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"Peta Stavelli talks to international
athlete and model Niki Gudex about life at the top of her
game."
Cross country bike racing champion Niki
Gudex is living proof every cloud has a silver lining. After
eight years inching her way to the top as a pro-snowboarder
she broke her back while practising back flips. Two years
later she took up downhill mountainbike racing
"on a whim" and won her first race. "I bought
the bike on a Wednesday, raced on the Friday and haven't stopped
since." Niki has since changed to XC - cross country
racing - and her non-stop life is played out "in permanent
summer" across the planet. "I'm either travelling,
training, racing or sleeping," she says.
She was born in England and spent her first
few childhood years in New Zealand. Many holidays
were spent with family on Waiheke. Her flying visit "home"
is for a family wedding. She holds Australian, British and
New Zealand citizenship, travelling on a New Zealand passport.
Multi-lingual, she speaks Swedish and has studied French
and Japanese. Niki moved to Sweden on a student exchange to
attend snowboard school. She started training as a professional
snow boarder, until she broke her back in 1997. She returned
to Australia and began a Bachelor in Creative Design
at Wollongong University.
While studying she moonlighted as a model
and has since graced the covers of Chick, Black and White,
First and FHM. She has also appeared in numerous other
publications including Rolling Stone, Vogue and InStyle, but
drew the line at Playboy. In 2002 she was voted by readers
of Inside Sport Australia's Sexiest Sportswomen and since
then has been listed on FHM's 100 sexiest sports women in
the world.
As a a model for sponsor eye-wear company
Oakley she appears "disconcertingly" life-size on
billboards across Europe and in magazines. She receives loads
of fan and yet remains incredibly grounded. "Modelling
is fun. I like to be versatile. It's important to have an
holistic relationship with my sponsors. "I try to understand
what their objectives are and I attempt to meet them as closely
as I can. I have to balance it all."
The twenty-seven-year-old athlete is also
sponsored by Scott bikes and SRM for whom she rides
with cutting edge scientific equipment designed to measure
power output. "Basically it is a more reliable way
to measure your training. Your heart rate can fluctuate depending
on many factors so with the SRM power cranks you can see your
wattage in relation to your heart rate. So it is much more
specific than training on heart rate alone." she explains.
Training for Niki, who is ranked at number
two in Australia and missed out on selection for the Commonwealth
Games because of a bout a bronchitis, takes between 15 and
25 hours a week. "It's very distressing to have missed
out because I have trained so hard," she says, adding
that her focus is now on making the Australian female XC team
for the Beijing Olympics. "I live in the city, so it's
a bit tough for training. I train really hard. There's nothing
like going up a really tough hill. You know you've worked
for it. You're really in the moment, not worried about anything
else. It's kind of like a meditation. It can be really
calming."
At 165 centimetres and weighing in at around
51kgs Niki may look petite but says competitors have to have
strength, perseverance and skill. "And in a race you
have to be responsible for any mechanicals so you have to
anticipate that and carry all the tools. "You need a
chain breaker, spare tubes, CO2 canisters...you don't want
to be weighed down, but you do have to be prepared."
She carries everything in a specially designed shirt with
three pouches that also contains liquid sugar "gels" for
energy.
Her persistance has paid off. Niki has placed as
high as 21 in the world, although she's quick to point
out that rankings can change daily. "There's a race somewhere
in the world almost every day." So, after some fantastic
time catching up with her New Zealand family, it's back to
Australia for a month then off to the USA to race and on again
in May to the European and International circuit.
"I'll be away from home living out
of a suitcase for the next six months. It can be
really tough being away from family. Coming to New Zealand
and seeing my relatives has reminded me of how important family
is," For a moment she looks wistful, then suddenly brightens
and says. "But I really do love my life." That's
the girl, Niki. Back on your bike.
Profile: Peta Stavelli.
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