a bit through the mid part of the race.
In the end I took another comfortable win to make it 2/2 for the weekend and the perfect way to kick off the 2026 race season. A special thanks to the Christchurch Singletrack Club and Cycling NZ for making the event possible.It was a treat to not have to travel far to a race for a change.