After another month of good hard training we were back at the races for round four of the 2024 Huttcross series, this time at Ngāti Tama. Ngāti Tama is a really fun venue for cyclocross with an interesting range of features. Over the years we have made good use of the massive stopbank combined with the damp, boggy terrain on the river-side of the stopbank and the drier harder surface on the other side of the stopbank. One of my favourite Ngāti Tama courses from back in the day used the stopbank as a berm, but I don’t think we would get away with that with the council now sadly.
This years course was a fun mix of classic features, with some additional off-the-bike sandy runs that were new to me. Following a fairly wet and windy few days leading up to the race, we were treated to a mostly dry morning for our group ride out to the venue. This meant that the course started off slightly wet, but dried up during the morning making for quite predictable grip and some nice ruts in a few spots.
The course started with a short start straight before a nice wide long right-hand corner, meaning that getting the perfect holeshot start wasn’t that important. We then hit the slipperiest part of the course, which I ended up running most laps as it felt slightly faster and more consistent. The next third of the lap was a pretty power-heavy section, with a long drag up-river straight into the nor-westerly headwind before a spike up the roughly 7m tall stopbank. The stopbank here is pretty steep and we entered with very little speed thanks to a sharp left hander at the base meaning we were all muscling our way over the top. Looking at my power numbers, I was frequently hitting around 900W just to get over this.
Once over the stopbank the power section continued, but this time with a tailwind. After we dropped down the stopbank Lisa had set up the now traditional metal corner, nicely away from most other spectators: not everyone appreciates the metal, but I’m always happy for an excuse to throw the horns at some point in a race.
The course then took us on a much smaller up-and-over the stopbank, with a drop off the stopbank that I really enjoyed: some deep ruts had formed and I enjoyed pushing the bike into them and trusting that they would hold me. From here on the course was a little more technical, with a few speed-limited corners and the two short sandy run-ups that clogged most racer’s cleats.
My plan for this race was to try and practice some overtaking and race tactics, rather than just smashing it off the front from the gun as I had done at rounds 1 and 3. Sadly some of the faster riders weren’t at this round, and Liam wasn’t feeling it, so it was down to me and Bryan to battle at the front.
I didn’t do very well at following my plan. I got a good start, and was happy to be in second wheel behind Hisky for the first part of lap 1, but I got around him at some point and settled in to riding tempo, keeping my heart rate around 165bpm. From my lap times it looks like I went fairly fast for the first lap while I was getting the feel for the course. Once I realised that I didn’t have anyone to race I sat up a bit.
For laps 2 and 3 I tried to wait for Bryan and Liam to catch me, who looked like they were having a good battle for second and third. Bryan caught up to me near the end of lap 3 and I failed to let him past. Instead, I decided to put in a hot lap and see what kind of gap I could grow in one lap. I ended up putting in my fastest lap on lap 4 and pushed my average heart rate over 170bpm for that lap. I had fun trying to put together a fast and clean lap while riding at race pace. From there on I continued pushing on until the last two laps when I let off a bit and had some chats with lapped riders. In the end I came home just under two minutes in front of Bryan.
I had a great time thinking about some of the technical parts of the course: the first of the two main dismount sections had me working on dismounting and remounting on my less favoured side which was great practice at race intensity. The second run-up was a bit longer and I focused on trying to attack that as fast as possible. The rest of the course was pretty straightforward and nicely flowing compared to the previous round.
All in a good day out. Next up is National Champs in Christchurch. More on that to come soon…
Banner photo: Don Johnson.