New track offers downhill thrills

DEREK FLYNN/Marlborough Express

LIFT OFF: Boyd Grinstead gets airborne over fellow track builders, from left, Simon Bowers, Harriet Harper and Mark Gibbons. The new track near White's Bay is now ready to ride.

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Marlborough's mountainbikers have a new track to test their nerves thanks to a lot of hard work from some free-riding enthusiasts.

Tomorrow will make the opening of the new Double Eagle downhill track on Port Underwood Rd just past the White's Bay turnoff.

The spectacular track, that drops a vertical distance of 300 metres through bush and scrub down the hillside above White's Bay, is the project of enterprising riders Simon Bowers, Mark Gibbons, Boyd Grinstead and their friends.

Grinstead and partner Harriet Harper, the current New Zealand women's downhill mountainbiking champion, moved to Rarangi in January 2008, one of the attractions being a downhill track in the area.

However, the track was illegally built and was subsequently shut down.

Last year the couple put in a submission on behalf of the Marlborough Mountainbike Club to the Department of Conservation to build a new track in the area.

Early this year permission was granted to begin building.

Over the last eight months Bowers, Gibbon and Grinstead with help from many others – particularly Gus Altschwager and Adam Mitchell – set about crafting the track by hand.

Work started by clearing a path, initially with machetes then weed wackers and chainsaws – the track is named after an old McCulloch Double Eagle chainsaw that did much of the work.

Clearing the track was only the beginning of the toil, the path then needing to be built up or hollowed out with shovels and grubbers.

A number of breathtaking jumps have been added, using materials sourced from the hillside.

The work took place over the winter months to take advantage of softer ground conditions.

"We were up here almost every weekend and most days after work all winter," Bowers said. "Sometimes you'd work all day in the cold and rain and only build about 50 metres of track. You'd look down and think there's so much still do do."

However, Gibbons said there was never any doubt they would finish.

"We got to the point where we couldn't stop and waste all the hard work we'd already done."

Bowers said they built the track because they wanted a route that was technical and fun to ride.

While the track was technically difficult in places, the most challenging areas had easier lines available meaning it could be ridden by all riders of reasonable ability.

The track will carry a Department of Conservation double-black diamond extreme rating.

Marlborough Mountainbike Club president Dominic Blissett rode Double Eagle for the first time on Tuesday night and said he was blown away by it and thanked the builders for all their efforts.

Department of Conservation asset manager Jim Herdman said DOC worked with the mountainbike club throughout the building of the track and was pleased to help produce a track that could be enjoyed by Marlborough's riders.

- The Marlborough Express