Nomadic Rhythms in New Zealand.

Life on the road as a racer from New Zealand is pretty full on for six to seven months of the year, you are too far from home to go back between events so you slip into a nomadic rhythm, one event after the other, living out of a bag, switching between vans, rentals, planes and trains, crossing borders and sampling cultures. This wanderlust is what got me hooked on racing but by the end of the season i yearn for stillness, dream of routine and sleeping in the same bed for awhile. Finding the light switch at night. The Saturday market, the Wednesday night ride, the weekly yoga classes with your favourite teacher. Waking up to hearing the same sounds, waving at familiar people, getting to know the check out lady at the supermarket. Silly, small things right? These are the things I miss out on while living a life on the road so when I catch the first glimpse flying into Nelson, from the window of the small prop plane with the beautiful landscape laid out below me, I feel so relieved, so happy, excited and content. It marks the end of another racing season (and this was my final one) but it also marks the beginning of the New Zealand summer, ideal for a few mini road trips, micro adventures exploring new nooks and crannies of our relatively new adopted homeland. 

After way too many flights and long drives the past six months the rules were simple; South Island only, no flights or mammoth drives just a few short overnight trips made possible by bike. New locations or some favourites done differently or with a new group of friends. 

Wild West Coast New Years Escape

This was more of an escape with a group of friends, away from town, away from civilisation away from everything during the hectic tourist season. You can’t get more remote than a six hour 4x4 mission headed south from the last town and road on the West Coast. Along the way we parked the trucks and detoured along the old Haast-Paringa cattle track, basically an old road built back in 1883. This was overgrown jungle riding at its best. We were exploring by bike not mountain biking as you know it. You could hardly see, never-mind find the trail. After the usual sketchy suspension bridge and some boggy riding with multiple river crossings we arrived at our destination for the night, Blowfly hut built in 1905, pretty old for NZ history. The next three nights were spent in Barn Bay about as remote as you can get in NZ. Bush bashing our way in and then hiking down a river for a few clicks before taking a step back in time. Perfect way to see in the new year. 

Old Ghost Road big day out.

A relatively new trail for New Zealand but an old one for us. It is the countries longest continuous singletrack trail, stretching for 85 glorious kilometres from Lyell in the Buller to the mouth of the mighty Mokihinui river on the West Coast. A gold mining boom in the 19th century where miners dreamt of connecting the road from both ends, was rather ambitious and it remained a dream until volunteers decided that it was time to connect these roads and 8 years later they’ve created a mountain bikers dream trail giving us access to untouched backcountry native bush.

We have literally done it every which way, out an back from either end, a helidrop and multiple through rides staying over at Ghost Lake hut. The word must definitely be out because the huts on this must do ride have been booked solid most of the summer, not wanting to miss out we decided to tackle the full ride all in one go. With no sleeping bags, extra clothes and three meals to pack it meant the bikes were light and efficient. It was still very much about the terrain and views but with no gear to weigh us down it was fast and exhilarating too and the cold beer and outdoor shower at the Rough And Tumble lodge at the trail end wrapped up an amazing long day. 

Island Escape

Most of the time you feel the need to go far away from home, to get away, but how often do you literally head out on an adventure only a few kilometres from your house? We headed a whopping 8km from home for an overnighter on an island. Pepin Island is a private island next to our local beach of Cable Bay. You can stay and explore if you rent one of their cabins. It felt like we were a million miles away, hearing new sounds and seeing new sights. A highlight was watching all the fishermen launching their boats before sunrise and hearing the gentle put put purring of their engines as they glided out of the estuary on a calm and beautiful morning. The sunrise looked different than from our house. The light was different. We saw a whole new side to our own neighbourhood, and fell in love all over again. How cool is that?

Bikes and Boats

The beauty of heading to ride one of your favourite tracks each year is the fact that it is different every time. The trail constantly changes, the weather creates the mood, the group shapes the dynamic, your state of mind determines your enjoyment of the trip. Many factors are responsible for creating memories and how you cherish them. While we were avoiding planes this summer we never ruled out boats We’ve taken the water taxi out after riding Nydia Track many times over the years, this time though, we were lucky enough to be entertained by a pod of bottlenose dolphins, a rare sight, and probably my most memorable experience of being out here on the Sounds and a perfect example of how “old” favourites are never the same.

Hopefully this gets you all out there planning and scheming. You dont need an international or exotic destination for your own adventures, look a little closer, explore a little deeper. 

Kia Ora. 

Anka

As normal as it's gonna get. Round #6 Whistler B.C.

This year I headed straight up to BC after the EWS in Colorado finished up. It is the longest period of time that I've ever spent over in Whistler. It was great. It was long enough to settle into a daily routine, a little glimpse into a normal life, a reminder of my life back in NZ and a reminder of how much I look forward to getting back home in a few weeks.

Hannah Barnes & I rented a little condo, out of the village, in close proximity to the grocery store, yoga studio, lost lake, the green mustache and of course Mt Currie coffee shop. Bliss. We cooked in for most meals and all dinners, bought a 1 month yoga pass and abused it - definitely got our money's worth there, going every single day and dragging our fellow mtb temporary residents along with us. We drank white wine while watching chic flicks, went on a paddle board date night with Seb Kemp, Tara & their dog (without knowing), Sunday market, xc rides, early morning, mid day, apres ride and evening swims in the lake. We spent copious amounts of money at the green moustache - Buddah bowls & $8 smoothies was just a daily occurrence. You become numb to the prices after a while and just give in to spending heaps. Of course we had shopping days too and yes, of course - the reason we were here in the first place was round #6 of the EWS tour. We had an enduro race to race. I knew it would be a big one, but just how big was still a distant memory, and for now we were just savoring our new normal routine life - something you don't quite come across living out of a bag on the road.

I was super excited about all the new tracks, all the hard work that went into creating these new, secret tracks and reviving old, tired tracks. Practice was super fun. We just went for a pedal and rode new tracks. They were hard, technical, challenging, scary, but fun and definitely a good challenge. To access most of them, we had quite a pedal, and finding that balance between riding them enough to race and riding too much to be knackered come race day is always hard to find. I opted to ride all the stages once, except for the last one as that was easy to access by chair lift. Due to their very technical nature, I would have liked to ride them more, as they were more like dh tracks where you really had to have all your lines dialed or else. In the end, I didn't, and just got on with it.

