Added International Flavour to NZ Racing

Added International Flavour to NZ Racing

by Andy McGechan | www.BikesportNZ.com
September 16, 2013

New Zealand’s enduro racing scene will have a little added international flavour over the next month or so.

Major domestic events such as the national enduro championships and the popular KTM Extreme Enduro Series are usually bulging at the seams with top Kiwi internationals, but now these events have also attracted a young Mexican rider to give them a go.

Teenager Didier Goirand has arrived in the country from Mexico, determined to test himself against the Kiwi elite on terrain that will be very unfamiliar to him.

The 18-year-old Goirand will race a KTM 300 XC during his month-long stay in New Zealand, basing himself at the Glen Eden home of Kiwi legend and just-crowned 2013 New Zealand Enduro Champion Chris Birch.

Both Birch and Goirand will race at the sixth and final round of the New Zealand Enduro Championships near Tokoroa this weekend and at the opening race of the five-round KTM Extreme Enduro Series, called the Nut Buster, in North Canterbury on Saturday, September 28.

“I am very excited about being here,” said Goirand. “I will take this opportunity to learn as much as I can from Chris (Birch) during my stay. I will do all the things that I can and, hopefully, my skills will improve.”

Birch met Goirand when the two riders were both competing at the Red Bull Romaniacs extreme enduro in Romania earlier this year.

“He did quite well at the Romaniacs ... managed to drag himself to the finish and that’s no mean feat,” said Birch (KTM 350XC-F), who won the Romaniacs outright in 2010 and finished sixth overall this year.

“I know Didier will really enjoy having all the different types of terrain to rider over here ... sand, rocks, hard-pack dirt, loam, forest ... dirt bike riders are pretty lucky in New Zealand.

“Didier will be training alongside me as I prepare to compete at the Roof Of Africa extreme enduro in Lesotho in mid November.

“We will try to take in a few tourist spots while we are training. Rather than just training on dirt, we will be going riding around Mount Eden and Auckland city on a bicycle. Maybe I can show him a few things the tourists don’t normally see,” laughed Birch.

“We may take in a few tourist spots near Queenstown too.”

ENDS

© Scoop Media