The annual Cateye Moonride, New Zealand's largest 24 hour race, is taking place this weekend in Rotorua's magnificent Whakarewarewa Forest and for the first time, incorporates the inaugural North Island 12 Hour MTB Club Championships for teams and solo riders.
Some of New Zealand's top mountain bikers will be contesting the event with 17 teams currently entered in the North Island Club Championship, with teams from Auckland right down to Wellington. Auckland will have a particularly strong presence at this event with six teams entered. Adrian Retief and Sasha Smith are two Auckland riders competing who have recently been selected for the 2009 NZ Cross Country World Championship Team.
However Auckland will face stiff competition from Rotorua's two teams. Despite missing two of their best riders, Patrick Avery and Dirk Peters, Rotorua still has a huge pool of talent which includes Ash Hough (national under 23 champion), Monique Avery and the McDowell brothers. As well as two strong teams, Rotorua has the home advantage with these mountain bike tracks in their backyard.
There are also four solo riders who have entered this event. Three of them are from the Port Nicholson Poneke club - Dave Aldred, Clive Bushlove and Charlotte Ireland. The fourth rider is David Hudson from Hamilton.
The size of the teams is flexible for the events, with teams of 4-5 in the 24 and 12 hour events, and teams of 2-5 in the six hour event. Solo riders can also enter any of these events.
All the events ride an 8km (30 minute) circuit which has been designed to cater for all abilities.
The Avanti 24 Hour event starts from 10pm this Friday, May 8th. The riders for both the Balance 12 Hour and Jungle Coffee 6 Hour events join the other riders on the track from 10am on Saturday, May 9th.
The 6 hour ride finishes at 4pm Saturday, with the 12 and 24 hour rides finishing at 10pm Saturday.
Registration will be held from 4pm - 9.30pm on Friday, and from 7am - 8.30am on Saturday at the Kingsgate Hotel.
Medals will be awarded to the top teams in each grade. There is over $50,000 worth of spot prizes this year. Trophies will be awarded to the winning club in each division. All club teams are also eligible for Moonride medals and prizes in the division that the team is entered in which will make for some heightened competition.
The Club teams competition was initiated by event organiser Murray Fleming and is endorsed by Mountain Bike New Zealand and is aimed at creating some fun rivalry between the vibrant and growing club scene.
More information, including directions to the event, an event timetable and results as they come to hand can be found on the website www.moonride.co.nz
