We are at the end of the third successful summer of the Outside Sports Ladies Who Ride.  We’ve had a few outsiders thinking that it’s all about going for a gentle pedal followed by some nice tea, a gossip and a bit of knitting but I can assure you it’s not.

Ladies Who Ride is a free mountain biking group run by Outside Sports in Queenstown, for women of all ability levels who have an aim to improve their mountain biking skills.  The group meets once a week in various locations around Queenstown and work hard on improving skills, conquering fears and of course having a good chin wag on the way! 

This year’s calendar has been jam packed with fun adventures and challenging rides and we have had an awesome group of dedicated girls coming each week and making it happen.  We have tried to document the rides by taking photos and video footage this year but as always it hasn’t really happened we tend to be having too much fun to focus on stopping for photo shoots (and the girls are usually riding too fast for our camera!) 

It’s amazing to see the girls improving each week and tackling things that they have previously avoided.  On our first ride at 7 Mile Bike Park back in November there was a lot of getting off and walking on both the up and downhill sections. We have been back there a few times since and there’s considerably less walking each time.  On our last visit we ventured off to some of the more challenging trails including Gravitron, which has some tight steep off camber corners and Bliss, which is a narrow single track through the trees with roots and switch backs and there was heaps of whooping at the end when everyone had conquered it all.  

I have a few favourite bike rides that stick in my mind from this summer.   We had a good turn out to the Moke Lake / Lake Dispute ride and as usual we had a few grumbles about the initial uphill slog.  After about 20 minutes it opened out into rolling single track through pristine farm land and the smiles reappeared and we had a great ride.  The last section of the ride past Lake dispute and down towards Lake Wakatipu throws in a few challenging sections with some loose steep descents, but with a bit of guidance and determination everyone made it down safely.  The ride finished how all rides should, happy faces, high fives and a plan being made for the next ride!

Another ride where everyone finished on a huge high was the Coronet Peak Enduro Track.  There is no longer any lift access to Coronet Peak so we set off up the M1 and then cut onto the track to ride up to the top.  The ride up is quite steep in places and there are a few rocky sections but riding up gives you a great idea what to expect on the way back down, although that can also make it slightly daunting if it’s your first visit, I know it was on mine.  The track is in great condition considering it is no longer maintained and whoever built it in the first place did a great job.  It’s technical but not too hard and there is a genius section of swooping berms and bumps in the middle that gets everyone whooping. 

To finish this season off with a bang we’ve saved the best until last, a Ladies Ride along the Gibbston Valley Wine Trail on a sunny afternoon, obviously with a few cheeky tastings on the way.  It’s tough being a lady!

To all those who didn’t manage to join us this year, drop your details into an Outside Sports store and we’ll be in touch next October.  Have a great winter and keep riding!

Written By Helen Watling, Outside Sports, Queenstown

www.outsidesports.co.nz

Queenstown Skyline Gondola opens to Mountain Bikers

Wicked! At last a bit of help with the hills.

Sunday 24^th January was a day eagerly awaited by many mountain bikers in Queenstown and surrounding areas.   After many years of people gritting their teeth and pedalling up the almighty access road, Skyline decided to give our legs a rest and let us in the gondola with our bikes.  Opening day was a great success with around 300 riders lapping up the trails from 10am until 5pm.

Although I love a good pedal, I feel there is great potential to be had from lift access to the wide array of downhill bike trails in the Ben Lomond forest.  Every time I have missioned up the hill I get to the bottom whooping and wanting more, the problem comes when I consider riding up for the second time and my enthusiasm drops.  Unlike riding in some of the other local spots around Queenstown such as 7 mile with short easy climbs and Wynyard where we can shuttle with cars or Queenstown Bike Taxi the pedal up Skyline is something that most people don’t do more than once in a session. 

In my eyes there is already an extremely high standard of riders in Queenstown and surrounding areas and I think the Gondola is going to nothing but add to that.  For anyone with a will to improve their mountain biking skills the availability of riding more trails per session with more energy and concentration is priceless.  Especially as you can fit in 2-3 laps into a lunch hour!

I would also like to say a huge thank you to everyone that worked so hard to get the trails into such good shape over the last few months.  I can’t imagine how many volunteer hours must have gone in to making the new ‘Hammys Track’ and smoothing out some of the old and much loved ones.  I can’t speak for everyone but I would love it if summer could last a bit longer this year!

