Chile times and WynTV

So only another week to go here at Lago La Paloma, Chile where I have spent the past 11weeks building trails then I will be heading back home to NZ and then get back in to racing again with the NZ National series from January until end of Febuary which should be cool.

Anyway check out my latest WynTV work from here in Chile,


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Chile Update and Wide Open ride for NZ

So I have been flat out on the shovel 6 days a week out here in Patagonia Chile, but have still managed to find time to put a couple of my WynTV videos together. Also I have just signed with Wide Open Distributors for the NZ National season which will have me on a sick new Turner DHR and Marzocchi Suspension for the New Zealand race season, check out the press release here http://www.wideopen.co.nz/news.php?id=628



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Chile, my ride home from work

Check out my ride home from work each day over here in Chile, couldn't get any better way to commute I reckon!


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Latest WynTV from home

Here's my latest WynTV video from my time at home, and now I am back on a plane again and this time off to Chile where I will be working for three months building tracks there's will have another update from there.


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WynTV in Italy Pt3

WynTV in Italy pt3 >>

WynTV in Italy Pt2

Been hanging out for the last few weeks in Aosta, Italy getting some riding done and having a good time.


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Champery World Cup 4 Race Report

So the past weekend saw the running of World Cup Round 4 at Champery, Switzerland. I had been looking forward to this one, as I had heard many good things and it certainly didn't disappoint.

When we arrived we got to check out the track and as soon as you get here you get a perspective for the steepness of the mountain, as the chairlift pretty much goes straight up. Its the first track where I was kinda nervous for the first day of practice, but as soon as you do a couple of run's you get used to it and I was loving it, there's got to be nothing better than doing 2 pedals out of the start and straight into a line of jumps then you're pinned for the rest of the run without even having to pedal.

My practice day went pretty well I only did 5 runs to stay pretty fresh, would have been real easy to to heaps but had to keep it at just a few. The track changed from bone dry to slightly wet midway through practice which made it a bit more interesting. Over night there was alot of rain so the next days practice was pretty loose to say the least, people were crashing left right and center, and there were lines of people lined up for the technical sections, as one after another crashed out. I was having fun in the conditions and getting loose but mostly staying on my bike.

About 5 minutes before our qualifying run it started pissing rain, normally I don't really enjoy conditions like this but I was kinda stoked for my run, I rode my run to stay on my bike and muzzered most of the top section having both feet off through a fair bit of it. I did ride some of it at the bottom pretty well staying feet up. I slid out before one of the jumps at the bottom and cased it so hard I broke my headset and bent my chainring so I had to half pedal my way to the line. I was surprised for sure when it said I was 5th!?! But I guess you just had to stay on your bike and that was what counted.

Finals day rolled round and the track was getting more sticky the mud was heavier to push through but it now had a good rut to ride in most of the corners. I felt awesome in the practice before finals just having fun the whole time loving the conditions and felt like I was riding really well staying feet up most of the time. After practice I had a big wait till finals, and probably got a bit psyched up as I had never had to do this before, I headed up the hill a bit early too I think, as I prefer to only have short time at the top before my start usually. I was up there probably over an hour as the course was closed for a bit due to riders having to get picked up with the helicopter. I set off pretty well out of the start but then felt like I couldn't relax and was riding stiff I got a bit down the first section and blew out a section off the track, by now I was stressing too much thinking rather than just riding but it's good to learn somehow. I rode the rest of the way but was pretty over it and rode far from how I rode the practice, I finished 33rd with a terrible run, and I was pretty angry with how it went but learnt a bit at the same time.
Blinky put together a pretty good run for 4th but I don't think thats what he was looking for, and Brook put in an amazing ride for 6th place his best result to date.

Now I have the 5th Round at Val Di Sole this weekend which is a good course for me also, so I am pretty excited for this one!

Wyn

WynTV in Morzine

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Italian Cup Round 3 Report

So the past weekend saw the third round of the Italian Cup series at Campo Felice near to L'Aquila the Italian city that was ravaged last year by a huge earthquake.

