Reuben Miller 1st Place

Top of the south downhill, round 2, Kaka Hill, Nelson.

The forecast for the weekend wasn’t the hottest to say the least. Saturday dawned overcast and pretty grim looking. I arrived up the track about 9. 1st run down and it was nice n tacky. The track had just had some work done on it just above and below the rd at half way so there were some nice wee surprises there. The old 30 foot step down which has been a bit of an icon on this track since 2003 has now gone and been replaced with some nice off camber corners thru trees. Coming out just up the rd from the skid and into a nice off hip jump across the skid. The track then drops away to the left of the skid site and into a right hander followed by a nice wee blind rise to keep you on the edge.

Come 1 it was starting to rain. My 1st run was pretty cautious but nice and clean. I got to the bottom fastest in senior but pipped by Ethan Helliwell by a second or so for fastest time. Kieran Bennett the favorite for the win came down with a sizeable gash in his elbow so it was of to a & e to get stitched up for him.
The rain continued all the way thru. My 2nd run was faster and less of the brakes, the track was alot wetter than the previous run which made for some pretty sideways out of control moments. I managed to beat by previous time by a few seconds and take the fastest time. All in all it was a good race with me in 1st senior, Sam Reid in 2nd and Tom Winwood in 3rd. Big ups to bike hq shop rider Tim Adams for hucking the big double at the bottom on his hardtail, yeah boi!

All in all a good race cheers to the organisers and Chris Mildon as usual, We wouldn’t have a races without him.

And bring on the final round at Ben Nevis. If you haven’t ridden this track then make your way up, its the best hill in nelson these days for anything downhill and will be a cracker. Race day is 6th December. www.nelsonmtb.org.nz for more info.

Cheers
Reuben Miller

www.bikehq.co.nz

www.nelsonmtb.org.nz

Kidney Kids Camp 2008

Hey, I am Dan's brother and I have a Kidney disorder. I am seventeen years old, I got a kidney transplant when I was just two (actually was the youngest in the country to receive this type of transplant). About this time last year my donated kidney decided it had enough and I was forced to get on dialysis. I have been doing this ever since while on the waiting list for another transplant.

An organisation called Kidney Kids New Zealand supports kids and their families throughout the tough times and are always there for us. Something cool they do is an annual camp. I have been on a lot over my life and was really lucky enough again to join the 2008 teenagers camp recently. I thought i would let you know what i got up to on the camp!

I arrived in Auckland…. Late!! After missing my first flight up North, not only missing my flight but also I was missing my bags from the plane. So kidney camp didn’t start off with flying colours but it was sure to get better.

We all jumped into the buses and we were off to Rotarua, after a few stops to fill the hungry kidney tummies and pick up local kidney kids. When arriving in Rotarua we first had a team building exercise and a few rides on the big monster truck. In Rotarua we found our campsite and settled in, most kidney kids were surprised with the flash bedrooms, with brand new beds and new showers in them. Things were starting to look better already.

The next day (day 2) everyone had some free time in town to do/buy what ever they wanted. But the kids that were on dialysis went and did that in the r]Rotarua hospital. Even doing dialysis on kidney camp is still like a holiday, we got to experience different styles or ways of doing dialysis and meet other dialysis patients and nurses. After dialysis we were starving and felt that we needed to for fill some of our adrenaline needs, so of course camp had what we needed which was a good feed off KFC and a trip to the Agrodome were adrenaline needs sure were meet. We had a range of choices of what rides we wanted to do, I chose to do the swoop and the jet boat ride.

The swoop is like bungy jumping but you’re in a sleeping bag like thing, you get taken up really high and then drop/swoop past the ground and fly back into the air, like an extreme swing. The worst thing was you had to pull your own cord to drop/full. After all that we decided to chill and have a hit at mini golf. That night (day 3) was just as fun we headed up the mountain on the gondola and raced down on the luge, some kids took a few spills/crashes. After all the racing and another meal we were back on the bus and heading back to Auckland where we would catch our plane rides back home.

Overall the camp is a great weekend full of exciting activities that everyone enjoys. It’s amazing I get to do all this and forget about being sick and just live life. A big thank you, to all the kidney kids sponsors… especially Freeride NZ!! (Dan you the man), without them none of this would be possible.

