Hawke's Bay Summer Cycling Carnival ends with Black Barn Vineyards Criterium

Ingrid Squire, with her daughter Mila (left), 5, at the "Avanti dress your bike competition" in Napier yesterday. Photo/Warren Buckland

The Hawke's Bay Summer Cycling Carnival came to an end last night, with the Black Barn Vineyards Criterium.

Visitors and locals alike flocked into Napier to catch a glimpse of the serious and fun events over the past six days.

One of the final fun events saw about 40 kids under 12 take part in the "Avanti dress your bike competition" at the Soundshell, with balloons, glitter and cardboard aplenty.

Two children walked away with an Avanti bike each, while another Avanti bike went to mum Ingrid Squire who won it as a spot prize.

"There were two girls who decorated their bikes beautifully and deserved to win and I just turned up."

She was "delighted", having only recently taught herself how to ride a bike and now is the proud owner of a "funky yellow and quite retro bike".

She had been borrowing a bike from her friend at Napier City Bike Hire with the intention of buying a bike, but was glad she didn't need to anymore.

"I've got a 5-year-old daughter, Mila, and 7-year-old son, Nico, and I've taught both of them because we live close to the walkways, but they've gotten better and better so now I can keep up with them."

Napier City Council events manager Kevin Murphy said the carnival had been "excellent".

"The numbers engaging with the carnival overall has increased again on last year."

Mr Murphy said the elite races over the weekend had been successful, with everyone walking away "saying they were one of the best events that they've been involved in".

Similarly, the "recreational activities have just been awesome".

"It has been nice weather and people have enjoyed their time."

Looking ahead to next year, Mr Murphy said they were waiting to hear from Cycling New Zealand in the next month or two, as to how "they want to work the process of deciding if they are going to allocate it to Napier".

"A lot of these events would not be possible without our sponsors and to have BDO come on board as our new sponsor as well as the other supporting sponsors has been fantastic.

"It's great that local businesses get involved in supporting these sort of events as they're big community events that can't happen without sponsors involved," Mr Murphy said.