We arrived late on thursday evening after a seemly endless 9 hour drive down from Aosta, it was also probably one of scariest drives too, Im not known to use the "Oh shit handle" but the Italian drivers certainly had me gripping it! after the drive all that was on the cards was dinner and sleep. The next day we headed up the hill to check out the track and after walking it, I wasn't overly excited but riding it was different and after the first few runs I was into it ,some bits could of been better but it was really loose due to all the rocks which made it pretty fun. I spent the afternoon filming it for WynTV, I was lucky enough to have George Brannigan to be my cameraman as he is currently out for a couple of weeks with a broken finger.

The next day was another practice day but it was a easy track to learn so I was pretty much ready to race, so we didn't ride till after lunch and did a few runs got it dialed then went to session the air pillow jump that they had there, similar to a foam pit and it was good for a few laugh's and to kill sometime, I got the 360's down on my DH bike which was sick. That night we had a go carting session at the local track near Campo Felice which got cut a bit short as everyone just got too loose at one point there were people all over the grass and some going the wrong way on the track, I perfected the wall ride in the cart which was a good laugh.

Then it was race day we had to get up early for a change to get a couple of runs in before qualifying, I had a couple of good runs and felt good on the track. My qualifying run certainly didn't reflect that though I set off and got caught out on one of the loose gravelly berms up top, I lost the front then slid a fair way on my side, I got up and kept going and tried to make some back but that is near impossible on a short basic track like this, I ended up 8th and knew I had to keep it rubber side down for the finals and I could do alright.

So after a full italian pasta lunch and a bit of a chill out it was finals time, I did a bit of a warm up at the top to the sound of some full on lightening that was going on, at one point just before my start it looked like it was definitely going to rain but luckily somehow it held off. I set in to my run and was super cautious in the top turns to make sure I didn't blow them out and lay it down, I rode most of the track like that trying not to make any mistakes and felt that I wasn't really quick enough, but I finished on a 2.30 run and surprisingly took the win over fellow kiwi Matt Scoles in 2nd making it another kiwi dominated Italian Cup, bet it must be starting to get to them too when they can't win their own races..

That finished off a pretty awesome weekend, Im now chilling for a couple of days in Rome to check out the city and then head back to Aosta and get some riding in at Pila. I would like to thank everyone that makes it possible for me especially my mechanic Alan and to all my awesome sponsors, South Star Shuttles, Infamous Designs, T.H.E helmets and clothing, Backflips.co.nz clothing, Rockstar Racing, Taranaki Elite Athletes Foundation, Leatt Brace, E*Thirteen, Kenda Playbiker Team, Lapierre Bikes, Burgtec, Fox Racing Shox and last but not least Mum and Dad.

WynTV Schladming sessions

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Leogang WC3 report

So the past weekend was the third round and the midpoint of the World Cup series in Leogang, Austria I was looking for a good result at this one as I certainly haven't had the start to the Series that I wanted. I headed out to Austria from Cheshire in the UK, where I had been hanging out for a week staying with Harry Health, it was a massive drive I was wired after 2 Redbulls and a Coffee and we drove pretty much non stop, we were certainly glad to see the end of it after 16hours in the van!

The next day I got to check out the track and on first impressions I wasn't that impressed with how it looked, it had a couple of really good sections but then also had some big flat pedally sections linking to the steeper sections. The first day was perfect weather and we were greeted to so awesome summer weather, which called for a bit of a cricket international in the pits to kill some time, it was also first time cricket for some of the guys and there were some interesting bowls and ways to hold the bat, all round it was a good laugh though!

We awoke to rain for first practice session of the weekend makes it the 2nd muddy race this year. The track actually rode a lot better than what it had looked it was still going to be a hard to do a full race run and it was changing run after run as there were new holes and ruts appearing all over the place, I felt pretty good in practice but had a crash in the last run of the day trying to get the most out of a couple of tear offs I couldn't see properly and missed my line and went off track and over the bars, it wasn't too bad but the only parts of me that hit the ground were my hand and elbow which were healing up, and it did a good job of cutting them back up again. Other than that it was a good days practice, now was the hard part trying to get all my kit cleaned and dry for the next day on the hill, muddy races certainly take some effort!

