Local tracks provide great training for winning mountain-bikers
Seamus Ryan, left, and Reece Potter. Photo: Neil Wilson.
Cycling of all kinds is enjoying a boom period locally, and two local mountain-bikers are making their mark in their highly competitive fields.
Last weekend Reece Potter (15) won the final race of the Top of the South series in Nelson. That made him Top of the South Under 17 Downhill champion for 2009.
Reece has been competing in downhill mountain-biking for just two years. He gave the sport a try just for fun and finished third in his first-ever race.
“That gave me the confidence to go back,” said Reece.
Now he does lots of practice on a track he has built at home in East Takaka, goes to Bird’s Clearing with Bruce Chick and other local mountain-bikers (to whose support, together with Martin Langley’s, he pays tribute) and travels to Nelson to compete in races. “I’m catching up with guys over there who used to thrash me,” he said.
Reece explained that downhill racing involved different kinds of skills and fitness from cross-country mountain-biking. “It’s not so much endurance. Our races are technical, short and very fast. You have to make quick decisions because the racing is so close. In one race I did recently there were five guys within a second of each other. There are lots of big jumps in a downhill and it looks a bit scary, but if you know the track and you’re a good rider you won’t be scared.”
Seamus Ryan says that before he took up cycling he was “just another 100kg ex-rugby player.”
“I started when I was 30, biking to the shop to get the groceries,” said Seamus. “Then we moved to Golden Bay in 2002 and everything changed. Everything’s big in the Bay. If you want to go mountain-biking you have to ride for two-and-a-half or three hours and maybe get up the Takaka Hill to get there. I reckon I’ve done the Hill about 200 times. That gives me a bit of an advantage in my cross-country races.”
Seamus swept the Top of the South cross-country championship in his 40 to 50 year age-group, winning five of the six races and finishing second in the sixth one.
“The racing is just a spin-off for me,” he said. “I like riding a bike and being fit. My ambition is to be fit and healthy for as long as possible. There are guys in the Top of the South Series who are over 60 and still very competitive. I couldn’t do it without the support of my wife, Nikki, who goes out of her way to make sure that I can get training time.”
Seamus said that the new mountain-biking track at the Canaan was “a lot of fun.”
“The Nelson guys couldn’t stop raving about it,” he said. “They couldn’t get over the fact that we can do our mountain-biking in the actual mountains. DOC and all the other supporters and workers have done a great job. It’s going to be huge for the Bay.”
Neil Wilson
