All eyes on Anton Cooper at North Island Mountain Bike Cross-country Championships

Anton Cooper, pictured racing in the Elite Mens Cross Country race during the 2017 Mountain Bike World Championships, is the favourite at the North Island Cross Country Champs. Photo / Getty Images

While winning gold at the Commonwealth Games is a fantastic achievement, it also ensures you have a target on your back at any event you compete in thereafter.

That will be the case for Christchurch's Anton Cooper at the North Island Cross-country Championships in Rotorua tomorrow.Cooper, who won the men's cross-country at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, is the favourite to win the elite men's section. A win would add to a growing list of achievements for the 23-year-old who was also the 2015 World Under-23 champion and the 2012 world junior cross-country champion.

However he is expected to be pushed all the way by Rotorua's own Xterra triathlete Sam Osborne. Osborne showed how comfortable he is on his home trails when he won Xterra Rotorua in April last year.

Rotorua has been blasted by extreme weather in the lead-up to the event and event manager Paul McDowell said that could be an advantage to the top riders, rather than a leveller.

"What you find is the top riders handle conditions like this better than probably the riders who aren't quite up to their standards. This is Olympic style racing, it's exactly the type of racing you see at the Commonwealth Games and the Olympics.

Rotorua's Sam Osborne is among the favourites at the North Island Cross Country Championships this weekend. Photo / File

"Anton Cooper is well renowned in mountain bike circles. As soon as people hear he's riding they want to go there and be a part of it. To race on the same race track as someone like him is a big thing.

"In terms of the elite women, participation is quite light throughout the whole country really, we only have two or three entered," McDowell said.

The event, based at the Waipa carpark and raced in 5.5km laps, includes races for under-15, under-17, under-19, under-23, seniors, masters and elite men and women. McDowell said about 80 people had entered altogether.

"The Rotorua Mountain Bike Club hasn't run this here for about three years - before that we ran the nationals a few years in a row. The weather might put people off in terms of on-the-day entries, but we can only hope it comes right and we get a few more.

"This sort of racing you never get huge numbers, just the hardcore sort of racing fraternity. The cross country is like a time trial where you go as hard as you can for as long as you can. It's normally over quite a challenging course."

He said this style of racing was ideal for spectators.

"It's a short course with multiple laps to make it more spectator-friendly. The elite guys will be doing six laps. There's a very good spectator spot just across the bridge where they come down a hill and cross the water."

North Island Mountain Bike Cross-country Championships - Race times
From the Waipa carpark on Sunday

9am: U15, U17, M3 men, M2 and M3 Women (3 laps)
11am: U19, M1, M2 Men and Senior Men (4 laps)
2pm: U23, Elite Women (5 laps) and Elite Men (6 laps)