Mental Skills

“Mental Preparation makes all the difference in the world between being a good rider and a rider who wins”.

Planning for a big event takes time, sacrifice and commitment in order to succeed at a level you desire. It takes hours upon hours of structured training regardless of the dark, the rain, the wind and the cold. It may mean searching websites morning and night over coffee looking for the most up to date technology, which is going to give you the edge over your competitors. You reduce your diet to 2 weet-bix with water for breakfast, lettuce for lunch and a stick of celery wrapped in another lettuce leaf for dinner in order to loose those extra kg’s. But yet you arrive at the event and still do not perform as well as your training has been indicating. Why?

Most people start asking questions about their physical performance, ‘I should have done more hill reps’, or ‘I shouldn’t have had that home made brownie with my coffee everyday’. The majority of us would not even consider questioning our mental preparation.

And for me this was the case, until I was introduced to the world of mental preparation and mental skills training. This is the art of training your mind to overcome stresses and distractions within a race to make sure you are able to physically perform at your peak.

Some common questions you could ask are, why was I stressed out before the race? Why do I always get extremely nervous and start second guessing myself? Why does my head drop when the conditions are less than perfect? Do I let my mind wander? For most of us mental training is something, which isn’t part of our training programs.

As Eddy Merckx once said “Cycling is a series of physical adaptations for the first few years, and then it becomes all about metal preparation.”

In order to perform at your maximum physical ability you need to be mentally prepared as well.

I think mental preparation comes into 3 categories: -

-       Dealing with stress and distractions

-       Pre race preparation

-       Visualisation

Dealing with stress and distractions

When looking at dealing with stress and distractions first of all you need to accept the fact that things are and will happen that you have not planned for. No matter how great your pre race schedule is, there is always something that is going to crop up and distract you, the question is how do you deal with it.  For me it is a matter of always remaining positive. I know that sounds cliché and simple, but guaranteed it isn’t always the case. Example, you wake up in the morning and it is pouring rain. This causes stress and distracts you from your goals for the day. Two ways to deal with it, one continue to let it play on your mind and distract you from performing well (which is what most people would do as it was not in their plan), or take the positive out of it and look foreword to a ride in the rain. Just simply use positive words to describe the day, ‘Im glad its raining’, or ‘at least we will keep cool’, you will already be ahead of about 90% of the competition. Visualise yourself performing in the rain, and once you have dealt with it you can then move on.

Another common problem is stress or butterflies before a race. This can cause the muscles to be tense and this in term leads to a loss in strength and performance. One way of dealing with this is having a quiet place, or happy place. Whenever you find yourself feeling tense or stressed in your mind go to your quiet place, which if practiced can help to relax you. Just think of a positive or happy memory and draw from that. The quiet place method can be used throughout your everyday life as well, dealing with difficult people, stress at work etc. The more you practice it, the stronger the image becomes and more effective the quiet place method.

Pre Race Preparation

For me pre race preparation starts months before the event when you begin to fine tune the little things which help you get into focus for what is about to happen. For my pre race preparation I have a list of things, which need to be completed, starting the day before. Everything from bike checks, to sleep hours, to food the night before and on the day. I have a checklist of equipment which can be ticked off, including clothing, bike equipment and everything else which I need to succeed. This ensures no second-guessing. Did I pack my shoes? Are my gloves in the bag too? As I said earlier as well, the more you practice this method the more you can fine tune it leading up to the event. Try different meals before the race, try different breakfasts, but do not try anything different on race day.

I also include a time schedule for arriving at the event. Counting backwards from the start, what do I need to do? Sign in, warm up, drink, eat, get dressed, drop equipment off etc. By putting a time next to each dot point your able to establish a minimum time you need to arrive before an event. All of this reducing the stress and need to think about anything else other than racing. It is all very simply put on paper.

Visualisation

The last mental skill is visualisation. Visualising succeeding is a very important step to becoming a superstar athlete. If you cannot visualise and believe you can win than it will never happen. Get into the habit of visualising positive performances, even visualising training rides. If you have 10 hill reps to do one day, take 5 minutes before the training ride to visualise yourself riding each hill rep and succeeding with all 10. If you want to win Wednesday worlds, visualise yourself attacking 2km out and holding off the bunch for a solo victory. The more practiced you become the stronger the image becomes.

