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New Zealand's Fastest New Riders: Madeline Taylor and Georgia Wight

The junior riders dominated the combined Open Women category at this season’s national downhill races, and two riders stood out. Madeline Taylor won the overall New Zealand National Series on points, and Georgia Wight took out the National Champs. The craziest thing about these two girls – they were both racing on borrowed bikes while they get started!

15 year old Hawkes Bay rider Madeline Taylor used to race motocross but quit after having a few big crashes and some knocks to the head. After quitting motocross, she got a mountain bike instead and started racing downhill earlier in 2008. She was hooked after doing the DH at the NZ Secondary School Champs: “I did the cross country, hill climb, and downhill at Secondary Schools. My Dad didn’t want me to race downhill because it’s too dangerous, but when he saw how good I rode, he was ok about it!” Although DH is now her main focus, she also competes at freestyle skiing and wakeboarding.

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Madeline Taylor on the podium in Rotorua 2009.
Photo: Rita Langley

Madeline has been pushing herself to improve ever since that first race, doing well at the AKDH North Island Series in the lead-up to Nationals, and then winning every race in the North Island series. “My favorite race was Levin. I didn’t do all the big jumps but I got the two step-ups, it was a cool track.” Luckily she has a supportive family who helped her get to all the South Island Series races too. “We drove to Dunedin then back to school, flew down to Queenstown then back to school, then drove to Blenheim then back to school, now Nelson, and then back to school… aaaaah! After all this, I’m just looking forward to sitting around and watching TV!”

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Madeline Taylor, Levin 2009.
Photo: Rita Langley

Avanti Plus in Hastings generously lent Madeline a Specialized Bighit demo bike that has had a very hard time this summer, being ridden fast down some tough tracks, not to mention falling off the shuttle trailers twice. “Yeah, we have to pay for what’s broken on the bike… I’m not looking forward to returning it! But it’s been pretty good.” She’s also had a good time hanging out with the other junior women.  “We’ll keep in touch, we’re already trying to plan a riding trip to Rotorua, it’s been great meeting people this summer.”

Gerogia Wight won the Open Women’s title at National Champs after deciding to race in Coronet on a borrowed Specialized Demo and finishing second. “The track here [Nelson] was cool, I crashed twice in my race run but it’s a good track! It’s similar to some of the tracks at home, with lots of rocks.”

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Georgia Wight in Nelson 2009.
Photo: Rita Langley

This isn’t her first Nationals season however, last year she raced the South Island XC Cup. Like Madeline, she competed at all disciplines at Secondary School Champs, and enjoyed the downhill. “I ride cross country, road, trails, and downhill. But I like racing downhill the most, everyone’s so relaxed compared to road or cross country!”

Georgia keeps up with the guys down in Alexandra and rides with the local club and bike shop guys there. She’s keen to get her own DH bike and continue racing – look out for Georgia and Madeline kickin arse on their very own bikes next season!