HMMMM Training Begins

Ok so things have been a bit shakey on the health front since new years. Everyone in our apartment has been handing the flu around and unfortunately I was one of the last to get it. As such once the weather did finally clear enough for us to go riding I was still sick. Well the concrete pills have been taken and with the recent purchase by Rodrigo of a new Trek Session 8 we decided to spend the day shuttling the Portalegre Nats Track, He made it 50m before flipping over the bars on a road gap stepdown. Right first stack out of the way time to get down to some real riding. After sweeping the track to check for hazards we got straight back up to the top and started to speed things up a bit. The main issue I've had with this track is that we've only ever done 1-2 runs tops before calling it a day and therefore never really got into it.

It was also the first time doing Dh runs clipped in and I will admit I was a little apprehensive to begin with, I've always enjoyed being able to drop a foot when necessary and the ability to do so had really saved my bacon on the last ride down this track a few weeks ago. But having been riding around the tracks at work on the tight technical stuff has made a huge improvement in my balance and being clipped proved to be advantageous rather than a nuisance. And the only crash I had ended up being funny rather than painful and as usual was after those fateful words were uttered, Just one more run....oh shit.  

So thats the biking stuff out of the way now for the other stuff in the life of Bandit Racing. Yesterday Seb, Kurt, Rodrigo and I went over to Batalha to trade in his utterly rooted giant reign for a brand new Trek, that would have normally seemed ok as most people close to me will know I tend to get stuck for hours at the bike shop. But this trip was made even better by the fact that there is an utterly amazing church in the town. The detail was simply breathtaking and the sculpting of the stone and marble in the place must have taken several mens entire lifetimes.

Then with that gem of a church inspected we headed over to Tomar, and more specifically to the Convento de Christo( or Convent of Christ) Which history buffs will know happens to be the former headquarters for the Templar Knights of the Crusades. This place is fantastic, and we spent literally hours looking around the endless wonders of this cornerstone of military history. We had access to the top 3 levels of the place but as it was relatively evident if you were paying attention there were at least 3 more basement style levels we couldn't legally get to, and as curious as I was getting arrested was not going to be on the agenda.

Now our Sunday is drawing to a close and it's time to relax and just chill out with a couple of quiet drinks, do some maintenance on the bikes and start drawing up a training schedule. With only 4 and a half weeks till we fly out and not one race here before National Champs in Dunedin things are going to be tough and all I can do is to be as fit as possible.  

New Years In Spain

Ok so it's been a couple of weeks since my last update. And tonight's one will be brief as the hangover is not. We've finished building the first loop at Big Heads which offers a reasonably relentless climb of a tight twisty trail littered with rock, once you reach the top you are at the highest point on this side of the property. The trail then meanders across the top of the rock slab and into a cool techy trail down the slabs and with a few short alternative with various challenges to keep things interesting. The weather has been absolutely awful lately so we haven't been able to get in as much riding as we would like but we did manage to fit a quick blat around the trails at the compound in the rain on Thursday. It was quite good as most of the trails have been built in the summer so it was good to see where drainage would be needed. And a really good test for my new clip shoes and pedals, I've always been a little sceptical about riding in clips as I like to get my feet off when I need to, but I have to say the first impressions of riding with clips was certainly a good one, the extra control in the less than ideal conditions was amazing. Times when I would usually drop a foot for extra balance I found myself instead pedalling and finding more grip than usual. So the next few weeks will be spent riding on them every chance I get and starting the build up towards the New Zealand National Champs in Dunedin the week after I get home.

Well this is the 1st of January here In Portugal so yesterday we thought the best thing to do on new years eve here would be to leave :) so we packed up and went off to Badajoz (Badahos) in Spain. the architecture is superb and everywhere you look there is more history just waiting to be uncovered. But we weren't there for the history, we were there to party so a quick stop to find accommodation and pick up some beverages to get things going. Things kick off pretty late in Spain and there was little action on the streets till after eleven. Everything went off with several bangs and everyone had a ball.