Also this year at school Logan Park High School, my media studies class had to make films as part of completing the class. There were a range of films made, me and my friend Zac Wilkinson, decided that we would make an awesome film that meant something to us, rather than just a film that followed the guidelines of NCEA. The type of film we made was a challenging one by its self, a personalized documentary. And the topic was even harder. Its called 'Life's a Game' which shows the comparison between my life on dialysis as a teenager to being sitting benched during a game of basketball.

The film was entered into the Otago film competition where it won first place!! Yeah. I will put my video up on this blog shorty for you all to see.

Henry McMullan

http://www.kidneykids.org.nz/

One Epic Weekend of Racing

Thursday started with finishing work early and a 7 hour drive to Timaru. The weather was not looking good for the Lewis pass so we made the decision to drive down the coast. 7 hours and a lot of corners later we arrived in Timaru. We woke Friday to an overcast day. As we arrived in Dunedin it was on the verge of snowing, I wasn’t really surprised as the four races i have done there have all been wet. We got a motel sorted and headed up Signal hill to where the race was being held to check out the track. It had changed quite a bit since last time with some sick berms at the top going into and extended slightly less savage rock garden. After that it carried on along the old track for a bit then into a new section with 3 nice doubles and then back out onto the ridge. It was then into the old nationals track from 05/06 which started with yet another rock garden and then into some pines. A nice big step-down in the pines halfway thru and then into the new bottom section. This has all been done by a dozer and was super fast with big burms and big jumps, perfect for spectators with the bottom 30 seconds of track visible from the finish line. We had seen enough so we headed back up and got the bikes. 1^st run down was the most fun I’ve had since Whistler mud riding. Every corner was fully sideways and out of control and somehow i got to the bottom without falling off. Nick and Raz weren’t so lucky with a few crashes each. A few runs later and it started raining so we called it quits.

Saturday was race day. We woke up to an overcast day which soon turned to sun with light winds. First few practice runs were pretty chaotic with groms going down left right and center. By race runs the track was perfectly tacky.

My 1^st run started good but soon into it I slid from a low line and came to a stop. The rest of the run was good and i came down with a 304 putting my into 3^rd, Eddie Masters was 259 and Hayden Donny McGregor 258.

2^nd run down was good, making it thru the line i had crashed on 1^st run but my luck ran thin towards the bottom as i was exiting a burm slightly too sideways and hit a tree head on with pretty high speed. I bent my bars so the rest of the track was pretty un co but still managed another 304. Donny showed us all how to ride posting a 253 way ahead of the lot of us! This guy is going to be on form this season and will be definitely be one to watch!

I ended up 3^rd at the end of the day which wasn’t bad considering. Donny in 1^st and Eddie in 2^nd and Tim Mackersey in 4^th a fraction behind me.

After the race there was a top 10 shootout with the top 10 riders from all categories all doing 1 last run with $100 cash up for grabs for the winner.

I crashed yet again. Eddie was 2^nd to last down the hill and took the top spot. With only Donny left we all thought he had it in the bag but about 10 seconds from the bottom he had a huge over the bars and lost it. Better luck next time mate!

We then headed to prize giving at a burger bar in town which was great with a lot of spot prizes.

Thanks to Donny, Eddie, Sheryl, Ant and everyone else for making this race happen and run so smoothly and bring on south island cup in Feb!

We then drove to Timaru to stay the night there.

6:30am Sunday morning we were on the road to race number two in chch.

We arrived about 830 and i was straight off to the shop to get my bike sorted from the previous day’s mishaps.

I didn’t get that sorted until 10:30 so only two practice runs on a track I had never ridden before.

The track started just below the airstrip on the port hills and ran through the gum trees for half and then into the open. It was very fast and flowy with some huge burms and some pretty cool jumps.

My 1^st race run was going well until about hallways down I hit a high line over a rock a bit fast and out of control and landed off the track. I was going through the long grass about 40kph trying to slow down and hit a rock. I sailed through the air doing various flips and then rag dolled down a bank onto the 4x4 road about 20 meters below the track. I got up pretty dam sore with a folded front when and blown tyre so it was a long ride out for me.

