Baby, it’s cold outside!
And for us here at Bike Glendhu, that means putting up the “Trails Closed” sign for the winter months, battening down the hatches and putting our little MTB-obsessed minds to the task of planning the 2023.24 season.
But, we’re not without sentiment and we think a season this bangin’ deserves a little reminiscing. So settle in, because this ain’t your Spotify Wrapped list. Nah, it’s a lot more rad than that (and probably has less Taylor Swift).
OCTOBER 1: OPENING DAY
Admittedly, the path to Opening Day this season was not as easy as we would’ve hoped. Thanks to some late season snow and little mandated pine tree logging on Kakariki Up, we had to improvise (which is one of the things we do best here, coincidentally). We shifted uphill access to Kakariki Up, dropped the van shuttle cost by 50% and opened up on a beautiful Saturday, party shirts and all.
NOVEMBER 5: PLANTING DAY
As part of our Environmental Promise, we’ve pledged to plant 30,000 natives at Bike Glendhu by 2030. And to help make that happen, we host at least two Planting Days every year. Our first one took place on November 5 and together with 50 volunteers (and many cans from b.effect brewing co.) we were able add hundreds of plants onto our tally!
NOVEMBER 19: MIDPOINT JUMP JAM
Maybe the highlight of our whole year. The Midpoint Jump Jam. At times, we weren’t sure how this event was going to roll out. We knew that it was a big ask for volunteers to come out and fix up our pro jumps that had been left unridden for years. But our MTB community showed up in full force – and not just those from Wanaka, but from all over the region and, in some cases, the world!
Saturday the 19th arrived and we held our breaths as the Southern Alps threatened to release downpour on us. But the bike Gods spared us and we had a rippin’ time, even welcoming the likes of Emil Johanssen, Vinny Armstrong, Harriet Burbidge-Smith and Nicholi Rogatkin.
Watch the edit here:
NOVEMBER 30: THE RETURN OF WOMEN’S RIDE WEDNESDAY
We closed out November by bringing back everyone’s favourite Wednesday activity, Women’s Ride Wednesday presented by the legends at Mons Royale!
This year, we ran twelve evenings from November-March, including two nights of coaching sessions and one Funduro – whew!
These evenings are so near and dear to our hearts at BG. We love welcoming returning women riders and newbies each year. Big ups to Mons Royale for continuing to support women getting out on the trails!
Check out what it’s all about:
JANUARY 21: FILM DROP
We teamed up with Chris Maunsell in November 2022 to shoot an epic edit featuring Vinny Armstrong and Sam Todd and were so excited to finally release the end result in January!
A departure from our usual brand videos, the brief for this video stipulated that “we’re not going for tourism here.” (end quote).
We were obsessed with the result. And we hope you were too. If you missed it, see below for your viewing pleasure.
MARCH 4-5: CRANKWORX SUMMER SERIES NZ
We were so stoked to welcome Crankworx back to Glendhu Bay, where BG was once again the hosts of the Summer Series NZ Dual Slalom on our TooGood tracks.
What we love about this event is that it’s a place where the entire MTB community can come together to compete and celebrate the sport. Uniting four unique biking destinations, pros and amateurs: this is what it’s all about people!
Check out the Dual Slalom race recap below:
And then take a squizz at what the pros got up to while they were off the bikes, here in our beautiful hometown Wanaka.
MARCH 2: PRETTY SWEET THURSDAYS LAUNCH
This season, Thursdays got a whole lot sweeter.
We welcomed brand new title sponsor Pretty Sweet Lighting to our Thursday evening ride parties, ringing in a new era of bikes, beers and… t-shirts?
A series of 14 late night rides, with the first half being pre-daylight savings and the second half post-daylight savings (hello night riding!), Pretty Sweet Thursdays went OFF bigger than we could’ve imagined, sparking its own mini-brand. What started out as a rad locally-designed graphic to promote the event, soon turned into t-shirts to giveaway, which then became t-shirts that people were wanting to actually buy! And they sold like hot cakes.
You could say that Pretty Sweet Thursdays became almost religious?
Week-by-week, these nights got better and better, adding in guest food trucks, DJs, beer specials and night riding.
MARCH 18: THE POC GLENDURO
March madness continued with the POC Glenduro, BG’s signature enduro event with 3- and 5-stage options. Welcoming new title sponsor POC, we also introduced the “Hype-dration Station” at Jack’s Spot, complete with well-deserved sustenance snacks for our racers and DJ Nick Kane keeping the vibes high.
In content land, this was the first time we decided to put out a course preview for the Glenduro. So we strapped a GoPro onto Assistant Ops Manager Ted and sent him on his way.
What we didn’t expect to get was our own version of a Claudio Caluori Redbull Rampage preview. You’ll see what we mean below:
Race day turned out over 150 riders, from elite racers to first-timers and with help from our mates POC on-site, we ran an epic race.
APRIL 6: BG IS ON 1NEWS
We wanted to get adults in on our annual Easter Egg hunt. That’s how the idea was born.
Every year, BG puts on an “Easter Egg” hunt, where we will hide coloured rocks throughout the park (as to avoid unfound chocolates going to waste and harming the environment). Traditionally, those who find the coloured rocks can bring them back to Base to exchange for a chocolate treat. For the kids, it’s a hit.
But we didn’t want kids to have all the fun. So this year, we decided to also hide three gold rocks every day of Easter weekend. The gold rocks could be exchanged for bigger prizes, like riding kit, Can-Am shuttle vouchers and apparel.
And well, then this happened:
APRIL 23: THE CAN-AM BGXC
After all the March craziness, Easter and school holidays, it was safe to say that the team here at BG were juuust about event-ed out. But! We still had one more signature event up our sleeves, and this is the one that XC fans train all summer for: the Can-Am BGXC.
A 35km cross-country mountain bike race consisting of five laps of an epic 7km loop that links up Switch it Up, Monsoon Hoon, Rocky Borrow, Methane Exit & the 4WD van track, the BGXC is arguably the most fun cross-country race this side of the Cook Strait (we’re not biased).
And you better believe we sent Ted back into the fray again for another course preview, on his gravel bike no less.
It’s worth noting that the Can-Am BGXC is a staff favourite event, with Maintenance team member Kerry basically being the poster child (as you’ll see in the event video below).
And now here we are! The end of May and nearly the end of our season. We’ve been loving the hero dirt that comes with late Autumn and our brisk night rides on Pretty Sweet Thursdays. And although we’re a stubborn bunch, even we have to admit that winter is coming.
We absolutely loved welcoming you all to our little slice of paradise this past year and from the bottom of our bike-loving hearts, we thank you so much for continuing to support Bike Glendhu.
Come celebrate the end of another epic season with us and have one final hoon at our Season Ender Bender on Saturday, June 3 (back-up weather day Sunday, June 4). Dust off the old party shirt and be sure to pair it with a baselayer for good measure! We’ll have DJ Scotty Mayes spinning tunes at Base 334 from 1-5pm with Velo dishing up some delicious chili con carne and mulled wine.
If you can’t make it out, we’ll see you in September! Stay safe and healthy this winter folks, bike season is just around the corner again!
Love, the Bike Glendhu team