Sintra Santas

Broken battered and scarred, But merry xmas all.
What a wicked weekend. After dinner and drinks with our new portuguese friends we had a rather later start to our weekend trip to Sintra than we'd originally anticipated but hey we're on holiday :) We got down to Sintra and went and had another feed of Bitoque by the beach and watched some pretty sick waves roll on in. Then it was down to business, we hadn't come all this way to vege out at the beach so we jumped in the bob sled and headed off up the hill. unfortunately i drew the short straw and ended up driving the first run but oh well, the guys had a blast and were all amping by the pickup point. So we hit up the next track and after ripping down a fast wet rocky single track with crazy concrete round shed things in the middle of the track we made it safely to the bottom. Nothing spectacular about that track just good honest fun. After that we decided to hit up the Beach Track. Well now this track was a different story, starting out with some flat out rocky fire road it then turned onto a very fast very slippery rocky single track with some big ass tomb stones to ruin your day. I stopped half way down the track to check up on Kurt and then headed off, what I had missed while stopping to talk was that there was a dirty little step down gap about 60m from where we were and as I just cruised off I was going too slow to make it and ended up skidding down the landing on my head, fun times.

Sunday morning rolled around far too fast and by 9am Rodrigo and I were on our way to meet up with the dudes from Freeride Portugal. We got to the pick up point and were immediately bombarded by around 35 guys in santa suits. This just happened to be the day of their annual santa ride. While out riding and sitting in the van talking with a couple of the english speaking guys and straining my limited but rapidly growing portuguese vocabulary I was suddenly reminded why I got into dh riding in the first place and why I still love it. The people. Something as simple as a bicycle bringing together people that otherwise would probably never meet. It was cool to see the older guys in this crew looking out for the younger guys and the reality that it is just the same here as it is back home ran right through to the handful of hardy guys who go out after work to build these trails. Big ups to volounteer track builders everywhere, your hard work is greatly appreciated.

We rode some pretty cool tacks and even though I ended up once again on my head I had an absolute blast. One of the highlights would have to be the urban dh run through this gorgeous city, ancient stairs and alleyways leading down from the palace right into the town centre.

I'd have to highly recommend this great little town as a top spot to visit with so much history and great riding you could easily lose yourself for weeks just being nosy.

Well it looks like the grubs up so heres a couple of videos to keep you interested while I stuff my face.
Adeus Amigos

stupid computer won't load the vid so heres a pic or two

Espanha

Ok so we went to spain yesterday, half an hour in a rattly old heap of a truck. We wandered through the original Alberqurque and climbed up onto the wall of the castle there. We really wanted to go in but  unfortunately it is being prepared for tourists and so was closed, got some pretty cool pics though. After a couple of hours/coffees and beers, we decided to truck on back to Portalegre to do some riding. The track of choice was the one most people refer to as Wyns track, built by Wyn Masters, Kurt Lancaster and the others on the crew at the time it's a pretty cool wee single track style dh run down through the woods above the town,  it's really good for getting in lots of runs with only a short turn around. So we figure that we will extend it to make use of the other side of the road and get a longer run option happening. After riding we were invited to Rodrigos (our portuguese housemate) girlfriends place for dinner. It was a truly impressive feast with so much food I didn't get to sample it all. The sangrias flowed all through dinner and then it was time to go have a look at the night life, The night life is pretty good everyone out having a good time with very little signs of drunkenness or agro, though they do still smoke in bars here and it was amazing how horrible it was, best thing New Zealand ever did was banning smoking in bars. So we wandered on home at 3:30 this morning and now we're going off to build that dh track.
So bye for now

Bandit

Week one down.

