We are hosting a Giant Bikes demo on St Valentines day – Feb 14th 2012.

We will have the following:

XTC hardtail in 29″

Anthem XC in 29″

Trance Freeride/Tail in 26″

The all mountain Reign in 26″

The Talon in 29″

Its all happening at the Deans Bank track accessed from the Albert Town campground. The tent will be up and the BBq will be steaming, so come down and check Giant’s awesome range  of bangforyourbuck bikes.

The shop is very proud of all our customers who tested themselves in a gruelling series of events from the kids 1:2:1 Tri introduction on Friday all the way thru to the full Ironman. Our sponsored racer Simone Maier did her self proud with a 3rd placing, cracking her self imposed 10hour benchmark. She was in 6th position after the bike leg and put in an incredibly gutsy run to move up to 3rd.

Full Challenge results can you be found here.

Shown here are a series of images which have also been posted on our Facebook page. They were all taken on an iPhone 4s and put thru Instagram for filters and effects. Its really incredible what you can do with a phone nowadays…

We currently have a post Challenge promotion giving 20% discount for online sales only via our web site here. And whilst you’re there give us a Facebook ‘Like’ too…

Racers during the TriNZ Trophy race on Friday afternoon.

Friday night looking out the window of the Kebab shop - the athlete's rocket fuel.

Men:

1 AARONFARLOW,  08:41:53

2 JAMIE WHYTE, 08:51:53

3 KIERAN DOE,  08:57:17

Female:

1 GINA CRAWFORD,  09:44:06

2 BRITTA MARTIN,  09:47:39

3 SIMONE MAIER, 09:57:42

Racers Edge and Wanaka's very own Simone Maier fashionably optimistic!

OK… Poor title but I couldn’t resist. No, Simone Maier is not about to get married, but with the Sione’s Wedding film sequel about to hit our screens soon, its a nice lead in for Simone’s own sequel this coming Saturday.

Last year she killed it with a second place at the Challenge Wanaka main event. This year she wants a podium but is naturally coy about stating a time and a final position. All she will say is she wants to beat her own personal benchmark of 10 hours.

The bike leg last year was a killer with the tortous wind – everyone suffered, but added to that Simone lost her entire food/nutrient bottle only 45km’s in which she admits hurt her. She says that will not happen again.

She knows it will be tough going this year with 6 pro’s in the field but she’s feeling strong, confident and her equipment is in race ready condition. “Looking forward to it…”

Asked to comment on the week ahead Hazen Simson could only manage a simple “ F&%$(4# H3#@ “ which actually said it all.

From left to Right – Dave Drake, Hazen Simson & James de la Cruz are putting in crazy hours at the workbench this week ensuring all bikes for Challenge Wanaka are in top fettle, officially checked and stickered. Doors at the store are open 9 to 6 but these true professionals are spannering hardout until all the bikes dropped in each day are ready. (Mechanic Nick Kemp not present)

After a good massage, well rested and happy day at work I went for a quick paddle with my friend Jess.Ueee Pretty funny waves this evening but well I thought, I wont get better or get my confidence back from ridding my bike alwaya ha ha … so we went for a paddle in some choppy stuff. Big Thanks to my great friend Ailsa Rollinson, for giving me her Kayak to play with until she gets back from Nelson!!!

Made a little movie again, Ohhhh how I love my Canon Power Shot D10 waterproof camera !!! I take it pretty much everywhere, where I am yessss…

This year I went over to America on the 10th of January and stayed until March 1st travelling most of the time with fellow big mountain skier Zak Hogg.

Training at Breckenridge

We started out with two weeks in Breckenridge Colorado, sleeping on couch pillows, in a house with eight of the Kiwi Park boys.

I wanted to ski a bit of park to improve my spins and flips which are starting to become a feature of Big Mountain and to some degree achieved this. We also spent a couple of days at the Woodward indoor training facility at Copper Mountain and that really is a big help with flips.
We had a lot of fresh powder so ended up doing a bit more freeski stamina training than planned. Apart from Breck we also skied Arapahoe Basin which was a bit more alpine with some more natural features and steeper terrain.

