Mountain biking’s movers and shakers select their favourite places to ride. Here’s one such trail in New Zealand chosen by Jérôme Clementz.

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“So here is my pick, The Luge in Cragieburn, New Zealand. First of all, I really like the Cragieburn area – it’s one and a half hours from Christchurch, in the middle of nowhere on the way to the west coast and Arthur Pass. The Luge is not a specific mtb trail as it can be used for hiking too.

“Cragieburn has a few mtb trails that are just amazing, fresh, in pristine beech forest; I go there for at least two days whenever I visit New Zealand.

“The Luge has a 240m elevation drop and covers 2.2km of tight and techy singletrack. The flow of the trail is just insane. It’s not steep, so you don’t have to be on the brakes all the time and you don’t have to put in a pedal stroke to create speed. It’s like a natural pumptrack with obstacles, roots, corners, small drops. The beech forest provides a great 
level of traction in any condition.

“This trail puts a smile on your face and offers infinite opportunities to play with the nature of the ground. If the terrain gets a bit steeper you have nice corners and if it’s slightly flat, there is some undulation to help you create speed. You face some root gardens, but it seems that they are in the right direction, so you don’t fear them.

“On top, if you look around at the surrounding area, the view is simply beautiful. You can loop it with the many good trails around and once you are done riding, you can either stay in a cabin in the small village, or sleep at the campground at the trailhead and look at the stars. But you can also play at the local waterslide people have made in their backyard or even take your headlamp and go caving in a 500m underground river that runs just next 
to the road.

“A trip to Cragieburn is a must, if you travel in New Zealand.”

Jérôme Clementz, enduro racer

Jérôme Clementz won the first ever EWS in 2013 before going on to win enduro races around the world, like the Andes Pacifico and the Mountain of Hell.