Skyline Bike Ride “Magic”

“A stunning ride! Just magic!” – Matt Mills of Masterton. “An awesome ride; but tough!” – Tobias Maugg from Karori. “Harder than I thought, some of the hills were steep.” “Really enjoyed the course. Great views.” “Congratulations on a great day!” Ineke Kershaw, Martinborough.

These are just some of the large number of unsolicited positive comments that have been received by the organisers of the Martinborough Skyline Challenge mountain bike ride and walking event held on the Saturday of ANZAC weekend last month.

“We had 131 participants over four events riding, running and walking around the hills of Martinborough on a glorious Saturday morning,” says event publicist Lee Quayle.  “It was a very social event, with lots of encouragement for participants and nothing but positive feedback with everyone wanting to make future events even better.” There was lots of talk about coming back next year and bringing friends and family.

“We are really happy with the success. While we could have done with more people, we are grateful to those who turned up and supported the ride, and the charity (the Wharekaka Transport Fund).

It was good in some ways to have a smaller number of riders for this initial event run wholly by the Lions; it gave us a chance to implement systems and put things in place for the future,” says Graeme Thomson, President of Martinborough Lions.  “Next year we can be bigger, brighter and better.”

“As you can see from the comments, the riders had a great time.  This is no easy ride, especially the grade 3, 32k challenge.  We had riders taking as long to do this ride as they took to do the Karapoti Classic – and that’s three times longer!  The good thing is though, they mostly all said they would be back next year.”

And finally, a huge thanks to the sponsors and supporters without whom the Lions could not have run the event: Charlie Cresswell, Mason Topp, James Bruce, Dan and Matt Nicholson, Bottle-O, Mitre 10, Go Native, Susan Stephen, Pakohe Lime, Fagan Motors, Murdoch James, Ross Taylor, Toby,  NZ Mountain Biker magazine, Karapoti Classic, St John’s, Hansells, Pope and Gray, Scotty’s Meats, Colton Brothers.