Mountainbiking: Wheels in motion for a career highlight

Kashi Leuchs is looking for a result this month that would cap a 12-year career. Picture / John Borren

Kashi Leuchs could lead his mountain bike world championship rivals up the garden path if he so desired.

A growing posse of the world's premier cross-country riders are knocking down the French-based Dunedinite's door, trying to uncover what lies in wait for them at the world championships in Rotorua, starting on August 22.

"Being a New Zealander on the mountain bike circuit right now is quite incredible," Leuchs says.

"Everybody wants to know what it's going to be like. They're curious about the weather, the track conditions, the people and how it's going to work.

"For a lot of them, coming to New Zealand is a real novelty and it's been a lot of fun to promote the country."

But surely this is the perfect chance to throw mountain bike's equivalent of an outrageous dummy?

A few subtle untruths about the challenging nature of the world championship course could be a bum steer that makes all the difference.

But that sort of ploy isn't for Leuchs, who hopes his advantage will come elsewhere.

"Everyone will see the course in good time so there's no point keeping it a secret," he says.

"The big advantage I have is that I actually raced on it during the Oceania Games in March.

"You can't get the same feeling training on a circuit than racing it, so that's something I can draw on."

Leuchs was second to leading Canadian Geoff Kabush but won the Oceania crown on a gruelling Mt Ngongotaha course that has undergone only minor alterations for the arrival of the world's best.

The changes are likely to include some more technical elements, something that Leuchs strongly recommended to organisers five months ago.

"In Europe cross-country racing is technical and I'd say Rotorua was on the easy side, that's why I think it was important that they made it like we would normally race," he says.

"We really put emphasis on the organisers to try and work on that aspect.

"I've heard the course has become rougher over winter and that will suit me."

Another Rotorua difference is that each lap comprises one, steep seven-minute climb of 180m and a shallower descent that takes another 7min.

Most Europe races feature short, sharp climbs and declines.

It is why Leuchs has completed three weeks of altitude training in Italy, described on his website as hard work in his own unique way.

"There are endless steep passes to grovel up and sick fun walking tracks to bomb back down on."

All that grovelling and bombing paid off with a shock World Cup marathon win in France last weekend. It ended a lean run of results since his fifth placing at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games.

Looking beyond this month, even to a third Olympic Games appearance at Beijing in 2008, doesn't sit comfortably with the 28-year-old.

He's stopped renting and is in the process of building a house in the French town of Annecy - his base for nearly seven years. But that doesn't mean it's his home for good.

"At the moment Annecy is the perfect location for me, and while I like Europe a lot, I also love New Zealand."

To consummate that love affair, not a lot in a 12-year career could top a triumph on the slopes of Mt Ngongotaha.

- NZPA