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Rotorua Bike Festival 2014 - Numbers already up on last year

Sunday 12 January 2014, 5:59PM

By Rotorua Bike Festival

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ROTORUA

With the 2nd Rotorua Bike Festival just over a month away entry numbers are already well up on 2013 and one event has all but sold out.

The Skyline Sprint Warrior was a popular highlight of the first festival in 2013 and is returning on Friday February 21, with only a handful of entries left.

It’s easy to understand the attraction. The course, at Skyline Skyrides on Mount Ngongotaha, is the only gondola-access mountain bike trail in the North Island and was the venue for the biggest cycling event Rotorua has hosted, the 2006 UCI Mountain Bike and Trials World Championships.

New in 2014 is an Open Day on Thursday, February 20, with entries also selling very fast.

“This will be a chance for those racing the Warrior the next day to get an early look at the race course and for other riders to sample some of the other trails our expert builders, Empire of Dirt, are constructing at the Skyline Gravity Park,” says Tak Mutu, from Mountain Bike Rotorua.

Another successful event from 2013 is back the day after the Sprint Warrior. The Giant 2W Gravity Enduro is on Saturday, February 22. It features some of the very best trails in the world-renowned Whakarewarewa Forest network, with shuttles to the start gates of timed stages, and is the fastest growing style of mountain bike racing worldwide. Entry numbers for the 2W are already up on last year’s event with the limit rapidly approaching.

“If people don’t want to miss out they should enter very soon,” says event organiser, Neil Gellatley.
The 2W starts and finishes in the heart of Rotorua's city centre, on the newly refurbished and roofed Eat Streat.

“It’s a competitive event and sociable, too,” continues Gellatley. “You can enjoy a coffee before heading out to the forest and then a cooling beverage or two while comparing your times with your mates, when you’re finished.”

Ibis Bike the Lake is a regular part of the Rotorua cycling calendar. However, Sunday February 16, in the first weekend of the festival, will see the first Summer Edition. It's an opportunity to circumnavigate Lake Rotorua on a road bike and another event starting and finishing right in town, on the Village Green on the lake front.

Organiser, Shane Hookes is very pleased with entries so far.

“We’re well on track,” he says, “and we’ve got plans to be a bigger part of the Bike Festival in 2015.”
Bike the Lake features one lap of 42 kilometres for recreational riders or a 2-lap option for the more competitive bikers.

“And that’s what the festival is all about – events for all ages and skill levels,” says Rotorua Deputy Mayor, Dave Donaldson, a long time cycling advocate and a member of the Rotorua Bike Festival Trust.

“What’s great is there are events for everyone - road, mountain bike and BMX - from little kids on push-along bikes right through to our most talented, skilled and fearless international athletes, and all under Summer skies.”

The 10-day Festival runs from Friday February 14 to Sunday February 23. The full programme is on www.rotoruabikefestival.com with regular updates at facebook.com/RotoruaBikeFestival