Jackson Hole Freeski World Qualifier

One of the advantages of being in Breck was that we were closer to Jackson Hole the venue for one of the FWT comps we were doing. When I say closer, it was still a 9 hour drive away from Denver, so probably 11 or 12 hours of travel all up from Breck.
We set off on our way to Jackson Hole Wyoming on the 24th of Jan going from Breck to Denver on the famous Gray Hound bus service where we picked up our rental car, a Ford Focus we named Freddy.
We drove the whole 9 hours in one go with a couple stops along the way for food and fresh air arriving in Jackson Hole at about 1am. We decided to save money that night and sleep in the car.
It was very cold. I only had a thin summer sleeping bag so I had to pile on the layers pretty heavy.

We spent two days skiing at Jackson Hole before the comp. Our minds were blown. Jackson is probably the coolest most bad ass mountain I have skied in my life to date. It is absolutely chocked full of cliffs, lines, chutes, terrain nuggets and the odd pillow here and there. On top of all that the ski field is steep and really long, and lastly there is no one there. Even on weekends lines are only slightly bigger than midweek, not enough to bother you though.

The competition day was blue bird and uber hot. I had to hike to the top in my Tee shirt because my down SOS jacket is made for mega cold; it was like wearing an oven.

Sadly the day didn’t end up so well for either Zak or me.
Zak crashed in his run out after skiing a sick line that would have qualified for sure.

Me? Well I didn’t even get quarter of the way into my run before getting lost and skiing into the closed zone of doom. I ended up skiing down a tongue up to the edge of very big cliff with ultra-death rock lying below, I also released a mini slough on the way in. After realising I was in the wrong place and deciding there was no way down I proceeded to hike back up the way I came. All I can say is I now understand why they close stuff!

So with lessons learnt we spent the next 3 days riding the RAD-GNAR of Jackson Hole.
Jackson was great but expensive. We dropped the famous Cobets Couloir the hard way, straight over the cliff. That was a cool experience.

Kirkwood Lake Tahoe

So then it was back to Breck for 3 days before heading off to Kirkwood, Lake Tahoe California for the Rahlves Banzai race. The Banzai is like a mix between skier cross and a Chinese downhill. It’s basically a skier cross course set down rugged, choppy, uneven off piste runs. The first part of our course was an icy mogul field. It was loose.

I got into Kirkwood the night before the comp and what do you know the airline lost my ski bag! That sucked a bit. So what did I do? I skied the BANZAI in jeans, borrowed 150cm poles and a friend of a friends race skis. It was all quite lucky really, because I ran into a guy who I met in NZ last season who was also in Kirkwood for the Banzai, and his buddy had tweaked his knee in practice so he said I could use his skis as he wasn’t competing anymore because he didn’t want to make his knee any worse.

I qualified 19th out of a field of about 60 to get through to the finals day of 32. 8 heats of four with the top two progressing. That’s as far as I got. I had a bad pull out of the gate and started last, I spent a few seconds in 3rd but couldn’t hold it so finished in 4th. Probably the scariest race I’ve done!

Then it was back into training before the Kirkwood FWT starting 24th of Feb. The week before the event we had the most snow I have ever seen in one place in such a short time. It snowed 4 metres in 6 days. It was unreal.

Whether I would end up competing was a bit touch and go for a while as I hurt my calf quite badly about 5 days before the comp. So I spent that time trying to fix my leg. Luckily it was pretty much perfect the day of the qualifiers so didn’t bother me at all.

The day one venue was a bit boring and short but I found a line. I skied my line almost how I wanted, I got all my features and landed everything, but I felt like I could have been a lot cleaner and faster. A lot of that was probably to do with not skiing properly for 4 days before hand.

I went into the Kirkwood comp with the intention of trying to finish about mid-way up the cut in the qualifier. I really needed to get a clean finish on the first day because I never finished Kirkwood in 2010 nor did I get through Jackson Hole this year, so I needed to ski a line that I was 99% sure I could nail. This would give me a gauge and a feel for the level of skiing needed to qualify in an American event. I finished 15th out of a field of 60 men and the cut turned out to be 14. Zak finished a few places below me with a clean run also.