I don't feel like harping on things in the past, so I won't say much, but I will say that I wish we had more time and that the day wasn't so rushed. There has been a lot of complaining, and I feel that if we just had some more time, all of those complaints could have been avoided. We're all up for big days out, not opposed to pedaling or riding technical tracks. It was just a combination of short liaison times, in really high temperatures that didn't really offer anyone to recover and compose themselves for more than 10min before dropping into a pretty full on stage. Maybe 2 days would have been better? Or one less stage, to avoid that rushed, stressed out feeling for the entire day? Running stage 4 earlier in the day before we were all toast? Who knows, but I do know that I loved the stages during practice and didn't mind the climbs, but when I had to do all of the above under such a rushed environment, in that heat, it didn't really make for a very enjoyable day.

Anyhow, I still had a blast - its Whistler how can you not? I went back after the race and rode those tracks, they were amazing - amazingly scary! They challenged me, I conquered some obstacles, felt like I progressed my riding, discovered new trails. I may not have got the result I was hoping for, but I made all my liaison stages (with not much time to spare), I rode some scary shit, nailed some lines, completely messed up most of them, fumbled, stumbled, bonded, cried, laughed and survived a pretty tough day on the bike. Hats off to all the girls that raced this one & survived. My poor bike feels completely clapped out after 3 weeks of Whistler schralping, but nothing a little TLC can't fix.

And that was all just in the 2 weeks leading up to Crankworx…the actual festival week is a complete mind f@$k consisting of people, places, schedules, parties, badges, buttons, lanyards, passes, stamps, booze etc.

just some of my highlights:

• Going on a scavenger hunt in Lost Lake with Seb Kemp & the kids that he coaches - remarkable future generation - it restored my faith in the next generation. (and being taught how to ride a teeter totter by a 7 year old).

• Stand Up Paddle boarding & watching Seb get ejected off his board by his dog. (Not sure i'm keen to make SUP a hobby of mine).

• SRAM Women's riding clinics that Rebecca Rusch organizes every year & coaching with so many other inspirational women.

• yoga (some great, some not so great - "say hello to your cells" WTF?).

• Filming for Juliana Bicycles with Seb, Dan & Andy from the Union Production Co.

• Sven's new Bike Magazine cover

• Gary Perkin Photo shoots with fellow Juliana teamies Katrina Strand & Kathy Pruitt (& the Santa Cruz boys).

• Seeing the SRAM videos for the first time on the big screen that we filmed months ago in NZ with my buddy Sarah Leishman, Ross Measures & the MindSpark Cinema Production company. SO Sick.

• Fishing with Joe Parkin in the gondola.

http://www.bikemag.com/videos/video-fishing-joe-crankworx-ep-2-featuring-sven-anka-martin/#.U_Q48ZJwRTI.email

• IKAM magazine.

• Mama & baby bear encounter with Gabby Molloy. HA ha ha!

• The SRAM pop up shop was mind blowing - INSANE! LOVE #theguidetogettinglost

• Pemberton Tacos! SUSHI.

• Meeting new peeps & catching up with old one's - making current plans & planning for future adventures.

It was time to leave today. My bank account is probably in over draft, I'm too scared to check. I'm yearning for the old world and a slower pace of life. I'm looking forward to cheaper food, small espresso's, red wine & quiet time. Time to reflect on the crazy season that its turned out to be and to digest it all, process everything and then decide what I'd like to do with it. I feel the need to press my reset button, to slow down and get ready for the absolute highlight of my year and season - the Trans Provence.

Thank you & cheers to every single person that made the North American leg so much fun - you all know who you are. Till we meet again in a few weeks for pizza, gelato & more wine of course ;)

Peace out,
Anka

ColoRADo EWS # 5 - 39'00 N 105'30 W

We used to live in the US for 12 years, until 2011, when we decided to pack up everything and move to the other side of the world, or hemisphere to New Zealand, so whenever we do return to the US these days (which doesn't happen very often), it is truly a treat to catch up with all our old friends and race team mates from back in the day when we used to race all the NORBA races across the country. Somehow, we're all still racing bikes of some sort and still involved in the bike industry. It is such a small industry compared to others, but it is filled with so many genuinely good people, and we'll forever have this connection, these bike memories and this like minded passion that keeps taking us into the mountains and connecting us in far away places, and that is what racing is all about to me. Results from Colorado - does it really matter? I didn't win or top 5, or even top 10, but I rode my best, better than last year, got my jump back on, pushed my riding abilities and loved it, saw some old friends, met their children & made some new friends.

There were a lot of negative things going on at this event, but I'm too sick of bike politics to go into it, so instead of harping on bullshit, have a wee look at some of the bangers that Sven captured over the weekend. :)

I've been up in Whistler for a week now, waiting for the next round of the EWS to kick off over here. It's been wonderful to have some downtime. I've gone stand up paddle boarding at date night with Hannah Barnes, Seb & family, riding around Lost lake with Seb & his kids, meeting up with friends over chai tea latte's, more chic flicks & wine with Hannah, watching some amazing music under the moon, exploring some new trails, swimming in the lake, soaking up the hot summer sun and the highlight has been my month yoga pass that I bought. I've yet to skip one day of practice, I'm in heaven, this is exactly what I needed this time of the season to prevent bike burnout, especially in this crazy world called Whistler. Our 4 day practice starts tomorrow, look forward to a whole lot of riding coming up.

Peace out,

Anka

doyouevenrideinsnowbro? EWS round #4 La Thuile, Italy

[embed]https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152541518117445&set=vb.47659052444&type=3&video_source=pages_video_set[/embed]

PS: cheers to Sven Martin for all the stunning shots & thanks to all the other hard working media dudes out there during the races - they are working and riding twice as hard as us lot and not getting any sleep while delivering the goods!

peace out,

Anka x

Back on the bike: 20000m down, painkillers galore, epic scenery, semi functional ankle = one happy girl.

EWS round 3 Valloire, France.

