Mountainbiking: Taupō rider Sammie Maxwell becomes under-23 women’s world cross-country champion

Sammie Maxwell took gold in cross-country at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships last month. / Cameron Mackenzie

Taupō is not short of mountain bikers, and now it’s also home to the world under-23 women’s champion.

The first-place cross-country finish at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Scotland last month was hardly the first time Sammie Maxwell has stepped up to the podium.

The latest gold medal will join a host of other accolades for the local 21-year-old, including having participated in five cross-country Olympic national under-23 championships and a national cross-country marathon as well as garnering short track and eliminator wins, and she has a total of five World Cup under-23 finishes in cross-country Olympic and short track races.

Maxwell now lives in Wellington, where she works as a biomedical lab researcher, but she has received a professional cycling contract and hopes to become a more familiar sight on local tracks in the near future.

Her passion for cycling started in Taupō when she began tagging along with her dad and brother on rides at Craters Mountain Bike Park, although she admits their traditional trip to McDonald’s for icecream afterwards was a factor in her interest.

About the age of 12, Maxwell took part in the Day Night Thriller event with Taupō Intermediate School and realised she had caught the biking bug.

She got involved with Taupō Road Cycling Club and the Mountain Biking Junior Development Squad, which allowed her to train alongside local riders.

“They really helped drive my passion for the sport and helped me become surrounded by the amazingly supportive community of people associated with it - I just never looked back!”

Although Maxwell admits to having a fierce competitive streak, the first few years of biking were hard-going.

“I think because the sport is so challenging technically and physically, you can see how much you have to learn, from wanting to ride a hard technical section to climbing up over obstacles.

“These smaller goals were what came to the fore of my mind when thinking about developing in the sport, not racing or competing.”

Maxwell wasn't sure she'd won until the race was almost over. Photo / Charlotte Kohler

By the time she had a few local races under her belt, she started to daydream about the world stage - a dream realised several times since, including most recently at the world championships in the UK.

For this race, though, she said winning was not in her mind as she arrived at the event.

“I was pretty nervous because it’s a long time to train, and everyone’s fitness can change a lot in that time.

“I was lucky enough to go in without too much pressure, but I had some solid results that gave me confidence also that I could fight for the podium.

“But I never even thought about winning.”

In the moment, it all came together.

“The race was just a dream come true.

“Even now, thinking about it gives me goosebumps [and] raises my heart rate a bit.

“I loved the course and was mentally so ready for a fight that when I found myself riding alone at the front, it was a bit of a shock to my brain.”

“It wasn’t until I was riding along the finish straight, with the finish line 10 metres ahead of me, that I knew I had done it.”

Maxwell won’t be taking much downtime to celebrate her win; races in Paris and the USA are calling, before she tackles the Whaka 100 endurance event in October and the Lake Taupō Cycle Challenge in November.