The Wellington City Council are asking for submissions on their Capital Spaces Plan. This is the plan that they use to sort out their priorities in sport and recreation, and that includes the track network. 

Our friends in the WCC Ranger team have been working flat out. Over 400 callouts since last night and that is just for trees on roading reserves. With the weather looking better for the weekend, no doubt many of us will be looking to head out onto the tracks. 

With the number of call outs and the focus on residential properties and road reserves, the council has not got out into the track network yet. So you should expect there to be windfall around every corner. 

We have had reports that there is significant damage to some tracks on Mt Vic, with half the bench slipping away in places.

Track Status - updated Tuesday 2 July 

A big weekend for work parties and there are more to come in the following weeks. The following is the status of the tracks that are maintained by the club:

Long Gully 

98DH Karori - unrideable

Trail leader, Tony Harvie, confirms that 98DH has been hit very hard by the storm. There are many large trees down in the area. There are also large trees down across the Kids Track and Wahine.

Polhill - all tracks open!

Miramar Track Project - major damage

Ben, Russ, Sherwin and Caban walked all the trails on Saturday afternoon (June 22nd).

• Jail Brake - Clear. A crew of 14 adults and a lot of kids turned up on Sunday the 23rd of June to clear the trail. Removed small trees and branches, debris is up to 30cm deep in places on the track, unblocked the drains etc. Trail will be in better shape than it was before the storm in a couple of days once it has had a chance to get rid of some of the water that has fallen this past week.
  
• Solitary - Half a dozen trees down on a the section between the JB Pine Tree Berm and  Merge into JB, more down on bottom chute. Hope is to get the top section open by the end of next weekend. 
• Conviction - Clear - The big slip has been cleared, and whilst there is still a big tree down across the curved bridge, there is a new diversion in place that takes you up towards Nevay Rd (bit of a steep push on a bike). At the top of the track you can turn left and continue on along Boot leg
• Boot Leg - Clear to the Boot, closed after that. - A new exit of the track has been put in. This will need some gravel, but now takes you out to the clearing. From there the best bet is keep going down the grass and under the Pine Tree where the old Prison sign used to be. A new line is going in to link into the last part of the track and should be finished in a couple of weeks. 
• Repeat Offender - Some trees down on the climbing berms. These will be cleared by hand, rest of track is clear.
  

Mt Vic - major damage, some tracks open

• Mt Vic Summit - severe damage.
• Hippy's -  blocked by large tree. But alot of work has been done to tidy up the rest of the track. An Arborist has been in and looked at the tree and it has been assessed as too dangerous to try and clear it. A scratched out line appears to be in place, but a new permenant line will be marked out. Working parties to be advertised shortly. 
• Super D* - is clear from the end of Hippy's through to the Finish. However there is a large Macrocarpa where the finish line should be and another on the berm closest to the Crawford Rd/Wellington Rd Roundabout
• Shuttle Cock - clear. However there is a large gum tree across the walking track on the velodrome side that cuts off this loop.
• Mt Alfred and Rod's Drop - Trees are still down, but new lines around the trees have been benched. 
  
• Damian's - bottom clear, tree across section before the field. 
• TTS - clear
• Park Bench - clear
• No reports for Grom, Rock Drop and Virginia .
• Walking Tracks on North Face - severe damage. The old line down from the top is littered with large trees. In particular the section below Hippy's to the clearing. It appears all the walking tracks in the triangle from the Summit, down to Charles Plimmer Park and Majoribanks Street are blocked to some extent. No eta on when these will be open. Be aware, in some places very large trees have partly fallen over and are being held up by other trees. It is best to stay well clear of this area.  

Portal - open

Rollercoaster - no report at this time

Other tracks

• Makara - lower tracks have been cleared, but there are trees down across Salley Alley and North Face. See Makara Peak Facebook page for updates.
• Salvation is now open again (we think)
• Deliverance is clear, but the track has changed signifcantly. A section of the track at the bottom has be rerouted.  
• Tinakori Hill - Jono has been through and has this update
  "Many blockages over te ahu mairangi as well. At the northern end of the northern walkway (off wadestown road) two trees have come down - one you get get under (I cut the branches out of the way), the other has taken out half the track.
  