It was time to head into the Northern Alps for round 3 of the Enduro World Series in Valloire, France. A town nestled at the base of the Galibier Pass in the Savoie region. A destination steeped in “Enduro” history, but a new destination for us, which is always exciting. Surrounded by big mountains wherever you turned was stunning, but I also felt a bit anxious, as this was my first weekend back on the dirt and racing since I messed up my ankle 5 weeks ago. By the looks of it, this wasn’t going to be a walk in the park.

It turned out to be one brutal weekend of racing. It was amazing to be back on the dirt though. The format of the French enduro races are awesome. You show up on Friday, get registered and then go straight into racing on Saturday. First run down the mountain is a practice run, then you head straight back up and race it. Move on to the next track, practice run, then race run. Usually I love this format, but it took me a while to warm up and feel comfortable on my bike again, so there was really no time to get back into it before racing. Because I missed the Scotland round, I had a pretty crappy seeding number, which meant loads of traffic during my race runs, but what made it even tougher was the fact that they decided to run the women in the reverse order for this round – slowest girls first, which caused big headaches for everyone (The fast girls, the mid pack and the slower girls were all equally affected). Everyone was trying to get by everyone, which ended up being pretty chaotic. I had 7 girls that I had to pass and pull over for on every run, so Saturday was a bit of a write off for me and I just saw it as a day of getting back into it. Feeling very race rusty, hesitant and then all the traffic from both ends was so frustrating, but hey, that’s racing and you just have to get on with it. The upside of it all: there were 45 women racing! How amazing is that?

We had another big day ahead of us on Sunday, and after realizing that running the women’s order they way they did on Saturday didn’t work, they let the fastest girls go first and that was brilliant. The tracks were amazing on Sunday, more technical, steep and flowy and I loved them. I felt so much better on my bike, hardly had any traffic and I felt like I was finishing in the mix with the girls that I usually race with. It felt great. I wish that we had another day of racing, as I was just getting back into it again.

Absolutely knackered from racing 20000 + meters of brutal downhills (and of course some punchy uphills) thrown in there over the two days. My arms were done and my ankle had had enough. All in all a great weekend of riding, racing, suffering and catching up with everyone again. Cheers to the crew for putting on another amazing round of bike racing & fun times.

Time to go for a swim in the med and some much needed time back on the bike - but first some rest for this old, weary body of mine. Huge congrats to everyone that managed to survive the weekend and to all the Kiwi girls killing it out there!

Also, cheers to Sven for all the rad shots!

Peace out,

Anka

single digits & the grand finale.

By now, everybody must be so sick and tired of hearing about Finale, and about how amazing that place and the final race of the season was, with all the epic photo's with the shimmering blue sea in the background, well, yes, it was pretty freaking amazing. In fact, in all of my years of racing in really cool places, this little sea- side town on the Italian riviera, has managed to jump to the top of my favorites list, it has found a special place in my heart and I'll definitely be back for more next year. It was our first time over there this year, never being able to wait out 3 more weeks after the end of the season to go to this race, I mean at that stage of the season and year, it's just another bloody bike race isn't it? Jon Cancellier has always been the one singing love songs about Finale, about the amazing tracks and the amazing place that it is and he's always tried to get us out there, so when it became the final race of the enduro world series, we had no more excuses. Finale it was. Now, I can fully understand Jon's love relationship with this little town. The place, the people, the food, the sea, the amazing colors (pantone's that just don't exist in the new world), the old people that are an integral part of the community, the cobblestone's and church processions, the old walled medieval city that you ride your carbon bike through whilst window shopping the most exquisite leather boots & hand bags on route to the special stages - absolutely everything about this place is awesome. This is the kind of place that English people relocate to and write books about.

Anyhow, back to the racing. We all knew we were in for a big weekend, being known as one of the toughest enduro races on the Superenduro circuit, as far as technical tracks go, but also as far as the liaison stages go. Big days, pedaling everything on the bike. The stages were released two days prior to the race, so we had some time to find & check out the different special stages, which is not so simple to find your way around tiny little medieval villages and roads. Most of us were able to get about 2 or 3 runs down each track before racing, which was great as the tracks were pretty full on. They were mentally & physically pretty draining. I'd say the most technical and demanding of all the races we've had this season, so it was great to practice the very precise tech sections before having to race them - especially when you're all jelly legged from pedaling the liaisons & all the pedally bits in the stages! (Hat's off to Tracy Moseley who pedaled the entire loop, both days & didn't do one shuttle run during practice and still managed to win - you bloody legend! That my friends, is "the spirit of enduro").

We had 4 special stages on Saturday with 45km of liaison stages & 2 special stages on Sunday with about 30km of liaison stages, so we had to be prepared for a big day out on the bikes. Luckily the cloud cover on both days made it just bareable to pedal up & around the mountains in full face helmets & back plates without shriveling up from dehydration. Of course we had to do the most technical stage twice, which also happened to have a nasty, rocky, uphill section in it right before the scary descent - perfect when you're seeing little white spots. Our day was cut a bit shorter after stage 3 as they cancelled the last stage due to a big accident earlier in the day. I was looking forward to that stage, as it was a flat out, fast, loose downhill stage, but I was pretty happy to head back to Finale and eat some gelato. Well, the gelato had to wait, due to Sven & the media crew racing down stage 4 after hearing the news that it was cancelled with Sven charging ahead only to stop dead on one of the many rocks (due to the heavy camera bag apparantly), flying over the bars & smacking himself silly and sampling some of the very rocky terrain with his hands & elbows. So it was off to the Italian hospital to check out his head and to get some stitches in his elbow. Too many team Dark Cloud members around this weekend... Thanks to everyone for looking after him - cheers!

Happy that he was OK, we sampled some more of the delicious red wine - which is perfect post concussion medicine and ate some more delicious ligurian pesto pasta made in heaven, I swear, followed by the gelato I never got to eat earlier and the most decadent cappuccino's that we're not supposed to drink after 11am in the morning - for no apparent reason, you just don't, but we ignored that rule and consumed as many proper cappuccino's as possible. The racing on Sunday was great, the whole weekend was amazing, the vibe was good. Everyone was of course racing as usual, but there was more of a relaxed atmosphere amongst all the competitors. We all wanted to do our best, but as far as racing, things were pretty set for the overall, a few points here and there, with the general feeling of everyone just wanting to enjoy & savor this last weekend of fun on our bikes. I did come to this last race with a mini goal, besides savoring this last race - I wanted to become a single digit. I was sitting in 10th place for the overall series results, which I was content with, but I really, really wanted to become a single digit, so that was my final goal in Finale, which I managed to achieve, while having an absolute blast. I ended up in 8th place for the weekend (with a massive crash near the finish line of the last stage of the season), and that managed to put me into 9th position for the series overall. Happy girl. (It must have been my spiffy new sombrio outfit that Aaron sent over to me for the last race - thank you Aaron!).

