DEFENDING CHAMPION: Olympian and Commonwealth Games silver medalist Sam Gaze pictured winning last year's Whaka 100. PHOTO/ FILE.
DEFENDING CHAMPION: Olympian and Commonwealth Games silver medalist Sam Gaze pictured winning last year's Whaka 100. PHOTO/ FILE.
Mountain biking
Top mountain bikers from around the country will descend on Rotorua for one of the most challenging and demanding races on the mountain bike calendar.
Celebrating its 10th anniversary the Whaka 100 - a 100km endurance race on the world-class mountain bike trail network in the Whakarewarewa Forest, Rotorua, takes place on Sunday.
The men's premier race is set to be a highly competitive contest with the favourite being Olympian and U23 XCO world champion Sam Gaze with the Cambridge rider and defending champion aiming to set a blistering pace from the gun.
"To me, the Whaka 100 is the pinnacle of racing in Rotorua," said Gaze, a Commonwealth Games silver medallist.
"It's great to train and race in Rotorua because the trails are just awesome."
However, Wellington's Edwin Crossling is looking go one better than he did when he finished runner-up in 2011 and 2015.
Crossling is known for his technical prowess having ridden in Enduro races and is a solid all-rounder with every chance aboard his newly built machine.
"I'm looking forward to the chance to ride 100km completely off road with the majority on world class single track," said Crossling.
WELLINGTON DUO: Edwin Crossling and Kim Hurst are contenders for top honors in the male and female premier races. PHOTO/FILE.
But the Kiwis will need to be on guard for an Australian assault in the form of Jason English - a seven-time world 24-hour champion, eight-time Australian national 24-hour champion and two-time Australian XC marathon champion.
Like Crossling, English is excited about the "sheer volume of single track" and says that "24 hours of racing in the Redwoods just wasn't enough" after competing in this year's world 24-hour championships in Rotorua where he emerged victorious.
English will be joined by fellow Australian - elite XC racer, Karen Hill, competing in the women's field, after recently returning home after stage racing in Timor.
Hill admitted she held some trepidation about the task but said she was excited to ride "new trails in rad locations" and was sure to push the pace on the Whaka 100's long sustained climbs.
Multi-time world marathon championships representative, Jeanette Gerrie, is also in the mix for top honours after just missing out on the women's Whaka 100 podium last year with a fourth place.
Finally, Upper Hutt's fastest doctor, Kim Hurst will be one to watch. She suffered a heavy crash while training in Moab earlier this year but has been determinedly focused on the defence of her Whaka 100 title throughout her rehabilitation back from a pelvic fracture.
"Whaka 100 is one of my favourite Kiwi events, it's the sort of race that as soon as I finish it I start counting down to the next time I can race it," Hurst said.
"It is definitely the hardest course in New Zealand right now."
Whaka 100 will have 400 mountain bikers in total battling for the honours of completing "one of the toughest" races in the country.
The weekend kicks off tomorrow with the Whaka Shootout TT - a short circuit over a fast 2km track designed to provided the racers with a perfect tune up and seed them ahead of Sunday's main event.
Ahead of the main event will be kids' events, and shorter tracks of 15, 25, and 50km events designed to cater for all
