NZ Nationals Round One, Christchurch, 8 - 9 January 2010

Words: Neil White and Matt Wragg
Photos: Neil Gardner (www.nzsnaps.com)

Marketing people like the word legendary. You see all kinds of events and races with the word attached, mainly because someone ran out of adjectives and decided to bung it in there to fill the page. However, quietly, the guys at Gravity Canterbury, Christchurch, dug a track for the first National round that deserves no lesser word. What’s equally impressive is that they only started building the course nine weeks ago when the original venue, Coronet Peak in Queenstown, dropped out.

Going down...

I’m not sure if he held this or not. It’s about 50/50 here though.

According to the internet, Justin Leov described the top section as more savage than Champery...  It was unbelievable. It was so steep and loose that you just couldn’t stop – when someone went down it caused chaos behind them. The track had nowhere to watch or pullover, and you couldn’t get back up to section. This was all compounded when people walked parts of the track as they couldn’t get out of the way of riders coming behind them. It was just nuts, the big red pickup the medics were using can’t have seen that many miles in a single day ever. By the lunchtime the injury list included a broken arm, a broken leg, a collar bone, one dislocated shoulder and a girl who looked like her intestines were showing. The organisers took the tough decision to re-route the upper section as it was clear someone was going to get seriously hurt.

I don’t know what that is, and don’t want to, just someone stitch it up.

He can see the rock coming too, that’s going to hurt a lot.

The new line wasn’t as challenging...  You couldn’t really compare it to the original one – it was very open and quite flat (with an uphill section chucked in for good measure).  That said, the organisers made the right call and, more importantly, the track will be worked on and back on the Nationals calendar for next year.

Despite the setback with the track the racing was well contested with riders from the World Cup circuit dominating the top steps of the podium. Sabrina Jonnier had a tight contest in the womens, only taking the win by 25 seconds... In the mens Justin Leov and Sam Blenkinsop were trading fastest times, with Leov fastest in seeding, but Blenkinsop taking the race by a second. Cameron Cole rounded out the top three. Fabien Pedemanaud was looking very fast, but couldn’t keep it together and dropped to the lower end of the top ten. Missing on the day was Swiss pinner Freddy Hunziker, who smashed his tibia just before Christmas at the Dream Track in Queenstown. Word on the street is that he’s being well looked after in Queenstown and a couple of the English lads have even been cutting his hair for him...

Brook MacDonald rocking a very orange Turner!

Wyn Masters onboard a shiny, new Lapierre, whether Blenky sorted him out, or this is something more permanent isn’t yet official.

Fabien Pedemanud looked fast all weekend, but couldn’t stay rubberside down on race day.

Blenky on his way to the win, feel free to add your own moto noises.

A better shot of his sexy new Lapierre.

Sabrina Jonnier was never really challenged this weekend in the womens field.

 
A big thanks to Neil at NZSnaps for the pictures.

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Words: Neil White and Matt Wragg
Photos: Neil Gardner (www.nzsnaps.com)