I’ve known of Sam Shaw for years, even though, as I remarked to him, we have never properly met.
In 2013, Geoffrey Notman and I were trackside watching the Elite/U23 XC National Champs race in Rotorua. It was as hot as hell and we drank beer while G plucked his nylon-stringed guitar. We’d both terrorised our respective age group categories on single speeds and we watched as Anton Cooper and Dirk Peters drilled each other around the dusty Whakarewarewa course in the big boys’ category.
A couple minutes back, Sam was hunting potatoes in fourth place, wedged between Carl Jones and Mikey Northcott. Those were the classic names back then. XC was still the most popular code, and when Sam did it, he was fast.
Sam grew up in Rotorua. He used to be a swimmer, which led him to competitive water polo, as his sister played for the New Zealand team.
Eventually he found biking, where his parents encouraged him into XC. Charlotte Clouston was racing both XC and DH at the time, and she put ideas in Sam’s head that would help shape the rider he would become.
As a rider, there are few codes he doesn’t compete in: he rides XC, DH, enduro and CX, and even mixes in a good dose of road-riding. He
