Megan Dimozantos - Endurance Mountain Biker

Mind Games and "The Ninja"

2012-01-22T17:08:00.009+13:00

Monday saw me road-tripping it down to Wellington after work to pick up my new Yeti ASR5C (what a sweet way to start the week!). I could barely contain my excitement and spent the entire trip with my car stereo cranked up singing along to my favorite riding tunes (that I would admit to this in writing on a public forum really shows I have very little shame). I arrived at Roadworks to be greeted

Hard Lessons as a Roadie - The Hub Cycle Tour

2012-01-15T20:03:00.006+13:00

Friday afternoon I set off from work to Hawkes Bay to do The Hub Cycle Tour. This is a three day road race with four stages. I had been debating whether to enter A Grade or B Grade and eventually decided to enter A grade just because the B grade distances were a bit short for me. I hadn't really taken into consideration that riders required a race license to enter, and that there was some quite

Mid-Week Gloating and Weekend Boating - Tour De Whaka

2012-01-08T21:32:00.004+13:00

This week was a pretty big one in terms of training and other bike-related stuff. Suffice to say, I feel quite broken sitting on the couch right now trying not to succumb to the urge to drink a beer.It all started on Tuesday with a short, 2 hour thrash out on the Mountain Bike. It was a pretty nice evening and my task was to put in 20sec sprints every 2 minutes for an hour of this ride, which may

A Week in The Hurt Box

2012-01-01T20:17:00.007+13:00

The splendid weather we have been having of late was bound to come to an end sooner or later. Luckily, this week, I still managed to get in Tuesday smashfest and Wednesday hill time trials at Kohitere before the bleaker weather set in. Kohitere was it's usual fantastic self. I went for a trip out there after work on Wednesday and the trails were bone dry and rolling really fast. I beat my

Christmas Training Treats...

2011-12-27T20:07:00.002+13:00

So there were a couple of really wicked things about training over Christmas this year.Firstly, the weather... It has been so long since I have been able to get out in a long run of amazing sunshine and dry trails and cultivate my tan lines. Lately, I've been heading out to Levin for my Wednesday rides and doing my time trials up the new singletrack climb there... It's soooo much nicer than

Touring The Rangitikei - Views, Climbing, Summer and the "L" Word

2011-12-11T21:04:00.007+13:00

I'd been looking forward to this all week now. I'd mapped out a little 200km jaunt around the Rangitikei, starting in Hunterville, looping up past Taihape, staying in Mangaweka the night, then up to Utiku and then back to Hunterville. I'd been looking at doing the Rangitikei Cycleways for a while now, but the logistics of a one-way tour were a bit troublesome, and in all honesty, the final two

Mitre 10 MEGA Summer Series - Nirvana on a Sunny Thursday Evening

2011-12-02T00:06:00.005+13:00

The first evening of Summer had arrived in true style here in Palmerston North... The sun was out with a few fluffy clouds hovering in the blue sky and a very slight cooling breeze to top it off. I have been riding my bike to work all this week... To do otherwise would be criminal, the weather has been so nice. So today, I cruised into work on my Yeti 575 and had to spend the whole day looking it

Falling Trees, Shaved Heads and Tan Lines

2011-11-28T21:07:00.006+13:00

It was 6am and blowing a gale around Lake Taupo. John had started riding at 1.30am that morning for the Enduro (2 laps of the lake) so I was kinda hoping we would drive past him so I could shout out obscenities at him... We went past quite a large bunch all sporting their "Enduro" caps... No John... Passed another couple of riders... Still no John... I refused to believe he would have been

Le Petit Brevet - Climbing for Africa

2011-11-21T20:19:00.009+13:00

When I decided to do this event, I thought to myself "I'm fit, I train, I ride my bike a lot... How hard can 7,000m of climbing over 230km around the Banks Peninsula be? All I have to do is just keep grovelling". It appears in hindsight, there was a little more to it than that, although luckily I saw it this way at the time I booked my airfares, or I may not have ended up in Christchurch on what

PNP Final Race - The Mostest Fun I Have Had In Ages!

