Oct 20, 2008

Top of the South DH Series, round one, Blenhiem, NZ


Sunday the 12th of October started with clear skies and no wind, the perfect day for a race.

I woke up, picked up Kieran, Rasmus and Nick O’rouke and we were on our way.

Practise was a little late to start as usual over that side of the hill but once it got started it ran smoothly with most people getting in 5 or 6 practise runs.

It was my first time back on the bike since being in whistler 3 weeks ago so I was itching to ride.

Track conditions were mint as with it tacky up the top and dry and dusty in the trees. Having ridden various track combos on this hill before this was by far the best. Starting next to the road and rolling down through some nice turns and a few small jumps before crossing the road and into a nice 30 footer which you can hit fully tapped. It then goes down a fairly steep fire road with some berms and a few sick flat/off camber turns in the pines on the side. One high speed turn later and you’re out onto a skid site for a 30second sprint just for shits and giggles. After the skid it was into the pines starting off with a nice steep chute with a hard right hander at the bottom. The rest of the track was full of berms and long off camber sections which were out of control.

In my first race run i had a mint run until I clipped a pedal and got thrown over the bars but was straight back up and down to the finish, second race run was sick as and out of control thru the off camber i got to the bottom pretty happy with my run and amped as after the off camber.

In the end I finished up behind recently signed Kieran Bennett in 1st and local fast guy and fellow pro elite Sam Reed in 2nd who put in the hard yards getting the track sorted for the race.

As usual thanks to the organisers for a really well run event and Bike HQ for their support.

Untill the next race...

Reuben Miller.

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