2^nd run didn’t go much better with another crash in the top half of the track. After that I pushed it a bit hard trying to make up time and just kept making more and more mistakes. I finished about 9^th at the end of the day. Not to fussed as i had a awesome weekend with some wicked riding on new tracks which is always good.

Cheers to bike HQ yet again for the use of the van and the race organizes who it wouldn’t be possible without.

Until next week.

Reuben Miller

www.bikehq.co.nz

Red Bull Rampage With Kelley McGazza

On Tuesday night we arrived in virgin Utah, after driving from Las vegas for a couple of hours. I was expecting really high temperatures as we were in the desert but we lucked out with fairly moderate weather. The landscape was amazing with huge sandstone cliffs towering above us on either side of us as we drove into Spring dale where we were staying.

The next morn I headed up to the site of the red bull rampage and was very impressed with the gnarly course and new man made features added to the event. For the next two days I practiced the course and dug lines to ride. Line selection was tricky ,I wasn’t sure ether to go for a safe line and risk getting scored low for amplitude or go for a burly line and risk crashing. I started to feel comfortable on ridge 3 so I opted to take that in my qualifying run.

We woke on the morning of qualifying to pouring rain and qualifying was postponed to Sunday . When I showed up Sunday morn we were told that we would only have one run of qualifying ,i was gutted about that because it puts a lot of pressure on you . I was happy with how I was riding in practice and excited about the comp. The pressure at the start gate was pretty intense I was nervous about crashing . I knew I had to throw some tricks on the features as a lot of people were riding my line. I rode the top of the ridge pretty good but when i did an x up on the big triple step down I got a bit blown by the wind and went down hard. My visor was smashed and I was shook up. I was super disappointed but I got back on and decided to i didn’t have much to lose so i floated a mammoth backflip over the last table, the crowd went siiiick and I was so stoked to stomp it and help make up for my crash .

I didn’t make the finals but it was cool to sit back and watch the insanity go down . Over all it was a great contest in an amazing part of the world and I hope i get a chance to ride it again.

Check me out www.kellymcgazza.blogspot.com

Freeride NZ in Napier

After spending the summer in Whistler, Canada it was time to head back home and begin operations in New Zealand. While on my journey back to Wanaka I stopped by Napier to see the other half of the Freeride NZ team, Hilton Taylor and Glenn Richards. Here is what we got up to….!

Head multi day guide for Freeride NZ Glenn was born and bred in the Hawkes Bay region along with Freeride NZ’s North Operations Manager Hilton so it was great to be in the hands of real locals!

Hilton Taylor

        Glenn Richards

We started my two day tour at the Eskdale Mountain Bike Park in the Pan Pac Tangoio Forrest, situated 15 minutes North of Napier. The riding is endless with enough variety in trails to keep any rider grinning for the day! We rode the down hill tracks but there are also over 50 kilometers of lush single track found throughout the forest! It’s a really popular spot for locals as well as out of town riders. After signing up for a pass to access the forest you then have your own play ground to play in! These passes can be purchased at any local bike shop or online at www.hawkesbaymtb.co.nz

Glenn & Dan riding in the Eskdale MTB Park

It was then off for a quick play in Glenno’s own back yard pump track before heading out to Waipatiki beach. We spent the evening at the same batch (holiday house for the overseas readers!) as where we stay for our multi day tours through the area. The batch is in the heart of native bush and alongside an amazing surf beach where you can see the Napier in the distance.

Sneak preview at Glenn's pump track

I didn’t have my cross country bike so I was lucky enough to get a new test bike from the generous boys at Avanti plus bike shop in Hastings. It was a four inch XC bike that was perfect for the trails we were about to encounter. Just up the road from our batch was the Waipatiki beach Trail which was a flowing single track trail that made its way through native palms,ferns, flaxes, vines and trees. It’s only an hour or so loop but is well worth the grind to the top!

At the beach side batch

Napier would make the perfect weekend to get on the bike for anyone in the North Island and for us Southerners a pretty good excuse to get a road trip happening and checking out what s on offer in the sunny Hawkes bay!

For any info on the trails in Napier contact either Freeride NZ or Hawkes Bay Mountain Bike Club.

Again a big thanks to Avanti plus bike shop in Hastings.