  The southern end of the walkway (4wd track that drops down towards the chinese embassy) is blocked by a massive slip that has taken out 3 or 4 large trees. Connector above chinese embassy walkway also blocked by a couple of large trees."
• Colonial Knob - The track through to Ohariu Valley is not passable and quite dangerous...the pine forest has huge damage and many many fallen trees.
• Wainui Track Project - clear, but very wet. Give if a few days to dry out. 

For track damage, particularly to tracks that are managed by the club, please either

For large trees and branches, the council will get in and clear these. We can all help by letting them know where to find them. A reminder - the use of chainsaws on WCC land by members of the public is strictly prohibited.

When you come across a large tree or branch either:

• Call the council on 499 4444 or
• Use the Online FixIt Form
• Even better, download the Fixit Smartphone App and send in the details

WCC FixIt App

As all ways, take it easy on your first DH run. Stay safe.

The days are short, the nights are cold, but riding doesn't stop for a little bad weather. 

A late start to the international racing season this year, but some excellent results for the Kiwis at Fort Bill. Congrats to the Bulldog and Blenki for making the podium and a shout out to the club's own Bryn Dickerson who qualified for the finals. 

If you haven't seen it, Bryn keeps a blog of his exploits at Racing for my dinner. Here is hoping there is a post soon about his latest foray into the World Cup series soon. 

Next race is at Val de Sole this weekend. Full coverage on Redbull.com

At the end of the month, the Enduro racers head to France for the next round of the EWS. Will the (ex) downhillers continue to dominate, or will the all mountain specialists rise to the challenge?

The Club AGM will be held on Thursday, June 20th at 6:30pm. For full details, see the events page. 

We will be running through a report of what was achieved this past year, a look at the clubs financials, electing new officers and going over some goals for the next membership year. 

It is great to see the majority of the committee wants to stand again. If you would like to contribute for the management of the club, then nominate either yourself or someone else for a role on the committee. All nominees need to be current club members, and if you nominate someone else, please supply their details so that we can contact them and confirm they wish to stand. 

If you wish to raise a matter for the membership at the AGM, then please contact the secretary and we will add this to the Agenda under General business. It helps matters along if you can put the details of the matter or proposal into writing so it can be distributed. 

The club will be putting on pizza. We are told that some people don't like Hawaiian with Olives and Anchovies. If you want to ensure that there is something else on offer, then please register. 

The WCC are reviewing another of there management plans that effects how the track network is governed and how much funding it receives. This follows on from the Town Belt Management Plan that the club, and many club members submitted on early in the year.

Read about the Our Capital Spaces plan on the WCC site.   

The club and our projects will all be making submissions. But the more submissions we can get from club members and riders, the better. All you need to do is take a scan of this plan on the council site, then fill in the online form. Aside from your contact details, you don't need to answer all questions, you can just answer one if you like. 

The most important thing you can do is let the council now how important mountain biking on WCC tracks is to you. 

The club will be publishing our submission on the club website after the AGM as it will be aligned with the strategic plan that will be presented to the membership at this time. 

Looking for something to do these school holidays? We have just received this from Ash@WORD. 

'Tis The Season For Digging

See you on the trails (or at the AGM). 

Russel Garlick

Club Secretary

secretary -at- wmtbc.org.nz

The Wellington Mountain Bike Club would like to thank all the competitors, volunteers and sponsors for all contributing to making this year's URGE Mt Vic Super D a grand success. A special thanks to our friends at PNP for helping out with the timing and traffic management on the day. 

Here is a summary of the coverage on the web

• Spoke Magazine - Results and Photos
  
• Tate's best crash of the day POV on YouTube
• Photos from Ricoh Riott - Flickr
• Photos from Pete Marshall Photography
• Podium photos from Dave Harding-Shaw on FB
• Chris Wharton's footage on YouTube
• Stefan's photos on Dropbox

Thanks once again to our incredible sponsors:

Blackseal.co.nz and URGE Helmets, bicycle.co.nz, Wheelworks, PNP, iRide, MTB Skills Clinics, Mud Cycles, Floe, WCC, Dirt Merchants, Spoke, Burkes Cycles and Floyds Cafe

