Issue 75 Preview

ISSUE 75 OCT 2018 NZ $12.95 AUS $13.95

JAMIE NICOLL & MALCOLM STONEY, DOLOMITES, ITALY.

SPOKE ISSUE 75

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Welcome home Skating and waiting Words & Image Scott Robb Jacob had just got back from spending the winter overseas and was keen to get back into the native Kiwi beech forest. I’d recently gotten a new camera and hadn’t given it a proper workout with bikes yet. We both wanted to shoot something new, so we headed down to Glenorchy and spent the afternoon riding the skate park waiting for the sun to drop behind the mountains so we could avoid the patchy light and let the greens of the forest really come through.

This image was the result.

Rider: Jacob O’Donoghue-Price Location: Glenorchy, NZ

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All style A fitting farewell Words & Image Graeme Murray Logging has begun on Rotorua’s popular Eagle vs Shark track. It’s a reminder of how lucky we are to be riding in this area, as it’s still a commercially logged forest. The Trails Trust has done a great job of making sure we’re able to rebuild trails that get removed, even if it’s just in part, and fundraising for the rebuild has already started.

As seen in this image, Connor Hamilton looks at trails a little differently to most, finding a new way to ride the track before it disappears.

Rider: Connor Hamilton Location: Rotorua, NZ

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The Torlesse Gap is the notch in the middlle of the skyline

SPOKE ISSUE 75

THE TORLESSE GAP My struggle with the hole in Castle Hill’s skyline Words & Images | Richard Goldsbury

It’s 8am Saturday. I’m an hour and a half along an alpine ridgeline I climbed up to last night and have realised I’ve left the sun cream in the car. If I turn back I could ride the fantastic Craigieburn trails; if I go on I’ll still be fighting a crosswind too strong to be able to ride nicely, even on the return descent, and by that time I’ll be sunburnt and dehydrated. But I’ve spent a lot of the last 16 years looking over the Castle Hill Basin at the Torlesse Range, particularly the gap, and have only had a few journeys a little way along the other end of the range, so I trudge on.

My family had gone away for a few days, giving me a chance to go on a proper mission. I drove to work with the car all packed and left early. The road to my start point was a real out and back, with about a 30km and 24-gate backtrack, complete with sheep on the road. I left the car at about 5pm, just as a coal train passed heading back to the coast. The dirt road dropped down under a railroad viaduct to a river crossing and on to the old Avoca Homestead. I didn’t want to get my shoes wet this early on so climbed onto the old derelict stock bridge and crossed the river. The next 20 minutes was climbing on some old farm roads until I decided it was time to remove my wheels, strap my Zerode Taniwha to my bag, and start climbing the real part of the hill. It was an awkward carry, much of which didn’t look appealing to ride; steep, with lots of marble-like stones on hardpacked base.

By about 8:30 I’d climbed the first ascent to Bold Hill (1286m), which seemed a fitting name since I figured the descent would need a few bold moves to get down. Just below it I saw a potentially cool photo, but the

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sun was about to get blocked, and I wouldn’t have time to reassemble my bike and set it up. The little ridgeline down to 1200 was pretty good, then it was push and carry up along the ridge. At about 1400m I saw a kea, my favourite bird, fly around the next peak 50m above me as the sun set. I climbed the rest of that ridge until I found a little campsite at 1451, where I laid out my sleeping mat and bag, ate a sandwich, and lay down to sleep.

A few minutes later I heard the rocks at my feet move. I assumed it was the cheeky kea at my feet, but when I sat up I saw it was a feral cat. I really hadn’t expected to see these introduced predators this high up, killing birds. I threw a rock, but missed, and it retreated into the darkness off the windy western side of the ridge.

I’d left my camera set up while I slept but woke in the middle of the night and took some star photos. At sunrise I packed up my bed and some food, stowed them for picking up on my downward journey, and continued along the ridge.

