Mountain bike New Zealand and BikeNZ have great pleasure in announcing the venues and hosts for New Zealand’s summer competitive mountain bike season.
The New Zealand Mountain Bike Cup, a national series now in its 24th year, will be running a condensed format for 2014. The downhill category will compete over three events and the cross country over two.
MTBNZ have also partnered with existing events to deliver some Cup events, the New Zealand Open in Christchurch and Top Gun in Nelson.
The dates are:
NZMTB Cup Downhill:
Round 1/NZ Open – Christchurch, 18-19 January. Hosts – Gravity Canterbury
Round 2/Top Gun – Nelson, 31 Jan – 1 Feb. Hosts – Nelson MTB Club
Round 3 – Auckland, 8-9 Feb. Hosts – Hunua MTB Club
NZMTB Cross-Country:
Round 1 – Wellington, 19 Jan. Hosts – PNP Cycling Club
Round 2/Top Gun – Nelson, 2 Feb. Hosts – Nelson MTB Club
The New Zealand Mountain Bike Championships will be held in Rotorua as part of the Rotorua Bike Festival, in the first year of a new three-year commitment. Event dates for the National Championships are 14-16 February for Downhill, and 15 February for Cross-Country. Hosts for this event will be the Rotorua MTB Club.
The Oceania Mountain Bike Championships will be held at Mt Hutt on 14-16 March. The bustling hub of Methven and a combined approach between Gravity Canterbury and Bike Methven will host this event, on its alternate year cycle with Australia. The Oceania Championships are one of six global Continental Championship events and provides New Zealand and Australian mountain bikers an ideal opportunity to gain valuable international ranking points.
MTBNZ President Jordan Moss is enthusiastic about the 2014 event format:
“The NZMTB Cup is a shorter series for 2014 but all hosts and MTBNZ are aiming to deliver high quality events with a less busy format,” he said.
“The summer period is crammed with all sorts of other mountain bike events, but the NZ Cup still retains its place for New Zealand’s best to compete and we look forward to making that happen.
“National and Oceania Championships are New Zealand’s pinnacle competitive events and will be absolute highlights of the summer season”