Junior Men (Under 15)  
6    Eden Cruise    Junior 1 Men (Under 15)    05:36.7    05:40.7
78    Finn van Leuven    Junior 1 Men (Under 15)    07:34.9    07:30.3
89    Tom Booker    Junior 1 Men (Under 15)    07:42.3    07:42.9

Junior Men (15-17)      
14    Jack Compton    Junior 2 Men (15-17)    05:57.1    05:55.8
15    Gregor Wilson    Junior 2 Men (15-17)    06:09.0    05:57.0
33    Jack Humphries    Junior 2 Men (15-17)    07:28.9    06:23.9

Old Men (30+)  
1    The Weazel    Masters Men 1 (30-39)    05:36.4    05:24.0
2    Mikey Northcott    Masters Men 1 (30-39)    05:30.0    05:25.8
11    Tom Adams    Masters Men 1 (30-39)    05:51.2    05:51.3

Older Men (40+)        
8    John Jacob    Masters Men 2 (40-49)    05:49.0    05:46.3
12    Jonny Waghorn    Masters Men 2 (40-49)    05:57.1    05:52.1
19    Jeremy Blake    Masters Men 2 (40-49)    06:11.7    06:02.1

Ancient Men (50+)      
58    Dave Carlyon    Masters Men 3 (50+)    07:13.9    06:50.8
73    Doc Wongsta    Masters Men 3 (50+)    DNF    07:15.7

Novice Women          
107    Abbie Bull    Novice women    08:53.2    08:35.6
115    Isla Day    Novice women    10:53.1    10:13.1

Open Women    
65    Ash Burgess    Open Women    07:08.6    07:02.0
99    Anna Harding-Shaw    Open Women    08:36.9    08:12.3
-    Sarah Atkin    Open Women    07:04.1    DNF

Open Men  
3    Miles Davies    Senior Men (18-29)    05:24.2    05:26.2
4    Elliot Pearce    Senior Men (18-29)    05:40.7    05:38.7
5    Stefan Gardner    Senior Men (18-29)    05:47.8    05:39.6

So what has been happening?

Shuttle days were held in March and April, one dry and one wet. These wouldn't have been possible with out the help from all the volunteers. A special vote of thanks to those keep the gully trails in order. Cheers to Tony Harvie (Racetrack), Adrian Armstrong (420) and Dan Smith and his helpers for leading the charge on tidying up Jawbone. Just a note to all, that tools are often left on the side of the tracks in the Gully on purpose by the builders when they are working on spots. Please leave them there. 

Events Manager, Mike Stirrat has been out with his camera, and you might want to check out the vids on Pink Bike. 

Long Gully Club Ride on Pinkbike

Miramar Track Project ran their annual fundraiser and on a wet and wild Sunday a few weeks back we got 55 competitors who turned up and try to claim the King and Queen of the Mountain Crowns. Big thanks to Burkes Cycles for their support of the event, and PlaceMakers Evan's Bay for showing up with their mega BBQ Trailer. After some negotiations with LINZ (who are managing the Prison Land) we were able to start right out side the prison. Congrats to The Weazel for taking the men's overall, and Sarah Atkin for the women's. View the fill results.

The lads from Burkes teamed up with Holden Bros to put together this clip that captures the day pretty well. 

Yup it is back. And being held later in the year, we'd expect the course to throw up a few more challenges than the dry and dusty runs of the past couple of years.

Get your entry in today via the club web site . This year there is a discount for all Welly MTB Club members, so entry is $35 for club members, $45 for non members. 

Event organsior Steve has been doing some fettling on the track, so expect new lines to challenge you. 

A big thanks to all the sponsors of this event, and especially URGE helmets who are back again as title sponsor and are fronting up with a new helmet to all class winners. 

One change to be aware of this year is that there is a compulsory seeding run. So you will need to check the event time table and make sure you are there to get your run in. 

We are still on the look out for volunteers to help with timing, marshalling and driving. If you are coming to the event, and bringing a mate or family member who can help out, then please drop Steve a line via the Club facebook page

In addition to all the good work going on at Long Gully, trail crews have been at work all around Wellington.

The Brooklyn crew have been going gang busters on some new trail developments. The alternate downhill for the bottom of Transient, called Serendipity is well under way. 

In addition to this, the club and BTB are working with the WCC to open up some trails on the other side of Polhill that would link into George Denton Park. This required a great deail of consultation with the community, and some hard work by all involved. 