Sven & I were asked to design the first ever enduro world series trophy this year, with Simon Muir creating and making all our ideas come to life. This was such a huge honor & such a huge responsibility, but in the end they turned out beautiful and we couldn't have imagined anything better to present to these talented, amazing bike riders to remember their & this special year.

Below is a little description behind the meaning of the trophy:

"Close-up on the trophy, designed by Anka Martin and Sven Martin and built by Woodguards' Simon Muir: eight tiny compartments each contain a relic from one of the race destinations - soil from Punta Ala, alpine rock from Val d’Allos, a bottle of Genepe from Les 2 Alpes, bark and aspen leaves from Winter Park, old man’s beard moss from Whistler, white organic linen from Val d’Isere, to symbolize the white-out conditions, and fresh chestnuts and sand from the beach of Finale Ligure. (A final compartment remains as an empty invitation for the champions to add a personal memento from their year of racing. Wonder what that will be?)."

Of course the weekend and the season couldn't just wrap up, it had to end with a bang, or more like a massive thunder & lightning storm with torrential rain flooding the pits, cutting out the electricity and leaving everyone soaking wet and shivering. Perfect. The thunder cracked so loud in these little narrow cobblestone streets and the lightning lit up all the nooks & crannies with shutters slamming, bells's chiming, rain pelting and pantone colors popping against the black skies. Nothing could dull the vibe & excitement that was present, this was the grand finale. SRAM organized a big party for Jerome, with champagne & a big cake to celebrate his victory - which we happily celebrated with him & everyone else who shared his excitement, until the wee hours of the morning. What a fitting place to end the season which started on the beaches of Punta Ala, Italy, then stretched into the big, scary, snow capped glacier filled mountains and now back to the beaches of Finale Ligure, Italy, where bike checks are done on the beach and the pits struggle to keep the sand out of the seals. O, and where parking tickets apparently don't mean much & tow trucks don't exist - or as Italian, Simon Cittati from SRAM puts it: "It is merely an invitation to pay". We were invited to pay quite a few times over the course of the week...

The season was over, we made it, sort of, we're going home, we had fun, we made new friends, good friends, we bonded - again, I rode well, I am happy, I'm content, I am relieved, our van survived, I LOVE my bike, I love my new big - well sort of big wheels, I loved our new adventures. Now it's time to chill, time to reflect, time to reconnect & to start making plans & plotting adventures for next year. Ciao!

Thank you to everyone that supported me this season: Will, Rob & Mary-Anne from Juliana Bicycles, Jon Cancellier (for the sickest bike ever & keeping it in tip top shape all year), Keeton, Marty, Todd, Dani, Simon, Evan, Dawson & the whole SRAM family, Aaron from Sombrio clothing, Fred & Fabien from URGE helmets, Tyler from SDG, Michael from Schwalbe, Stikman at Troy Lee Design, Jo Jo from G-Form protection, Blick & Dani at Oakley, Kevin at Camelbak, Andy at Crankbrothers, and so many others for various things & of course to Sven for all his support along the way & all the pretty sic shots he got of me ;) A huge shout out to everyone involved with the EWS - you guys killed it and made it happen. Bikes are rad. You guys rock!

Canadia part one: float planes, bear spray & overpriced groceries.

We made it to Canada hey! So good to be back here. We got here a week before the Crankworx craziness sets in, and it has been such a treat to experience Whistler that is a bit more quiet than during the actual festival. Except this week, they had a massive Wanderlust yoga festival in the village and everyone was walking around with a yoga mat and neon colored hot pants.. don't get me wrong, I love yoga, and I teach yoga, but this seemed a bit showy for my liking, but you know - don't judge, that is very un- yoga like of me, but it did make for some great people watching. I'm just not a fan of practicing yoga with loads of people watching you and taking holiday snaps while you're down dogging or in some other vulnerable type position.

This will be my 10th year coming to Crankworx festival - o my word, where has the time gone to? So, needless to say, you become a bit blase about everything up here and you do take it for granted. This was the first year however that I didn't throw my bags into a corner of the hotel room and rush up to the park to get as many laps in as possible - what the hell was wrong with me? All I wanted to do, was get out on my trail bike for a spin through Lost Lake and take in the beauty of this place, and stunning it is. Am I just getting older? Have I just been here too many times? What gives? Not sure why, but all I wanted to do was explore all the fun, never ending trails around the bike park. They are steep, technical, fast and o so much fun. I find them way more technical than the park trails and you get to jump into one of the many lakes on your way home.

Anyhow, last year I did my first trip to the Chilcotin mountains and I desperately wanted to go back and share that wonderful backcountry experience with Sven & some good friends, so we planned a spontaneous float trip out there. It is a 3 hour (bumpy as) drive from Whistler to get to the Tyax lodge where we stayed over for the night and caught the float plane in the morning for a 9am drop off at Warner Lake. Once dropped off, we were equipped with our map, bear spray & bear bells and singingly made our way up & down the singletrack (as to not scare the grizzly bears) towards Windy Pass, then Lickey Trail and then down the most amazing singletrack trail back to the Tyax lodge, 7 hours & 41km later we jumped into the lake, drank beers, ate fries & burgers and jumped back into the rental car (beast of a truck) to head back down the bumpy gravel road (that ruined all our bikes) to Whistler. A must do experience and definitely my highlight while out here in Whistler.

O, and on a side note: how do people that live here afford to buy groceries? It is mind blowingly expensive!

Next up is the 5th round of the Enduro World Series this coming Sunday - it's going to be a killer, one big day out on the bikes - they're going to kill us, I cannot wait & I'll update you once we've conquered Sunday.

Peace out, Anka xxx

Team dark cloud adventures continues on in Colorado Springs.

