Carl Jones on route to secure the NZ relay team 16th place (which sounds way better than second to last) Photo Patrick Fallon
The 2010 UCI Mountainbike World Championships officially opened last night at a spectacular opening ceremony in Parliament Grounds in Quebec City last night. The stunning Parliament Buildings formed a beautiful backdrop for the teams presentation and a huge crowd welcomed the 750 athletes from 32 countries to Canada on a balmy evening in the old quarters of the city. READ MORE
I’m not very good at maths (so I’ve just conferred with Spoke reviewer and banker Mark Dangerfield on these stats) but in response to Dirt Magazine being stoked on having five Brits in the top ten I just thought I’d break it down for them how much radder we are. So it goes like this: Great Britain has five riders in the top ten at the Windham World Cup. Their country has 64 million people so that means that they had a ratio of 1 in 12 million people in the top ten. New Zealand has three riders in the top ten at Windham, and we have 4.5 million people so that means that we had a ratio of 1 in 1.5 million people, which I think is pretty good, and in fact means that we are roughly seven times better at downhill than the UK. If you want a real laugh though check the USA stats; they have 307 million people and one person in the top ten, which means that we are around 200 times better than them.
That’s right, after Greg Minnaar and Gee Atherton rode an almost identical season—both with two wins and two second places—it came down to the World Cup Final this morning and Gee took the win, with Greg in second and Blenki in third. The top ten looked good for us Kiwis though with Brook MacDonald in 8th and Justin Leov (pronounced ‘Leo’, Mr Warner) in 10th. Good times. Other notable results saw pro freerider Thomas Vanderham in 43rd, Wyn Masters in 28th and Kieran Bennett in 30th. Full results and overall below. READ MORE
Episode 8 kicks off with Gee heading for the British Champs up in Scotland without his injured siblings, Rach and Dan. Gee finds that he misses the inspiration and support of his brother and sister during competition but at the same time realises that to stay at the top, sometimes, he’ll have to manage on his own. Then it’s on to World Cup Round 4 in Champery, Switzerland. With brother and sister still at home, Gee takes on the highly technical and challenging course alone. After some lightning-quick qualifiers on a dusty track, some serious rain sets in and turns it all to treacle. With Gee neck and neck with Greg Minnaar in the overall placings this season, anything less than a win is a disappointment. Can he beat the mud and bring the points home?
Two years in a row I’ve managed to somehow get out of racing the Santa Cruz Coppermine Epic, but this year it’s on. See that, I just told you all that I’ll be taking part in New Zealand’s premier (or is that only) all-mountain event; there’s no way I can get out of it now. I might even win a complete Santa Cruz bike as a spot prize but I won’t be winning the $1000 cash that’s up for grabs for the fastest girl and guy. You can enter now right HERE. Do it!
Unless you’ve been living under a rock or in a cave deep on the West Coast somewhere you’ll probably be aware of how popular Cyclocross is becoming in New Zealand. Well, the good guys from ‘The Pain Train’ and Hamilton MTB Club are bringing you the NZ Cyclocross Champs race on the 29th of August. Now in its third year (or fourth??) it’s shaping up to be a heck of an event, and judging by the amount of rain we’ve been having here in Hamilton the mud bogs should be, well, muddy.
The proceeds from the event will be going to this little legend….. www.charliesplace.org.nz, so even if you’re not keen on getting dirty, come out and watch, buy some food, heckle some riders and stand under your umbrellas!
Complete entry form available HERE. Right I’m off to hacksaw some bits off my road bike to make room for some bigger tyres! More info after the jump. READ MORE
Hot off the wire, Kelly McGarry is one of the finalists at Crankworx this weekend.
If the weather is crap in your part of the country (it is in mine) then here’s the live feed to keep you entertained. http://www.crankworx.com/webcast/
TriRide.com just posted this sweet little clip from the Val di Sole World Cup round including at 1:10 Justin Leov’s race-ending crash (it happened in his second practice run).
