NZSS10

Tristan models a daring blue vintage number with matching dodgy tash and tats...

Lots more images from the Queenstown MTB Club gallery

Well, since cross doesn't really happen here in NZ, we've been occupying ourselves with a little bit of single speeding. NZ held our national single speed race in a spot called Queenstown. Better known for perfect postcard scenery and having earned the title of NZ's adventure capital, Queenstown was a welcome choice of venue. Although the day itself was a less than perfect - actually it was pretty yuck, as it dawned cold and drizzled right up to the race start. My specially purchased mid-calf-length pure white socks were stained before I even hit the race track.

Anyway, it was bad... In a good way. But also in an evil way. The track was squashed into a peninsula on Lake Wakatipu called 7 Mile. Somewhow they managed to jam 330 verticle meters of climbing into the 6km loop and then forced us to ride it 5 times. Add it up - that's a shade over a mile of vert. On a single speed.

Anyway, the outcome was favourable for me, but part way through the last lap I started worrying about where I was going to put the winner's tattoo...

Above two images courtesy of Scott Kennedy of Adventureskope.com

We've also written a bit about the race for the NZ importer of my lovely Ibis Tranny - Hyperformance Hardaware. Although, to understand it, non NZer and non-squash-enthusiasts might need to do a little prior research to understand it: wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Devoy