After round #4 of the EWS, Chris, Pangus & myself loaded up the rental car with way too many bikes and headed to Colorado Springs to go and visit & ride with Jon Cancellier in his hometown & to check out the SRAM offices. We looked like the grizwalds on vacation with 3 massive bike bags strapped to the roof with us squashed in-between bikes & wheels navigating through massive hail & thunderstorms listening to country music & mariachi bands, we made our way to the Springs for 3 days of adventures.

First stop: Chipotle for burrito's! YUM

Next up: SRAM office tour. Pretty awesome to see where it all happens & great to catch up with everyone.

Still struggling to breathe at this altitude, and with no off day after racing we made our way to the local lunch loop ride behind the SRAM offices in Ute Park for some fun turns and little techy pinch climbs.

Next on the itinerary was a 40 min shuttle drive up the frontside of the range, followed by a hour and half pedal further up to the top, with even less oxygen, followed by an amazing descent down Captain Jack's for about 1hour and 20 min's - heavenly! We did have some dark cloud moments though, with Chris loosing his helmet somewhere along the shuttle drive & also a massive wasp getting in under my sunglasses and stinging the bejesus out of my eye, so I had to make my way down the trail with one eyed vision. Team Dark Cloud antics has begun...

The following day we had a CO classic to conquer, the Monarch Trail. Tracy & James joined us for this xc epic and I was not going to miss this for anything - swollen eye or not. I looked like a cyclops, but after some drugs, my eye could open a wee bit and I was able to see the trail and enjoy the scenery. What a stunning day we had out there with forever views and little cowboy one horse towns. Of course something was bound to happen - this time it was Jon who took a massive digger into the most hostile rockgarden on the trail, walking away from it pretty shook up with a massively swollen hand and some grazes - he was a lucky guy today.

It was time to wrap it up in the Springs and head up to Whistler Canada next for some more adventures & the 5th round of the Enduro World Series. Thank you Jon for an amazing trip!

Peace out, Anka xxx

MegAvalancheeee - ALARMAAAAAAA!!!!!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=01YULr02Kn8] It's been a few days now since I finished racing the Mega and I'm finally starting to loosen up and feel less sore & tired from that crazy race I got sucked into racing again last weekend. It's one of those addictive races that you just cannot say no to. After finishing in 3rd place last year behind Anne & Tracy, I swore I was done. It was the biggest battle & the hardest hour of racing ever, and I had had my mega quota and achieved what I wanted to achieve with this gamble of a race. Anyhow, another year later, another fun day of practice and boom - Mega number 6 in the books. I couldn't help myself.

Qualies:

The qualie track was pretty fun, it started up at the same start, even though there was so much snow, it just meant some more rut, snow scooting. The track also had a river flowing down the whole top part of the track, so mud galore and visibility issues right out of the start gate made for some interesting line choices & passes. My plan was to try and slot in behind Anne Caro and try to stick as close to her as possible to the finish. Well turns out Anne never practiced the top rocky, snow sections and managed to get us both lost. We had to get off and run back up to the right lines to carry on, and by that stage a handful of girls had passed us. It turned into a chase the leader game then, trying to make sketchy inside line passes, turning doubles into triples & hucking off weird, unpracticed obstacles to try and get by and just generally some sketchy riding to try and gain a few places. The bottom part of this track is a one line, bike park type track and pretty impossible to pass, so you keep trying, but in the end, you just roll down to the finish in the order that you entered that bottom section into and be happy with that. I ended up 6th. Lesson learned: Don't follow the leader. Be confident with your own lines.

Race day:

The girls don't get much time to recover or think about the main race, as we finish qualies pretty late, wash bikes, eat, sleep & get in line for the gondola to the top of the world at 6am that next morning. I prefer this, as we have no time to think about what we're getting ourselves into and what the glacier may be like this morning. The lift ride to the top is spectacular, watching the sunlight hit the massive snowy mountain peaks all around us. There is so much tension in those gondolas on race morning, but somehow seeing the sun rise, makes it all better, brings a smile to my face and reminds me of how lucky we are to be doing what we do.

We get up to the top about 2 and a half hours before we race, so there is a lot of waiting around, nervous banter, ice kicking and speculating how much softer it could get within 20 minutes or so. It is terrifying from up there. The ice was frozen solid, and it just dropped away right out of the start gate into the steepest, slipperiest glacier ever with a massive right hander at the bottom...The race was delayed by 20min's to hopefully get a bit softer, so that was great news. I started towards the left side, and the plan was to get out fast, cut to the right and avoid the pile up off everyone starting on the right side and slipping to the left off the off camber startline. Well, I started fast, pedalled a lot and picked up so much speed, so quickly, I didn't know what to do with it. I couldn't brake, I couldn't dare put my foot down, and I kept picking up speed as the right hander was approaching faster than I could deal with. I was out front again with Anne and two other girls, with most of the other girls creeping down the glacier - smart choice. Anyhow, I ended up having a massive crash and cartwheeled my way into the safety nets. As thankful as I was for those nets from stopping me from sliding down the mountain, my frustration & disbelief kicked in when I realized that my bike was so tangled up in the netting, that I couldn't get it loose. Sven was up at the top and he timed this whole ordeal - almost 3 minutes later I got my bike free and managed to get going on the glacier again.

Check out some pretty spectacular glacier crashing footage that John & Rob Parkin got with their freaking cool helicopter camera - thanks for that guys!

http://dirt.mpora.com/news/dirttv-megavalanche-2013.html

I was gutted. I almost gave up. I was angry. Why did I pedal so hard out of the start gate? I thought everyone would. I didn't need to. Why did I get tangled up? I guess it saved my life, but the other girls didn't get tangled. Urgh! Racing = Frustrating. It's happened now, what are you going to do? I decided to carry on sliding down the glacier, head first on my back clasping my bike on my chest at one stage (not by choice), and decided to just finish and enjoy the whole experience as I thought I was pretty much last after my start ordeal. I started picking my way back past loads of girls (I managed to ride over Hannah Barnes' foot - sorry Hannah!), slowly getting back into a good rhythm and enjoying myself. I pushed hard, rode the downhills fast, solid on the uphills and just felt great on my bike. Once I crossed the finish line, I realized I managed to finish in 7th place - not too shabby. I couldn't believe it, I was happy to at least make the top 10, but at the same time, it was bittersweet as I started thinking about all the what if scenarios. That's racing though & everyone's got to get their turn. Well done to all the girls who race this scary race. Better luck next time.