So next up was qualifying day and once again it was wet, but I was pretty happy with the rain as it makes the track less sticky and a bit better to ride. I did a couple of runs and felt pretty good on the bike and had all my lines pretty well sorted. Then I headed to the top with my mechanics Alan and Nige, did a good 20 min warm up before my before heading in to the start gate. I was set to go and set off rode the top section steady just trying not to make mistakes, I was going well until the end of the second woods were I went in to a big hole got all heavy on the front and just went straight off course, I didn't come off but had to push back up and get going again, I was pissed with myself and tried to make up time pedaling hard the whole big pedally section, I finished in 39th spot which was ok considering I lost a fair bit going off track, Sam Blenkinsop was repping it for the kiwis in the #1 qualifying spot!

Race day rolled around and I got up on track early to make a couple of changes to some lines, as the track was real beat up and there were some wheel swallowing holes to be avoided. I had a good solid couple of runs and was happy with how I felt coming in to the final run. I headed up to the top feeling confident and ready to go, did a warm up and then rolled to the start gate and set off rode the top section ok, but my googles were getting pretty dirty so I had one place in mind to pull a tear off, I went to pull one there in a hurry and missed it so then had to pull it in in a sketchy piece of track and pulled them all off on accident, I was still on the top part of the track and had pulled all my tear offs..I had a stall in one section just after pulling my tear offs, but then rode solid the rest of the way, I pedaled the flat section well but by then end of there I could hardly see anything out my googles and I was forced to pretty my ride to stay on as I couldn't really see the line so I just had to get to the bottom, I was so pissed to have made this mistake as I lost a lot in the bottom and didn't ride anything like I had been, I was glad to hit the line as riding without much vision wasn't really fun, I ended up 34th as so many riders crashed out, it was one of those, "What could of been" weekends, so on to the next and hopefully I can have a good weekend for once. I moved up to 39th in the overall so it wasn't as bad as it could've been, but certainly was not what I was looking for.

The kiwis really did well with Blinky and Cam Cole on the podium in 4th and 5th, Blinky could of won but blew his feet off in the worst place possible, Justin was 7th with Scolesy in his career best 14th, George Brannigan took the lead in the junior WC with his awesome 25th placing and Brook had a solid ride to 27th.

I would like to thank everyone that makes it possible for me especially my mechanics Alan and Nige and to all my awesome sponsors, South Star Shuttles, Infamous Designs, T.H.E helmets and clothing, Backflips.co.nz clothing, Rockstar Racing, Adidas Eyewear, Taranaki Elite Athletes Foundation, Leatt Brace, NZRIDE.com, E*Thirteen, Kenda Playbiker Team, Lapierre Bikes, Burgtec, Fox Racing Shox and last but not least Mum and Dad.

WynTV in the UK

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WynTV On the road to Fort William

WynTV On the road to Fort William >>

WynTV Stuck in Winterberg

After a couple of issues, I was stuck in Winterberg, what better to do than make a video.


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Maribor Mud

So the past weekend was the kick off of the 2010 World Cup season, with the first round held in a rather saturated Maribor, Slovenia. It kicked off with track walk on thursday and even then it was obvious we were in for a rather muddy weekend, I didn't even bother going to the first 4x practice session as it was wasn't really worth getting that dirty for a couple of runs.

So Friday saw our first runs on the DH track and I waited it out for a bit to let the track cut in a bit and also some of the mud to clear off, when I did go up it was pretty slick and a lot of sniper roots were coming through already but other than the rock section the track was running pretty good, the rocks were a different story though, you could ride them but virtually had no control of what the bike did, I stood there a bit long and watched some guys through there and about 20 percent actually made it through without hitting the deck. I can't say I've ever really been a fan of riding my bike without much actual control of where you are going and this was kind of what it was like. By Friday afternoon the track had started drying up and I was having some good fun on it getting my lines sorted even got to put a run in on dry tires, although that was to be the only one of the weekend.