Cheers,

Dan

Top of the South DH Series, round one, Blenhiem, NZ

Sunday the 12^th of October started with clear skies and no wind, the perfect day for a race.

I woke up, picked up Kieran, Rasmus and Nick O’rouke and we were on our way.

Practise was a little late to start as usual over that side of the hill but once it got started it ran smoothly with most people getting in 5 or 6 practise runs.

It was my first time back on the bike since being in whistler 3 weeks ago so I was itching to ride.

Track conditions were mint as with it tacky up the top and dry and dusty in the trees. Having ridden various track combos on this hill before this was by far the best. Starting next to the road and rolling down through some nice turns and a few small jumps before crossing the road and into a nice 30 footer which you can hit fully tapped. It then goes down a fairly steep fire road with some berms and a few sick flat/off camber turns in the pines on the side. One high speed turn later and you’re out onto a skid site for a 30second sprint just for shits and giggles. After the skid it was into the pines starting off with a nice steep chute with a hard right hander at the bottom. The rest of the track was full of berms and long off camber sections which were out of control.

In my first race run i had a mint run until I clipped a pedal and got thrown over the bars but was straight back up and down to the finish, second race run was sick as and out of control thru the off camber i got to the bottom pretty happy with my run and amped as after the off camber.

In the end I finished up behind recently signed Kieran Bennett in 1^st and local fast guy and fellow pro elite Sam Reed in 2^nd who put in the hard yards getting the track sorted for the race.

As usual thanks to the organisers for a really well run event and Bike HQ for their support.

Untill the next race...

Reuben Miller.

1/10/08

BLACK BIRCH TRAIL
KAWEKA RANGES

HAWKES BAY

NEW ZEALAND

The beauty of living in New Zealand is that if you wish to ride mountain bike trails they are usually no more than an hours drive away from you... sometimes there are trails that nobody even knows about, like the Black birch trail that we re-discovered.

Thanks to Hilton with his advanced knowledge of the surrounding ranges to Hawkes bay, He scoped out the maps, turned the cogs in his head & located an “old tramping trail” that he was certain it is rideable. At 1000mtr elevation the trail was definitely going to have some great views over the bay, a 300mtr decent over 1km at the end of the trail was telling me there’s going to be some steep technical riding! Yeeeesssssss!
Hilton soon gave word to the boys, and Sunday was the day to go!

Paul,Brent,Eddy,Hilton & I loaded up BIG RED & headed for the hills, with full anticipation of shredding through NZ native bush. Within an hour BIG RED got us to the start of the trail. Obvious signs of pruning indicated that DOC had been in an cleared the trail early for summer, straight into an undulating uphill along a ridge line for approx 8km saw fantastic views of the Kaweka mountain range, rolling green hills, and the hawkes bay coastline in the distance.

The trail consisted of shale type rocks, lush native bush with openings to dry windy smooth rutted paths with plenty of optional airtime off the humps along the trail,
Suddenly the ridgeline drops away very steeply and you can make out way down below, BIG RED waiting for our arrival. For the next 15 minutes , full concentration was required to negotiate a very steep & technical downhill. To accomplish this section without crashing was challenging. Arm pump, the smell of hot brakes & huge grins was what the trail finished with!
All in all with a few thrills n spills it was an epic adventure that will not be forgotten.
I love Sunday adventures!

Glenn Richards
FREERIDENZ

NZer Kelly McGazza at REDBULL RAMPAGE

Check out the latest from REDBULL RAMPAGE in Utah, USA at http://www.freecaster.tv/

Our own Kelly McGazza is the first Southern hampshire rider ever to compete in the notorious REDBULL event. You can see what Kelly gets up to via http://www.kellymcgazza.blogspot.com/

Inter Bike

Some highlights from inter bike 08:
- NWD9 premier!
- Sam Hills possible bike on show!
- Lance Armstrong back in the action!
- A lahr bike that looked very similar to the NZ lahar!

For those of you that aren't familiar with Inter bike, its a massive bike show held in Los Vegas, USA each year. Its a place for companies in the biking industry to do product launches, tests, but basically my interpretation of it was it seemed like the perfect excuse for everyone to get out of the office and play in Vegas!

