Queenstown Bike Festival Vertigo Bikes Dirtmasters Downhill

For those that have ridden at Queenstown Bike Park before, the course took in World Cup, Vertigo, Grundy, Unleaded Link, Thundergoat and Battlestag (and it's not often you get to use all of those words in a sentence).



The mist cleared during the morning, giving onlookers glimpses of the beautiful Lake Wakatipu and the jagged ridgeline of the Remarkables Mountain Range (also the race location of the Mega Avalanche on Sunday). Competitors would have been closely focussed on the deviation of the steep World Cup trail from it's usual lines. With their heads in the game, they would not have noticed the stunning views of the lake. The course, set by event manager Paul Haysom, was the most technical and committing in the history of the Queenstown Dirtmasters Downhill race and put many riders through their paces.

Photo credit to Josh Moore

Rowdy roots (Queenstown's version of Heckler's rock in Whistler), noisily gathered on the off camber and committing rooty section of Grundy. Named after a comic book zombie supervillian, this section is in keeping with its namesake - nasty, ugly and not at all subtle. Given the night's rain, the exposed roots visibly threw riders from their pre-decided lines, so that under the pressure of the heckling crowd, it was all the riders could do to keep their focus to get down after being pushed around by the chunky, stubborn roots. Rowdy rooters eventually managed to get hold of the seeding list, so as well as dealing with the punishment of the course, competitors were openly insulted, given the cold finger, mooned at and vindicated by the boozy, loud, raucous crowd. Bike frames were clanged with spanners, vuvuzelas were aimed at riders, loud hailers, thumping tunes, claxons and chainsaws adorned with empty cans were brought in to the rowdy mix. #rowdyroots on Instagram for the gory details.

Photo credit to Callum Wood Photography

With $1,800 total prize money up for grabs, the competition stepped it up a level. Support from naming sponsor Vertigo Bikes plus a contribution from Jowett Architects to match the women's prize value to the men's ensured an equal split for men and women.

The Open Women’s comp was settled first with Harriet ‘Bob’ Latchem taking the win in 3:52.76 and sitting in the hot seat for quite some time. Bob was less than five seconds ahead of fellow Queenstowner, Alanna Columb with Harriet Harper third, ten seconds further back. Bob's prize money will be going towards the costs of heading to Cairns for the 2014 UCI World Cup.

In the men's the podium spots came down to the fastest two seeds with Daniel Meilink from Wellington edging Swiss pro, Dominik Gspan by just 2.63 seconds with local Quentin Chanydet third, a further four seconds behind.Daniel Meilink’s mind-blowing time of 3:17.35 was more than four seconds faster than his seeding run. He said he’d been living and riding in Queenstown over the summer.

“It’s a friendly town with some awesome locals. I’m stoked – there’ll be a big party tonight! My run was pretty tidy and there was plenty of loam off the main line to grip into. I couldn’t really concentrate through Rowdy Roots – there was a lot of heckling,” he said. Both Meilink and Gspan are off to Cairns later this month for the 2014 UCI World Cup series event but in different roles – Dominik as a competitor but Daniel as a mechanic for the Bergamont works team.

Photo credit to Riverlea Photography

Photo credit to Callum Wood Photography

Photo credit to Callum Wood Photography

Today in the Queenstown Bike Festival, the Queenstown Slopestyle course is ready for practice at the Ballarat street car park, the airbag is going to be ready for practice for the slopestyle athletes and the public alike and the awesome Through the Lens Short film competition is showing tonight at The Find.

- Queenstown Bike festival Website