After a few months of voting and judging Red Bull’s high profile photographic competition Illume has finally drawn to a close with 24 year old Chris Burkard’s photo of Peter Mendria riding waves on Chile’s West Coast winning the Overall award in what is the world’s biggest action and adventure sports photography competition. Chris’ overall win was out of 22,764 photos submitted to the contest by nearly 5000 photographers. You can check out the category winners on the Red Bull Illume site here. Spoke contributor and Wanaka Local Camilla Stoddart made the final 50 (which you can check out here).

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. Competition began today, and New Zealand athletes were in action at the spectacular Mont Sainte Anne mountain bike venue in Quebec.

Quebec is old and they speak french, what else do you want to know? Photo Patrick Fallon

The Team Relay started the competition program with a fiercely competitive tustle at the front of the field. With four riders cutting out a flying lap of the 4.8km course before tagging in their team-mate, tactics were always going to play a part. The Czech Republic were early leaders, with Germany and France right in the hunt through to the last lap. France sent their fourth and last rider out for the final lap with a 55 second lead, but hadn’t counted on a superb finish from Switzerland who drove from sixth through to race lead and the Championship title.

The New Zealand Relay team were ready for a serious hit out in this first event, but lead out rider Mike Northcott (Tokoroa) twisted his chain towards the end of the first lap which jammed his drivetrain. Northcott couldn’t free the jam and scooted back to the start finish line to tag in Bradley Hudson (Christchurch). Hudson made up places during his lap, bringing in Nicola Leary (Rotorua) and finally Carl Jones (Rotorua) for the final lap. While the NZ Team consolidated the ground that Hudson made, the damage had been done in that first lap, the team eventually finishing 16th.

Alexa looks like she is slaying it right here, but that doesn't mean shit when temperatures are at 32 degrees and humidity is at 85%! Photo Patrick Fallon

The Junior (Under 19) Womens Championship race was next on the program at 2pm. Rotorua’s Alexa Peters NZ’s representative in this event. With temperatures hitting 32 degrees and humidity hovering around 85% in this unseasonal Canadian East coast  heat wave, Peters struggled from the gun. A mid pack fall on the first lap had Peters hyperventilating with the effort and she couldn’t recover, withdrawing early. France’s Pauline Ferrand Prevot lead from the gun, and produced a composed display in the 3.5 lap race to take the first individual Championship title of the World Championship program.

Downhill and Four Cross practice continued today for all categories, and NZ riders across the board are comfortable with their race courses and are noticeably ramping up speed during their dial in sessions.

The NZ MTB Team has however been rocked with a withdrawal that some competing nations will no doubt feel relieved about – Blenheim’s Richard Anderson has had to make the difficult decision to withdraw from his Friday Junior (Under 19) Mens race after being unable to shake the effects of a heavy training fall last weekend. Anderson is suffering from delayed concussion, and will have to return home after this World Championships event satisfied that he has achieved and surpassed all his lead-up European campaign goals over the last three months, but without the World Championships podium he was on track to achieve. He is philosophical about future plans, and his hunger to continue his development to the highest world class level has not been diminished with this disappointing situation.

Thursday’s competition schedule will see Samara Sheppard (Rotorua) racing in the Under 23 Women’s event. Sheppard is carrying great form into this race, and is relaxed, confident and determined to fight her race out at the front of the field.

Also on the program tomorrow is the Downhill timed qualifying run at 1.30pm (with 13 NZ athletes competing) and the Four Cross qualifying run at 6pm, featuring Christchurch’s Daniel Franks.

Photos: Patrick Fallon

Judging by this trailer ‘Life Cycles’ is going to live up to the hype and then some! Too awesome. Oh and Spoke will be presenting the official NZ premiere tour in Wellington, Auckland and Christchurch. We are just confirming dates now… As soon as they are locked in we will post up details.

The reason we were there.

This weekend just passed was all about Cyclocross for a select group of enthusiasts from around New Zealand. The weekend kicked off on Friday night with a few Belgian beers at Gothenburg—a Hamilton craft-brew bar / restaurant—with event organisers ‘The Pain Train’. Planning, smack talking, stories of days gone by, stories of days to come and general banter were dished out from one end of the group to the other, most with some sort of Cyclocross theme, but some with a smattering of Cross-dressing talk!?

Voyeur view from outside.

Saturday evening the group reassembled along with a bunch of others at Velo-Espresso (Hamilton’s bike and coffee spot) for the New Zealand premiere and second World showing of “The Cyclocross Meeting“, the latest from Brian Vernor (Pure Sweet Hell; Where Are You Go). Check out the latest issue of Spoke (coming very soon!) to see some more of his handywork. Coffee, cheesecake, wine and beer of varying nationalities went down a treat although it may not have been ideal preparation for the NZCX Champs the following day!