Dig times are:

• Wednesday 12:30 - 2pm
• Sunday 1 - 4pm.

Mt Vic Trails

Steve and his crew have been working on some new lines around the saddle area to reduce conflict with walkers on the Super D track. 

The first is the new short jump line from Park Bench to the Saddle. All this wet weather is helping this to settle in. 

The next phase is an alternate line into Rod's drop which will avoid the walking track. Once again this will be a huge bonus as it will add a new line and keep other trail users happy. 

Diggers are being run mid week and are all advertised on the Mt Vic Trails facebook page.

The club would like to thank Mud Cycles and Floyds Cafe for their support of these digs. 

The wet weather means that trail building is back on in Miramar. Now the Solitary track has been ridden in, some refinements and improvements are being made to make it more sustainable during the winter months, whilst trying to keep the original feel of the track. 

If you have been up at the water towers recently, you will notice there is a huge amount of clay sitting and waiting to be shaped into the pump track extension. Hamish Kay has some excellent plans to extend the existing track and build different lines to cater to both the huge number of kids using this track and more advanced riders. At the moment, digger time is what is required, so if you have contacts in the Earthmoving world, then please let the crew know via their facebook page. 

Some new features are being built for the kids track off site and should be in place in the coming months. 

Miramar runs their digs on Sundays from 2pm. Check facebook for event details. 

The club is happy to announce that we have been working with the city council to get this popular track added to the track network. At the moment it is classified as an unsanctioned track in an area that is open to biking. The goal is to make some changes to the track to bring it to a level that the council will be happy to approve it.

There is going to be some significant work required, particularly in the area where the Portal crosses the walking track and to replace some of the old decaying stunts. Eugene Black is leading the charge here, and is organising digs. Check the Club Facebook page for details. 

Add it to your diaries, the date has been set for this year's AGM. It has been a busy year for the club, with a lot of working going on behind the scenes. This is your chance as a club member to come and hear about some of these developments, the plans for the future and give your feedback. 

More details will be posted on the club website in the coming weeks. 

It has been a busy end to 2012 for the club. It may be the holidays, but as we roll into the race season, it is still busy as ever. In this edition of the newsletter we have  a summary of what has been happening and what to look forward to in 2013. Here's hoping the weather is kind over the rest of the holiday season so we can all get out and enjoy some riding!

Way back in August, the committee put in an application for charitable status. After some toing and froing, we received the good news in the middle of December. 

The club is now a "not for profit incorporated society with charitable status" (quite a mouthful). This means that it will be easier for us to apply for funding and that any one who wants to make a donation to the club can receive a tax credit. We will be firing up our donations page on the site in the New Year.

If you signed up for club membership via one of our events, you may need to go back and complete your membership by accepting the club rules and long gully waiver on your web site profile. 

Simply log into the club site, and use the "View Profile" link on the left hand side under the navigation. Use the edit tab and make sure that you have accepted the rules and waiver then save.

If you are under 18, you will need to provide details of a parent or guardian you can accept these on your behalf. In order to ride the Long Gully Trails, you must accept these rules and conditions. 

A reminder that you must have a 4WD vehicle with a valid Welly MTB Club car pass to shuttle Long Gully outside of club shuttle days. These are the club rules and they are in place to ensure your safety and to minimise the impact of vehicles on the private roads in the area. Please do your bit to ensure that we can keep access to this area by following these rules. Remember the speed limit is 30 km/h at all times on these roads. 

If you have signed up for the club, you should have received your gold tag for the 2012/2013 season. There have been a few reported issues with tags getting damaged in the post, so if you have not received yours, then please contact Dan, our Memberships Coordinator at memberships -at- wmtbc.org.nz. 

Diggers Summit 

Over the weekend of Nov 30th / Dec 1st, the Club partnered with the Wellington Trails Alliance to host over 80 people at the first Diggers Summit. We had a wide range of people attend the conference from all over the region.

On the Friday, there was a series of talks covering everything from what is the WTA,  working with land owners, sustainable trail design, and native planting. Jeff Carter rounded out the session with an epic slide show of the work NZ Trail Solutions is doing around the world. The summit also saw the launch of the Trail Fund. Look out for more on this initiative soon. A website is in the works, but for the moment you can follow updates on the Trail Fund facebook page. 