My experience with visualisation was with the Elite Nationals in Christchurch, which uses the Dyers pass hill climb on each lap of the race. Dyers pass is a 1.5km 4 min effort, and I was able to ride the whole climb in my head in real time. (Meaning it took me 4 minutes to climb the hill in my head). I practiced climbing the hill successfully in my head and then when it came to race day I knew what I was in for. I visualised the pain in my legs, I visualised the numbers on my computer, I knew the climb so well, I could even tell you what gear I would be in.

Visualising is a very powerful tool so next time you need to do a five minute effort, or a short time trial, visualise yourself doing it first and see what happens.

 

Mentally preparing yourself for any event is equally as important as physically preparing yourself. The more time you put into mental skills the more you get out, and it may be the little edge you require to go that next step. Like with everything though some people will get better benefits than other, but without trying you will never know.

People don’t win because they are physically the most talented; they win because they are mentally prepared to suffer more than others.

 

Written by Nick Rice

Outside Sports Wanaka

 

Challenge Wanaka 2011

What a weekend! Wanaka continues it’s meteoric rise as one of New Zealand’s endurance racing capitals. With a festival of Triathlon beginning with a kids Tri the week earlier, through to a National series Sprint distance race Friday night and finally the grand daddy iron distance Challenge Wanaka on Saturday.

For the crowd the Contact Tri Series races show case some of NZ’s finest, and to have the opportunity to see Olympic stars race up close around a spectator friendly short course in our own backyards is shear frenzied pleasure. With races for both the Men and the Women there was no holding back on talent and the racing appropriately fierce.

The girls race was dominated by local girl Nicky Samuels, who once she had hit the lead on the bike continued to pile on the pressure winning by a massive margin continuing her great run at home. Nicky has been sponsored at home and Internationally by Avanti bicycle company and been a great friend and associated athlete of ours in the Bike Shop. For the coming season she has been forced to look for another bike sponsor and we wish her the absolute best to the upcoming World Championship series and road to the London Olympics.

OK the big one; Challenge. For the uninitiated here are the facts; 4.2km swim, 180km bike ride, 42km swim. That’s right after all that there’s a marathon waiting. Man when I was a kid the marathon alone was crazy! What are these people thinking?!! For us at Outside Sports Velo Service Course we had many of our team competing for various titles and all stood tall on a day that can only be described as epic. The swim was interrupted with breaking waves, the bike involved peddling into a hurricane for hours uninterrupted and the run involved a course not only exposed to the same said wind but also a soft section of trail that has been under water (see below) for the past 4 weeks!

Still our team stood tall and showed the best they are some of the strongest, not only in our region but the country at large. Simone Meier showed her dogged determination after entering the Pro Women category only 1 week prior!! She had been training for the half distance, however with a typical last minute change Simone stepped up for her first race as a ‘Pro’ and excelled crossing the line merely 6 minutes behind ex-world champion and multiple iron distance winner Belinda Granger. Simone’s 2nd overall was only a surprise to those who have never meet her. Determined to the last drop we are super happy for her and her career highlight moment. May this be the beginning of bigger things to come for her. The smile below says it all!

In the Men’s field ultra-marathon freak Morgan Grandel showed his passion for triathlon by completing his umpteenth iron distance course. Morgan put in a solid day in the office and came in an inspiring 6th place.

Half distance was a more sane option for many athletes. Evergreen Jo Williams showed that she is as tough as they come by again putting in a show of defiance in one the most competitive groups coming in 3rd overall. In the Men, John Gordon showed that a diet of Juice and Yohei Sushi keeps his youthful vitality strong and defied his age bracket coming in 1st place (50-59) and an incredible 10th overall, against some seriously younger opposition, arguably the performance of the day; though with all these highlights its really is hard to chose one highlight! Really with conditions easily the most demanding ever seen in Challenge Wanaka anyone completing the course should take a bow.

Neil Proctor our main man in Queenstown and still recovering from knee surgery also pulled one out of the hat, creating personal bests all over the place. No that’s not a smile below, but I am very proud of your dash for the line grimace Neilo!