From billion dollar sky scrapers to the outside escalator's to the poor old dude behind a slot machine gambling away dollar after dollar...My trip to Vegas was a trip to remember!

New World Disorder 9 premiered on Wednesday night. Once again the riding was incredible. NWD are the best in captioning the riding level being raised/pushed further than ever before! Oh yeah and Robbie lands his 360!So is it Sam's Demo? The rumour has been out for a while that Sam Hill could be riding for Specialize next season. There was plenty of talk about whether Specialized would come up with a new assault weapon for him or stick with what they know. Here is a Specialized Demo with world championship stripes. hint hint.Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong announced his return to professional road racing. However it may not just be road cycling Lance has in mind. Treks new Top Fuel bike isn’t even finished yet and Lance has already won a race on it...

Dan

Helmet Cam of Dan riding in Whistler Bike Park

Dirt Jumping In Canada

Here are some pics from a recent dirt jump session in Canada. The crew was myself, Jarrod Hepburn, Foster walder and Tom Hey. Trail location... spot X

First kiwi To Win World Cup

Wanganui’s Sam Blenkinsop has become the first New Zealander to win a Mountain Bike World Cup title!

Follow the link to watch the 19 year olds win during the final round of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Schladming, Austria.

http://freecaster.tv/1000006_1005837


Results:
UCI Mountain Bike World Cup, Schladming

1st Sam Blenkinsop (NZL) 4:10.16
2nd Sam Hill (AUS) 4:11.80
3rd Gee Atherton (GBR) 4:12.36
6th Justin Leov (NZL) 4:18.33

Keewee Road Trip To Kamloops

We have just arrived back into Whistler after a visit to Kamloops (3 ½hr drive East of Whistler). The Kiwi contingency on our road trip included myself, Rueben miller, Nathan Ryder, Hayden Mckay, Amanda Pearce and Harriet Harper.

We rode Sun Peaks mountain resort on Saturday. It was my first time here but for most of the team it was second time round. There are three mountains surrounding the small village and the town seems to be surrounded by golf courses!

So we were basically the first on the chair and the last off. After asking the lifty how many riders were expected for the day, we soon realized there was no need to rush for the chair lift. Just 17 people were expected….For a Saturday! We were stoked since all season we have been lining up in those famous Whistler bike Park queues that could last from 2 minutes to an hour!

The Riding at Sun Peaks is fast, rough and super enjoyable. There is a huge variety of trails from timber skinnies to open, quick down hill trails. I really liked the Freeride trails which had some cool features in them and a pretty cool trail that went directly under the chairlift called. There is a jump park near the bottom of the park too.

After reuniting with Ryder in the morning it was time to jump in the vans and head to kamloops to a place called Mt Harper. This is a ski field in the winter time, with a forest at the bottom of the ski runs filled with MTB trails. It was my third time here but I was excited to see any changes and new features from the last times.

The trails are easy to find and it wasn’t long till we had pumped out half a dozen runs. All our runs would include little sessions on the features we found on the trails like timber structures and dirt jumps. Our last run had to be the best with an epic flowing single track trail that weaved in and out of pine trees.

If you ever need more info on these places let me know….

Dan

Whistler Heli Biking With Jarrod Heprurn

Well finally got a heli trip organised or had it organised for me anyway!

Started off getting picked up by my friend Elly and driving out to the heli pad of Blackcomb Helicopters where we waited for the rest of our crew to turn up. Once everyone was there we took all our bikes over and got them ready for the pick up and got our safety instruction like dont jump in the rotors. By this stage i wasn't really listening as i had my camera out snapping photo's as being my first time in a heli i was pretty much kid in a candy store and had got the shotgun call.!

After our pilot had flicked a bunch of switches the blades started moving and it was go time and we slowly started to watch the ground disappear. As we got a little higher all the local mountains, lakes, glaciers and ski runs of Whistler appeared, truely a spectacular thing and everyone sat in silence for the whole trip up the mountain.

Finally we landed on a large piece of snow everyone hoped out and waited for the bikes to arrive. The heli was back up in no time with the bikes strapped to the bottom and everyone was thiniking if that rope snaps there's about $40 000 worth of bikes down the drain however all was good we got our bikes watched the heli fly away and all thought I want one.