2011-11-13T20:46:00.004+13:00

I've just finished having a great weekend on the bike. Friday evening I headed off to the gym for my first weights workout in a month... I knew it would hurt (and it did), but I was happy that I was still pushing the weights and reps I was a month ago. Saturday was a bit of a drizzly morning and I headed out on a road ride on one of my favourite routes up the Pohongina Valley and then up Valley

Tour De Manawatu - Roadie For a Day

2011-11-11T22:25:00.004+13:00

After a hectic stint at work (the new store is open now!!! Visit us at the new Mitre 10 MEGA in Featherston Street!), I decided I needed to get out on two wheels... ANY two wheels. It just so happened that the store had sponsored the Tour De Manawatu bike race, so what better opportunity to go and thrash my weary legs?! Not one to do things in halves, I decided on the long course, which was 116km

Whaka 100 - Time to Harden Up!

2011-10-24T20:59:00.011+13:00

I must say that I haven't been having much luck of late... In between crashes, swooping magpies and illness, I went into this weekend's Whaka 100 feeling really good and pumped and excited to jump on my bike for a long, hard ride. I'd been tossing up during the week whether I would use my old pink Yeti ASR for the race, or if I would take my unnamed hardtail training bike for a spin. I kinda

Coming Home

2011-10-17T22:04:00.003+13:00

This week was my last big week in a hard block of five, so it was always going to be tough... Having said that, over the last 5 weeks, I was yet to miss a session, which I was pretty stoked with. Tuesday saw the beginning of a little throat bug and unfortunately Wednesday saw me miss my first session, which was my weekly hill session with Sasha, so I was rather bummed about that! I nursed my way

To Bar End Or Not to Bar End???

2011-10-09T19:43:00.005+13:00

I love my bar ends... These near-weightless little pieces of carbon that attach to the ends of my handlebars are one of my best friends when I'm grinding up an endless hill. But an incident this weekend had me questioning my allegiance to the Bar-End fraternity...I set out early on my Saturday morning four hour ride. To be honest, I didn't feel too crash hot when I got up, but I have no doubt

The Last Few Weeks of Biking Goodness

2011-10-06T22:01:00.004+13:00

I've just finished a spin session in the living room and thought it best to sit down and catch you all up on the last couple of weeks (I have been a pretty slack blogger). The legs are feeling a little tired and heavy, but it feels good. I feel like I'm getting stronger and I'm well on track for Cape Epic at the end of March. Over Summer, I'll aim to get out onto some more technical areas of

Day Night Thriller - Three Yetis and a Lung Full of Dust

2011-09-14T07:18:00.006+12:00

OK, so I badly wanted to use the good ol' "Done and Dusted" for the title of this post, but seeing as it was indeed so dusty at the 2011 Day Night Thriller, there seemed to be a lot of other reports popping up using the same, so I figured I would give myself the credit of being a little more creative than that!We arrived late Friday night with a very comfortable two minutes to spare before

Mitre 10 MEGA to be Cape Epic Headline Sponsor!

2011-09-11T14:55:00.004+12:00

In the wake of a very successful Day Night Thriller yesterday (race report on it's way!), John and I are very proud to announce Mitre 10 MEGA as one of our headline sponsors for our 2012 Cape Epic Campaign.I have to say, I am really excited and quite humbled by this. I have worked for Mitre 10 MEGA for a little over four months now and am really stoked to have such an impressive display of

This weekend - New Gear and Geographical Embarrassment

2011-09-04T18:40:00.007+12:00

This week wasn't without it's challenges... A busy week at work saw me ditch two days worth of training and my Cape Epic teammate, John Randal emailed me on Friday to tell me he had a bit of an off and he was resting up this weekend (something about dislocated shoulder??? Damn!). Anyway, I passed on some medication to him (see right) and I think that after taking it, he should hopefully be fit

Yeti NZ to Support Megan and John's Cape Epic Campaign!

2011-08-30T07:55:00.008+12:00

As many of you may know by now, John and I are very proud to announce that Yeti NZ have come on board as sponsors for our Cape Epic campaign, so you will see us both zooming around on our brand new Yeti ASR5 Carbon bikes sometime in the (hopefully) not-too-distant future. We are also just as excited to have the opportunity to be able to draw on Kashi Leuchs’ experience racing the Cape Epic (and

A Wicked Weekend of Adventure and Racing

2011-08-29T22:45:00.006+12:00

Last weekend wasn't without it's adventure. Sasha and I had planned for some time now to do Takapari Road but when the day came, the weather wasn't looking overly favourable. We planned out a different route which started on Takapari road, then (hopefully) turned off to the left and came back down for a bit of a saunter up to the glow worm caves. As we climbed Takapari, the weather was a bit dull

