Mugger
Senir oMermber
Every year in late February and early March, the Trans NZ is held in the South Island of New Zealand with six days of racing around Cragieburn and Queenstown. This year was my first attempt at it and I've made a Vlog compilation to document my experience.
Day 1 - Arriving in Christchurch
We arrived on the Thursday, two days before the race began to give us time to get the bikes sorted and discover if we were missing anything of importance. We spent the day riding the Christchurch Adventure Park which to be honest for a day of riding was a great way to get things sorted for the race. I would definitely go back to Christchurch to ride the park.
Race Day 1 - Cragieburn
Race Day 1 of the Trans NZ started in Cragieburn, which is about an hour or two drive from Christchurch. Unfortunately, the weather had completely turn and over night the temperature dropped, the rain came and the snow started falling. The temperature was 5 degrees at the base of the hill and -1 at the start of Stage 2 (where it began snowing before my race run). Coming from QLD, I was certainly not at all prepared for this kind of weather and spent the day racing four stages without any feeling in my hands.
Race Day 2 - Mt Cheeseman
Race Day 2 was at Mt Cheeseman which was a short drive from the accommodation, here we were only going to complete two stages before a 7-8 hour drive to Queenstown. The first track, Cheeseman started off high up on the mountain with open grass field switchbacks before diving into a brutally mean and wet forest section that caught so many people out. The second, Smegma was half way up the mountain and was a big long pump track through a wet forest.
Race Day 3 - Coronet Peak
Race Day 3 was at Coronet Peak which was about an hours drive from our accommodation in Queenstown. Finally we had a dry day and the tracks we were racing were long! Stage 1 almost 10 minutes, stage 2 almost 15 minutes, stage 3 a short 3 minutes and stage 4 depending how you went was 5 - 7 minutes. I crashed pushing a little too hard on Stage two and lost a tonne of time which was frustrating. A highlight stage for me was Stage 4, Slip Saddle which dropped 500m vertical elevation in about a km. This track was steep! We finished the race by riding from the bottom of Stage 4 into Arrow Town for beers.
Race Days 4 & 5 - Cardrona & Alexandra
Unfortunately Race Day 4 was cancelled as the chairlifts they were hoping to use on Cardrona had been shut due to wild weather. Race day 4 was at Alexandra which was probably 90 minutes drive from Queenstown and featured totally different terrain to what we had been riding. It was very similar to home, loose, dusty and plenty of rocks. The six stages featured a number of blind drops through rock gardens and the organisers had spray painted pink dots on the ground to show where you wheel must go. If you deviated from those pink dots then things got pretty wild quick. The day finished by rolling into Alexandra and the Moneiths Brewery. Epic day.
Day 1 - Arriving in Christchurch
We arrived on the Thursday, two days before the race began to give us time to get the bikes sorted and discover if we were missing anything of importance. We spent the day riding the Christchurch Adventure Park which to be honest for a day of riding was a great way to get things sorted for the race. I would definitely go back to Christchurch to ride the park.
Race Day 1 - Cragieburn
Race Day 1 of the Trans NZ started in Cragieburn, which is about an hour or two drive from Christchurch. Unfortunately, the weather had completely turn and over night the temperature dropped, the rain came and the snow started falling. The temperature was 5 degrees at the base of the hill and -1 at the start of Stage 2 (where it began snowing before my race run). Coming from QLD, I was certainly not at all prepared for this kind of weather and spent the day racing four stages without any feeling in my hands.
Race Day 2 - Mt Cheeseman
Race Day 2 was at Mt Cheeseman which was a short drive from the accommodation, here we were only going to complete two stages before a 7-8 hour drive to Queenstown. The first track, Cheeseman started off high up on the mountain with open grass field switchbacks before diving into a brutally mean and wet forest section that caught so many people out. The second, Smegma was half way up the mountain and was a big long pump track through a wet forest.
Race Day 3 - Coronet Peak
Race Day 3 was at Coronet Peak which was about an hours drive from our accommodation in Queenstown. Finally we had a dry day and the tracks we were racing were long! Stage 1 almost 10 minutes, stage 2 almost 15 minutes, stage 3 a short 3 minutes and stage 4 depending how you went was 5 - 7 minutes. I crashed pushing a little too hard on Stage two and lost a tonne of time which was frustrating. A highlight stage for me was Stage 4, Slip Saddle which dropped 500m vertical elevation in about a km. This track was steep! We finished the race by riding from the bottom of Stage 4 into Arrow Town for beers.
Race Days 4 & 5 - Cardrona & Alexandra
Unfortunately Race Day 4 was cancelled as the chairlifts they were hoping to use on Cardrona had been shut due to wild weather. Race day 4 was at Alexandra which was probably 90 minutes drive from Queenstown and featured totally different terrain to what we had been riding. It was very similar to home, loose, dusty and plenty of rocks. The six stages featured a number of blind drops through rock gardens and the organisers had spray painted pink dots on the ground to show where you wheel must go. If you deviated from those pink dots then things got pretty wild quick. The day finished by rolling into Alexandra and the Moneiths Brewery. Epic day.
