CastleRock BSX Weekend

Mountain Bike riders descended on CastleRock Adventure Park near Te Awamutu for the first round of their Bicycle Supercross (BSX) race series. Four riders at a time raced head to head down a spectacular course of jumps and banked turns. There was a reasonable field of riders competing in ages groups, with the main 18-35y group split into sport and pro classes.Saturday saw top professional rider John Kirkcaldie running mountain bike skills clinics. This was extremely well received by the riders, with comments like "I didn't realise there was so many little areas to improve my riding, that was better than all the training I've done in the last 2 months". Nigel Page (UK) will be running clinics at the next event on January 26th.

After 4 heats in the morning Sunday's pro final came down to Tschugg Guido (Germany), Nigel Page (UK), John Kirkcaldie (Wellington), Dale Healy (Tauranga) & Lance Harris (Napier). Tschugg Guido is one of the top 30 riders in 4X racing in Europe and has built a big mountain bike jump park in Germany. Nigel Page regularly tops the leader board in the UK and rides for Intense Bikes USA, this was his debut return to racing after a horrific ankle injury sustained dirt jumping in California. John Kirkcaldie (Maxxis Tyres) is the current US national downhill mountain biking champion and lives in Wellington. Dale & Lance were the dark horses of the final, both coming from strong NZ BMX backgrounds.

The German Guido took out the final in flying form, with an explosive start from the gate and a smooth fluid jumping style. Nigel Page 2nd, JK 3rd, Dale 4th, Lance 5th. All the pro riders were impressed with the quality of the upgraded BSX track and CastleRock is expecting an even bigger event for round 2 of the series on the 26th of January.

Other class winners were:
Open Women: Belinda Ogle (Rotorua)
Super Junior under 16's: Paul Langlands (Cambridge), Bryce Dijk (Tauranga)
16-18's: Jerym Soames (Putaruru)
18-35 Sport: Leon Roff (Wellington)

All riders received spot prizes from the sponsors: N-Zone Clothing, Pack n Pedal Bike shop Hamilton, Haro Bicycles, Maxxis Tyres and Azonic Equipment. Race winners won a night in CastleRock's Lodge and a day pass to access CastleRock Adventure Park. For full results see www.castlerockadventure.co.nz