Lester Perry from CuffoTV just beamed me over a vid and report from the first New Zealand National at Rotorua. Joe Barnes and Ben Cathro are currently out in NZ enjoying some winter training. It must be going well because Cathro took the elite win at Rotura.

Here’s a report in from Cameron Cole about his last few weeks, and report from the first round of the North Island Downhill Cup.

Hi all we are back for the summer after the Xmas and new year break.

I spent Xmas in the Taranaki region with partner Amy. We had a few days on and off training but good to have a small break before the busy up coming summer. We went to a sick Moto track just out side Hawera south Taranaki near Suzuki star Daryl Hurley’s track. The dirt was good and this kept us out of trouble for a day. From here we cruised up to Turangi for new years with the old Palmy dhers and Dans Sims etc. Fun was had with water, jet skis, alcohol, bikes and music.

Next stop on the circuit was the Rotorua National Cup race although it felt like a club race until race day. the woods in Vegas have seen some traffic over the past year or so with the shuttle service operation and as always the race course was sick. The weather was spring like during the days preceding the event and the earth was soft. The course ran along side the old Nat’s track at the top of the hill and back on after the road and step down. Into the couch straight around pimp chute incorporating some old school lines, down some roads another re birthed piece of trail and into a new finish.

Like I said the hill had seen some rain so the spikes were on for the first couple of days and most of race day. The holes got massive and the course had dried out by race time so much the dry tyres were on for some. In qualifying for the Pro class the times were tight. The fastest was Mat Scoles (Team wide open) closely followed by Glen Haden (2 stage bikes) who made the switch for the weekend from Motox to DH.
3rd in was Brook MacDonald (NZ Ride.com/anceloti). I had my best run of the week so far to 4th. 1st to 5th was spread over roughly 2 seconds so the race was destined to be tight.

The course had dried out so much since qualis with all the traffic on the course. I took a risk and put my a minion on the front and a high roller on the rear as did numerous others. I had sick run only one small mistake off one corner but was super stoked with the end result and happy to have put the dry tyres on. Ben Cathro (mojo/orange UK) was in the hot seat when i got to the bottom and i could only manage to get within 0.2 of a second of the Scots time. Cathro was also on dry tyres so it was looking like they were the pick for the final run.
3rd 1.0 second back from myself was young pinner and newly signed to Scott bikes Aari Barret (Scott/fox clothing) on swamp things. James Dodzy (zero bikes) smashed the rough course with his high pivoting rear end to 4th still on spikes in the loamy conditions.

All in all a great event and good to see both new and old faces up in the top 5. The next Dh race is in Rotorua in two weeks time. For me i will be at the next xc national in Auckland then back to the south island for the rest of Jan. Thanks to Gabby and Dodzy for the beds in Roto and the Rennies for the stay at the batch in Turangi and feeding the boys and Girls. Cheers also to Chris Vanderkolk for the J ski.

Thoughts also go out to Sheryl McLeod and Warren (her partner). Sheryl had an accident training at the weekend and has some complications with her spine and back. Hope you get well very soon.

1/ Ben Cathro Mojo/Orange/Fox
2/ Cameron Cole Maxxis/Quiet Chaos/NZ Ride
3/ Aari Bartlett Scott Bikes/Fox
4/ James Dodds Zero Bikes
5/ Glenn Hayden 2stage

See yo at the races

Cameron Cole

New Zealand Nth Island downhill mountain bike Cup Rnd.1 won by Ben Cathro