I spoke to Xterra racer Sam Gardner this week and he wanted to return his XC 29er wheels for a mid season true. Nothing unusual there I hear you thinking. Then he told me they had lent them to his pal and crowd favourite ‘Derek from Guam’ during the Olympic XC MTB race at Hadleigh Farm last weekend!
Rather excited by this news I scanned the race which I’d recorded to see if I could see any sign of him and lo and behold there was a 3 second clip of Derek negotiating the rock garden. You can just see the red of the BOR XMD 333 red rims. I did some Googling and Derek was one of eight athletes representing Guam (a tiny island north of Papua New Guinea in the Pacific). He raised $6000 to compete and had to travel to New Zealand to race just in order to qualify. I think Derek represents the Olympic spirit perfectly and Chipps from Singletrack Magazine said the crowd loved him. Well done Derek.
I found this photo on Flickr, image credit Sum of Marc
I actually photographed that pair before they left the workshop. I though the race was great – it looked really challenging, was easy to view the course for the spectators and the TV coverage was fantastic.
