---

College team wins mountain 2 mountain

Stan van Jaarsveld / 12.09.2007

It is a beautiful Saturday morning as the competitors of the Mountain 2 Mountain race in Wanaka make their way to the start of the race on top of Treble Cone. Just before eleven o’clock the dirt road down to the Matukituki valley is closed off for all traffic.

Competitors are racing this six stage multisport race individually or in teams. Starting with a slide down the slope on skis or snowboard, they will jump on their mountainbikes, to roar eight kilometres down the unsealed Treble Cone road, followed by an eight kilometre ride up the Matukituki valley to the kayak transition.
Here awaits a sixteen kilometre paddle down the Matukituki River to the West Wanaka bridge.

The water leg is lead by Team Green Eggs and Ham, chased down by Team Outside Sports and Dougal Allan, an individual competitor.

Athletes leave their kayaks in the cool shadow of the the West Wanaka bridge and set off for a nine km run, starting on a dusty gravel road before running uphill, following an old farm track to the back of the Glendhu Bay Campground.

The Mount Aspiring Road leads competitors on their road bikes into Wanaka and up the Cardrona Valley to the bottom of Snow Farm just before the Cardrona settlement. Here athletes change bikes for the twelve km ride uphill to the top of Snow Farm gaining nearly 1000 vertical metres.

In the end it is the young rider of the Dunstan High School that beats all others to the snow covered finish line closely followed by Dougal Allen and Jim Hawkridge of Team Outside Sports.

Photos can be found in the SleepMonsters Photoshop.

See All Stories On This Race