I picked up Saturday mornings Rotorua paper. The Bay of Plenty Times. Front page article was entitled: “Our shame: as the world descends for the mountain bike champs dumping continues”, a huge article about how someone has been dumping rubbish on the access road to the world champs. Where I come from dumping rubbish at the side of the road is not front page news, its more of a way of life. But while this seems quaint, don’t get me wrong. If one town in New Zealand knows international tourists it is Rotorua. Anything that brings tourist dollars into the small local economy is treated with reverence. Everyone here knows that the world champs will soon roll into town!

So I flip over the paper. The back page is the sports section. A small article about the All Blacks (after all it is the Bledisloe Cup tonight), then an article about how Fabian Barrel is out of the worlds, and an opinion piece where a local journalist has been dared to ride down the DH course by course designer Alden Ardern. Oh my god have I slipped into a parallel universe here? A New Zealand paper, on Bledisloe Cup day, dedicating most of its front page and most of its back page to downhill mountain biking, and the course designer seems to have become some kind of local celebrity.

Aldern at the site of the maori pa start ramp. The what???!!?

We spend the morning at the invitation of Alden, riding the track, with pro downhiller’s Vanessa Quin and Scarlet Hagen. A perfect winter day. An empty track. The only fast people on the hill are chicks. Could you ask for anything better. Late afternoon I got to catch up with Aldern at the pa site at the top of the course. Yes you heard right, the start area is a full-on maori pa site that will feature carvings from Te Puia. This is a huge piece of construction, but frankly everything on this course is huge. The wind was bitterly cold, but as we moved around trying to set up for a couple of photo’s you got the feeling that Aldern felt pretty at home standing in the wind tow thirds of the way up Mt. Ngongataha. I’m guessing that over the last 24 months he has spent a lot of his time up here looking down the hill, thinking of lines, imagining the best riders in the world ripping on his track.

NZRIDE: How cold is it going to get up here? Will you get ice on the track?
ALDEN: I’d say -2,-3. You could get sheets of ice down by the finish, it sees only three hours of sunlight a day down there.
NZRIDE: But the dirt is absolutely perfect for downhill racing. I remember at the Oceania’s Cedric said “it’s the sort of dirt that you grow vegetables in”.
ALDEN: It depends what sort of vegetables.
NZRIDE: Some downhillers are pretty close to vegetables. When you started, how did you approach it? It seems like such a big project to try and get your head around.
ALDEN: Well you knew the hill, you just didn’t know the contours. We probably spent close to a month just walking. Understanding the contours. Getting lost in the Larches. How do you start something that’s just a blank state. It’s a hard one.
NZRIDE: Were you always going to start from this position?
ALDEN: The original bid was to having it starting here. But when the UCI did their first site visit they asked for it to start at the top. So there is actually 500 meters of track in there (Aldern is pointing up to the piece of native forest that tops the hill) that will never be used.
NZRIDE: Aha…. (The NZ ride team are glancing thoughtfully up the hill)

NZRIDE: So is this a three minute track?
ALDEN: 3.08.
NZRIDE: So that is fine by UCI standards?
ALDEN: Three and a half if their ideal. I wanted to target three to three and half. 20,000 miles to come to a two minute course is not worth it.
NZRIDE: And its 3.08 all down the hill. I am pretty sure that you could roll the whole course with no chain.
ALDEN: Well lets take your chain off and try it.
NZRIDE: You could roll the entire course without a bike! So how many hours work in total in this course?
ALDEN: My hours would be 500+. Total man hours, I’m guessing about 3000.
NZRIDE: How much work is still to be done.
ALDEN: There is still some construction that has been contracted out like this pa, and the bridge. If I built it would fall down! I am just doing fine tuning. Listening to what the riders have to say, and making small alterations. But the smiles tell the story. When riders come down the hill then just go straight for the transport, not trying to look for your head, you know you just need to concentrate on the cosmetic things. So now we are really just working on spectators and sustaining the amount of people that are going to be here.
NZRIDE: So while we are on spectators, if you were going to give someone a tip, and they were going to bring their mother up the hill, what’s the best place to watch?
ALDEN: I predominantly would feel that if you came up with your mother the larches probably isn’t the best place to go. I’d go up the gondola, and walk my way down from there. The Skyline area has got some very good viewing.
NZRIDE: You should get a lot of people that have never been to a mountain bike race here, right?

