Riding High - Year 10 Mountain Biking

I am sure some of the boys were not sure what to expect of this camp and were pleasantly surprised by both the challenge and the amount of time spent on their bikes. We had a range of abilities so the goal was to have everyone stretch themselves and see what they were really capable of, as well as encourage and support each other. I can safely say this happened more than we even anticipated and it was great to see boys improving and pushing themselves mentally and physically every day, and to see the capable riders really encouraging and coaching others. 

We rode a variety of tracks in Queenstown, Clyde and Alexandra. The first few days were very tentative for some so it was great to be able to return to two of those tracks and for the boys to be amazed at how they now could ride all of it and how much better they were at it. They also got a taste of what takes to create these trails by helping the Queenstown MTB Club start a track further up Skyline (there were some very tired boys that night). Highlights were seeing the biggest smiles when boys arrived at the base of tracks they had never done or had to walk some of the previous day and were now riding with ease, and that there were no injuries beyond the usual scrapes and grazes. 

 A huge thank you goes to Jeremy Cuthbert, Duncan Macbeth, Sean Aldrich and our gap student Sean Wellmann for corralling and keeping up with the boys and to Holger Lachman for being our driver and chef extraordinaire.