nigelhicks101's Comments

Hey Guys and Girls

Right let me talk you through the changes .... The video was done the other day and unfortunately the base material had JUST been laid so i didnt want kelvin to ride on it and rut it before its had time to set. So please bear with the slow bumpy dawdle through the pedal.

The top section of the track will be the same as last year ... very fast and flowing. The new portion of the track starts at cloud 9 where the old track used to go left down to the rock that Brendog crashed on last year. The new portion of Cloud 9 is steeper and rockier with a 6m rock roll off at the exit - then that new rock garden ... the top guys will probably be able to jump it - but you land into an offcamber with some tricky hidden roots and cut stumps. The new section in the trees holds better gradient than the old track cutting out a 120m flat singletrack section from last year. The gap at Haibo is really really fast and i hope the guys will enjoy that. The tabletops have been shifted further down the pedal section by 20m to eliminate some of the pedal and then the rest of the pedal section is based with granite to make it roll faster and get the riders through it quicker (theres nothing else I could do .. its just the lie of the land unfortunately) ... So it will still be a big power riders track! ... and then the Moneymaker at the finish is being altered now to be more jumpable and rider friendly.

As soon as Im finished I'll get Kelvin to do a full flat out run down and send it over so you can see the finished track.
Cheers
Nige .... (the track builder)

PS - when i say MASSIVE Hailstorm ... i am talking about 10cm thick of golf ball sized hail on the ground that was still on the track 24 hours after the storm - it was so bad it filled up one of the organisers bin of his truck!!!!

@ Kusa - the pedal is death at the moment - we had a MASSIVE hail storm on Wed afternoon that DESTROYED the top of the track (32 trees were knocked down). So some quick fixes later and the course was ready for Thursday when this was filmed. Has been raining since ... POURED whole day today - Our national XC race today was a nightmare. Have National DH tomorrow so will see what happens - But no matter what happens - I have LOTS of work to do to fix the track from this weekend for the World Cup next weekend.

Guys and Girls - PLEASE keep your fingers crossed that the rain pisses off - cus then the racing will be good!

spomer - are you coming out? if so ask Sven for my number and we must hook up and i'll show you the track personally. Are any of you other guys coming out?

HEY GUYS - shot for the decent comments ... to give you a quick low down ... the first 1/2 of the track is steep, rooty, technical, and SUPER FAST. ... the pedal section makes up only 1/4 of the total track distance and is split by a number of jumps ( Hayden didnt hit some as they are still being shaped) ... The Final section starts at the Air-odrome road gap (with the big bridge under it) and makes up the last 1/4 of the course. Its full of big jumps with only little bits of pedalling ... It was a pity that Haydens wheel collapsed (that wasnt just one broken spoke - it was a destroyed wheel) when it did as just after he gets going again in the video is THE MONEYMAKER - 18m right hand stepdown hip ... its HUGE!!! .... Oh and the Tables in the middle are 22m long .. with a 15m long setup sstep down before the first one .. you hit them at about 60km/h. .... AWESOME ... I know i'm going to get slated for the pedal section but as we had to finish in the same place as 2009 we had to use it unfortunately so just put some jumps in ... If we get it again for 2012 I have already submitted plans for a shortened course with less pedalling and a different finish area to the Organisers who are chatting to the UCI about it (I think) .... Anyway ... shot for watching the video ...

Cheers

Nige (the course builder) or should i say course slave ... hahahaha