Saturday morning we woke to another cold and wet day, and headed down to the pits to geared up and head up the hill for a couple of runs before qualifying the track was back to similar conditions to the previous morning but really cut up so many holes, a run was like 3minutes on a jackhammer breaking concrete. I headed up for qualifying and was confident I could put a solid run down, I hit the top section alright then fumbled a bit in the rocks and battled the rest of the way down, tripoding sections with both feet off, I can say I was glad to see the finish and wasn't stoked with the run at all, I went and washed the 20kgs of extra mud off my bike and sat in the pits I knew with the run I had I would be lucky to make the Top 80. I came in 66th and certainly wasn't stoked with that all.

Then I had to try and wash some of my kit and get ready for 4X racing, the whole weekend was full of this, trying to get googles clean or changing kits I was getting pretty over it. I can't even imagine how it would be for my mechanics Nige and Alan having to clean bikes after most runs and keep them running sweet, riding with wet shoes is bad enough but working on bikes for 12 hours a day soaked I dunno how they do it, but they are legends thats for sure, keeping my bikes running so sweet!

So I headed up for 4X and went straight into the start without practice as it was just too wet, and not really worth it. I got out of the gate last as I had expected and then struggled to get past the guy in 3rd for a bit as he kept blocking the inside, I was glad to get past him and set up a pass for 2nd then the guy in 2nd slid out and his bike went in front of me taking me down with him, I rolled to the finish pretty over it, and then to just put the icing on the cake crashed in the finish area like a true amateur and got soaked in mud head to toe, I had to go back try wash everything again then head back to the hotel and try to dry everything on the towel rail ready for the next day.

Race day rolled around and once again it was freezing outside, myself and Nathan Rankin were about to catch the gondola down to the pits from our hotel until we were told that it wasn't running leaving us with a bit of a dilemma, with mechanics, team van and DH bikes down the bottom in the pits, and us still at the top so I had to take my 4X bike borrow some pedals from another team as it had no pedals on it and ride down the wet 4WD road to the bottom, standing on the top tube half the way trying not to get too wet a mission just to get to the bottom.

With the gondola not running practice schedule was changed to one run only per rider using a bus uplift, I along with most other wasn't happy about this as I wanted to get a couple of practice runs in to sort out some of my lines before final run. I pushed a couple of sections to try get it sorted, and then headed to the pit to put some clean kit on have a quick bite to eat and head up in the van with the mechanics for final run, the one that the whole weekends effort depends on.

I left the start gate and went in to the first section trying to ride lines that I had just looked at and I couldn't really get flowing I was stalling up a lot and came to the first tear off pull section and somehow instead of pulling one tear off all three came off, leaving me with no more, it certainly wasn't a run to remember and I ended up with 54th place not the start to the season I wanted but I am just glad this race is in the books and now I can move on to the next one at Fort William. There were however a few kiwi's however who faired a bit better, Cam Cole and Justin Leov proved that their coach is doing something right drawing for 9th place, then Blinky was in 12th on the same second as them with a bit of a no footer through the rocks, Scolesy and Brook crashed in to still respectable placings of 36th and 38th.

Now I am in Germany where this weekend I have the Winterberg IXS cup and then after that I head to Scotland for the Innerleithen IXS and the Fort William World Cup Round 2.

Thanks to Team Kenda Playbiker, especially Nige and Alan my mechanics. Also to my personal sponsors, South Star Shuttles, T.H.E helmets and clothing, Backflips.co.nz clothing, Rockstar Racing, Taranaki Elite Athletes Foundation, Leatt Brace, E*Thirteen, Burgtec and last but not least Mum and Dad.

Onward and upward.