Now it was time for the real deal, the track started off and it was pretty much straight into it no time for a warm up roll over the first little knoll and into some nice steep riding.The track had been rode quite a bit and a sizeable rutt was in play but easy enough to stay out of although some of didn't think of this and we had our first ragdoll. For most of the top this was how it went over a knoll into some steep chute or a nice grassy piece of hill where once you had made it down turned round and watched everyone else have their rip down. After a few more of these the trail moved into the trees and got a bit more flowy and fun and everyone was getting their groove on with a heads up of dont get it going to fast as it drops off pretty steep and you can get yourself into a bit of trouble.

With a range of different level of riders we would always wait catch our breath and play on a few rocks that were pretty fun with a few that where pretty tech. However Smokey a whistler local took up the challenge and got it done. The rest of the trail kept with the same theme steep with a few roots a bunch of nice rock rolls and lots of fun even for a freeride jump nut, before you know it you pop out onto a local flank trail with the option of a few down hill trails of all level depending how much you have left in the gas tank.

Over all an awesome trip, a ride in a helicopter which I will jump at every time I get the chance now with some of the most beautiful mountain scenery and an excellent trail ride down with some good friends. What more could you want apart from a cold beer sitting in the sun to top it off which we just had to do.

My Name is Nathan Ryder, from Nelson, NZ. At the moment I am living in Whistler, Canada. Recently I competed in a down hill race here over here and I thought I would share my experience with you…

Well we set off on our tour to go take over Sun Peaks and do the final round of the Canadian Cup . Rueben Miller, Hayden Mckay and myself. It was my first riding road trip since I have been in Canada. I was super excited about it gettingto ride new tracks and see some different towns and scenery in BC.

We arrived into kamloops around 11 pm and stayed at a motel called ‘Ryders Inn’ which might i add had a adult channel so we had to get that one haha. Next morning we were up and ready to go to Sun Peaks. so so amped to go hit the mountain up.It was a big rush to go get our lift ticket so we could go play. First run down the hill and we had all decided that this was the best riding ever! Nice flowy tracks, big jumps, berms, sick as technical and the nicest dirt to get the mean as drifts going!

Any way next day was practice day for the race. We signed in and were ready 2 roll. We had walked the race track the night before and spyed some lines out and boy was this track sick super taped out! The best track in Canada in my opinion!!!!!we did runs of the track all day then went out for the mean as feed at the restaurant at the bottom of the hill. Then up to our sweet pad for a spa and a few Heinekens (our race prep for the next day…has to be done!).

Race day came round and it was looking good the weather held off for a dry track.My race set off well I was a bit nervous but got the top part of the track great and probably pushed it a bit much coming down this fast bit. I hit a big hole and blew my hand and foot off and smashed through the tape and a pole to stop on a flat bit. I got going and finished the rest of my run tapped to end up 10th in senior. maybe with out my crash it would have been a even better result but I was still happy as with it. Rueben ended up 10th and Hayden 21st in pro men. All and all such a good long weekend away and on our way home we got someriding done in kamloops which was sick as too.By Nathan Ryder

Big Crash Durring Southern Race Series

Had a bit of a mozza in the Clyde race recently. Went down on Friday had a sic day the new part of the track is so fun. They made the track twice as good no hussin down 4wd tracks anymore. Did 4 runs and that was me had the track sused.

Went back on Saturday got in 4 practice runs and had it pinned. Seedn run i crashed halfway down jumped back on only to realize me handle bars were 70deg to my wheel but went on just abit slower and got 9th, so thought sweet.

Race run crashed about 40 sec into it, bike washed out at about 40km and i went chin/neck/chest first straight into a rock the size of me. Couldnt breath for about a minute. Had blood gushing from the chin so pushed over to the road and rolled down told a couple of dudes i was sweet and drove home sore and guttered.Got Xrayed up, nothing broken yeah but throat was really croaky and sore so had to go to Dunedin to see the throat specialest to find out i got a big hematoma on voicebox. Over time should be sweet.

...so stoked im all good, guttered about the race everything leadn up to it was going well. Beatiful weather and even beter track but thats racing aye. Looking forward to getting back there and hitn that corner twice as hard and fast!!!!!

Tristan Muirhead