And reserved for the last congratulations is for the original Mr. Outside Sports; John Knight. For those who haven’t had the pleasure of meeting this great man, I’ll keep it simple by saying he is an inspiration to us all. Having competed on the world triathlon circuit, been a player in some of the toughest of road and mountain bike races and charged around tirelessly in adventure races as brutal as Eco Challenge, John is one who modestly passes on stories of his achievements and it is always an honour to be part of his association.

In the end sadly there are too many well wishes and congratulations that we would love to pass on individually but don’t have the space to. For all our regular’s who came by in the last few weeks for check up’s, services, advise or just some friendly, nervous pre-race banter, we thank you and salute you. This was a big one, you have all done something very extraordinary.

Outlet River Trail

The title truly describes the current state of one of Wanaka’s most popular walking and leisurely riding trails. With lake levels at almost bursting point it should come as no surprise that the height at the head of the Clutha River should also match. For some locals who shall remain nameless this has presented a unique opportunity to become kids again and, well, take a look…

SO we welcome your comments, let’s make it a competition for the best caption, I’ll start:-

1) Specialized makes first amphibious mountain bike

2) Bike For Sale – Careful one lady owner

3) The Clutha Bike Wash

For what it’s worth, this careful rider here did make sure to drain her bike totally of water and regrease/lubed the entire bike. Feel free to leave a comment and caption of your own!! Happy Riding.

Wanaka – Haast Pass return

If I had to name one of the most beautiful road rides in the world, Wanaka to Haast would without doubt be on the shortlist. The road connecting Otago with the West Coast traverses the Southern Alps. It undulates along the shorelines of Lake Hawea and Lake Wanaka, up the Makarora river and climbs up to the pass named after the Austrian explorer Julianvon Haast, the first European to travel the seldom used rugged Maori route.

There was nothing rugged about this ride though. 3o degrees and hardly a cloud in the sky. A perfect opportunity to get together for a social ride with my team mates Scott Rainsford and Nick Rice outside of  competition. We were joined by James Williamson, current Subway rider and recently signed by Pure Black Racing. He was happy to take time out of racing in his preparation for a busy calender in North America.

The ride to the pass and back is 170km and whilst the pass, the lowest of the three Southern Alps crossings at 564 metres, is not the most intimidating, it is without doubt my favorite. The road flows beautifully, twisting and turning, rising and falling. The open high country and golden tussock clad hills give way to dense beech forest as the pass and approaches. This is the Northern border to Mt Aspiring National Park. The pristine waters of the Makarora river and tumbling, cascading tributaries provide temporary relief with an icy blast of cool air during the heat of the day.

The sea breeze was picking up and we were thankfully only exposed to it briefly along the river flats. Once in the shelter of the forest the gradual final drag up to the  pass began. We weren’t racing, but there’s always a bit of friendly rivalry for the first to the pass, you want to hold your own.

The way back was a blast. Tailwind and tucked up hitting 80 maybe 90 on the descent and 50 – 60 on the flats, we made quick work of the 18km back to the Makarora cafe. It’s a welcome  spot to re-fuel for the 70km back to Wanaka.

The return journey has a bit of sting in it’s tail, and i was certainly feeling it! That unstoppable twinge of cramp threatened on more than one occasion during some of the nasty climbs as we neared Wanaka. The heat was beginning to take it’s toll, and it was with some relief we rolled back into town. I was dreaming of smoothies, nuts, fresh fruit and cold water and a refreshing swim to to it all off. Simple pleasures and the satisfaction of another dream coming true! All in all a truly memorable day out. Thanks to Scott, Nick and James for being part of it,

 

Specialized S-Works (Project Black)

At VSC we are take great pride in helping you chose the little bits and pieces to help make your ride perform better as well as stand out and be unique to you. Every bike is a labour of love and nothing gives us more satisfaction than handing it over to knowing that your ride will give you new pleasures to enjoy. Understandably things get emotionally crazy when we go to design something for ourselves; from the ground up…

Now before we go into my own recent obsession let me humour you with an analogy from the automotive industry. This is what you would build if you wanted uncompromising speed.

However this would be faster AND more comfortable…

This is my Bugatti.