Wyn

WynTV in Finale Ligure

Pre World Cup season build up in Finale Ligure, Italy


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New Season...New bikes

Best part of the start of each season getting new bikes, check I am now training in Finale Ligure for 2 weeks until Maribor World Cup round one can't wait for it all to kick off again!

WynTV Last times in NZ

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Dunedin Oceania Champs report

So here I am back on a plane again, this time out of Dunedin after the Oceania Championships last weekend, another really positive and successful weekend for me.

The week kicked off with us arriving on St Patricks day probably not the best choice of a day to arrive in "The student capital of NZ" staying in my younger brother Eddies flat myself and Donny joined in to the nights festivities and a good night was had by all.

We woke the next morning with slight headaches an had to get our bikes and gear ready for Dual Slalom, the Slalom track was pretty sketchy most of the corners we built from dust, but it still made for some fun riding, It even featured the "honesty start gate" after the one they had built fell apart halfway through the first round. I managed to hold all of my runs pretty well to make it through to the final where I was up against Aussie Haydon Lester we bumped elbows pretty well out of the start but I managed to hold my corners a bit smoother where Haydo was getting loose, so I ended up taking my first title of the weekend. I liked the piece in the local paper where it said something like this; "Masters managed to take the win, even after being out in the early hours of the morning celebrating St Patricks day"

So next up was to walk the Downhill course and see what we were up for there, I was pretty impressed with what they had come up with it certainly looked more like a World Cup course, the only thing I could say it needed more was possibly some more corners as it was all pretty wide open, I put in a few practice runs and started to work out a few lines I had looked at walking the course, it all flowed pretty well and the bottom "four cross" section was cool for something a bit different was similar to the finish of the South Africa World Cup last year.

From there it was off to Four Cross practice, I was lucky enough to have a bike to use for this after borrowing one from Jed Rooney, cheers mate. The Four Cross course was probably the best we had seen in NZ and the corners actually allowed for passing opportunities for once, practice went well and I started to get used to the bike in time for qualifying, I surprised myself taking the number one spot in qualifying but was happy as I needed that to have 1st gate pick throughout the heats. My heats went pretty well I was never really fast out of the start but had lines and made sure to make it through each one until I found myself in the final.

It was a surprisingly all kiwi final, as the Aussies had brought over some of the better riders for this event. The final consisted of Myself, Matt Walker, Kieran Bennett and young gun Daniel Franks, we were in the gate and set to go Daniel got the start by a fair bit as I expected with Matt Walker behind him and myself 3rd, Matt got loose in the first corner and I got round him following Daniel down until the 2nd to last corner where he finally left some room on the inside..I set up wide and hardly braked just drifting in to the inside of him and pushed him off balance on to the top of the berm, I went through to the finish to take the win again I was stoked with this as I didn't really expect to win in the Four Cross and its great to have a second oceania title for the weekend.

So that left my 3rd and final event, Downhill. Saturday was practice day and I did about 5 runs over the day, I had one decent stack in the afternoon in the rocks but was lucky to walk away with nothing more than a bruise. I did a couple of runs with Aussie junior Troy Brosnan and got some lines off him which was pretty helpful, by the end of the day I had the course pretty dialed and was looking forward to race day. Race day rolled round quicker than ever and I had a couple of good practice runs in the morning so I was ready for seeding, I put down a pretty solid run but felt I rode some sections pretty slow so had a bit more in the tank for finals, I seeded 2nd behind Cam Cole who was on form on this course and a full 3 seconds in front.

It was finally finals time and I was 2nd last to go off the gate I started off the run really well and stayed smooth through all the top rock gardens, and I was going well till off one of the jumps I landed on a loose rock and got bounced off down to the low line loosing speed in a crucial spot, I pinned it to the finish to try to make it back up and rode everything else really well. I came in to 2nd behind my team mate Nathan Rankin with only Cam Cole left to go, Cam put in an awesome run to beat Nathan by nearly two seconds and I took 3rd I was happy to be on the podium again, would have liked a bit better but I was stoked with how my weekend panned out taking two Oceania titles and a 3rd place.