The judges said that it was the deepest cut they had ever done, and it was entirely due to the fact that the Freeski and Freeride World Tours were merging for the 2 finals days. That meant they had something like 65 pre qual athletes in total coming in from both tours.
I would say I did pretty well considering usually the cut would be around 25 to 30 in a regular comp.
The good news is that I now have a really good feel for how much harder I need to ski if I want to qualify in the same comp next year.

I would have been more in my element on the finals venue as it was much longer and had a lot more technically challenging options to choose from so I think there would have been potential for me to do quite well there.

I learnt a lot out of this trip and gained more valuable comp experience. I feel my skiing has improved a lot also. So all in all I have made a significant advance in my skiing and mental game.

Bring on the New Zealand winter!

I plan to do the NZ Open, Chill Series and the Xport extremes. In between I will be back working as a ski instructor and hopefully doing some coaching at Cardrona resort.

ISPO – how do you describe it? Think about 1 elephant, multiply it by a couple of thousand. Add some funky techno breaks to the rumble of the heard and then paint them all in bright colours combined with prints, plaids and anything you can imagine. Then add Euro sophistication and you have the most innovative clever, architecturally mind blowing and professional show in the world.

Dalbello Boot Hanging Display

Tecnica Stand Ispo

Head Secret Wall

These stands are to the value of $2-300, 000 dollars per stand, not a dollar is spared on unique displays. Many of the best athletes hang out there to see what their new swag looks like. I was hanging out there to inherit information, seek out new trends, fashions and find out the strengths of the new ski products and of course – drink Bavarian beer!

My girlfriend and I viewed all our clothing ranges that Racers Edge is so well known for stocking. I can assure you not only does Racers Edge stock the best brands but for 2012 the clothing we selected is amazing. Fantastic colours combined with the best brands, cuts, contrasts, details and technology, is coming to you. If you want to look good on the slopes this winter visit us on either www.raceredge.co.nz

Volkl Stand at ISPO

Volkl Stand 2

or 99 Ardmore St, Wanaka as of April 2011.

From ISPO I headed to St Anton with the International Volkl crew for a Volkl ski test. Stay tuned for St Anton ski test action…….what’s hot from Volkl this season!

John Gordon sprinting to the finish line

Wow, what an incredible day.  Despite the proclamation by full distance winner Jamie Whyte that this was the hardest bike leg he has ever encountered due to the phenomenal head wind; it was still an amazing day to experience.  By the time I ran back to the finish line, I had missed John Gordon running in to finish the half with his Yohei sumo suit dressed employees flanking him to cross the finish line and win the 50-59 year age division.  Luckily, I was in time to catch the Racers Edge team runner, Jess Simson, sprint across leading the team to an impressive 3rd place finish in the mixed category and 6^th place overall out of 132 teams!  We are all extremely proud of our team and how they managed to battle through what even the pro athletes thought to be a challenging race, and finish strong.

Jess and Charlie at the Finish Line

After the leaders came in from the half, we all took a little lunch break waiting for the iron distance athletes to make their way towards the finish line after over 9 hours of competition.  We returned around 3:00pm to see local hero Simone Maier rounding the half run mark and starting on the second lap of the 42.2k run.  It wasn’t long before we heard the helicopter – the same helicopter that powered up at 6:30am that morning to begin its mission to follow the leader around the whole course and provide up to date information for the commentators to pass on to the spectators (otherwise what would they talk about for over 15 hours on the mic??).

The Helicopter

As Jamie Whyte drew close to rounding the last corner, the already buzzing street came alive with anticipation.  Balconies were packed, the once speckled stadium seats were overflowing, and we had to throw elbows to maintain our spot on the barricade by the finish line.  The sound that followed Jamie down the straight away was like a roaring wave ascending toward us.  By the time we could lean out far enough to actually see him, the sound was astonishing.  Everyone in Wanaka was cheering, clapping and banging those strange blow up tubes together to encourage him over the threshold of

Challenge Wanaka Winner Jamie Whyte

the finish line.  The onslaught of cameras and media waiting to capture the moment was tremendous, and they erupted into melody of flashes the moment he grasped the finish line tape and proudly paraded it in the air.

