Whanganui-born racer Joel Tunbridge has hit top form at the right time as he gears up for the world's biggest mountain biking event in Rotorua next week.
The 22-year-old apprentice welder bases himself in Queenstown, arguably the home of New Zealand mountain biking.
Tunbridge showed he was in top form by winning the elite men's race on the final day of the 2016 Altherm Window Systems National Mountainbike Championships in Wanaka on Saturday.
The race marked the final round of the national championships.
The championship is the country's premier mountain bike event, attracting the country's top cross country and downhill mountain bikers.