Head-long, head strong
Rotorua downhill mountain biking star Lachie Stevens-McNab is representing both his town and his nation on the world stage, carrying with him a whole lot of local knowledge, skill and support.
WORDS + PHOTOS Jamie Troughton
Earlier this year, Lachie Stevens-McNab finished 32nd in the elite downhill semifinals of the UCI Mountain Bike World Series in Italy. He was just 0.614secs from making the final. That’s not the impressive part. Set in the Italian Alps, the Val di Sole track is known as the ‘Black Snake’; they say there’s venom waiting on every fang-like rock that racers have to bounce over. It’s one of the hardest courses on the circuit, with riders reaching 65km/h as they drop 550m in altitude over the 2.1km distance.
Let’s set the scene a little more. Not only were the rocks lethal-sharp, they were also slippery thanks to a misty rain, ready to send the slightest mistaken line straight into the trunk of one of the most densely-packed pines lining the trail. At this level and at these speeds, the margin between triumph and abject disaster is infinitesimal. This round would eventually see 14 of the world’s best 160 riders fail to even finish.
Hang on – there’s more. Going into this season, the Union-sponsored rider had spent the best part of 18 months either injured or recovering. His 20-year-old frame was aching; he broke his back in 2022, while a lingering ankle injury suffered last year means he still struggles to run. Although he’d qualified 10th after the first run, in a small, dark corner of his brain is always the thought: ‘what if it all goes wrong?’.
And the punchline? Lachie Stevens-McNab completed all but the first 30-odd seconds of his 3mins 57.713secs semifinal run with no back brakes. He smashed his rear disc rotor just after the start, heading through the Trentino Rocks section, sending the pistons awry.
Anyone with even the slightest concept of physics should stop and think that through for a second. Most of us have been over the handle bars at least once in our lives but avoiding that fate, racing down a hazard-strewn mountain, making hundreds of split-second survival decisions, almost defies comprehension.
“To not have a back brake was so gnarly,” Lachie laconically muses. “I didn’t crash and got to the bottom but that was probably the hardest run I’ve ever done and there were definitely bits I should’ve stopped. It was so scary but I just kept going and tried to finish it.”
The Rotorua star has had much better results – a week earlier, he broke through for his first World Cup podium at the Austrian round in Salzburgerland, finishing third. A week before that, he was fastest on course in Poland, only to crash in his final run. And, as this edition went to press, the young tyro had just picked up his best elite world championship result in Andorra, the leading Kiwi in 16th spot.
But if we’re judged by our hardest battles rather than our finest, then his astonishing, headlong descent down a hill in the Dolomites is particularly revealing; the competitiveness, the desire, the unreasonable skill and the tenacity to keep going.
Those that have known the two-wheeled tyro for any length of time will just nod, sagely.
The eldest of three intrepid boys and the son of two dedicated parents, Lachie is, possibly above all, the product of an extraordinary environment. Halfway through his third year, there was the blonde tearaway caked in mud and diving into a soggy puddle at the bottom of the Skyline gondola in Rotorua, while the 2006 UCI World Mountain Biking Championships raged around him.
If ever there was an infusion of environment into character, this was it, as the sleepy geothermal town transformed into a genuine global mountain biking mecca.
So many things have shaped Rotorua into such an influential place for a young rider, starting with the volcanic, pumice-ridden terrain – they call it ‘aero-dirt’ – which drains rain so quickly and makes riding year-round so feasible. There are the sweeping hills funnelling into the town basin and, crucially, continued access granted by the iwi-owned forestry operation.
And then there’s the community. “We’ve been a real mountain bike town for a number of years, where most cars have a bike rack on the back or they’re utes with a pad over the tailgate,” long-time MTB enthusiast Dave Donaldson explains. “It's not down to any one individual – more a community that’s been inspired by the mountain biking lifestyle we’re lucky to enjoy – and it just gives me a warm feeling.”
The 73-year-old is a former president of the Rotorua Mountain Bike Club, a former policeman and former deputy mayor of Rotorua. With prodigious support from an enthusiastic committee and especially his wife Shreeve, he was a key figure in getting the world championships to Rotorua all those years ago.
“I’ve no doubt that event inspired a bunch of young locals, and Lachie
joins a long list of home-grown ambassadors for the sport here.” He points to current Rotorua-grown stars Tuhoto-Ariki Pene and Jenna Hastings, the likes of Louis Hamilton who, as an 11-year-old, was the ‘sweeper’ at the 2006 Worlds, and Tauranga-based former stars Jon Hume and Vanessa Quin.