Winter NDuro 3 - A Race is More Than Just the Training

2011-08-15T22:47:00.000+12:00

I really think I've started to get a bit complacent about my "shorter" distance races. Great in that I don't get so nervous and edgy before a race... Bad in that my preparation has lately proven to be a little lacking. Sunday was a perfect example of this. I must admit that I was rather nervous because I knew I had been training hard and that I had built some good strength over the last month, so

Santoft Sizzler - A Gold Pinecone on the Mantle

2011-08-07T21:56:00.003+12:00

Another solid week of training under my belt... Monday and Friday gym days, Tuesday and Thursday evil spin days (thanks Sadie) and Wednesday night race at Linton Camp filled out the week quite nicely. By Saturday, I was pretty pooped and came so so close to flagging my four hour session that was planned for the day. Figuring the mental anguish and beating I would give myself was far less

Last Weekend's Super Duper Riding

2011-08-06T21:35:00.002+12:00

I think we've come to the general conclusion now that my blogs will be a week late! Last weekend was an absolutely stellar weekend for riding. Saturday saw me head up Pahiatua Track from Palmerston North and onto North Range Road through the wind farm. The day was spectacular and the views complemented it well. I rode the full distance of the farm and down the other side onto Ballance Gorge Road,

Toasty Warm Winter Hands With Icebreaker Quantum Gloves

2011-07-23T21:38:00.004+12:00

I mentioned these in my last blog, but I rode with them again today and was, once again, blown away by how warm they were for something so thin and lightweight.When I first opened the box and pulled out my new Icebreaker Quantum Gloves, my first thoughts were that they look nice (all Icebreaker stuff does), they fitted well, and the grip pattern on them looked very practical. I must admit that I

Race Update - MMBC, NDuro and Night Riding in Sub Zero Temps...

2011-07-21T00:07:00.003+12:00

Ok, so I've left this a week (or two) late, but it really has been a very exciting couple of weeks with very little time to blog. I've finally gotten into the swing of things with my new job as General Manager of Mitre 10 Mega in Palmerston North, I've started going to the gym again for the first time in about 3 years to work on some additional strengthening and the days here lately have been

Icebreaker Grace Jersey and Rush Bra Review

2011-06-25T11:58:00.002+12:00

My review as seen in Spoke Magazine... No need to rewrite I suppose, and this way it has cool pictures to go with it, too!!! The Icebreaker cycle range is a great investment for Winter. Click on the article to zoom in and read.

Adidas Supernova Pro Glasses Review

2011-06-25T11:04:00.004+12:00

I was lucky enough to pick up a pair of the new Adidas Supernova Pro glasses a couple of months ago and have now spent some time testing them out and thrashing them to the best of my ability. As you would have read on my blog last year, I was highly impressed with last year's version of the Supernova and the thought of an improved version was enough to have me drooling from the corners of my

Manawatu MTB Club Winter Series Round 2 - My Intro to Palmerston North

2011-06-25T10:30:00.004+12:00

Ooops! This week really got away from me! So thought I best do some blogging on last week's race before it became old news!I recently packed up and moved myself from Auckland to Palmerston North, following a new job, partner and a fresh riding experience. I suppose the first impression of Palmerston North is that there isn't really much mountain biking around these parts, and admittedly, I felt a

Spoke Issue 41 Articles - Have a read

2011-05-22T10:34:00.006+12:00

This issue features my crazy adventure cycle touring through the Wanganui national park... Whenever I read it back to myself, I feel so stoked on what an awesome adventure it was. Also in this issue is my article on how to motivate oneself and my product review on some wicked Icebreaker stuff. Click on the image and zoom to have a read.

Spoke Articles by Yours Truly (published pre-April 2011)

2011-05-20T21:44:00.032+12:00

I figured that I really should get these articles up on here for you all to read. Must say I'm quite proud to be published on a regular basis in a mag as awesome as Spoke... I'll do my best to post these articles as the issues are released from now on... But for now, here's all my published articles before issue 41 dating all the way back to my first 24 Hour Solo World Champs in 2008! You can

Doing it in a Team - Moonride 12 Hour

2011-05-16T09:03:00.006+12:00

I was asked several times on Saturday to explain myself... As I lounged around between laps and punched out lap times that even I couldn't explain given my ultra-endurance roots. The decision to do a 12 hour event in a team was partly because I wanted to take part and experience a different side of these races, but was also an excellent opportunity to hone some skills and work on some speed

We're Going to Cape Epic!!!