Prior to the showing of the movie, Rick reflected on his son Chuck's brain tumour and gave us a look into the world of a child cancer patient's father. Proceeds from the evening were donated to Chuck's ongoing treatment.

The movie itself basically follows Barry Wicks and Adam McGrath through some of their USGP season and then onto Japan for some racing and reflecting. Brian’s ‘artsy’ style portrays the ups and downs of Cyclocross racing perfectly, and with some great one-liners through the movie, it’s kept light hearted but after it’s finished you’re left with no illusions about how tough ‘cross actually is. It’s a hard arse sport and as Adam mentions part way through, you don’t get into cross for the ride, it’s purely about racing, period.

Pre-movie mingle.

Matt Keen, Velo-Espresso owner, coffee enthusiast, MTBer and good guy.

James Gurney (right) tries to sober up (?) with a coffee after a few quick glasses of wine. Perfect prep for the following day's race! James and his band of merry men (The Pain Train) pulled together the movie preview and the actual CX Champs event.

Special thanks to Velo-Espresso for opening up and allowing the use of their venue, Caleb for sorting a copy of the movie directly from Mr Vernor himself, the Pain Train for organising things and Rick for coming all the way from Wanaka for the weekend.

Full CX champs report to come!

The little engines that could

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.

Windham Results 1.

Windham Results 2.

Final World Cup Standings 1.

Final World Cup Standings 2.

Best trail and best trail name. Five minutes from my house but always in the back of my mind.

So even though Crankworx is all wrapped up for another year and everyone has moved on to new pastures, I’ve just been reunited with my camera which contained my poor attempt at going behind the scenes of the world’s biggest MTB show.

This first photo is of the first trail I showed some of my house guests during a one-hour pre-work power ride. It sort of set the tone for the week. Here’s some more halfwit’s attempt at wit.

The slopestyle course before the storm hit. Six days after this photo was taken 30,000 people crowded into the field of dreams to witness Kelly McGarry flip tuck no hander the huge jump.

We had the A-team of Abby and Ariel from the Santa Cruz bikes demo program staying with us. Unfortunately they couldn't get the demo bikes through customs from the US and into Canada, but they had a full quiver of bikes for their own missions.

Sven Martin is the fastest photog down the mountain, even with a full backpack of gear. He is a gorilla on a bike so he probably just forgets that he has a pack weighing 40 lbs and worth 10G on his back.

I had the role of housing and showing Sven around for a few days. He is one of those larger than life characters that are sometimes so rare. It was always hilarious to be around Hurricane Sven as he tried juggling so much.

In Spoke issue 37 I wrote about the much anticipated LifeCycles movie. Well at Crankworx, a select few supporters of the project got the opportunity to watch an almost finished version of the epic masterpiece. They are taking pre-orders now and it is due to be released in October all going well. If you want to know how good it really is then just know that I have ordered a BluRay player just to really enjoy the movie over and over again. I don't have a home or a TV set but I want a BluRay player so I can come round to your house with my player and copy.

This is Kelly McGarry just hours before he took 5th place at the Slopestyle contest. We stood around chatting about boobie signings (or lack of), the mega huck, and the growing success of his signature 'pointy finger at the camera' photo pose.

A custom coloured Speccy Enduro belonging to Brandon Sloan of Specialized. I want the capacity to have a custom coloured one of carbon machines, but alas I am not, nor will I ever be, as powerful as the BIG RED S.

By my bad calculations that makes it about 4:10 am this morning. But I’d double check if I were you.

Where: Velo Espresso – Garden Place, Hamilton
When: Sat 28th Aug 7pm
Cost: $10 – includes movie, coffee & cheesecake
BYO beers/wine – private function

This sweet little premiere is going down the evening prior to the New Zealand Cyclocross Champs in Hamilton; trailer above looks good, details after the jump…..

The Cyclocross Meeting – this new film takes us from the HUGE race fields of the USA to the emerging cross scene in Japan!

If you’ve seen Pure Sweet Hell you’ll know this is going to be much more than some lame film where we get to watch US pros turn laps in the mud; it’s an insight into the psyche of cross and the people that make the sport what it is.

This will be the first screening outside of its official premiere at the Bicycle Film Festival! So this is a BIG DEAL for little old GodZone and its cross racers, so we are hugely grateful to Brian, Spoke Magazine and Velo Espresso who are providing a venue, staff and coffee. You guys rock!

Thanks to a massive coup and huge effort by Spoke Magazine we are privileged to have the opportunity to screen this new movie in support of our mate Chuckie.

The New Zealand premiere is the night before the New Zealand CX Champs race, so out-of-towners, we hope you can be there. You’re guaranteed a warm welcome.

Where: Velo Espresso – Garden Place, Hamilton
When: Sat 28th Aug 7pm
Cost: $10 – includes movie, coffee & cheesecake
BYO beers/wine – private function

Proceeds to Chuckie – http://www.charliesplace.org.nz/