The old website for New Plymouth Mountain Bikers club: see the new one for rides, races, trail development, skills development and advocacy in New Plymouth, Taranaki, New Zealand.
Quite possibly the first New Zealand event to celebrate IMBA (International Mountain Bicycling Association) Take A Kid Mountain Biking Day, the New Plymouth event was deemed a fantastic success, and set the bar high for future years.
Coinciding beautifully with the first sunny warm day after weeks (months) of rain, the event drew more than 30 kids and their parents to the underutilized Huatoki Domain park in one of the city’s outer suburbs. The event, organised by the non-profit New Plymouth Mountain Bikers club, offered free bike safety checks, skill and confidence building clinics, fun rides, and even a race around an undulating 1km cross-country course.
The youngest rider was only 4 years of age, but that didn’t deter him or any of the other participants from having a great day out on their mountain bikes, conquering such challenges as a limbo, slalom course and transporting a water bottle from one spot to another. These skills were then put into a real-world mountain biking situation on a fun ride, which introduced the young riders to natural terrain like hills, roots and mud. The day finished with a fun race, where everyone was a winner and took a prize home.
The event was made possible with the support of the New Plymouth District Council, who provided key sponsorship to help the club promote the event to a broad audience, IMBA, who created the event and supported it with a range of promotional material, and local bike shops and cycling organisations who got in behind the event with promotion and prizes in some cases. it also gained significant exposure through the local media channels. It looks set to become a regular fixture in the New Plymouth Mountain Bikers’ calendar.
Results from yesterday:
17 Mountainbikers stuck in mud and rain at Colson, Club President laughs all the way to the podium....
Yes, it was MTB racing, 'naki style. I probably would've called off the race if there had been lightning and thunder (and/or the time-keepers had gone on strike! thanks Janet and Kylee). Obviuosly there's enough hard core locals to enjoy a mud bath and race all in one. Congrats to those who turned up to see how much mud a bike can take before it stops. Did I mention the hailstorm in the middle of the race? Also smart thinking by those boys that decide one gear was all that was needed, maybe just one more needed though if you wanted to catch Shane?
This concludes the Winter Series and watch out as I hear a lot of new ideas are coming for when things are less wet and the club has been to Taupo. Thanks for coming along and joining in the fun, it's great to see there's a good lot of people back on their bikes and giving it a good go.
| Race # | Name | Class | Laps | Finish time | Class Place | Overall Place |
| 7 | Lawson Freeman | OM | 5 | 01:07:25 | 1 | 2 |
| 24 | Ross Valintine | OM | 5 | 01:11:10 | 2 | 3 |
| 16 | Merv Hunger | OM | 5 | 01:13:00 | 3 | 4 |
| 1 | Matt Goodsell | OM | 4 | 01:03:27 | 4 | 7 |
| 23 | Paul Muter | OM | 4 | 01:06:13 | 5 | 8 |
| 14 | Simon Winstanley | OM | 4 | 01:07:14 | 6 | 9 |
| 19 | Wayne Harrison | OM | 4 | 01:16:32 | 7 | 10 |
| 18 | Brett Tanner | OM | 4 | 01:18:15 | 8 | 11 |
| 12 | Ryan Tuuta | OM | 3 | 01:04:05 | 9 | 15 |
| 27 | Jeremy Katheny | OM | 1 | 00:23:00 | 10 | 17 |
| | | | | | | |
| 21 | Shane Wilson | VM | 5 | 01:07:04 | 1 | 1 |
| 8 | Carl Whittleston | VM | 5 | 01:14:05 | 2 | 5 |
| 2 | Paul Plumtree | VM | 5 | 01:15:05 | 3 | 6 |
| 5 | Tony Powell | VM | 4 | 01:20:05 | 4 | 12 |
| 17 | Darren Mason | VM | 3 | 01:03:07 | 5 | 13 |
| 6 | Phil Armstrong | VM | 3 | 00:53:00 | 6 | 14 |
| | | | | | | |
| 3 | Fiona Plumtree | VW | 3 | 01:09:09 | 1 | 16 |
The first of the spring night races was held on Tuesday under a full moon. 16 riders showed up to try their hand at some short lap night racing.
A glitch with the track taping let some have a couple of adventurous early laps.
Thanks to Ron Parkes for coming out while not well and putting up his lights for the start/finish area. Also to Sandra for helping with the registration and lap counting while the track taping got sorted.
See you all at the next one on the 7th September.
Results:
7 Laps:
| N Sutton | 1:02:54 |
| A Patterson | 1:03:07 |
| C Simpson | 1:04:54 |
| H Lobb | 1:06:19 |
| G McBeth | 1:07:06 |
| M Young | 1:07:55 |
| R Valintine | 1:10:09 |
6 Laps:
| B Simpson | 1:02:26 |
| P Muter | 1:03:00 |
| J Dixon | 1:03:08 |
| M Goodsell | 1:08:25 |
| D Lobb | 1:09:56 |
5 Laps:
| S Valintine | 1:04:41 |
4 Laps:
| J Baxter | 0:51:03 |
| K Obrien | 1:03:38 |
3 Laps:
| J Rotley | 0:45:55 |
