Alanna: Next Stop Andorra!

Podium finish

Queenstown local, Alanna Columb, is one of our regular customers at Atlas Beer Cafe. So when the opportunity arose to give Alanna a hand with some backing, to help her compete on the European and World Cup Downhill Series, we were happy to oblige.

Alanna competed with great success last year on the home circuit placing 2-2-1-3 over four races to win the NZ cup series! Spurred on by this success Alanna heading off to Europe for the season.

Her first race in the World Cup Series saw her place 19th after a big crash in her race run. The second round saw some bad luck after a another rider crashed in front of her. Alanna believed she'd be re-run but unwittingly didn't stop to speak to a race marshall and so consequently got red flagged. A frustrating experience but "good for learning", she concedes.

Subsequent races have been more successful with two respectable sixth places at rounds one and two of the European Cup and a podium finish at Crankworks in Les Deux Alpes; another European Cup race. Alanna leaves France for Andorra tomorrow for her next World Cup race. She has a total of three more World Cup races left along with two more European rounds.

We'll be catching up with Alanna again very soon and think she's doing great in what is her inaugural World Cup series and European season.

Good luck for your race in Andorra, Alanna, from all of us at Atlas!

Kumar Goes Kiwi Update

The Nepalese Champ, Raj Kumar

Last week we found out that Nepalese MTB Champion, Raj Kumar, could not get his visa approved so will no longer being travelling to New Zealand to participate in competitions and the Queenstown Bike Festival.

We know how hard local mountain bikers, Amy Freedman-Davies and Jarrah Healy worked to raise funds to bring the talented, young biker to Queenstown. All of us at Atlas were sorry to hear that things didn't work out this time.

We'd like to extend a pat on the back though, to Amy and Jarrah for attempting to do something so fantastic for another member of the MTB community. Well done guys!

If you donated to the Kumar Goes Kiwi campaign Amy and Jarrah are organising refunds and are looking into other good causes to donate the funds to.

http://www.facebook.com/RajKumarGoesKiwi

Atlas helping Kumar to go Kiwi!

Best skills: Raj Kumar

Meet Raj Kumar. He's twenty years old and he's the reigning Nepalese downhill champion. He started biking at age 7 on borrowed bikes until he won his first bike in a competition!

Local Queenstown bikers Amy Freedman-Davies and Jarrah Healy met Raj late last year as they journeyed through Nepal searching for MTB trails.

Both Amy and Jarrah were blown away by his skills (the best all round mountain bike skills they'd ever seen!!) and his passion for biking. Inspired by Raj's enthusiasm they decided to begin a fund raising effort to bring the young rider to Queenstown. 

Jarrah and Amy want to raise $5,000 to bring Raj to NZ so that his riding can be further enhanced by all things Queenstown! He'll have the opportunity to compete in local competitions, take part in the Queenstown Bike Festival and learn to build and maintain bike trails. 

Here at Atlas we've been greatly impressed by Amy and Jarrah's fundraising efforts which truly are testament to the camaraderie of the mountain bike scene. And, we are really excited to be one of the local businesses sponsoring Kumar Goes Kiwi!

If you would like to help too you can make donation here:

https://www.givealittle.co.nz/cause/kumargoeskiwi

Big or small we can guarantee that any donation will be very gratefully received by Amy and Jarrah. 

Atlas will also be hosting the Kumar Goes Kiwi arrival party once Raj arrives in town. They'll be prizes and fun things going on so we'll keep you posted...

'til next time!

Atlas Beer Cafe