This is New Zealand - rider preview

A few weeks ago I posted a blog about filming for a movie coming out later in the year call "This is New Zealand" and ever since then I have been meaning to post a link to the my Rider Preview that Michael and Hamish put together from the three days of filming. I'm pretty stoked with the preview and this is just their throw away footage! Can't wait to see the full movie!

Rider Preview | Kieran Bennett on pinkbike.com

Last weekend the Nelson Mountain Bike Club kicked off their Club Champs Series which runs over the winter with one race each month. Traditionally the series starts off with an easier track to try and encourage people into racing and this year a short but fun trail known was "Redwoods" was chosen in the Brook Valley right by town. With it only being around a minute long I decided to race on my 6" trail bike rather than my full on downhill bike because the track just didn't justify the need for it, it was also a short ride to the top too so I could pedal back up between each run which helped turn it into a bonus training day!

Due to there being no shuttles sign in began at 12 and everyone could do as little or as much practice as they felt like before racing began at 1pm. After a couple of quick practice runs I felt pretty well dialed in and was having plenty of fun in the casual atmosphere. Even so I couldn't help but put 100% into my race run and coming through the line with a 1.03.35 which was good enough for me to take the win with a clear 3 seconds over 2nd place which I was really stoked with, I have been putting in a lot of work over the last few weeks to get prepared for my trip to the US for the North American World Cup rounds and US MTP GP downhill rounds and to win by a good margin on such a short track makes it feel like my training is paying off!

Another five weeks to wait for round two now and then three days after that I will be on a plane with my wife Katie and en route to my first race in the US at Sugarbush Resort, Vermont!

NZ Whip Championships

Last month one night before a race while having dinner with Team RDR boss James Rennie we decided that we needed to put on a NZ Whip Championships sometime during the national series and after a bit of talk it ended up seeming to work out perfect to have it during the National Championships weekend in Nelson.

Leaving it at that I kind of forgot about it for a while but then it started to snowball and I was getting a lot of people asking about it so I decided to set a date and make it happen!

So January 29th after the conclusion of the Downhill National Championships its all on, the venue is still to be decided but don't worry it will be a good jump and there is even a guaranteed $100 prize money plus $5 entry per rider is going into the prize pool to make it even bigger!

Check out all the info here

Hopefully we will see some style like this! my good buddie Tyler McCaul getting sideways in Whistler. Photo : James Allen

Reuben Olorenshaw x Maitai Face

Check out this video of my Zerode Bicycles team mate Reuben Olorenshaw riding the top section of Maitai Face here in Nelson for a bit of Champery training before the World Champs next month!

Reuben is on his way to Europe at the moment to race the World Cup finals in Val Di Sole, Italy and then will be heading to Champery, Switzerland to race the World DH Championships in the under 19 class. Keep an eye out for him!