Mountain biking: Slopestyle riders promise daredevil approach

Slopestyle riders Kurt Sorge and Sam Pilgrim prepare for tonight's event at the Ballarat St car...
Slopestyle riders Kurt Sorge and Sam Pilgrim prepare for tonight's event at the Ballarat St car park in Queenstown's centre. Photo by Olivia Caldwell.
The missing tooth started out as a bike injury and has ended up as a ''fashion statement'', according to freestyler Sam Pilgrim.

The Englishman arrived in Queenstown this week for tonight's mountain bike festival event, the slopestyle.

Pilgrim is promising plenty of tricks to get the crowd excited.

The 22-year-old ''cleaned out'' on his bike years ago, leaving him with a broken tooth that he has never bothered to replace because it has developed into quite a nice ''fashion statement''.

Fellow competitor Kurt Sorge, of Canada, has also had his fair share of injuries, including a broken shoulder and collarbone.

Despite the high probability of something going wrong when they are in the air performing their tricks, the international competitors love what they are doing.

Canadian Sam Dueck works for his father's floor-laying business when he is not trying to make it big on the bike.

He first started taking mountain biking seriously when he showed up for an event at home in British Columbia. He scored well and before he knew it, was thrown into one of the world's biggest freestyle competitions, and has since secured sponsorship and a profile on the world stage.

Dueck said the money situation was ''dire'' in a sport that was semi-professional. It could get him down at times, but he was enjoying his second visit to Queenstown after last year's inaugural event.

Last year, Dueck fell off his bike on three runs and received sympathetic applause from the crowd.

His trademark trick is the Superman tail whip - when the rider gets off his bike completely and spins his bike mid-air before comfortably hopping back on the seat.

Other riders to watch tonight will be Australia's Benny Phillips, Chad Kagy, last year's runner-up Conor McFarlane, and Queenstown's Kelly McGarry.

The slopestyle event is now a silver status competition, placing it on the Freeride Mountain Bike World Tour, and has a prize kitty between the 20 riders of $10,000. The event starts at 6pm.

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