Lyttelton Urban Downhill

A small portside town called “Lyttelton,” 10 minutes out of Christchurch, was home to NZ ‘s first urban downhill race.


Lyttelton was one of the badly affected places in the 2011 earthquake, which made it an interesting location for such a unique event.


There had been talk about an event like this being held at the end of 2011 and after much planning and a few last minute adjustments to the chicken line the race was finally ready to go ahead.


Riders getting ready to attack the course for the first time;


Riders started the descent in some local’s backyard through a mixture of single track to a huck over an abandoned garage; down the main roads and finishing with a man made burm into the main street of the town finally concluding in a jump over a truck.


One of the biggest differences in this race, unlike the normal falls to soft dirt, was how much more it hurt to grate yourself across the surface of concrete.




Riders were going from high speed jumps and corners to technical dirt sections through people’s gardens and down public walkway stairs.

Photos by Nick Middleton and Kirsty Sheppard

© 2012 Endeavour Media & Photographics


As nothing like this had ever happened in New Zealand, and downhill is very under publicised here, there was a great turn out of locals to the event and the event even made an appearance on the local news.


Wyn Marsters slots into third place for the day


Local BMX prodigy Dan Franks takes out second place…


Living up to expectations National Champion Justin Leov takes the win by over three seconds!