So, week one down, 11 to go till I come home, 12 till National Champs. Training has been limited to a couple of street rides followed by beers and local food, as well as hauling alot, and I mean a f^$king lot of rock. It is however leading to one amazing track and one which will certainly stand apart from anything else in the area. Last weekend we were supposed to be heading through to Sintra to do some dh shuttles but unfortunately at 5am friday morning the bob sled( transit van with stuffed battery) decided to destroy it's oil pump leaving a rather large slick running down the car park and back up into it's park. Then or Portuguese house mate went and tore the sump out of his van on a manhole cover while trying to rally through some roadworks.

This week has been one which truly tries your patience. One that if you didn't laugh you would probably have a serious problem on your hands, digging for 9hrs 4 days in a row in the pouring rain for instance. Waiting for your stuff to arrive only to find it's gone to the wrong address and they are on holiday for the next three weeks. Gotta love this place. On the plus side food and alcohol are very cheap the countryside is amazing, the other day we climbed a few hundred stairs to reach an old church at the top just so we could ride down again.

The people here are hilarious, the don't smile, look at or even acknowledge you, so it has become our mission to make them by waving, smiling and saying hello to everyone( though in portuguese) and so far we have started making some headway. Already today we had three people wave and one do the fingers, guess three out of four aint bad lol. This weekend we plan to do some day trips and visit old stuff, castles, museums and churches etc. and with a bit of luck we might fit in some shuttles of the local national track. It's a pretty cool wee track with a road gap, a rather large step down into trees and a hard right, and a 12-15ft stepdown gap into another sharp right, as well as lots of rocks and off camber hopefully get some more video footage up soon.

Till next time,
Bandit

Portalegre, Portugal

Hi all and welcome to my blog, Seems I really should have started this a while ago but oh well tough luck. The aim of this is to let all you guys in on the many adventures I'm getting up to these days. There has been a lot of changes in my life over the last few years all arising from the rekindling of my love affair with two wheels, it's funny that something that was such a big part of my youth just managed to slip by the wayside for so long but i guess once the bug bites it may lay dormant for a while but eventually you just get sucked back in. Funnily enough like most of life's major changes this one came about on a night on the town. Having tired with the usual smack talk etc I adjourned to the pokies slipped in a gold coin and boom jackpot, mint I thought drinks all round, then while waiting for the bartender to sort the payout I moved to another machine where the process was duly repeated, two jackpots in a row. Bloody ridiculous but I thought I better not waste it so the next morning was spent on trademe where I managed to find a mint 05 Sinky DeeLux, let the DH addiction begin. So two years two years and 5 bikes later I now have a mint 2010 Yeti 303Rdh as well as countless new friends, a new career, and new goals.

It was one evening ride a year and a half ago however that proved to be quite a catalyst to the events that have unfolded since, during a ride over an unnamed track in the hills overlooking Dunedin I suffered a nicely snapped rear shock. After trying the usual bike shops and receiving less than satisfactory service and even worse advice I happened upon the then recently opened Bike Otago. Not only did the get the shock fixed they also lent my a replacement while mine was away, While there talking with one of the owners Greg, I had my eyes opened to a whole other side of the biking life and one that hit home with my naturally competitive side, after a few months of weekly shuttles with crew from Bike O and the rest of the tight nit local dh riders I was starting to think about the first race coming up in Clyde. I wasn't happy with my bike so out it went and along came an early glory, It lasted me 2 races much to my partners dismay( and probably many others :P ). After those two races with reasonable top 10 finishes and some more discussion with Greg and Justin I found myself on Yeti, the difference was immediate and come NZ National Series time I had progressed enough to secure a top 25 finish in the South Island Cup, pretty pleasing results for a first year on a bike after over 10 years off and no previous racing at all. Around the end of the South Island rounds I heard through some friends about a job too good to be true, could I really go round the world, build tracks, ride my bike, meet some awesome people and experience things I'd never even dared to dream. One email was all it took to find out yes I could. 9 months later and I've been riding in Jamaica, Portugal and all over New Zealand and have enjoyed every minute of it.

Over the next couple of months here in europe I aim to get in lots of training for National Champs being held in my home town this year and with several Portuguese Nationals track in close range I should be fighting fit come the end of February.