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

Theresa 'cranks it up' Whistler style Helmet Cam

Wanaka's Rider Theresa McGeragle riding one of her favorite trails in Whistler this summer 'Crank It Up'.