NZ Singlespeed champs a big success
Beautiful autumn weather, big spectator crowds and a hometown hero winning the tattoo - the 6th annual Pig & Whistle New Zealand Singlespeed Championships last month was another big success.
A sold-out field of 250 riders from all round New Zealand and Australia enjoyed a tough, challenging 11 kilometre course on Rotorua’s magnificent Whakarewarewa Forest trail network.
Some rode the full three laps while others managed one or two, then stopped in the beer short-cut tent to enjoy refreshments while watching the action unfold at the front of the field.
Most of the extravagantly costumed riders were there for fun, but it was more serious at the sharp end. The men’s field featured top cross-country racers like Mark ‘Cabin’ Leishman, Sam Shaw and Saul Webb.
It was the same story in the women’s field.
Beijing Olympian and Commonwealth Games silver medalist Rosara Joseph, top downhiller Jenna Makgill and endurance mountain biker Erin Greene were racing in the National Singlespeeds for the first time. Australian, Heather Logie, who won the 2010 Singlespeed Women’s Worlds Championships, also in Rotorua, was a last minute addition to the line-up.
2010 Singlespeed Men’s World Champion, Garth Weinberg, is a Rotorua legend but had a shocker of a start. While the racers assembled out of sight, volunteers and spectators scrambled the bikes. Weinberg spent a frustrating 5 minutes finding his bike, with most of the field already heading out of the double-S start loop and into the forest.
He didn’t throw in the towel, working his way past most of the other riders and into second place after the first lap. Weinberg also took the beer short cut option each lap. Instead of riding a longer loop in the race village, racers could scull a beer or eat a Weetabix.
“I felt pretty good after the first beer and got into a good pace,” said Weinberg.
By race end, Weinberg had added to his three previous national titles, in front of a noisy and enthusiastic local crowd and to an emotional greeting from his wife, Rachel and their children.
Meanwhile, Dunedin’s Erin Greene cleared out from her rivals in the women’s race. Rotorua was a happy hunting ground for Greene. The weekend before she won the solo category at the Nduro 24 hours, topping the women’s field and also riding more laps than the men. That was on a geared bike, but it was still a remarkable effort to back up a week later to win the singlespeed title.
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