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| Heaps of prize winners! |
After what seemed like a month of straight sunshine, last summer's weather decided to creep around again for what made for a damp start to our SOS party. Luckily the Through The Loop Enduro riders had already come through the finish line with Eva Dethlefsen winning the women's category and Reece Potter taking out the men's open. Awesome job goes to Jimmy Pollard and Quentin Kenning for their organisation of the race.
It was a great call to get a new, huge marquee in time for this year's event as it became the central hub of thirsty and hungry attendees soaking in a variety of beef, lamb, chicken, pork and vegetarian tacos as well as Emerson, Altitude, Crimson Badger, and Boundary Road beers on tap.
Queenstown riders being legends as usual rode through the rain for the Vertigo Huckathon. Judges heckled their mates riding and gave out prizes for the Best Whip, Best Goon Style and Best Trick. We also heard Mr Kepler Rek still owes a Mr Jake Hood $100 cash for a manual down mini dream.
Eventually the sun came out and spirits rose as bit more. Thousands of dollars of prizes were given away care of all our amazing sponsors. The grand prize being a brand new Kona Operator from yours truly, Atlas Beer Cafe, and the GC's at Bikeaholic. A silent auction was also held for those highly sought after prizes, such as the first Bell Super DH helmet in the country care of Bell and Worralls. As usual, all the proceeds from the event go to to our Queenstown Mountain Bike Club.
Shoutout to Bad News for rocking us through the night with their groovy covers. A mosh pit ensued in typical Queenstown mountain bike scene style.
Massive thank you again to all our sponsors, riders, trail builders, staff, volunteers, to Fraser Gordon for his MC work, Callum Wood and Zack Faulkner for their photography skills and everyone who turned up and braved the rain to help us kick off our Season Of Shred in style! We truly could not do it without you all.
Ride hard and see you at Atlas soon!
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| Craig Munro getting a cheer on from Emmerson Wilken |
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| Vertigo Huckathon judges Kep, Pang & Jimmy |
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| Prizes galore care of our epic sponsors! |
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| 'Bad News' belting out the bangers |
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| Our new raffle box to draw prize winners from |
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| Some of the spectators watching the local riders whip off |
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| Trail maintenance in action |
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| Emmerson Wilken with a clicked table |
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| Happy, muddy riders Jamie Fenning & Jake Hood |
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| Mandy Horan, the winner of the grand prize 2017 Kona Operator, with sponsors of the prize, Matt Weir from Bikeaholic, and managers of Atlas Wesley McAllister and Lindsey Francis |
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| 'Bad News' getting the crowds up and moshing |
