Vertigo Bikes 6 Hour Super D Enduro

The satisfaction factor for riders in the Vertigo Bikes 6 Hour Super D Enduro pretty much hinges on the course design. A lap must take 20 - 30 minutes to ride, can't be too easy, can't too steep, can't too techy, must keep the downhillers on their toes, can't be too gnarly for the XC riders and must be interesting enough for a whole bunch of discerning Queenstown locals who smash many trails on that hill every day after work. Tall order maybe? Jarna MacKenzie and Jimmy Carling put their heads together and wholly and thoroughly nailed it today.


Words used to describe the course today: 'ready to eat you', 'relentless', 'more jazz than rock and roll', 'mint', 'demon', 'techy gnar dog', 'flowy Jarna and Jimmy epicness', 'best course yet', 'rewarding for downhillers and XC racers', 'impressive', 'sick', 'epic fun' and I am sure I heard someone say that one of the newly cut loamy section on the second half made their life!



"We tried to find a balance between making the lap a good length to spread the large field and also making it technical enough to demand concentration with some pedalling to test the downhill specialists. We had a national-level field for today’s event and everything ran smooth. The Super D is now established as one of the Bike Fest’s core events” Jimmy Carling said.

Jarna Mackenzie enjoying his own work

New Zealand being in the Southern hemisphere means we are cranking into increasingly cool Autumn on our way to winter, this caught some of the Aussies out who had come over especially to Queenstown from 'over the ditch', as we like to call the Tasman sea, for the 10 day bike festival. Most of the riding at the Skyline in the Queenstown Bike Park is under the shelter of pine trees, which made the Autumnal breeze easier to deal with. So along with that and the 6 minutes you get in the gondola to warm up, the weather became just a detail.

To find out more about riding at Skyline Queenstown, check out this link.


Results:
Men’s and women’s crowns were eventually taken by Ethan Glover from Nelson (completing 16 laps in the six hour limit) and Queenstown’s own Mary Jowett (13 laps) respectively.

Although Vertigo Huck Squad was the quickest all-male team, they included an extra rider so they could keep their workshop open. Lone Star Blokes (Fraser Gordon, Blair Christmas and Dave Fahey) scooped the official three-man team title (16 laps) with Two Goons (Mikey Northcott and Lewis Hart) the first two-man team home (also 16 laps). Dirt Town Queens (Indri Clendon, Harriet ‘Bob’ Latchem and Rosie Smith) completed 13 laps to win the women’s team crown with the mixed team title going to Greene Eggs & Lamb (Thomas Lamb and Erin Greene). No team completed more laps than Glover riding solo making his achievement all the greater.

Final Results were kept a surprise until prize giving during the after-party at Surreal Bar. Place-getters scored qualifying points towards the New Zealand MTB Crown.

New Zealand - no bears, cougars, coyotes or poisonous spiders.