Mina damer och herrar det är dax för er att träna upp er inför det stora racet för single speed / enväxlat som går av staplen i Rotorua i Nya Zealand.
Det sägs att de har en fin terräng att lägga banan på som dessutom kommer att bli utslagsgivande.
Varsågoda!
Single Speed World Championship 2010 - ROTORUA!
Race day will be Saturday October 23 - 2010. Entries open at midnight (NZ Summer Time), December 31 (New Year's Eve) at SSWC10NZ
A world championships with no entry qualification? Surely not.Actually, yes.
The only entry criteria for the Singlespeed World Championships in New Zealand’s mountain biking mecca of Rotorua, is a one speed bike.
It doesn’t even have to be a mountain bike, says Rotorua Single speed Society president, Gaz Sullivan. However, the course will be a challenging one on some of the best single track in the Southern Hemisphere, so bike and gear selection could be important.
This is a bit of a single speed tradition and New Zealand is the first to see the New Year, so it seemed like a very good idea, adds Sullivan. Over 1200 riders applied for a limited number of places at the 2008 championships in Napa, in California and nearly 1000 rode in the 2009 event in Durango, in Colorado.
We organized places for the RSSS at Napa and Durango where it was 'first in,first served', as well, says Dean Watson, one of the event organizers. Based on that experience, the advice we’re giving people is get in early. We’ve got a big forest and over 70 kilometres of fantastic trails, but entries will be limited.
There is plenty of interest from round the world in the race. We’re getting emails from all over the place, says Graeme Simpson, from the RSSS. The majority are from the USA, which is the spiritual home of single speeding and where mountainbiking started back in the 1970’s.
It’s also been very cool to hear from people in Australia, United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Hungary, Israel, Singapore and Japan.
The event team feel the enthusiasm is partly to do with the nature of the Singlespeed Worlds. Even the bidding process to get the event to Rotorua was a bit out of the ordinary.
The Singlespeed Worlds is a ‘people’s’ event – everyone is welcome, says Sullivan. And it’s always a big party.
One cog mountain biking is physically hard and competition is very tough at the sharp end, but most people will be here to have fun, a few laughs and a lager or two at the end of the day.
For those who want to enjoy the festival and the parties and get the swag bag but not race, there will be a separate Party Animal ticket.
The first World Singlespeed Championships was held in Rancho Cucamunga in California, in 1999. Since then they have mainly been in the USA, but have also visited Wales, Sweden, Scotland and Australia.
Rotorua is no stranger to running big mountain bike events. In 2006, the city hosted the UCI Mountain Bike and Trials World Championships.
We were all involved in that and the Singlespeeds is a bit more…well…informal, says Watson, with a smile
However, the city really gets behind big events and the second sponsor to sign on was Events & Venues Rotorua - it’s great to have them on board.
ENTRIES OPEN
At midnight December 31...NZ SummerTime...
...anyone canenter, but there is a limit...
1st, 73rd, 129th, 301st and 475th entries received will get your entry fee completely refunded
