2010 Oceania Champs, Dunedin Report

What a weekend! All the people involved with hosting the event deserve some huge props, 2010 Oceania championships in Dunedin was off the hook and definitely raised the bar for mountain biking events here in New Zealand. The course was excellent and weather held strong so it made for some Really good competitive racing with our Australian counterparts. After an up and down National season I am stoked to bag a solid result at such a recognized event. On not such a high note I am writing this on the couch foot up with a sprained ankle I suffered yesterday on a stupid crash at the bloody BMX track of all places! Not such a good end to the weekend but I will be back charging in no time.Anyway here’s a brief take on what went down.

Photo credit: Max carter-smith

With having two days practise at this race I definitely paced myself, although I ride Dunedin a lot they had built a lot of new stuff so the track was fairly new to me. The course was fast and taped wide the whole way with the usual Dunedin rock gardens and some new open off camber sections, It then joined on to the 4x track towards the bottom. This was the only thing that let the track down in my own opinion. The weather had been mint all weekend so when I arrived in Dunedin Race day morning to Rain and set in looking dark clouds I was a little gutted. Luckily it didn’t last long and the sun turned up which made course conditions actually improve with the dust settling. I hit one lap in morning practise then felt ready to qualify. I went out pretty hard in qualifying hitting all the tech sections good
And stayed smooth going into 4th place. Times where really tight so I knew it was going to be a close race but I defiantly had a lot more in the tank. Race run didn’t get off to the best start, I clipped my pedal in the first rock section which sent me down the following section 2 feet off. I managed to keep it rubber side down and from there I was on a mission, charging hard trying to regain some speed and rode really aggressive. I crossed the line in 2nd place behind George Brannigan and my time was a lot faster than I would have predicted for that run, I held 2nd place from the last few riders just edging out the young Australian pinner Troy brosnan who took 3rd. After that the pro men showed us how its done with Cam Cole taking the top spot followed by Nathan Rankin and Wyn Masters.

All in all it was a positive weekend and im happy I caped off my NZ season with a solid result. From Here its time to get down to business and train hard for my upcoming international season which I am Really looking forward to. Whatever goes down over there will end up on here so keep posted. Last but not least Thanks to Tomac bikes.

Peace out,
Jed Rooney