It was a mixture of pushing, carrying and even some pedalling up, with a few descents of varied quality mixed in. Eventually I got to Back Peak (1979m), still 4km from the gap, when I turned around. The first descent was down to a tarn to refill my water, and covered a fairly hairy bit of rough scree. Another 20 minutes of carrying got me up to Otarama Peak, at which point my phone rang on the edge of reception. Earlier in the morning I’d emailed a person I nearly know who flies gliders; he was calling to say he was nearby, so we arranged a rendezvous so I could photograph him flying around me. He looped around me for about 30 minutes, but his friend lost lift and ended up landing out at Kura Tawhiti, Castle Hill rocks.

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DOLOHMIGHTY

Words Tony Hutcheson Images Max Schumann & Tony Hutcheson Sometime in the dark ages of 2009, I was nearing the end of a full year of holidays. The prospect of meaningful employment loomed large on the horizon. Faced with this daunting certainty, my then girlfriend (now wife) Sonja and I did the only thing any sane person would or could do: we ‘eloped’ on an emergency cycle tour through northern Italy, descending from the Staller Pass—one of the more remote Austro-Italian borders—and finishing in the then less well-known Finale Ligure. We spent four or five amazing days cycling through Trentino and Alto Adige/Südtirol with a brief punctuation mark at Lago di Garda for gelato and techy trails. The entire experience has lingered in my subconscious ever since and left me with a taste for knödel.

Scratching a nine-year itch

Max Schumann

TWO MINUTES WITH TOWBALL UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL WITH EDDIE MASTERS WORDS & IMAGES JAY FRENCH

If you’re reading this and you haven’t heard of Ed Masters, then you’ve been missing out. Younger brother of #wheeliewednesday pioneer Wyn Masters, Ed has developed a reputation as one of downhill’s last true wild-men, infamous for his TV-newsmaking house party scandals in Queenstown, non-quali party shenanigans as one of the OG Vanzacs crew, wig-wearing race runs, and hilarious spoof videos like ‘The Spirit of Enduro’. Eddie’s stock has risen substantially after the recent move to the Pivot factory race team, from riding and managing team Bergamont.

So let’s just get this one out the way. Of your many nicknames, what’s your favourite?

Ed kicked off 2018 by becoming New Zealand National DH champ before heading abroad to compete in both downhill and enduro. He amassed three top 20s and four top 10s across his chosen disciplines, with the icing on the cake being two consecutive Enduro World Series podiums in La Thuile and Whistler.

Yeah, managing a team was quite a big thing. I’m really enjoying not having to do all the extra stuff and just being able to chill when there’s a fair bit going on. You know, with Bergamont, we were running it on a tight budget, so you’re constantly crunching numbers in your head and you’ve always got that going on, trying to stick to your budget. You’re spending the money before getting paid, without any overdraft. That’s the biggest thing, trying to manage everything on very little money.

With Ed fresh out of ACL reconstruction surgery and recovering at home in the ‘Naki, I decided that while he’s on crutches and can’t get away, I’d corner him for a quick chat about his year, what the future holds, and some general bike related banter. Chatting to Eddie is always a pleasure; he’s one of the funniest and most laid back athletes you could ever have the privilege of speaking with. So without further ado let me welcome The Towball, Mr Worldwide, The Mayor of Queenstown, the best qualifier never to deliver, the one and only Eddie the Eagle, Mr Ed Masters.

Probably Towball, cos I think it’s pretty funny. Fat Brad [Brad Sloane] made that one up.

It was your first year on Pivot this year. Was it a case of new team, new lease of life? Or was it more that you got away from the pressures of managing a team yourself?

But now you just get to concentrate on riding fast, right?

Yeah, I don’t have to do much else with the new setup. I try to help out with the cooking and stuff, but other than that it’s pretty chilled.

How’s the new boss [Bernard Kerr]?

Ha ha, Bernie’s all good. Initially, you’re always a bit hesitant going into a setup with one of your friends because you just never know. But Bernie is sweet, he doesn’t stinge on things, he just gets it done which is good.

It’s a kind of organised chaos, but it all works out.