BMX beginnings
Pretty soon after his 2006 mud exploits, Stevens-McNab was off on two wheels. Dad Steve – a veteran of the rafting and adventure sports industry – also loved a bit of motocross and as soon as his eldest ditched training wheels, he was fitted out on a 50cc Peewee motorbike.
Coming back from a ride one day, the inseparable pair passed the Rotorua BMX club track and young Lachie was entranced. Soon, he was spending every available hour there.
Even sooner, his desire to win came shining through. By six, he was a BMX world champion. By 11, he’d won three world titles and three runner-ups. Younger brothers Wyatt and Stirling followed him into the sport and Lachie became great mates with Rico Bearman, who has just competed in BMX at the Paris Olympics.
“Every day after school, he’d be asking to go to the track or the forest and I used to have to say no, just to give him a rest from his bike. It was just mad,” mum Kylee Stevens recalls. “He and Rico really pushed each other growing up, and it was awesome. BMX was amazing family time – every weekend, we’d be going somewhere different to ride and Lachie just loved it.”
Sporting DNA
Kylee has a decent sporting pedigree of her own. She spent 12 years in the White Sox, New Zealand women’s softball team, and her father was a tough-as-teak policeman – at one stage serving with Dave Donaldson – and 42-game provincial rugby flanker for Wellington.
From an early age, Kylee and Steve could see that their eldest son was built a little different. “We kept him busy because he was always so active. And he’s always been quite calculating, from a young age. He wasn’t fearless but he would quickly work out if he could do something or not.”
BMX fulfilled the racing urge for Lachie but eventually – inevitably – the Whakarewarewa Forest would come calling. “We went to my last world champs for BMX and the year after that was going to be in Columbia. I was beginning to understand how much money my parents were spending and I wasn’t sure I wanted them to keep spending if I wasn’t really into it. I got my first mountain bike when I was 13 and did my first race soon after and I just started riding more and more in the forest.”
He first conquered Taniwha – Rotorua’s iconic national downhill trail – as an 11-year-old and by his mid-teens, he’d morphed from a wide-eyed enthusiast to a fully-fledged competitor. He rode in the Oceania champs in 2019, won his first national title in 2020 (under-17) and added his first open national crown this year, as well as his first Crankworx Rotorua downhill title.
“I remember thinking, when I was racing juniors and was 10 seconds off the elite times, 'how on earth could I go 10 seconds faster?’ and all of a sudden, this year, I’m hitting those times.”
Riding the talent wave
One of his early heroes is now a friendly rival on the world stage. Brook Macdonald has been one of New Zealand’s finest downhillers in the past two decades, winning the 2009 junior world title in Canberra and accumulating World Cup podium finishes ever since.
“It’s been a long time since we have had such a wave of good riders come out of New Zealand but it seems like we’ve got more depth than ever, with riders like Lachie, who has had a breakout season and found form with consistent results and a podium along the way,” 32-year-old Brook says. “Kids are starting from such a young age and developing skills so quickly, and we have so much in the way of bike parks and facilities, which puts them in a spot of endless opportunity.”
The key to success, the veteran explains, is consistency – getting everything dialled coming into a season, with comprehensive testing and plenty of miles under the belt.
And that means staying injury-free, which in downhill racing is nigh impossible. Lachie estimates he’s broken more than 40 bones in his body over his racing career, mostly in his arms and wrists, though twin vertebra fractures in 2022 at the world championships in France highlighted how serious the sport can be.
“I hate watching,” his mum confesses. “I just feel sick until they’re down safe. There are huge consequences, going so fast down such a steep gradient, with so many trees, roots and rocks. Injuries are going to happen and you just hope they’re not going to be life-changing.”
That’s certainly influenced how Lachie rides these days. “I don’t try and throw the biggest whips on jumps these days – it’s not worth it – and the biggest thing is that when I’m playing these days, I’m not playing too hard. I’m not going to stop having fun on my bike but I don’t want to be having dumb crashes.”
It’s a level-headed approach from a 20-year-old but somewhat appropriate from one who can sense a big future. “I realised the opportunity I had a couple of years ago and I don’t want to throw that away. I try to make sure I’ve done the work and make sure there’s nothing I haven’t done. There is so much shit you can’t control but as long as I’ve done everything I can, what happens, happens.”