With the second 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 February 21, with only a handful of entries left.
It is 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 February 20, with entries also selling 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," said Tak Mutu from Mountain Bike Rotorua.
Another successful event from 2013 is back, the day after the Sprint Warrior.