Sven sadly decided to skip the main race after qualifying really well, due to his arm being really swollen and sore after a few crashes the day before. The men raced an amazing race. Jerome is an animal. We cheered hard & ran alongside our mates to cheer them on up the hills. It was awesome. Well done to all the brave boys!

Will I be back? I swore never, but never is a long time...

Now it's time to rest up and recover from the past 3 weeks of adrenaline overdose and racing and get ready for the next month of racing and adventuring in Colorado & Canada.

Peace out, Anka xxx

Round 3 & other bike shenanigans at Les2Alps.

Round three of the Enduro World Series was held in the bizarre ski town/resort of Les 2 Alps, France. A visually spectacular place when you look at the mountains and surrounding scenery, but quite a strange 80's style architecture clad ski town with a million kids roaming about that get shipped out here to ski and snowboard camp for a summer filled glacier action.

The tracks here are very downhill bike oriented as it's situated in-between two really steep valleys, so I've never been a huge fan of this mountain for trail bike riding, because of all the brake bumps except for their two amazing tracks that they use for the Mountain of Hell race every year. Due to loads of snow, most of the upper, good trails were still closed to us for this race, so they had to make use of the two very steep slopes on either side of the valley. Nothing was marked out until Friday (I love that), then we had all day Saturday to practice and figure out the 4 different race tracks - which turned into a pretty epic day of riding bikes as most of us did all the tracks twice which ended up taking all day, resulting in a pretty battered body on Sunday morning for race day.

Stage one:

Long, pedally, fast, dusty, raw, brand new, steep pinches, many traverses, more pedaling, fresh grassy off camber, heater buses, fire road, bike park berms, a mother F*&$@r of a tar road & gravel climb that never ended, followed by more uphill traversing and finally a fast as all hell, straightline downhill down to the next villiage. Did I mention all the climbing? It was brutal. Noodle legs, arm pump, passing, shouting, frustration & elation. The amount of emotions that happen within those 15 or whatever the stage time was, is pretty unreal. This shit is so mental and if you know how to deal with that, then you'll do well at these races. I ended up in 9th place, felt surprisingly good on the climb, then got stuck trying to pass 3 girls on the narrow single-track descent. Frustrating. That's racing.

Stage Two:

This was a strange one. Flat out fire road sprint into a gnarly rock garden section and back onto another long ass fire road sprint, spin out & tuck section around to the front side of the mountain and then into some super narrow singletrack trails to the finish line. It seemed so much more pedaly during the race, but it was good, just couldn't get into this stage, it felt a bit disjointed to me. 9th place on this stage.

Stage Three:

After a long break we headed up for race number three. The best description would be awkward. Everything about this track was just awkward. Fine to ride, but a bit strange to race. It would definitely have been beneficial to be able to do nose wheelies on this track. I fumbled out of the start gate, all the way to the finish line. Just making every mistake in the book. O well, I had to settle with an 11th place here. On to the next one, and my favourite, number 4.

Stage Four:

This was my favourite track from the start. It was full pinned high speed down the mountain, off camber, grassy knolls, scary fast blind rises, brake bumps galore and then into this narrow singletrack section that wound all the way down to the valley floor. It was a proper trail. Steep & tricky and I loved it. I guess it helps when you enjoy a track as I got a 7th place on that stage behind a few World Champs - so that made my day & I was a happy girl.

These days the level is so high, that when you nail one or two stages and are happy with them, then you've managed to do well and you should be stoked. There is no such thing as a perfect run, they just don't happen, there are way too many variables involved for that to be possible. Tracy managed to take the win again which was so exciting & Jerome took the men's win. I couldn't be happier for these guys as they are both truly amazing bike riders and genuinely  passionate about riding their bikes and not just racing them. I managed to finish up in 9th place at the end of the day. Pretty happy with a top 10 these days, as the level out here is truly remarkable.

Cheers to another great weekend of racing & to everyone that managed to pull this off. It was different, not good or bad, just different which was great and it was hard, and that is how it should be and will hopefully remain to be. Next up - MegAvalanche & glaciers - ALARMA!!!!!!!!!

I'm back in rural France at my sisters house now, knackered, battered & bruised after the Mega, but excited to see my dad, celebrate my sister's 40th birthday & to catch up with internet, life, laundry & loads of amazing vegetarian cooking from me mum (much needed after raclette & tartiflette overdose). Keep posted for some Mega updates coming soon!

peace out, Anka xxx

Out & about in-between races.

Our European migrations every year does involve a shit load of work, mostly at races & other events, with loads of driving, late night editing, lots of internet cafe time, laundry sessions, packing & re-packing, washing & sorting bikes & gear, getting the trusty (rusty) old van fixed and so on, but we do try to do something fun in-between the long drives from one country to the next and from event to event. These little side trips are usually the one's that we end up enjoying the most and that we end up sharing with our good friends. None of us really have much time at the races & events to actually catch up properly and hang out, everyone is so busy with their own thing, but when we do these little mini trips in-between, that is when we actually get to spend some quality time with our mates on the road & we get to play and ride bikes.

I got to explore the Valley of the Sun in Italy while the DH World Cup action was going on a few weeks ago (pics above).

We got to go to one of our favourite places to ride, swim, eat way too much gelato & drink loads of red wine & lemoncello - Lake Garda in Italy. We had a big old crew this year which is always fun to do one of our all time favourite rides from Malcesine back to the lake. We also got to catch up with our good friends from California, Megan & Andy that just happened to be in Italy for work at the same time. Perfect!

A big shuttling day from Col De Champs before the Val D Allos enduro race was pretty epic.

Another big shuttling day after the Val D Allos race was another pretty amazing day of riding before heading out of this beautiful valley.

After Val D Allos we made our way to the hidden gem of Moustiers St Marie tucked away in the Gorges Du Verdon for some swimming & kayaking adventures with Jon C & Christine and Tracy & James.

