Kerikeri Girls Champions! - well done Girls and Guys

A group of Kerikeri High School students went away for the weekend of the 17th October for the Secondary Schools Nationals Mountain Bike Relay Champs in Rotorua. We left Thursday afternoon, towing the Striders Bike Trailer, fitting all 11 bikes on, and having room for more! All of the three teams (Senior Men, Junior Men, and Junior Women) fitted in 1 van, accompanied by Mrs Neave as the teacher in charge, and Mr and Mrs Martin for support, so it was a great 7hour trip down there. We arrived in Rotorua Thursday night, at the Thermal Holiday Park, to quickly unpack and then hit the thermal spa’s for a much needed soak, and rest our legs before riding over, and getting to know the tracks on Friday before the race on Saturday. Saturday came and it was an early start to haul everything up the hill to the start area of the race, but it seemed we weren’t the only ones using the shuttles as there were a lot of people about- some from as far away as Blenheim, Marlborough and Nelson (54 men’s teams in total, and 8 women teams.)
Racing started at 11 o’clock, with the Senior Men’s team (Rhys Felton, Ben Fewtrell, and Jonny Martin) and Junior Men’s Team (Reuben Cane, Sam Pickering, and Michael Dowdle) hitting the track first. The aim of the race is to complete as many laps as possible of an 8km track as a team, each lap tagging your teammate, and allowing them to shoot off for the next lap as you pass by the campsite, and giving you a much needed rest. The men’s teams race for 3 hours and the women, for 2 hours. After 3 hours of intense racing, recording times and lying exhausted on the ground after a lap, the race was over and the results were in. The Junior Men came 12th in their division (Juniors), and 38th overall, with the Senior Men coming 14th in the Seniors, but 16th Overall. The real winners (literally) were the Junior Women’s team, (Rachel Martin and Olivia Wadman) who won their race, carrying off the trophy for the Junior Women National Relay Title, having a close battle against Howick College, and Fielding High School, who claimed silver and bronze.

Mat Z news

I will get Mathew to email over the next couple of days. He is still riding the Giant but the frame is about to be replaced with a 2011 one on warranty. It has chipped very easily and we were able to line up 3 badly chipped bikes the same so Giant are coming up with the goods which is great.

He has been having a go at track and rode in his first track carnival this week after the Yunca Junior tour. The Yunca wasn't a particularly good tour for him but he had a really good last day and the selectors are still happy with him.

He has now ditched his U17 gearing as that was the last race he had to do on that gearing and so he can move onto U19. He had great pleasure in removing those enormous heavy cassettes!

He is looking promising as a team pursuiter or points race rider on the track. He has been riding his cousins bike but he has had to give that back so we are on the lookout for a cheap option for him. There are some club bikes he can ride in the meantime.

The Dunedin tour last month was a disaster as he crashed in the first stage. That was the weekend that Invercargil had all the snow so we missed the worst of the weather but conditions for racing in Dunedin on the Saturday were grim with rain and sleet. He realised afterwards that he had his tyres on backwards which doesn't help them grip in the wet. So he only rode about 7 kms of the first stage and then he was out with a damaged wheel and a grazed hip.

The boys were very excited to come back to the farm under about 6 inches of snow and spent the monday (I kept them home as the roads were dodgy) having snow fights and towing each other around the paddocks on a fertiliser sack behind the quad. The mud was pretty yuck after the melt though and we did lose a few cows from being stuck in the mud and being cold and wet.

We have had a week of billets staying here for Yunca including his coach from Whangarei and Mathew has enjoyed having his development squad mates here with him. Boy can they eat!

Anyway he will get back to you soon. Hope you are all well. We think of the striders often and do get the emails from Graeme Rye.

Rowers to Join with Striders Inc

News from The Special Meeting held at the clubrooms 7th October

The motion- as previously advised in writing to move ahead and merge the rowing club within the striders family for passed unanimously.

The attendance was simply stunning.

We are moving forward and as a first step we will be getting some tables and chairs for the clubrooms and it will be the regular meeting place for striders functions. We will start having our regular exec meeting there. Carl Robinson is presently organising a social function at the rooms, maybe a pot luck dinner type thing – more news soon.


Cheers
Bruce

Kayak to Black Rocks Saturday 2nd Oct

The promised fine weather was as predicted for the foray over to the black rocks and a small flotilla of sea kayaks left the beach at just after 9am. We had a local kayak enthusiast , Pete McGhee , lead the way off to do some rock hopping and to explore a cave on the way. Crossed over Kent Passage and made our way up the rocky northern coast of Moturoa Island. Some fantastic fluted volcanic rocks make this area stunning and the kayak has got to be the best way to see it.
Paddlers
Sue, Andy, Chris and Barb Stevenson, Jonny Martin,Geff Dunn, Pete Mc Ghee and Ueli and Me

After a stop at the northern tip of Moturoa- time for a brew up and a bit to eat - we all made the more direct route straight back to Opito Bay - a fast paddle home. In all a 3 half hour trip and much enjoyed by all.

Keen to try a local-ish multipsorts challenge??? ( Thanks Geff Dunn)
Multisport event in Northland on 14/11/10 - Rodney Coast Challenge - run 10 cycle 30 mtb 24 kayak 8, individual or teams of 2-3-4. A fund-raiser for the local scout group, 500+ competitors last year, a really enjoyable event, competitive but not too high-tech. Several striders taking part this year. See website. Good training for Northern Crossing.