Bike festival is ready to roll
The 10-day Queenstown Bike Festival will kick off this Friday, hosting more than 30 events around Queenstown to suit all riding levels. The festival is a fundraiser for Queenstown Mountain Bike Club (QMTBC) and its organisers want it to enable more people to become more involved in mountain biking in whichever way suits them, from riding and supporting, to volunteering or being a festival sponsor.
After last year’s event where the standards were set high, the 2024 edition is set to follow the same format with a few changes. If you’d like to participate, some events will require pre-registration, while for others you can just show up on the day.
Emmerson Wilken, one of the festival’s organisers, is excited for the atmosphere and talent that will be on display.
“We’ve got a downhill event, which we didn’t have last year,” Wilken says. “We’ve teamed up with another race series called the Southern DH, so we’re doing a little with them.
“The only other difference is that our opening party is going to be down on the lake – we’re doing a lake jump where you jump your bike off a ramp into the lake – you’ll get scored on the tricks you do into the water. It was done many years ago outside of Atlas, so that one is something a little bit extra for us.
“Part of that is a floating log ride, which is like a balance beam that’s floating on the water, so you sort of have to navigate your way around this obstacle course on your bike and try and make it back to land without falling in.”
Wilken says the idea is to create a broad range of events and catch as many people as possible, whatever the age or skill level. Some of the events include the Coro 1200 at Coronet Peak, a variety of coaching sessions, Slopestyle and group social rides.
“We’re trying to be inclusive and make something for everybody – some of those people are actually looking for a bit of a challenge as well. Some of our races will have the younger kids actually racing with some of their idols at a pretty high level as well. There’s kind of nowhere else in the world where that’s a thing – so if a kid is trying to improve themselves or thinking ‘can I make it in biking?’, they can test themselves against some of the world’s best, who will be in town for the event.”
As always, the fest wraps up with McGazza Fest, which is a weekend in memory of the legend Kelly McGarry. It starts on 26 January with a mass downhill ride ending at Atlas followed by the chainless race, kids’ airbag jam and dream jam the following day. It will all wrap up on Sunday, 28 January, with a memorial ride and Gorge Road jam.
Queenstown Bike Festival will run from Friday, 19 January, to Sunday, 28 January. You can apply to volunteer at the festival, find out more about all the events that will be on offer across the 10 days and review results at queenstownbikefestival.co.nz