The most amazing part of Jamie Whytes inspiring 9:03:53 finish was not just that he was a good 4 minutes ahead of second place, but the fact that he was able to give a very coherent and well spoken interview within moments of finishing!  You’d think he would need a few minutes to, I don’t know, catch his breath!?  But this man embodied the essence of the endurance athlete and was answering questions without even a heavy breath…amazing.

Simone approaching the finish line

To top my astonishment, an hour and a half later, Simone Maier reappeared in the straight away towards the finish line.  This put things into perspective – how long would it take you to run 21.1k?  Let alone after an iron length swim, the hardest bike leg ever, and a half marathon.  Yet here she was just an hour and a half after we watched her round the half way mark closing in on the finish line as the second place female.  The Wanaka crowd loved this, especially as the commentators reported that she was last seen in third and closing in on the second place spot.  I think the roar was equal if not greater than the output for first place as she jogged down the straight away surrounded by the green balloon runners that escorted the athletes to the finish line.  I was inspired.

The last athlete finished with a time of 17:25:53 – that is seventeen and a half hours of constant exercise.  All day other onlookers were saying that it takes a special breed of people to compete in an event like this, and after watching it from the sidelines; I think that’s an understatement.  The time, dedication and determination that is devoted to this sport, let alone the fact that you have to invest money into three different disciplines, would be enough to detour the majority of people.  But these competitors have persevered and invested their heart, blood and soul into, for some of them, just crossing that finish line.  This kind of courage is to be admired, and while I may never be able to truly understand what these people have gone through, I respect the hell out of them for doing it.  Racers Edge is proud to be the official bike leg sponsor of this event, and I am just honored to have been in Wanaka to experience it.

Casey Teet, Charles Cochrane and Jess Simson - The 3rd place Racers Edge Team

The crowd at 7am on the lakefront

It was beautiful calm sunny days leading up to the big Challenge Wanaka event; but at 6:30am this morning the overcast skies and strong wind gusts were beginning to settle in.  But this didn’t detour the spectators from flocking in droves to watch this prestigious triathlon.  I couldn’t believe how busy the town was at 7 o’clock in the morning!  There was over a half hour wait for coffee in any café, and the streets and lake front were packed with eager onlookers.  The atmosphere was contagious and you couldn’t help but get sucked into the vibe of admiration for these incredible endurance athletes.

The full iron distance competitors were already in the water when we arrived, and we had to push through the crowd to get a good view of the hundreds of swim caps bobbing in the choppy

Hundreds of swimmers in Lake Wanaka

Wanaka lake.  We watched at the transition area as they jogged out of the icy cold lake stripping as they grabbed their bags and made a speedy journey up and over the bridge to mount their bikes for the 180k ride.  Next came the Lake Wanaka Half athletes then the teams quick on their heels and even overtaking despite their later start time.

There is no way to convey the intensity and determination that these athletes were exuding as they transitioned into their next discipline.  Also the age range is astounding!  There is a team with the collective age of 207 competing in the full distance race, now that is impressive.  There was also a small boy who came into Racers Edge for his bike check, but when the staff member tried to explain that they didn’t need stickers for the

The Bag Area with fly over bridge in the background

junior event, he proudly explained that he was competing in the

Challenge event…at 15!  Keep an eye on that one.

While we are only mid way through this race, I have to say that this has been an incredibly motivating experience thus far and am so proud that the Racers Edge team is doing so well!  Charles Cochrane has just come in from the bike leg leading the team to a current 5^th place standing, and Jess Simson is on the run hoping to maintain if not better that spot.  The wind is definitely picking up and there have been rumors that the Lake Hawea elbow turn is yielding a few casualties – not a good day to have those disk wheels! 

I just got word that Jess is nearing the finish line! Stay tuned for a full update and results for this incredible event, because I gotta get back out there and watch! =)  

Charles Cochrane coming into the transition area