2011-05-15T19:00:00.002+12:00

Megan Dimozantos and John Randal are pleased to announce they will be racing together at the 2012 Absa Cape Epic, an eight-day mountain bike stage race in the Western Cape region of South Africa. The event, starting on 25th March, 2012, will see this Australia and New Zealand mixed duo pit their skills and endurance against nearly 2400 riders from around the world. The course will be 800km and

T42 - Pipped off the Podium on the Line

2011-05-07T22:36:00.003+12:00

The thing I'm loving so much about racing lately is that there never seems to be a dull moment. The weather for this week's race had been looking less than ideal the entire week. I packed up Friday afternoon and headed down with Duane and Bruce and as we approached National Park, the rain became more and more torrential... This was going to be an absolute mudfest.I woke in the morning to more

Pukeora 4 Hour Solo - The Win that Nearly Wasn't

2011-05-02T21:42:00.002+12:00

Saturday afternoon had cast some serious doubt over whether I would be riding the next day. I had a sore throat and a blocked nose and I hadn't even ridden a bike in a week (it was all gardening and running with the dog for me this week). I woke up on Sunday morning and despite still feeling a little under the weather, decided to head on over to Waipukurau and worst case scenario, there was a

A Win at The Dual - A Fine Day For Ducks

2011-03-29T22:51:00.003+13:00

When I woke up Saturday morning at 4.30am and it was raining, I knew I was in for a tough day... Good thing is that when it's a tough day for me, generally means it's a tough day for everyone else, too. I hauled my weary butt out of bed and made my way into the city to catch the ferry. The Dual is a pretty unique race in that it traverses Rangitoto and Motutapu Islands, which are otherwise

NDuro Race 3 - Some Valuable Lessons Learned

2011-03-22T23:01:00.001+13:00

I learned two very valuable lessons at this race the weekend before last...1. Don't put off changing your brake pads until the evening before the race2. Remember to take your shoes with youI did the usual early morning trip down to Rotorua for this race, and with a hectic week of work behind me, I was looking forward to getting out on the bike in the sunshine and carving up some quality trails. I

Karapoti Classic - The First Hike-A-Bike I Have Truly Loved

2011-03-06T10:26:00.004+13:00

When I woke up yesterday morning, it was pouring with rain. I'd driven 7 hours from Auckland the night before and hadn't really slept well. The Schwalbe Racing Ralph tyres I had ready on my bike were really designed for a dry, hardpack surface. I came so close to switching off the alarm and staying in bed... But as always, I knew once I got on the bike, I'd have a blast, so I crawled out of my

Pukete Spaghetti

2011-02-28T23:26:00.002+13:00

I'd been eyeing off this event for a couple of years but it always fell on the weekend of another race... This year, my weekend was free, so I trucked off down to Hamilton for a little 6 hour jaunt around Pukete Farm. It had been a while since I'd done a reasonable length race (although for some reason I keep forgetting the 4 days and 520km I rode around the Whanganui) and the running I started

Freeload Rack Review

2011-02-28T22:42:00.004+13:00

When I headed off on my first cycle touring adventure a couple of weeks ago, I was lucky enough to have had Tim and the team at Freeload hook me up with one of their sturdy, versatile racks to carry my huge load on. I received my rack the week of the event (having left it too late like many other things) and although there was a bit of assembly to do, I was surprised at just how easily I was set

Palmerston North... Not as bad as it seems if you ride a bike!

2011-02-28T20:46:00.004+13:00

A week ago, I made my first trip ever to Palmerston North. To be honest, I didn't expect much... Everyone promised me I would be sufficiently bored by the end of the weekend and vow never to return, but my partner is studying down there and the trip was a necessary evil, so I packed my bike in the van and off I went.As I approached Palmy, I was quite taken by what I was confronted with...

Te Tawhio O Whanganui

2011-02-11T11:01:00.024+13:00

Last weekend, I embarked upon my first ever cycle touring journey around the Whanganui. This was the first time I'd ever carried gear on my bike before (unless a spare tube and CO2 canister strapped to my seatpost counts) so I had decided I wanted to embrace the experience fully and camp along the way, as well. The ride was in the spirit of the Kiwi Brevet and the only rule was that there were

Cape Epic Campaign Postponed to 2012

2011-01-30T21:59:00.002+13:00