Ethan Woods

Discipline: XC Racer

"Ride further and faster with Horleys"

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More about me

I'm from Motueka, NZ. I race Cross Country Mountain bikes and am the current under 17 National Champion for 2021. I've been actively racing for the last 3 years on the national circuit. Next year (2022) I will be racing under 19's and heading overseas in our winter to race on the world stage. My aim is to represent New Zealand overseas and become a world champion rider.

I love XC MTB because of the challenge of the climbs and the harder descents that are in races now, especially as I am riding an XC hardtail.

I am very lucky to have the Kaiteriteri Mountian Bike Park so close as it is a great place to ride.

My biography

How did you get into XC Racing?
I started biking when I was 5 years old in Christchurch at Burwood Forest and I had my first mountain bike race when I was 7. We moved up to Riwaka in 2012 after the Christchurch earthquakes as we lived in the Eastern seaside suburbs which were hard hit.

Approach to training and nutrition:
I train 5 days a week during the winter and this builds to 6 days as the race season approaches. I start my training cycle currently in May after a few week's rest from the race season to reset.

The first 3 months are based around endurance and weight training and then slowly increases strength training (through intervals) and other race-specific skills. All training is recorded on Training Peaks and I use heart rate and power meters on rides. Over the endurance phase, I consume large amounts of energy and often can burn 5000+ calories on one ride. I use Horleys Replace, gels, and protein bars as my ride nutrition to keep me fuelled and riding at my best. Even small decreases in hydration and electrolytes show up within my performance. The hardest aspect of endurance nutrition is to find a good product that works and won’t cause gastric upsets!

Post-ride recovery I use Horleys Elite 100% Whey within 30 minutes to add muscle recovery and this is super important after a hard interval session or a race.

Other notes of interest:
• My other main interest is flying, and I want to be a cargo pilot one day. Currently, I am working towards my pilots’ license (approximately 16 hours to date at the controls) and can’t wait till I turn 16 so I can fly solo. I would like to obtain my commercial pilots’ license by the age of 18.

Sporting Achievements

2021

1^st NZ Nationals U17
1^st South Island U17
1^st Gold trail (Greymouth) – overall & youth (and broke course record by 8.40 minutes)
1^st Tasman Schools U17

2020

1^st Milk & Honey U19 – (2nd overall)
2^nd South Island U17
2^nd Schools Nationals U16
1^st Tasman Schools U16
1^st Coppermine Epic (Nelson) U17
1^st Kaiteriteri Night series – Overall & U17
1^st Overall Nelson short course XC series U17
1^st Nelson XC 3 race series U17 and 1st overall

2019

1^st National schools U15
1^st South Island U15
4^th Oceania Championship U17
1^st Tasman Schools U15
1^st Coppermine Epic (Nelson)
1^st Hunter Civil 10hr race CHCH (Talley’s Corporate Team)
1^st Overall Nelson short course XC series U17
1^st Nelson XC 3 race series U15

Other:

Short Term Goals:

• Win National 2022 in U19 age group

• Win South Is Championship in U19 age group 2022

• Win NZ School Champs 2021 in U17 age group (Blenheim)

Long Term Goals:

• Continue to compete (and win) in the NZ series of events

• Represent New Zealand at the Commonwealth and Olympic games

• Be selected to attend the Youth Olympic Games in Dakar 2022 (if part of the event program)

• Attend the Youth MTB World Cup events in 2022 (have to be U19 to compete)

• Race on the international MTB circuit as an elite rider.

Biggest achievement so far and why?

From a racing point of view winning Nationals is my biggest achievement as everything comes together very well on the day. From a riding point of view as I enjoy riding and setting challenges for myself, this would be riding from Riwaka (near Nelson NZ) to Christchurch via the Rainbow - Hamner road. It was a 356km ride that took me 12 hours and 32 minutes to complete. This Is probably my biggest achievement so far because I wanted to push my limits and I exceeded my expectations of how well it went.

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