Maddy Sinclair and Neve McKenzie competed at the South Island Secondary Schools Mountain Biking tournament during summer sports week.

SISS Mountain Biking

Mother nature clearly did not read the Summer in “Summer Tournament Week” and provided snow, rain and forecast gales at the riders.

Maddy Sinclair (Year 12) competed in the U20 Cross Country, Downhill and Enduro, and Neve McKenzie (Year 10) competed in the Cross Country.

Maddy had an outstanding event taking 3rd place in the overall U20 category.

The highlight was the Country Cross where Maddy rocketed off the line with a friend from Christchurch Girls High School and developed a gap of over a minute back to the other riders after the first lap. On the first climb in the second lap, Maddy applied the pressure and broke clear of second place and then rode consistently for the final two and half laps and pulled away to win by two minutes. The snow on the tracks earlier in the week made the tracks in places very slippery and some of the steep sections were so greasy the only option was to get off and run.

Due to the gale winds forecast for Saturday, after the Cross Country, the Downhill Practice and Seeding was completed, making for a very long and tiring day. Maddy rode really well on a slippery track and qualified 4th, only two seconds off the podium. Luckily on Saturday, the gales did not eventuate and the race runs were completed. Track conditions had improved and Maddy was on a fast DH run but unfortunately on the third last corner made a small mistake that resulted in a heavy crash. Maddy lost over a minute due to the crash and ended up placing 6th, but only 2 seconds off 5th, despite the crash.

Her final event was the Enduro. Still a bit shaken after her heavy crash in the DH, Maddy rode conservatively and came away with a solid 4th place.

Neve managed to squeeze the XC race in between her Triathlon and Athletics. Neve managed to win silver in her race.

Neve powered off the start chasing the eventual winner. Despite pushing hard, Neve could not catch the leader but developed a 2 minute gap over the 3rd place rider. Given the conditions and her other sporting commitments, this was a great result.

The girls are now looking forward the National Schools Mountain Bike Champs that will be hosted here in Blenheim in October.