NZ Singlespeed Champs a sell-out
18 April 2013
With under two weeks to go, the full house signs are up for the 2013 New Zealand Singlespeed Championships in Rotorua on Saturday 27 April.
In 2010 the Rotorua Singlespeed Society (RSSS) hosted the Singlespeed World Championships on the renowned Whakarewarewa Forest trail network when around 1000 mountain bikers from 30 countries competed.
"While the New Zealand champs are on a much smaller scale," says Society president, Gary Sullivan, from Rotorua, "it doesn't mean they won't be as loud or colourful."
Singlespeed events are more eccentric than mainstream mountain bike events with costumes and beer short cuts. However, at the sharp end they are just as competitive with traditional winner's tattoos at stake for the leading man and woman.
Garth Weinberg is someone who knows how tough it is to ride a one-geared bike over demanding singletrack. The Rotorua rider is a three times New Zealand Singlespeed champion and won the 2010 World Championships in front of his home crowd.
Having the champs back in Rotorua is splendid, because we get the best crowds and the atmosphere is like nowhere else, he says.
The championship weekend will start on Thursday April 25 with a dawn ride to the Anzac Day service at Ohinemutu Marae on the shores of Lake Rotorua.
There's a really big crew of Aussies coming here for the Singlespeed champs, says Paul Laing from the RSSS.
The event has always been run on the week of Anzac Day, when Aussie and Kiwi soldiers are commemorated and celebrated, so it'll be good to share a beer with a few of them."
The Society is hoping that all mountain bikers and cyclists will join them on the dawn ride and at the race itself.
A full programme is available from the event website www.rotoruasinglespeed.com