Proving Grounds headed for Queenstown-Lakes
Queenstown’s about to enter the international mountain biking stratosphere.
Mountain Scene can reveal Natural Selection Proving Grounds, a top-tier freeride mountain biking event, held, till now, in Prineville, in the United States’ Oregon, will be coming to the Queenstown-Lakes next February.
To put in perspective how big a deal it is, Proving Grounds NZ commercial director Ed Leigh says it’s the equivalent of ‘‘the Monaco of F1 [or] the Wimbledon of tennis’’.
‘‘Proving Grounds NZ will be the biggest spectacle in mountain biking.’’
The event, in its third year, brings together the biggest men’s and women’s names in slopestyle, downhill and freeride on a choose-your-own-style course.
Till now, it’s only been held in the US, but next year there’ll be a three-stop tour — and the Queenstown-Lakes will be first cab off the rank.
Queenstown businessman and philanthropist Rod Drury, whose family trust has invested an eye-watering amount into the Queenstown Mountain Bike Club (QTMBC) and its trails over the past few years, says he was approached last year by Travis Rice, one of the world’s top snowboarders, who competes on the Natural Selection snowboard ing tour and has an affinity for New Zealand.
While Natural Selection started as snowboarding, it subsequently bought Proving Grounds, and Drury says they started talking about holding an event in the southern hemisphere.
About two months ago, Red Bull Rampage founder Todd Barber was flown to Queenstown to scope things out — ‘‘they loved it’’, Drury says.
Next, they brought out a few of the top riders in the world, including Brett Rheeder, Casey Brown and Carson Storch, who’ve spent the past couple of months on the hunt for a location.
That journey’s the subject of a new documentary, which Drury says has cost about $250,000, The Search for the Proving Grounds NZ, led by multi-award-winning director Jeremy Grant, expected to be released about June.
The doco’s production manager — and the event director — Sophie Luther says the doco covers a 10-day recce of 22 potential sites across the Queenstown-Lakes.
‘‘This film … was to hone in on which one of those locations we wanted to use, and we brought five international athletes and local athletes in on that process, so they basically chose where the best spot was.’’
To create as much buzz as possible, the film will be distributed through Outside.tv, Red Bull media house, a domestic broadcast partner and their own platforms — Luther says the international riders in the film have a combined reach of 1.2 million mountain bike fans across the globe, while Natural Selection’s platforms reach about 19m worldwide.
They’re also expecting ‘‘a significant broadcast reach’’ through the US, Canada, Europe, Australia and NZ.
While the site’s been selected, the location’s being kept under wraps, for now.
‘The world’s best riders on the best terrain’
But Luther says it’ll be a purpose-built course, created in the most sustainable way possible, enhancing the natural terrain.
‘‘We don’t want to rip anything up, we just want to tickle it.’’
They’ll be offsetting everything with planting, ensuring they work around any natives on the course, and will try to use electric diggers, for example, and local companies.
Luther used to be GM for Sir Ian Taylor’s Animation Research Ltd and says they’ll be looking to work with them and other NZ tech companies to ‘‘showcase NZ to the world, not only in a sporting sense, but in innovation and sustainability’’.
Once the course is built, the intention is to add it to the area’s ever-growing mountain biking network, opened up regularly for locals and shredders to use for training.
She believes that will also help strengthen the area’s attraction for international mountain bikers to help it cement itself as ‘‘an epicentre for mountain bikers across the world’’ — something that’s already happening.
‘‘We’ve had the world’s best mountain bikers in Queenstown for, basically, the last six weeks … telling the world how amazing we are.
‘‘If we can harness that love and then put on an amazing spectacle that can also help the local community grow … I’m all about it.
‘‘[It’ll be] the best riders on the best terrain — it’s the top tier, the pinnacle event … it is huge.’’
Luther says in NZ, 16 men and an equal number of women will compete in Proving Grounds, with a special qualifier event being held a week out to give up-and-coming local athletes a shot at nabbing one of the spots.
It’ll be held over five days late next February, with a festival-type atmosphere in the lead-up to the finals day, which they’re working on with the QTMBC.
For Luther, she believes the region is deserving of an internationally-successful global event — the same scale as the NZ Open golf tournament, or SailGP.
‘‘We’ve got the recipe to make it amazing, and the community deserves it.
‘‘I’m just super-stoked we can do it … now’s when the hard work starts.’’