Other impressive results were, George Brannagin taking the Junior win over Jed Rooney who put in an awesome ride to take 2nd in front of Aussie junior and Monster Energy team rider Troy Brosnan. Also one of the most impressive and slightly crazy results was in the Under 17 class with Rotorua's Louis Hamilton taking the win there even after crashing out on friday wrecking his bike and fracturing his scaphoid, he ignored doctors orders got his his old bike sent down, taped up his wrist and gritted his teeth to take the Oceania title, I guess he watches too much Chopper Read..

Finally but most importantly I would like to thanks everyone that helped me over the weekend, and all my sponsors, E.13, Blinky, Lapierre, THE, Backflips Clothing, Rockstar Racing, Southstar shuttles, Infamous Designs, Team Kenda Playbiker, Taranaki Elite Athletes Foundation and Mum and Dad.

WynTV NZ Cup5 and National Champs

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Rotorua WynTV Video

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Latest from WynTV

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South Island Video 2

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Christchurch NZ Cup 1 Race Report

I packed up the car and all of myself and Edo's (my Italian friend) stuff on new years day, I was still rather hung over and tired from my hydration efforts on new years eve, but somehow we managed to fit all the stuff in to my car and got on the road bound for Wellington where we were catching the ferry across to the South Island.

After the 3 hour ferry trip I continued the drive on through to Christchurch I even managed to set a pretty good time from Blenhiem to Christchurch fuelled by 3 energy drinks to keep me awake as I was driving through the night, I was happy to see the end of the drive and to arrive at my friends house and get some sleep.

While in Christchurch I spent the time riding and getting my sweet new Lapierre DH920 dialed in at Vic Park which is the local Downhill area and is full of sick tracks, and also I checked out most of the skateparks in the area. I spent two solid days helping out the guys to finish the track benching out a hillside digging with a pick all day, but the end result was worth it, it had to be one of the sickest looking tracks that I had seen in a long time especially on the NZ race scene, it was so steep and technical that some named it "The Widow Maker" but I just couldn't wait to ride it!

Practice day rolled around and I got up with Sam Blenkinsop and Brook Macdonald to get a run in, but we were forced to tramp/ride another way down the hill, as we had "forgotten" our gloves and BikeNZ has a shit rule that you have to wear them to be allowed to ride, I don't wear gloves all year and I have to wear them to race NZ race's I find this a bit of a joke! So when we got down the hill and got some gloves and finally got to ride the track we were rather relieved and the track was awesome really steep and loose but as soon as you had some lines dialed it would be sick! Well thats what we thought but after many other riders complaints they decided to change the track, as apparently it was too hard for many people...I thought it was the NATIONALS! I was pretty disappointed as the track would have suited me I think and I had put a lot of hard work in to finish it.

They moved the top section of the course to what I would have called a walking track or cattle track, with a lot of pedaling it was pretty much the opposite of the original track, but it is was it is and I still was here to race so I put in a few practice runs to get it dialed before race day. Race day I awoke to another fine sunny day and headed up the hill for a couple of practice runs before getting ready for the seeding run, my seeding run went ok I didn't push too hard so that I still had some left for race run I came in 4th so I knew I had to put in a bigger effort in finals!

My final runs started off ok but then in a few of the skinny corner's I was over cautious and didn't really ride how I would of liked to, I didn't push as hard as I should of in the mid section of the course and just lost time due to holding back too much, but rode the bottom section pretty well. But it just wasn't my day 7th place .3 of a second out of the top 5, I was pretty disappointed with this result and will have to work hard to put something better together at the next race in Dunedin, anyways so Sam Blenkinsop took the win with Justin Leov in 2nd and Cam Cole taking 3rd place. Now I head down to Dunedin where I have the next NZ Cup race this coming Sunday hopefully I have a better weekend.

Finally thanks to everyone helping me out!

Wyn

South Island Video 1

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