Mountainbiking: All down hill from here

Vanessa Quin charges through the boardwalk sections of the downhill course. Pictures / Alan Gibson

On Thursday afternoon Vanessa Quin will haul herself almost to the top of Mt Ngongotaha, take a quick look at the magnificent view, then shut herself off.

Once she bursts out of the Maori pa-like starting gate and tears off for her seeding run on the 2.2km downhill course, there will be no time for anything but total concentration.

Downhill, one of four disciplines at the world mountainbike championships, is very much the "guts and glory" arm of the sport.

While cross-country is depicted as the shop window and takes a couple of hours or more to unfold, downhill is simple - one shot, no second chance, "what you see is what you get".

On Thursday the world's best will be taken way up the foreboding mountain - well beyond the gondola - and then unleashed to tear back down in the fastest possible time in the race to determine the start order for Saturday's "real deal".

Once she kicks into action, former world champion Quin will throw herself at the mercy of the mountain in a madcap dash of around 3 minutes.

Like the kilometre time trial on the track, there is no second chance for a rider who crashes, punctures or has mechanical failure.

"Months of training come down to that one ride," says Quin. "You can practise as much as you like but when you let rip there is just the one chance - you against the clock."

While cross-country is seen as being more akin to road racing - mass start and the need for some tactical appreciation that the two-hour or longer races demand - downhill is more like motocross.

"No lycra for us," jokes Quin. "Instead we wear a full-face helmet, knee and elbow pads and a strong plastic back plate for protection."

The bikes, too, are different. The cross-country models weigh around 10kg, the downhill machines double that. At a cost of around $10,000 they don't come cheap.

"The suspension is most important. We ride at between 30-40km/h - and can reach up to 60km/h - so there is no room for error or having things break," said Quin.

Luck, too, plays a part.

The course in Rotorua is a fair test with a 50-50 split of pine forest and open grassland, and a man-made rock garden tossed in to add to the thrill and excitement.

"Falls are just bad luck," said Quin, 29, who started tearing down hills nine years ago and is now regarded as a veteran of the sport. She admits "I often fall" but quickly adds, "luckily I don't often break".

Sadly, one of those breaks came when she fractured her wrist at the first World Cup race of the year in Spain in May - an injury which has inhibited her build-up to these championships.

"Wrist injuries are the most common," says Quin. "The first thing you do when you are falling is put your hand out. Broken wrists and collar-bones are right up there in our sport."

Quin progressed from BMX into mountainbiking and the greater thrill it brings.

"The championships are great for our sport in New Zealand," says Quin, who lives in Tauranga but has made Rotorua very much her second home in her championship build-up.

"We are expecting around 15,000-20,000 people on course. This is a one-off opportunity."

Quin rode her first world championships in Cairns, Australia, in 1996 - the last time the championships were raced in the Southern Hemisphere.

"I remember it clearly - I got heat stroke."

This will be the seventh time she has represented New Zealand and she takes great pride in pulling on the uniform.

She acknowledges there will be great support and a huge expectation from locals but quickly points out that given her current ranking which has tumbled from fourth to around 50th during her enforced time out, she faces a massive challenge.

"I could be well back in the field for the seeding run which might mean some yelling on the way down," says Quin. "We start at 30s intervals and if I'm back with some of the slower riders it could be tricky."

She points to Briton Tracey Moseley and France's Sabrina Jonnier and Emmeline Ragot as riders to beat.

Quin beat Moseley, then the world No 1, down the same course at the Oceania Championships in March. Up until a week ago, Quin was ready to accept she might be taking a backseat at these championships, now she is not so sure.

"The top four will be tough but maybe I can do something too," she says.

Like another former world champion, Queenstown-based Scarlett Hagen - who is also recovering from injury - Quin is aiming to give the zany scurry her best shot and deliver something for the organisers who have come up with an "awesome course".


10 reasons why mountainbiking beats road or track cycling

1 Mountain bike clothes don't make you look like a sponsored superhero, a look which road cyclists think cuts down on drag and makes them more visible. We suspect it's less to do with safety and more to do with "look, my carbonfibre spoke-rocket is worth more than your car". Having ridden way up into the hills to find it, mountain bikers appreciate good scenery. Road bikers want to be the scenery.

2 Teams of of mountain bikers don't ride down your road first thing in the morning shouting at each other about who's drafting who and waking up the neighbourhood. The reason they do this at dawn is because they haven't yet adjusted to dressing like a heavily sponsored superhero in public.

3 You won't see mountain bikers congregating at urban cafes smelling of sweat and lycra. No, they're the ones at rural cafes smelling of sweat and mud and bleeding slightly.

4 Mountain biking, of course, has an appreciation for nature. Especially trees and topography. Take up mountain biking and you soon gain a working knowledge of root systems. Keep mountain biking and eventually you will gain an appreciation of bark texture. Some unprotected parts of your body will appreciate the above more than others.

5 When a tree knocks you off your mountain bike, there's only one excuse. When a car knocks you off your road bike, there are many excuses. Sometimes it can be because the driver was dazzled by the logos on your shirt.

6 Then again, actually riding around the tree and the next 1000 of them is much more fun than riding around parked cars or velodromes will ever be.

7 Mountain biking brings families together. Usually around the hospital bed of their 16-year-old downhill rider who found a whole new way down the mountain the previous weekend and won't be going up there for another few months.

8 If you ride through a big puddle during the mountain bike race, it's rainwater. If you ride through a puddle during a road race, it means the race frontrunners aren't too far ahead. Eeew. In mountainbiking, there is always a tree to go behind and no need to rust your chain.

9 If roadies seem more uptight than mounties, look at the equipment - they ride on skinny wee high-pressure tyres and their seats are way up there. Whereas mountain bikers spend a good part of their income buying bikes that have more springs than most bed shops and ride on big fat soft knobbly tyres. Which feels pretty comfortable until you encounter number 4 above.

10 A fat guy on a road bike is called a "good start". A fat guy on a downhill bike is called "momentum". The latter may not lose any weight but he'll have a lot more fun.

* Russell Baillie mountainbikes occasionally and gets woken up frequently by the local high school road cycling team.