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Martha Hucker interviews Vanessa Quin

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Vanessa Quin in 2004.
Photo: www.canadiancyclist.com

New Zealand downhiller Vanessa Quin has been a major force in the sport since the mid 90’s. Winning the World Champs in 2004 solidified her reputation as one of the best female mountain bikers ever, and she’s certainly New Zealand’s winningest downhill racer, male or female.

Rita Langley caught up with her through the miracles of the internet, record Martha Hucker’s first Podcast.

The full interview is 20 minutes long, 8.5 mb, and it may take a while to load. It’s worth the wait!

Here are some highlights from the interview:

Vanessa is still stoked on winning World Champs: “It was always a dream of mine to win a World title, so I’ll forever remember that day. It’s really neat to have that rainbow jersey in my cupboard, and it’s neat to know that I’ve done that, and that can get ticked off my list.”

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Vanessa Quin winning World Champs.
Photo: Used with permission from the rider

"Mountain bike was still quite a new sport even when I started, and it was this huge deal in America, and you sort of just got swept up in it all. A bit like snowboarding, when snowboarding first started. Downhill was like, the extreme end of everything, and it was really awesome to be a part of it, and see the sport grow".

"There were so many women doing it back then, compared to now. At nationals there would be double digits racing the womens, a really good field, not huge depth like the mens but really good caliber. And that was worldwide - to try to qualify for the world cup was incredibly difficult, because every woman there was on a paid ride. Women used to come in from other sports, like skiing or motocross, or BMX like me, but now they seem to come up through mountain biking, so that's quite different."

"There's a lot more women freeriding now, going to Whistler and doing the downhill trails, so they're downhill freeriders, but they're not actually going to races. World cup level participation has stayed constant, but I think it's a financial thing for a lot of women. I think overall there's more women riding now than there used to be, but it used to be if you were going to ride you were a racer, whereas now there's this whole new sphere of riding which is freeriding. That's all about going to ride the trails and going on epic weekends away with your mates, but downhill racers do freeride too. We love to freeride, but want to race against the clock as well."

"I've always said I'd love to see lots of women at downhill races, but some of them just prefer to ride cross country, or ride trails on a freeride bike. And it's a big commitment, to get a downhill bike, and you probably won't ride it as much as you would a freeride bike. If they can only chose one or the other because maybe they can only afford one bike, they get a freeride bike. And no-one wants to turn up to a race and be on equipment that's not going to be competitive. But I still think the sport is really healthy, there are so many juniors riding, and that always means your sport is really healthy."

"The cool thing about being a women on a downhill course is that, unlike the guys who can all do everything on the course, if you can step up and do some of the jumps other women aren't, you have a huge advantage. You can up-skill yourself in training and try stuff that other women might not be doing, and that can make a huge difference. The courses we race on in New Zealand I'd say are gnarlier than a lot of World Cup ones we do, but everyone's just going a lot faster, and it comes down to how fast you can do things."

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Vanessa Quin riding at Worlds.
Photo: Used with permission from the rider

"The World Cup circuit is the most prestigious thing you can do. As a rider, you always aspire to get as far as you can. I've had the most amazing ten years of my life following that series around. I wouldn't change anything about it, even the injuries, because it's just been an awesome life. You make such great friends, and the races themselves are brilliant. Having been away from it this year, it blows me away how fast the women are going now - the likes of Rachel Atherton, the times she's doing compared to the men, it's just rediculous, I'd be getting my butt kicked!"

"I'd say to anyone getting into the sport, have a look on the internet after those World Cup races, and have a look at the footage and see how those riders do the different sections. You can learn so much from that, because you don't get to see it at the actual races. I think that's the best thing about World Cups, you turn up and you do them, and straight away you've elevated your riding because of the caliber of competition. You just know you have to go faster, and you have to work out how to go faster. At world cups it's always great, you get loads and loads of practice and really good access to the courses so you can get heaps of runs in, so you learn a lot, a lot faster. And you can stand on the side of the track and watch fast people come down the track every ten seconds, and that's going to make a difference to your riding. And if you've got all these women that you're racing with, and you think 'if they're doing it, I can do it', so you give it a go. It's an awesome environment."

"If I saw something in a course and thought I'm not sure if I want to ride that, I'd talk to someone I trust, and see if they think I could ride it. And then I'd either try and get it out the way early in practice, or else get the rest of the course dialled. It can depend on conditions, but as I said it's confidence, and being able to back yourself and your ability. But sometimes you'll go 'no I don't think I can do that, today' and then you've got to think about how you'll make it up somewhere else. But there's always races where you think 'I wish I'd done that' or 'I wish I'd done that better'. But that's just the racer in all of us, to always want to do it better."

"Neck braces I think are a personal decision. For me, I've broken my neck a couple of times, and the last time I did it I wanted to get back on the bike as soon as possible. I was back racing World Cups so soon after breaking it the second time, I thought I'd be a bit of a mug not to wear it. For me it was a way to get back on my bike quickly, I just knew I was a lot safer than without it. I thought it was great for me personally, but I did find it restricted my movement, and it took me a long time to get it to fit right. I had to modify my body armour, and I think anyone getting one should go down to the BMX track with their bike, and get someone to look at it while they ride. It took a while for me to be happy with it, but it can be done. At the end of the day, only a small percentage of injuries are neck or back injuries, and if it's annoying you while your riding it may end up being more of a negative than a positive. It's definitely a personal choice, everyone's got the right to choose whether they wear a certain piece of armour or not."

"I went mountain biking for the first time since my son was born the other day, and I loved it. I don't have much time with a newborn so I was stoked to get out in the forest. I had a look at the downhill track, and they've built lots of lines off the sides, so I can't wait to try them. I don't have any plans to race or do anything crazy, but you'll see me on the downhill track for sure. I just love it!"

Thanks for talking to us, Vanessa! And hopefully we'll see you out on the trails soon.

Photos used with permission from Vanessa.