Saturday was on site, with the WCC Ranger team doing sign offs on power equipment, and a series of on track sessions in smaller groups. The Saturday avo ride morphed into a shuttle session at Miramar and Mt Vic, which just happened to coincide with an Enve demo day. Cheers to Ash from Bike Wellington for helping us out with the shuttles. We rounded the Summit off with the Diggers Ball at the Southern Cross on the Saturday night. 

It was great to see representatives from DoC and the local councils, plus trail builders both new and old from right around the Wellington region. There is a national event in the works for the middle of 2013, so if you missed out this time, check back to the club site in the new year for more details. 

Tracks Update

The holiday season normally sees a slow down with new track builds and maintenance as trail builders get out and ride, however there has still been a lot happening. 

The Windmill track and Car Parts upgrades are barely finished and the Brooklyn Trail Builders are right back into it. Just before the holidays, the team received the green light for two new trails in the Polhill area. The tracks will go from Holloway Road to George Denton Park. The existing walking track will be upgraded to a dual use (mtb uphill), and a new downhill track will be built. This is great news for a popular riding area. See the BTB Facebook pages for updates and dig days. 

In early December, Steve Wallace and the Mt Vic Trail Crew gave the Mt Albert 4X some love. Grass and weeds were cleared back and some shaping done. The hope is that this will see the track through summer. Later in 2013, the club will be looking to move some new clay in to complete a more comprehensive overhaul. Keep up to date with the Mt Vic Trails crew on Facebook. 

The dry weather is seeing the Miramar Track Project taking a break for few months. But the new Solitary trail is open for riding. The top half is pretty much done to spec and you can ride just this and join back in (carefully) with Jail Brake at the small rock drop/hair pin. After this Solitary gets much rougher, in particular the corners. If you like it like this, then now is the time to ride it. In the new year, those tetchy corners on the bottom section will be getting built up to be more like those at the top of the track. 

At the beginning of December, submissions for the new Town Belt Management Plan closed. Thanks to all those who did a personal submission. The Club and the Brooklyn Trail Builders both did submissions to go along with the Wellington Trail Alliance one. Oral submissions are in the New Year, and the club will be fronting for these as well. In summary, the plan is encouraging for mountain biking in the Town Belt, and the club is in support of then new plan. 

Club shuttle days are going from strength to strength. After a wet and wild event in town at Miramar and Mt Vic in November, it was great to see the sun come out for an excellent day in Long Gully for the end of year shuttles in December. The plan is to have a shuttle day at least once a month. All shuttle days will be advertised via the facebook page, but you must register via the event on the club website. 

It's race season and the National Cup series kicks off this week in Bluff and it is only 7 weeks till Nationals in Rotorua starting February 15th. All the best to everyone competing. 

• Round 1, Bluff, Jan 4th
• Round 2, Mt Hutt, Jan 12th
• Round 3, Levin, Feb 2
• Round 4, Auckland, Feb 8th
• National Champs, Rotorua Feb 15th-17th. 

The Miramar Trail Project are jumping on the Enduro bandwagon. This year's event will see riders in two categories, Misdemeanor (easier) and Felony (harder) do 3 runs down a combination of Miramar trails. After each timed down hill run, there will be a mandatory, non timed liaison stage back up Conviction to the start. All proceeds will go back into trail building in the area. More details in the New Year. 

The Welly MTB Club will be partnering with PNP to bring the Mt Vic Super D back for 2013. This year it is being moved to May (final date tbc). This should see some more variable trail conditions and will give the Mt Vic Trails crew time to build a few new features for the race. Stay tuned for more details.  

Check our Facebook page for more regular update - https://www.facebook.com/WellyMTB

If you have any questions or queries please feel free to contact either

Dave Preece (Club President) president -at- wmtbc.org.nz or. 

Russel Garlick (Club Secretary) secretary -at- wmtbc.org.nz 

My how time flies. Whilst it seems like just yesterday since the AGM, we are now a third of the way through the year.

The new committee has been working away and it has been great to see some new faces come on board this year. Committee meetings are held the first Wednesday of each month. Meetings are open to all club members, so if you have a matter you would like to raise, then please email Russel, the Club Secretary so it can be added to the agenda. View the committee>>

The club is looking to run Shuttle Days at least once a month (weather permitting). The first two shuttle days at Long Gully have been a great success.

