MTB: A picture that really is worth 1000 words

HAPPINESS: Rotorua rider Annika Smail, after race two of the 2014 Nduro Winter Series. PHOTO/MEAD NORTON

Every so often, a single photo really sums up the joy of mountain biking.

Such as the one of local Annika Smail - without a bike in sight - that accompanies these words.

The photo was taken after the second race of the Galaxy Travel Nduro Winter MTB Series, early in August. It was a mudfest, starting in heavy rain. It did not deter the racers and there were a lot of smiling faces at the finish.

There is something about bikes and puddles and mud that bring out the 9-year-old in all of us.

The three-race Winter Series wrapped up on Sunday in glorious spring sunshine. It has been the most successful since 2006. That was an exceptional year, with the UCI Mountain Bike & Trials World Championships coming to town.

The final Winter Series race was raced the weekend before the Worlds and attracted a field of 750. There was a cluster of international jerseys among the riders, as some of the world's elite stretched their legs before the championships.

Tim and Belinda Farmer took over Nduro Events early in 2014. They have re-energised the Winter Series, with some big plans for the entire Nduro portfolio (www.n-duro.co.nz).

Entry numbers for each of the three Winter Series races topped 500. Sixty per cent were from outside Rotorua, with a good number of overseas riders.

It is also great to see locals supporting local events. That includes Annika. She didn't just race, she is a sponsor of the series through her mountain bike coaching business, Let's Ride.

There were other photos bouncing around the internet at the weekend that sum up our sport. Rotorua rider Louis Hamilton posted one of his younger brother Connor on Facebook.

The brothers were in Hafjell, Norway, for the 2014 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships.

Connor was racing in the Junior Men's Downhill and Louis was there to support the Kiwi team. Connor finished a superb fifth in his first world championships.

Descend Rotorua raised funds, running the Dawn 2 Dusk race earlier in the year, to help get Connor, alongside another local junior rider, Keegan Wright, to the big event. The "investment" paid off, with both in the top 10 on the biggest world stage.

Two other Kiwi riders made the top 10 in Elite Men in Hafjell. Brook MacDonald (junior world champion in Canberra in 2009) was fifth and Sam Blenkinsop seventh.

The Hamilton brothers were just kids when they watched Blenkinsop take second behind Cam Cole in the juniors in Rotorua, in 2006.