Iconic start location for Enduro

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The Enduro World Series (EWS) has lifted the lid on its mission to find the ultimate start line, shining the mountain biking spotlight on Te Puia's famed Geyser Terrace.

Round One of the international race series - the Giant Toa Enduro, part of Crankworx Rotorua - will take off from the hot rocks beside Te Puia's world-famous Pohutu Geyser on Saturday 28 March, teaming an iconic location with an iconic race.

Entries to the race sold out in less than three minutes - smashing last year's world record and creating an incredible buzz for the event. Four hundred world-class riders, including 34 wild card Kiwis and Blenheim's Justin Leov who was third in the 2014 EWS - will show up at Te Puia pumped and ready to shred the trails.

Enduro race manager and Rotorua local, Neil Gellatly, initiated the EWS inclusion in Crankworx. He said details for the race were kept under wraps until a few days before the event to prevent riders from practicing.

"Keeping the race trails top-secret is part of the intrigue and also ensures all athletes are on the same playing field.

"Adventure, experience, challenge and great riding sums up what Enduro mountain bike racing is all about. The adventure will kick off the moment the riders enter Te Puia's geothermal terrain.

"The Geyser Terrace is something else - it's spectacular, it's a cool out-of-this-world start line that will get riders in the zone before the race even begins.

"Enduro racing is the fastest growing competitive discipline of mountain biking in the world and this is going to be beamed around the globe," Mr Gellatly said.

Te Puia Market Manager Online, Eru West, said Te Puia was stoked to be involved with the world's largest mountain biking festival, Crankworx Rotorua and the Enduro World Series race.

"We can't wait to welcome Enduro riders to Te Puia, it's going to be awesome."

After taking off down a purpose-built ramp from Te Puia's Geyser Marquee, riders will roll down the geothermally heated steps and along Te Puia's southern track where they will follow a path back to the southern carpark tunnel and onto the rest of the course. The race will end at Skyline Rotorua, with the middle stages kept top-secret until a few days before the event when all will be revealed on the Crankworx website, www.crankworx.com/rotorua/athlete-info/.

Riders will leave the Geyser Terrace in stages with the first rider heading out at 7:04am. Current champion, Australian Jared Graves, will be the last to hit the tracks at around 10:46am.

Te Puia's role in the festival doesn't end with the Enduro race, with the attraction also bringing a taste of Maori culture to the main Crankworx site at Skyline Rotorua, where riders will be riding through specially carved waharoa (gateways). The carvings add to the theming of Skyline Rotorua's Gravity Park trails and bring M?ori culture to the festival, something Rotorua is already well-known for.

The Giant Toa Enduro Rotorua is one of five competitive events at the inaugural Crankworx Rotorua which runs from 25 - 29 March and features the best pro-athletes as well as competitions, concerts and culture.

For further information, please visit www.Enduroworldseries.com.

About Enduro World Series (EWS):

This format replicates what many bike riders do every weekend by allowing the competitor to ride for up to six hours, taking in the local environment at their own pace, whilst only competing against the clock on the best downhills. A combination of the times over all the Special Stages gives the rider their result. With riders restricted to only one bike and one pair of wheels for the race, unlike the other disciplines of mountain biking, tactics play a major role with physical effort, careful equipment choice and preservation being crucial to success.

Also unique to Enduro, and one of the core values of the discipline is accessibility, with amateurs competing on the same Stages as the professionals. This mix of ability and background is unique to the Enduro format, allowing normal bike riders to compete against their heroes.

The EWS was formed in 2012 in an effort to unite Enduro racing worldwide and bring it to the world stage. It was created by Chris Ball (Ex-UCI Technical Delegate), Darren Kinnaird (Crankworx Events Manager), Fred Glo (French Enduro Series Founder) and Enrico Guala (European Superenduro founder). Enduro racing is the fastest growing competitive discipline of mountain biking in the world.