On November the 3rd we will be running a city focused shuttle day. This day will start in Miramar before heading over to Mt Vic. If you have mates who are keen to shuttle, but perhaps a bit daunted by the Long Gully Tracks, then this is the perfect intro to gravity assisted mountain biking.  Register for the 3 Nov Shuttle Day.

Shuttle Day New Zealand's first dedicated Women's Cycling Festival is going to be held over Labour Weekend. The Welly MTB Club is a proud sponsor of the event, and helping out with the Shuttle day on 21st October. Ladies, this will be something special. The Polhill tracks, including the ever popular Transient will be closed to all other users. Now is the time to register via the event website 

You may not know it, but the Welly MTB Club is so much more than just Long Gully. Club members have always been involved in projects outside of the Long Gully trails, and in the past few months the club has looked to formalise some of these arrangements with the City Council.

Tony Harvie continues to do great work on the Race Track, and Adrian Armstrong is still fettling away at the 420 line. Long Gully Manager, Jono Baddiley is in the process of getting a plan of attack together for the other trails, so expect to see some dig days advertised via the Facebook pages soon. Please remember that all trails at Long Gully have an overseerer, so please contact them before starting any trail work.  Long Gully Trails >>

It has been a busy winter out in Miramar. Jail Brake has been recieving some some TLC, with new drainage, and an all new Pine Tree berm. The Miramar crew have also been working away at a new trail called Solitary. This will run on the ridgeline between Conviction and Jailbrake, and will be less groomed, but aimed to be as much fun as Jail Brake. The top third is currently open as a pilot track, take it easy on your first run down as this is still very much a work in progress.

The Miramar Track Project also recieved an accolade in the recent Wellington Community Awards with a highly commended in the Health and Well Being category (much to their surprise). Miramar digs run every Sunday at 2pm. Check their facebook pages for digs >> 

Eugene has been fettling away on the track and by all accounts it is running better than ever. Eugene posts dig days on the Club FB site, so look out for these if you are keen to help out.

Steve Wallace (former Makara Peak chair) has agreed with the council to manage the MTB trails on Mt Vic under the banner of the Club. Steve has already led a couple of digs, tidying up some spots on the Ridgeline/Super D track. Steve has got some great plans for the area, so like the Mt Vic Trails FB page to keep up to date.

Craig, Kev, Andrew and Chris have been going great guns over the past few years developing 12km of trail in the Polhill area. After discussions with the Brooklyn boys, they have now come on board a project of the club. The lads of recently set up a face book page with the future plans, which include a new downhill only option along side the bottom part of Transient. They are also working hard with the WCC to open up the other side of the valley to MTBs. We welcome the Brooklyn Trail Builders on board. They have regular Wednesday lunch time digs, and will be posting more regular weekend digs on the new descending tracks up on the Facebook page.

The Welly MTB Club is working together with the Wellington Trails Alliance to host the first ever Wellington specific trail builders conference, the Diggers Summit. Spread over 2 days, there will be a mix of indoor and outdoor, theory and practical, social and riding activities. The idea behind the summit is to bring together all trail builders in the Wellington region and provide an oppourtunity to get to know each other and share knowledge. There are more details on the Club Website, a facebook event for registering your interest and a twitter feed for updates.

Reminder - Club Memberships Are Open Again

Membership Tags Are On Their Way

The weather forecast is pretty foreboding and as Dave quoted on facebook - 140kph gusts and Resource Consent (jumps) will only end badly. 

The event has been updated. 

The good news is that we are still taking registrations for the shuttle day. 

If you have registered, but can now no longer make the day, then please let us know. You have the option of staying prepaid for our next shuttle day (we aim to have one every month) OR a refund (if paid via PayPal less a small account fee). In either case, please email events @ wmtbc.org.nz

Why have we moved? 

The new site is powered by Wild Apricot. This is a platform that is specifically designed for clubs and societies to manage events and membership. 

Once the move is complete, the site will offer the following:

• online membership application
• online event registration
• credit card payments via Paypal for membership and events

All these features should make it easier for the club to provide more benefits for club members more easily. 

We hope you enjoy the new look.

Russel Garlick - Club Secretary.