There are a few (lots) places that I've always wanted to go to, that we just never end up getting to, so hopefully we'll be able to go on a few more mini trips this summer and experience some new countries, places, trails & cultures. Isn't that the whole reason we got into riding bikes in the first place?

Anyhow, I'll keep you updated here on our mini adventures in-between all the important stuff.

peace out, Anka xxx

Riding bikes, van life & shit.

We just wrapped up the second round of the Enduro World Series race in Val D Allos, France this past weekend & what a great weekend of riding and racing it was. The setting was spectacular, surrounded by majestic mountains, pretty much in the middle of nowhere, in a tiny little ski town and only two hours from bustling Nice. With the French format not allowing any practice before the race, we had plenty of time to explore some of the other tracks and trails in the area, which was good fun to go and ride bikes with your mates and not even bother to give the race a thought until race day, which I love.

We stayed in our van and created a nice pikey site with fellow van-ier (and photographer), Victor Lucas who took brewing up the morning coffee to a whole other level using his big track pump to get the frothy crema on the top of the brew, a sure way to get your morning started off on a good note.

The racing was absolutely amazing. The tracks were really fun, scenic, exposed, fast, sketchy, unpredictable, with shale rock, loamy dirt, dry loose bike park dirt, roots, rocks, cliffs, switchbacks, I mean, it had absolutely all the elements that a good trail needs to have to call it epic. They were super fun to ride, but to race, they were hard. Hard in a good way, as it should be. It tested your everything. On Saturday the tracks were a bit more DH oriented, but still quite pedaly if you wanted to do well, and on Sunday, they were still technical and tricky, but the pedaling sections were just too long for me to make use of my downhill skills to get a good result. I just didn't have the legs to stand up and sprint on all the traversing and uphill sections, but I still had a blast and loved the tracks. Proper enduro riding. Raw, unpredictable & hard. I just need to find my legs now :) We managed to descend 10 000 meters over the two days of racing, so I'd say you definitely get your money's worth at these events. Don't even get me started on the food station and how incredibly delicious it was. I have Haribo sweets stocked up for the rest of the summer!

I was happy with a 6th & a 7th place on two of the race runs, then a bit of bad luck on one of the runs cost me a lot of time, but it was the long pedaly one's on Sunday that killed me and put me into 11th place for the overall results.. All in all a magnificent weekend of racing. Hats off to all the girls that raced - 30 of us, which is pretty amazing to see a start list with so many girls ready to race. The level of the racing for the men & women was really high, everyone killed it & I look forward to this coming weekend to see how Les Deux Alpes will format their racing for the weekend, and hopefully I can have a good weekend and get into the top 10...but there are plenty of trails to go exploring this week and adventures to be had before the race, so I'll worry about that later.

One of my highlights this weekend was meeting up with my good old friend Sabrina Jonnier & catching up with her about life in general and just seeing her glow in the sunshine with her baby belly. I cannot wait to meet Stella soon!

Cheers to everyone for all their support & to Sven for the stunning photographs. It was such a treat to race and ride with all my new Sombrio kit - I LOVE all my new goodies, and they look good! THANK YOU!!!!!

Peace out, Anka xxx

Bawbags, burns & bothies in Ballater.

Ballater

Ballater is a burgh in Aberdeenshire, Scotland on the River Dee, immediately east of the Cairngorm Mountains. Situated at a height of 213 m in elevation, Ballater is a centre for hikers and known for its spring water, once said to cure scrofula.

Man, Scotland is RAD.

I've just returned from one amazing week in Scotland. The sun was shining the entire week, there were no midgies in sight, the trails were mint, the whiskey tasting was endless and the crew was the best. We were out in Ballater with the Santa Cruz Bicycles boys & girls for the new Solo bike & Women's specific Juliana bike launch & we had such a fun week of everything. I finally got to meet & ride with Andy McKenna & his lovely wife Aneela - been wanting to meet these guys that run the www.go-where.co.uk Scottish guided company for so long now - always drooling over their instagram pics, so this was perfect. I got to experience a little bit of their daily instagram-ed lives & I'll never forget Aneela's amazing laugh! We just had a blast riding with the girls, ripping up the heather clad Scottish hills - cheers Mary -Anne, Aneela & Zea!

I also learnt a whole bunch of new Scottish words, don't think they're all good one's, but here are a few - thanks to Aneela: Bawbags, Burns, Fannybawbags, Fannybaws, bothies, Royal Deeside tweed, man, the list goes on and on...and I had a lesson in Whiskey making, smelling, sniffing, tasting & finally drinking. Turns out I'm not too keen on heavy peat flavored whiskey, made my tongue go all numb & tingly.

As for the first WC of the season - it was insane! Such a great venue, i have forgotten how good this venue was and how amazing all the Scottish fans are. I was bummed that the porridge cart wasn't there, but I did sample some delicious Haggis & tatties (the veggie version) and it was YUM. Our Juliana Bicycles booth got a lot of attention & the gals (and guys) loved the bikes! I got to catch up with some members of Team Dark Cloud, reminiscing about the trials & tribulations of the Trans Provence & I cannot wait to ride with this crew once again in September - Team Dark Cloud strikes again! Great to see & catch up with all the Ball's, and got to eat at one of my favorite restaurants ever - The Ben Nevis Inn.

The trails were sick, the scenery mind blowing, the riding crew - super fun. Cheers to everyone who made this week super special. Visiting new places are the best, riding new tracks are insane, making new friends - priceless (no, this is not a visa add). Now I'm back in Italy, in the Valley of the sun for some more world cup action & trail exploration this weekend.

Thank you to Sven for the stunning shots!

Peace out.

Anka

x

A wee bit late, but a bit of a catch up on life on the flip side.

It has been freezing cold, snowing & raining outside (has been since we arrived), accompanied by a wind that just cuts right through any wind block jacket. Yes, it is summer in Europe & I’m pining to be back in the New Zealand winter…pretty crazy thought hey, but their daily temps have been blazing warm (a slight exaggeration), compared to the French temps over here.

I just got back to base camp (mom’s house) after guiding a 7 day mountain bike trip, dragging 12 guests up and over some big mountains in Provence, so I’ve been a bit out of touch with the happenings in the rest of the world and internet was pretty non existent in those parts of the mountains, so here is a wee update.

