Rotorua Bike Festival gets under way this weekend
9 February 2013
The first ever Rotorua Bike festival kicks off this weekend with two weeks packed with cycling related events.
The Agroventures Shweeb World Champs featuring pedal-powered pods only found in Rotorua is on today (Saturday 9 Feb).
The Novotel Rotorua City Street Criterium and Bike Parade is on Sunday (10 Feb) with exciting road race action, right in the heart of Rotorua.
The second weekend of the Festival, will feature the More FM Bike Expo, Skyline Sprint Warrior, and Giant 2W Gravity Enduro.
The BMX Rotorua National Qualifiers are on Saturday February 16.
It is an important year for BMX in New Zealand with the UCI World Championships in Auckland in July.
BikeNZ's high performance Olympic squad of London silver medalist, Sarah Walker, Marc Willers and Kurt Pickard will all be at the Rotorua track.
Also on the final weekend of the festival, out in Rotorua's world-renowned trail network in the Whakarewarewa Forest, New Zealand's elite cross-country and downhill racers will compete for 2013 titles at the Mountain Bike National Championship.
Funding support for 2014 Bike Festival announced
Meanwhile on the eve of the 1st Rotorua Bike Festival clicking into high gear, the event has secured financial backing for 2014.
It's great to know that the Festival has the green light for another year, says Martin Croft from Rotorua Events & Venues. This week we got confirmation that the Rotorua Energy Charitable Trust will continue their support of the Festival.
The Rotorua Trust is a major supporter of the first festival and has also backed some of the biggest cycling events in Rotorua over the past decade.
We see this as a good way to support quality events in our community, particularly where local athletes can compete with top national and international competitors on the world stage, says Grahame Hall, chairman of the Trust. Rotorua has some of the best mountain biking trails in the southern hemisphere and a reputation and proven history of organising and staging cycling events on an international scale.
The Rotorua Trust is always very proud to be associated with professionally run events like these, continues Hall. The 2013 Bike Festival will further enhance our city's reputation as part of the New Zealand Centre of Excellence for Cycling and encourage the growth of the sport in our region.
The Rotorua District Council has matched the contribution of the Rotorua Trust and this means Festival organisers have already started planning for 2014.
The full programme for the 1st Rotorua Bike Festival is on the website www.rotoruabikefestival.com and www.facebook.com/rotoruabikefestival