It’s all go off road in preparation for this year’s Contact Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge mountain bike categories.

Bike Taupo, the region's local cycling advocacy group, aim to promote cycling as a healthy, environmentally friendly and convenient form of transport and recreation. They work closely with event organisers to build and maintain the tracks on which the events mountain bike categories take place.

Bike Taupō’s MTB tracks are well renowned and are accredited by the International Mountain Bike Association (IMBA) as a Silver Ride Centre, the first in NZ and only one in the Southern Hemisphere.

The team from Bike Taupo have been busy making a few changes to this year’s event routes and love keeping riders guessing as to what the final course will be on the day.

Since the introduction of the off road categories to NZ’s largest cycling event back in 2008, the tracks have been different each year, ensuring riders have something new to experience each time they return.

Contact Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge’s MTB Race Director, Bruce Jaine comments “There’s a new track for this year - Kinda Grinder. It’s really cool and you can even talk going up it - won’t leave you breathless. There’s also an alteration to Steam Fields which will takes riders past a great lookout overlooking the regions steam fields - a good place to take a rest if need be. This year’s winter has been another wet one, but with Taupo being blessed with a pumice base, the tracks are riding really well”.

If you’re keen to have a crack at the big guns taking part in this years event, you can enter the Contact Huka XL 85km MTB race if you hold a current NZ or International race licence, or if you’ve previously completed the 85km Contact Huka Challenge or XL under 4:30hrs (men) or 5:15hrs (women) in the past.

There are also the 60km Contact Huka Steamer and 35km Contact Huka Cruiser mountain bike categories to choose from, as well as the other 14 road course options including the ever popular 160km Bike Barn Solo – one lap of Lake Taupo.

More information on these and other events in Taupo can be found on Taupo.info's What's On page by clicking here.

All event categories options for the 28 November event, along with online entries, can be accessed through www.cyclechallenge.com.

Source: Scoop.co.nz