All Photos: Whaka 100 MTB Marathon

Almost two weeks ago now, Cory Wallace lined up in Rotorua, New Zealand with his Hei Hei CR DL for the biggest local XC race of the season, the 107km Whaka 100. Joining 3000+ people on the start line, Cory would battle it out with World Cup XC athletes and local legends and finish the day in third place! An amazing result in a race usually dominated by very fast locals! Check out Cory’s full race report below!

It was great to be back in New Zealand for the first time since racing the Pioneer and 24HR World champs back in 2016. This year an invite from the Whaka 100, Oceania’s biggest mountain bike race, brought me over to the town of Rotorua on the east side of the North Island. With 24 HR World Champs in Australia Nov 4-5th, the Whaka lined up great as a tune-up race and the goal was to go hard and enjoy it to the max!

I’ve always dreamt of a 100km BC Bike Race stage and the Whaka 100 is the closest that will likely ever come to reality. 107 km of flowing trails on hero dirt, through some thick NZL foliage with a few solid climbs mixed in. No real rocky BC Gnar but a few trails that will test the bike handling skills at speed as a few have drops and deep ruts to bomb through. Having the right bike with my full-suspension Kona Hei Hei decked out with Shimano XTR components and Maxxis Aspen Tires was a confidence booster going into the race!

Starting at the back Sunday morning, stuck in the 20s in a long train of riders through the twisty trails wasn’t ideal. Catching the leaders at 20km, the decision was made to light the fuse. Riding straight through them, putting a good dig into the next climb. Not sure if this was well received, being counter-attacked, getting dropped, and quickly sinking out of the top 10 over a minute back.

The day’s goal was to get in a tough workout for 24 Worlds in a few week’s time, this was successful, getting dropped this early was not. It was a long chase to try and get back into the race. Definitely tough on the mind as the other riders were out of sight so I just had to trust if I went hard enough the gap would start to come back. Digging deep for an hour, passing a few riders that had blown up, I eventually made it back to the front group of seven!

The Kiwis were riding the trails hard, with Cameron Jones attacking the downhills, showing why he won the TransRockies Singletrack 6 and all the enduros back in July. Getting strung out, I’d hit the 50 km feed zone in seventh, about 20 seconds back.

After a quick stop to get bottles off my friend Saya, it was game on as the Oliver brothers were going off the front. I’d never see them again but rode into 4th on the next climb, with 3rd in the sight lines, Caleb Bottcher. Caleb is a young World Cup racer who was riding very strong, especially on the techy trails. He would pull away anytime the gap came under 30 seconds.

Eventually getting up to his wheel at the summit of the KOM with 20km to go, I couldn’t get around him. He took off on the epic trail descent ahead, using his local knowledge and skills to pull ahead 30+ seconds. It was another hard chase, catching him with 5 km to go, using a downhill road section to slingshot off him up the next climb. This 15-20 second gap would hold to the finish, narrowly claiming the Bronze medal, just over three minutes down from two time Whaka champ, Ben Oliver , with his brother Craig Oliver taking the New Zealand National Marathon title a few minutes ahead. What a tough but rad day of battling it out in the Whaka forest this turned out to be against a strong and deep field of riders.

3000+ riders, endless flowing single track on hero dirt, and a dialed-in organization was the recipe for one of the coolest 1-day races I’ve been part of. Nice work Tim and the crew at Nduro events, you sure have a special race here.

The day after the race the body was still firing well so I took off on a 7.5-hour training ride to Rainbow Mountain and back and finished off in the Whaka Forest again. The riding is so good, it was tough to call it a day but I figured I better after 125 km, to save some bullets for the 24-hour World Champs on deck in 10 days’ time. After crashing with my friends Daniel and Jenn in Rotorua, it was onward toward the ocean-side village of Maraetai to join my friend Clinton and his son on a kids’ group ride. This was a fun ride with the energy of the youth but stretched the timing pretty thin, leading to an 8 pm parking lot pack job, then a short drive to an Airbnb near the airport for a 7 am flight out the next morning to Australia.

I’m currently set up with my long-lost Austrian friends Martin & Juliana preparing for an attempt at a 5th straight World 24-Hr Title in Armidale in just over a week’s time! Off to ride some old favorite Australian training routes on the Central Coast.

Over and Out from Down Under.