It’s a luxurious sleeper, understated appearance that is capable of out riding any uber-bike on the planet on mixed terrain; but it realy loves it when the going gets rough. The Roubaix was born for the cobbles of Northern France. Over use of the word compliance has become tedious in bike reviews of the last 2 years as manufacturers strive to make their race bikes stiffer and more comfortable. However when Specialized conceived the Roubaix 8 years ago compliance wasn’t in the marketing dictionary and the world thought they’d gone cookoo. These days to call this godfather machine compliant would be insulting and unimaginative rather than complimentary. It would distill out it’s beauty, and like the Bugatti above it would wrongly assume it lesser in speed than the pure F1 machine. It would miss the mark on what has become in recent years the most successful competition frame in the pro peloton (3 wins in last 3 starts in Paris-Roubaix arguably says this frame has a 100% win record, OK Hushovd won in front of it during the cobbled stage of the Tour, but where would he have been without Cancellara creating the moment?).

For 2011 Specialized have utilized many lessons learned from their Tour and Classics winning Tarmac and believe it or not their lady’s Amira. The combined masterclass in technology is the S-Works SL3 Roubaix. As seen here in a limited supply “Project Black” finish. Now true Project Black bikes as seen ridden by Cancellara and O’Grady at this years Roubaix are unreleased secretive prototypes. They are painted gloss black in entirety to disguise the latest. This beauty is in production and therefore has nothing to hide and is all the more visually absorbing for it. Only at tube junctions is trickery blacked out. The tubes themselves only have a clear gloss coat to proudly display the uni-directional 11R high modulus carbon. The result is minimal and stunning. SL3 construction taken from the Tarmac now see’s the Roubaix’s down tube-BB-Chain stay constructed as one monocoque piece making it stiffer and lighter than ever before. The dropouts at the rear are ingeniously kept hollow and allow frictionless internal cable routing, very clean.

Up the infamous curved seat stays and the pitch changing Zertz; now bolted to the frame to achieve better harmonies for rider comfort. Indeed the shape of the stay has also undergone a major change and now in conjunction with the seat tube has the ability to deflect 6mm under heavy bumps; understand now why I believe ‘compliance’ to be an insult?! This deflection is for your seated area and by no means should be associated with suspension; remember that one piece SL3 BB junction again. That rear wheel is tracking like a thorough bred.Up front is where the Amira lessons came in only to take it a step further… The over-sized Down Tube, too fat for the tapered Head Tube wraps around the front, creating incredible torsional strength and cornering precision. This was not enough for Specialized and the same was done to the Top Tube giving the bike a very unique ‘Cobra’ like appearance from above and in front.

Dressing the bike was always going to be the hard bit. Deliberating over groupset, handle bars, post, tape, seat… took weeks. The wheels are still not here to talk about but I’m sure you’ll agree my Corima’s shod with Veloflex, look (and perform) very much at home.

I’ve always been a Campagnolo man and considering just how Batman the latest Super Record looks it was a no brainer. The ‘new’ hoods are the most comfortable pistols on the planet - please don’t argue – as for 11-SPEED shifting… lets look at some numbers quickly, I’m using compact crankset because it’s 1)more usable and 2)lighter. Then at the back I have the pleasure of having a climbable tight block 11-23. All I’m missing is the 22. Point (as Jens would say).The Pro stuff is new for me after years of service with Deda. Their Vibe range is first class and has enough ‘new-school’ to help ween me off Italy.

Specialized help out with S-Works shallow drop bars; seriously if you don’t use the drops too much because of the reach consider shallow bars; simple revolution.Their Romin saddle is hands down a rock star. No write-up could do this seat justice, try one, try one, try one, I’ll shout it from the roof if I have to; it’s the only product I’ve EVER seen bikeradar give ***** (check the link in the Independent menu above). 

As for the feet Look deliver with weight, style and one hell of a solid confident engagement with the new Keo Blade pedal (Ti). No accessories are minor on my bikes; Elite take care of holding my water and the Germanic genius’ at Tune dish up the finest wheel skewers on the market.

The result is not male or female but Phantom. It belongs on the midnight streets. A silent stalker. Agile but sure-footed. Light on its feet, but robust enough for the most extreme undertaking. A Panther. A labour of love. An absolute joy to ride.