The future of Downhill!

During the recent Queenstown Bike Festival we were lucky enough to help out a local young man by the name of Sam Robbie, who at 11 years old was the youngest competitor in the Dirtmasters DH race. We have seen young Sam thrashing around the trails on his trusty hardtail and when we heard he was racing we thought we have to lend him a DH bike for the occasion.

So we hooked Sam up with a 2012 Giant Glory 1 (in a small obviously) and let him go and terrorize the hill for the weekend of the race with all his mates. The grin on his face getting to ride one of these bikes was great for us to see and made all the better by the fact that after the race weekend he is off to hospital for knee surgery, so it was an extra special little treat for him.

Sam was shredding the race track to bits during practice, putting to shame people twice his age. He was loving riding a proper DH bike and it showed with his awesome 2nd place result in the 12-15 Junior Men category with a time of 4.22 (this placed him 68th overall in the field).

Sam is one a number of young groms that are starting to appear and be nurtured along by the very healthy mountain bike scene we have here in Queenstown. Another one to look out for is young Boaz Hebblethwaite who was also in Sam's category and seen to be ripping the track up over the weekend with his extremely stylish and smooth riding style, unfortunately Boaz took a tumble in his race run, otherwise he would have been right up there! These two are ones to watch out for in the future!

Speights Summit Super D 2012

Vertigo Bikes Team take the win two years on the trot!

The Speights Summit Super D was in the inaugural event for the 2012 Queenstown Bike Festival and took place on Saturday 31st March in the Queenstown Bike Park, utilising the Skyline Gondola. The format was simple, race against the clock for 6 hours, clocking up as many laps as you could in that time. Do it as a team of two or three, or even solo for those man enough.

Super D enduro events are proving more and more popular every year, and the turn out at this one was no different. It was great to see lots of people from out of town making the journey this year and entries were pretty much double that of last year.

The course this year was superb, it had a real mix of technical descents and lung busting climbs. You started off heading down the top of the Vertigo track, and then straight into Thingymajig. Once you hit the mid-way clearing you then faced the first climb back up Fernhill Loop for about 4-5 mins until you met Hammies Track. A flat out blast down Hammies until you reached the One Mile walking track where you had a new section trail to ride with some technical switchback climbs that took you onto Singletrack Sandwich. Down Singletrack Sandwich until you hit Original in the open section, where you then climbed back up to the Step Up/Step Down section. This had a real little short pinch of a climb in it which hsaw a few people getting off and walking and battling cramp! From here you turned back on yourself and it was through an old piece of singletrack that was cut a few years back that weaves it way through an open grassy paddock that connects back to Original a bit further down. Then it was a flat out blast down the rest of Original and along the return trail and back to the pits by the Gondola bottom terminal.
Lap times were around the 24/25 minute mark, with the fastest lap being just under 23 minutes.

The most hotly contested event was the team of two event, with the racing remaining really tight right until the very end. Matt Scholes and Jimmy Pollard of Alexandra took the win over Paul Angus and Blair Christmas by just over one minute over the 6 hours of racing!

The Vertigo Bikes/Giant team won the three man team by over 2 laps after the 6 hours, with Tim Ceci, Simon Smith and Jamie Tilbury showing domination throughout.

Ethan Glover took out the solo win, and also the fastest time to complete 15 laps throughout the 6 hours, very impressive indeed!

Another superb event and a great start to the week long two wheeled festival!

Photos courtesy of Spoke Magazine, cheers Caleb

Bikers get bang for bucks on gondola season pass prices

Mountain bike nuts will get more bang for their bucks in the resort this year.

Tourism giant Skyline has set its inaugural eight-month season pass prices for gondola access to its trails at Bob’s Peak – and has landed a national downhill event too.

Riders wanting lifts up to the newly-named Queenstown Bike Park will fork out $599 for the season, Mountain Scene can reveal.

Bikers can access Ben Lomond Reserve trails from September 4 till April 29, weather permitting.

Riders had to stump up $475 for a pass during an initial four-month trial period from January to April this year, so Skyline boss Jeff Staniland expects the new price to be well received.

“Gondola access sort of captured everyone’s imagination and everyone’s been pleasantly surprised with how it has worked,” Staniland says. “At least we don’t have to wait for snow,” he quips.

During the trial run, gondola access pulled a number of high profile riders to town – including the three Atherton siblings, stars on the international circuit, for a two-month training stint.

What your 2011/12 pass will cost
				Adult	Child	Family
Single gondola ride				$30	$15	$75
Half day pass				$45	$25	$115
Day pass				$60	$30	$150
3 day pass				$165	$85	$415
5 day pass				$250	$125	$625
Half Season pass				$475	$225	n.a
Season pass				$599	$299	n.a

Along with biking celebrities, gondola access has also attracted a NZ Mountain Bike Cup national downhill series event on January 7 and 8.

And the second Queenstown Bike Festival is locked in for next Easter from March 31 till April 9, event organiser Geoff Hunt says.

He adds the resort continues to grow as a biking destination, with about 100 riders at a recent night ride at Seven Mile.

“If you did that a year ago, there might have been 25 bikers,” Hunt says.

“What the gondola did was change the dynamics.

“It was busy last season, it’ll be a lot busier this season for sure.”

New Queenstown Mountain Bike Club president Tom Hey also thinks punters will be “pleasantly surprised” with pass prices.

But he warns someone still needs to take control of trails and maintenance patrols.

“It’s a good community asset but it needs to be managed,” Hey says.

Hey predicts more northern hemisphere riders will be pulled to the resort for training, but warns trail development also needs to continue or riders will get bored.

Despite the full-length season, Staniland says Skyline is still perfecting the mountain biking model – and it hasn’t made a decision to provide access in the long-term to the Queenstown Lakes District Council-run reserve.

Staniland adds work on the QBP needs to progress, and he has made a submission to council for funding.

Skyline Gondola Bike Rental Station

Vertigo bikes will have a mountain bike rental station situated at the top of the skyline gondola complex for the initial 4 month trial period of the new mountain bike park. We will have a fleet of DH bikes for rent so people can try out the new Ben Lomond Forest bike park DH trails. Vertigo staff will be fighting for this job as it could possibly be the best and most scenic office in town!
Prices and details still to be confirmed.