Great prize for Bike Festival competition winner

Australian mountain biker Mitchell Ho has won a $5000 prize package for the Rotorua Bike Festival in February. OUTER IMAGE COLLECTIVE

Australian mountain biker Mitchell Ho says he's received the best Christmas present of all time after winning a trip to take part in the Rotorua Bike Festival.

He's won return airfares for two to Rotorua for the Bike Festival in February and will be bringing with him his fiancee Jess from their hometown of Rockdale in New South Wales.
The competition was organised by Rotorua International Airport in conjunction with Australia's Flow Mountain Bike and Flowmountainbike.com.

"I'd been watching Flow's Top 10 Rotorua Trails videos the last couple of months. I kept thinking 'man, all these trails look awesome, but it'll be a while until I can get over there to ride them' - maybe one day."
"Fast forward to today and I'd just watched the final video when I got the call from New Zealand saying I'd won."

He said it was great timing as he'd just bought a new mountain bike for his recent birthday.

"I got into mountain biking when I was around 14, but eventually stopped to focus on bike trials. I bought a cross country bike in 2011 and it was great to get back on track.
"Being able to flow on single track is a great contrast to trials riding and it's excellent cross-training."

Mr Ho has visited Rotorua twice before.
In 2006 he joined large numbers of Australian fans to watch the UCI Mountain Bike & Trials World Championships and he returned in 2009 for the UCI Trials World Cup.

"But, I've never ridden your trails before.
"From what I've seen of the top 10 trails videos, I'm really looking to checking out all 130 kilometres of them.

However, his fiancee is a novice rider.

"She hasn't done a lot of mountain biking before, but she's super keen and I've no doubt that after visiting Rotorua she'll love it."

The couple will enjoy a full Rotorua experience to the value of $5000, including accommodation at the Millennium Hotel, a Thrifty Rental car, a tour of the trails with Mountain Bike Rotorua, rafting at Okere Falls, kayaking on Lake Rotoiti with MultiDay Adventures, the OGO and Skyline, clothing by NZO Active, pampering at the Polynesian Spa and hospitality from the Pig & Whistle and Capers Epicurean.

The 10-day Rotorua Bike Festival runs from Friday February 14 to Sunday February 23. The full programme can be viewed at www.rotoruabikefestival.com.