Photo / Stephen Parker
Enduro world champion Tracy Moseley will be one of the stars lining-up for the Rotorua Bike Festival next month.
Moseley (Britain) won the Enduro World Series in 2014 after a season-long battle with another mountain biking legend, Anne Caroline Chausson (France).
Moseley will arrive in Rotorua during the festival to take part in the 2W Gravity Enduro event on February 21.
Enduro men's world champion Jared Graves (Australia) is also hoping to join her, which would see both world champions racing in Rotorua next month.
"I first visited New Zealand in 2000 after I finished university, just before I started my career in downhill racing," Moseley said, from the north of England.
She said she had fond memories of her visits to New Zealand.
"I love your country, the landscape, the way of life and I have some great friends there, so I'm excited to have an excuse to come back and visit," she said. "The UCI 2006 Mountain Bike Worlds in Rotorua was a good one for me, but it was the start of a run of second places at world downhill champs, so it's nice to come back having finally got those rainbow stripes after winning in 2010 in Canada."
In late March, she'll begin the defence of her enduro world title at the first round of the third annual Enduro World Series in Rotorua.
"Winning in 2014 was a huge relief, an amazing sense of satisfaction and a big goal achieved," she said.
She'll be looking for a three-peat after winning the inaugural EWS in 2013 as well.
While she is best known for downhill racing, she has also raced cross-country and sees multi-stage enduro as a perfect combination of the two disciplines.
"You need the skills and technical ability of downhill, just not to such a high level, and the fitness and ability to suffer like in cross-country, but, again, not at that level, too," she added.
"For me, it's a great mix of those two disciplines and having experienced both helps a lot."
She said she was looking forward to catching up with friends from across New Zealand, like Rotorua's Alden Ardern (who designed the course for the 2006 World Championships downhill) and his wife, Wendy.
"We'll pay them a visit in February and I am also looking forward to catching up with Vanessa Quinn [2004 downhill world champion] who I've not seen in ages," she said. "It'll also be nice to visit my Trek teammate Justin Leov in his hometown, too."
Moseley will ride for Trek Factory Racing again in 2015.
"It's my seventh year with them," she said. "It's a pretty low key set up at the moment, but we have great riders, with Justin and Rene Wildhaber, and some great team support with my partner, James [Richards], working with Ray Waxham from Trek doing the mechanics, so its a fun team to be in."
She'll get a good preview of the Rotorua trails by racing the 2W Gravity Enduro on the last weekend of the Bike Festival.
"Then we'll have some time in the South Island, race the NZ Enduro in Marlborough in March and then back up to Rotorua for round one of the Enduro World Series," she said.