I feel like the past month or more has just been an absolute whirlwind, trying to get our lives in order for being away from home for the next 6 months. Not an easy feat to get everything organized and taken care of while still trying to keep normal jobs, training, learning about & paying US & NZ taxes, immigration, business licenses, safety plans, environmental impact plans, racing licenses and other normal day-to-day activities going. The stresses of getting bikes built up, shipped to different countries, collecting them during layovers, getting used to them at races – all these little things have just added up to be a wee bit overwhelming, but thanks to everyone who helped to make this process of yearly migration to the other side of the world a little bit easier. O, the dilemma’s of living this lifestyle – I wouldn’t change it for anything, but you definitely need the support from a good crew of peeps to pull this off J

The most exciting happening for me this season has got to be the launch of the new Santa Cruz Bicycles Women’s bike lineup; Juliana Bicycles! This is such exciting news for all the female shredders around the world & I feel really proud, excited & very honored to represent this new line as one of their ambassadors. Have a look at the range of new curves on offer. Powerful, Beautiful, Natural

(www.julianabicycles.com).

A huge big thanks to the guys at Santa Cruz Bicycles for getting my beautiful “roarange” colored Juliana frames sent out to Jon Cancellier at SRAM in CO, who then built up my two new steeds for the season, after hours, over his weekend, and in-between traveling, then shipped them to Clay Porter in Ventura, CA who specially drove them down to LAX and dropped them off for us - curbside service during our short layover in Los Angeles. We quickly repacked them into our EVOC bike bags and checked them back in for our continuing flight over to Europe. Phew, we made it.

At home in Nelson we have Jodie taking care of all our admin & making sure we don’t get into trouble with the tax man (again) – Jodie you’re a legend! Derek is our landscape man & Trade me organizer and the rest of the crew will be visiting our cottage on the hill to make sure it is A OK throughout the winter. You guys all ROCK – thank you!

Back in France, we set off in our jam packed trusty old van for Punta Ala in Italy for the first round of the Enduro World Series, well, sort of. The van didn’t quite make it out of the driveway before we realized something major was broken. After a few hours of stressing, renting vans in French, unpacking, repacking & a trip to the local mechanic shop, we set off on the 11-hour drive to Italy.

Punta Ala, Italy was beautiful. Tuscany- by- the- sea. The forests were stunning & wild, growing right down onto the sandy beaches. The red dirt, green rolling hills, cork tree forests and the shimmering turquoise waters made for such a spectacular backdrop and venue for a race. The tracks were amazing, rough, rocky, long & dry – it was everything that I loved and I felt really confident on them. Practice was so RAD. I loved my new Juliana bikes and I felt so ready for this first round. I was ready to race after our first day of practice, but there was still a long week of training ahead of us. Way too much in my opinion and towards the end of the week, I was pretty over it. People were shuttling everywhere, including us, as if you didn’t, you were at a disadvantage, but it didn’t feel like the usual enduro’s. It felt rushed, stressed and destructive to the forest. I felt like we were invading the forest and drowning out the bird song with engine noise and fumes and stressed out drivers wheel spinning in the mud. I understand that this was the Italian way, but this past week was a bit too much. Too much practice, too many people trying to bend the rules towards their advantage, too many people not respecting the spirit of enduro or respecting the rules. Things like hidden food & water in the forests, not wearing required helmets or back plates etc, left me feeling a bit sour. Never the less, no point harping on silly things, just a tad sad that it was actually present.

I started off my race with two massive crashes, trying too hard & not being cautious enough in the slippery conditions. I was bummed, frazzled and sore and my goal was to just get through the day, to finish. I definitely felt the pressure of the whole week prior to the race. I felt the presence of all the big rigs parked everywhere, of all the mechanics milling about, rebuilding and servicing bikes and parts to death. It was serious no matter what anyone says. People were walking around with compression tights and socks and bottles filled with recovery juice. Everyone had names printed on their jerseys with masseuses and support crews scurralling about to support their riders. There were hoards of press & camera’s and flashes everywhere – even on the tracks. Interviews & photo shoots. It was a bit scary to me. It is great for the sport, and the development of the discipline, and I am truly excited about that, but I did miss the low-key vibe just a little bit. During the Trans Provence when you hammer your bike for 7 days, if you get to put chain lube on your bike & manage to have a shower before you pass out in your tent, then you’ve managed to do well.

The level of racing has skyrocketed and it seems like you’ll need to start wearing a heart rate monitor again if you want to be super competitive in this series and ditch the après ride beers & wine. Do I want to go down that route? Not too sure about that just yet. I think it was the French wine & cheese between stages that drew me to these fun events to begin with.  Hopefully some of the riders also had a moment to appreciate the beautiful forests and scenery, to catch up with friends and to sample the local Tuscan wine.

Other than that, it was a magnificent event. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Enrico so happy, and to have a bike race end on the beach is just so rad. The EWS crew did an amazing job to get all of this organized in one off season. Bravo! Cheers to you guys. It was amazing to have so many World Champions in one place and all of them riding together. Pretty epic stuff to have been a part of. Hats off to all the girls who finished this tough day of racing, it was huge.

I cannot wait for the next EWS round; hopefully I got my crashes out of the way for now. Tomorrow I’m off to Scotland for some bike exploring  & adventuring with the Santa Cruz crew, dinner & many pints at my favourite restaurant in the whole world: The Ben Nevis Inn (http://www.ben-nevis-inn.co.uk), and of course to catch some DH action at the first round of the World Cup in Fort William.

Sweet As.

Anka.

Finding art in all the "right" places.

Who says you have to go to the big cities and the snooty galleries to look at art?  

Well we haven’t been near a big city or a snooty gallery for months now, but we have been deep in the mountains on overnight outback rides and finding pretty amazing pieces of "artwork" in the most unlikely of places. Now, these pieces won't sell for thousands of dollars, but they are just a delight to find when you least expect to see them out in the whop- whops. Just another reason why I am utterly and completely head over heels in love with New Zealand’s backcountry huts, and I cannot wait to explore & overnight in many more of these hidden gems next summer.

If you've ridden some of the sick trails out in the Craigieburn area, you might recognize some of these.

The best part about these finds: you don’t get into trouble for taking photo’s of them, so snap on!

Cheers to the artists!