The last highlight for me in New Zealand was going to watch the Downhill Mountain Biking National Championships in Rotorua. I’d always suspected these guys had a few screws loose in the head but after watching the action for a couple of hours I can now confirm they are completely insane!

My spectating got off to an intense start when the second girl down the *steep* stretch I was watching hit a soft patch, was launched over the handle-bars, bounced off her head, flipped and landed very hard down the hill on her back, where she lay still just repeating ‘Oh God! Oh God! Oh God!’ in a kind of strangled groan. It took a good 20 minutes for the medics to stetcher her off, but the general consensus was she probably hadn’t broken anything too important. Fortunately this was the only serious accident I witnessed but I did overhear a chap say they’d already ‘taken away 10 people this weekend’. As I said – completely insane!

Anyway – here’s some action shots and footage.