NZRIDE: How much has this course cost to build?
ALDEN: My dream costs when I initially planned it, with the earthworks I had planned was in excess of $100,000. To date I hate to think. It has been just under that figure.
NZRIDE: So what happens after the world champs?
ALDEN: Well now I’m at a point, three weeks out, where I can see the benefit. I want a world cup now. Bring on Canberra, then lets have the world cup after that. World Cup finals. Rotorua 2009.
NZRIDE: What about other riding. What about New Zealanders riding the hill?
ALDEN: Word out that there may be possibly three more national championships here, that’s a rumor, and with that would come possibly another Oceania’s.
We are working with the land owners. We have four land owners. They are very very open. As long as we don’t pinch their sheep, and replace any divots that we remove. They’ve been great and that’s the best thing about it. This is a sacred piece of land. For the iwi to have a very hands off approach to it has been brilliant.
Are we cold yet?
NZRIDE: I only have a few more questions! A lot of time and effort and mental stress. Has it been worth it?
ALDEN: I think it has been worth it. The mind games I’ve had to play with myself trying to achieve a course that makes every downhiller in new Zealand proud. That’s the biggest headache that I have had. I am not building a course just for me, or for Rotorua, I am building a course that all you NZ downhillers say, yeah I am proud of that, that course fairly presents downhilling in NZ. Its been really really worth it.

While it still looks like part of the trials course, this construction will be the step-down bridge over the access road in the downhill course. (clothes: model’s own)

NZRIDE: What’s it going to be like if it rains?
ALDEN: Its going to rain. We are going to get one wet day, and I tell you what, there are 130 crash pads up in there and 130 will be used. If it rains I actually think it is going to be surprisingly good. We’ve taken enough precautions for people to be safe. The course is going to blow out, we know that.
NZRIDE: Riders to watch?
ALDEN: The safe pick is Sam Hill. The sentimental pick is Steve Peat.
NZRIDE: Dark horse?
ALDEN: I’ve got two: Gee Atherton and Chris Kovarik. For women there is only one. Vanessa all the way, Tracey [Moseley] second. Or either way, Tracey is an adopted kiwi.
NZRIDE: Juniors? Will NZ get a podium?
ALDEN: Two podiums. Best advice I can give to them is stay away from everyone. Find your own little piece of world and stay there. Mentally they’ll just get caught up in the hometown hype. Its important management keep them aside, keep them away from things. I’ll go on a limb and say one-two.
NZRIDE: So is that Cam-Sam or Sam-Cam?
ALDEN: Are we talking Dr Seuss? Whoever does it. We’re all downhillers, we all know that its on the day that it happens.
NZRIDE: Highest placed Kiwi?
ALDEN: Glen. We’ve got to put some fire in the aussie belly some time. Last time a French world champion couldn’t defend their title a kiwi came away with it.
NZRIDE: What will you be doing on race day? When’s it end for you?
ALDEN: Quarter to five on race day. Podium. Its all finished. To me its finished now, but I’m not going to let to lie until the last bikes down. We had 20 collar bones at Oceania’s. I don’t want that again.

NZRIDE: Why does this track break collar bones? You go to Wanganui and everyone’s in a neck brace (and that’s not just the Downhillers), you come here and everyone is walking around with their arm in a sling. Its like different injuries for different tracks. Why is that?
ALDEN: There are two aspects I look at. One is a technical aspect and the fact that New Zealanders have got the hand-eye coordination for the technical stuff but when you add speed to it they are not quite there yet. We are getting there but we are not quite there yet. Secondly it’s the trend of no armour. People are attuned to watching the Mick Hannah’s, Sam Hill, and half the aussies, wearing sweet nothing. Bike plus rider plus tree equals hospital unfortunately.
NZRIDE: Why have you go the same first name as surname?
ALDEN: I was too young to put my hand up and say “I don’t agree with this”. Questions for you guys: did you have fun today?

By this stage it is becoming too hard to transcribe the Dictaphone – there is a combination of laughing as everyone talks about their runs down the track, as well as more and more wind. What a fantastic day, and what a great track.

The access road might wind through the part of town where you really wouldn’t want to be a pizza delivery guy, but the views from the top are amazing, and the track is one of the best in the world. The secret to a great downhill scene is great tracks. To Aldern and all your helpers a huge thank you, you have given us a glimpse of what downhilling in NZ can really be like. So when you are up the hill watching Cedric carve up the vegetables, and Cam-Sam/Sam-Cam ripping their way to the Doctor Seuss podium, spare a thought to Arden Aldern and his track elves putting their heart in soul into it for downhilling in NZ. 

NZRIDE REPORTER: MIKE CARDEN
Title picture ripped off the matrix film and poorly modified using pirated version of photoshop *may infringe on any number of copyrights.

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