WORDS | Amanda Pearce PHOTOS | Neil Sinclair
Rolling into it’s 8th year, Shred Like a Girl hit the hills of Nelson for two days of mountain bike racing with Enduro on Saturday followed by Downhill on Sunday.
DAY 1
After a week of looking at every different weather app available it seemed inevitable that there would be some form of precipitation over the weekend. First up on Saturday was the Enduro with the options of a 3 stage Intermediate or 5 Stage Advanced course. As riders made there way to the Maitai Esplanade for the shuttle uplift, they were greeted by some light rain, luckily the drops soon stopped, with just enough rain to dampen down the dust resulting in perfect trail conditions for racing.
The first stage of the day ‘Hulk n Hogan’ really got the blood pumping. Fast, flowy and fun, this was the perfect trail to get riders in the groove and ready for the day ahead. Riders then cruised up the climbing track to the start of stage 2, Koata Marama.
Arriving at the trig overlooking Nelson at the top of Codgers MTB Park, racers had a short moment to catch their breath and then were into stage 2. Te Tirohanga Marama o Koata (nickname: “Koata Marama”) has quickly become a local favourite. With a mixture of high speed, tight turns and a few pedaly bits its a great test of riders skills. Then the Intermediate 3 stage riders headed for Turners while the Advanced 5 stage riders moved onto DiVAS. Receiving a facelift a couple of weeks earlier, DiVAS was short but sweet keeping everyone on their toes with a few new trails features. The Advanced riders then made their way up to Turners.
Turners has long been a staple of the Nelson mountain bike scene. With lots of flowy berms and jumps (all rollable) it’s defiantly what we would call grade fun! This was the final stage for the Intermediate class while the Advanced class still had one stage to go.
The fifth and final stage for the Advanced riders was Loam Ranger. Sitting at the easy end of it’s grade 5 rating, Loam Ranger is steep, off camber and a hell of a good time. It was great to see spectators and racers out in force on the side of the trail giving the girls a good heckle!
Once racing was finished riders headed to the event village at the Waahi Taakaro Golf Club for some tasty after match food and drink. Once everyone was feed and watered it was into the business end of the day for Prize giving. Congratulations to George Swift, taking out the Shred Like a Girl Enduro overall for 2023.
Check out the Enduro results here
Day 2
After a day of flirting with the weather on Saturday the rain finally came on Sunday morning. Heavy rain overnight was no match for the hardy girls who relished the opportunity to shred some slick trails.
With the rain still falling the first shuttle headed up the hill to the start of Keyboard Warrior. Dropping into the trail with almost complete darkness the decision was quickly made to just run the lower tracks of Mr Chomper or Loam Ranger. After a few practice runs, hot chocolate and some cake everyone was ready for some race runs.
The stoke was high as everyone loaded up the van and headed up the hill for their race run. Riders were given the option of racing either Mr Chomper or Loam Ranger, most opting for the less slippery option of Loam. It was awesome to see so many smiling faces at the finish line as riders recapped their wild race runs. With a hose on hand, bikes and bodies alike were washed down ready for prize giving.
Check out the Downhill results here
A massive shout out to all our awesome volunteers! Without you these events wouldn’t happen. Cheers to all of our spot prize sponsors - Wheel Woman, Dancing Sands Distillery, MTB Skills Clinic, Gravity Nelson, Nancy Loves Bikes, Nelson Cycle Tech.
Also massive thanks to the Nelson Mountain Bike Club and the biggest round of applause to the wonderful Mel Schroder for all the hard work and organisation that goes into this event, we are already looking forward to next year!
