Enduro riders venture west

Marlborough mountain bikers were part of an exciting new development on the national calendar, travelling over the hill recently to attend the first-ever NZ Enduro MTB national championships.

Staged at Cable Bay, near Nelson, the champs represented another step forward for the burgeoning discipline of enduro racing with around 170 competitors taking part. Enduro Mountain Bike is the sport’s equivalent of rallying, with riders, as individuals or teams, competing over a series of timed stages on a range of challenging terrain. Competitors ride from stage to stage over untimed liaisons which can also provide demanding climbs and downhill sections.

It is a fast-growing part of mountain biking, with leading competitors competing in the likes of Crankworx and the Enduro World Series. This series concluded recently with the Trophy of Nations in Italy, where the elite men’s category was won by a team from New Zealand. The Cable Bay championship was staged for males and females in under-21 and elite classes, with winners earning the official national championship sleeve to wear for the ensuing 12 months. The event included categories for under-15, under-17, under 19 and Open as well as Masters 1, Masters 2 and

Masters 3.

It was described by a Marlborough supporter as, “a world class event, with world class riding by pro MTB riders and enjoyed by a large contin gent of very enthusiastic spectators”. Marlborough had good representa tion in Nelson, with Sam Craig, Jono Planthaber, Alex Craig, Elijah O’Donnell, Lachlan McNabb, Jacob Herd and Cam Anderson attend ing. Sam raced strongly to pick up