The Nduro Summer Cup has been a staple of the Rotorua mountain biking diet since 2009, but this weekend the dust will fly for the last time.
Despite the weekend being packed with other major events such as the Foo Fighters' concert in Auckland and the Rotorua Summer Seafood Festival, more than 260 riders have signed up for the last edition of the Summer Cup tomorrow.Event manager Tim Farmer said the decision not to hold the event again after this year was to do with the time of year.
"The forest is a real busy place in the summer time. We're planning on leaving the forest for everyone in the weekend to go and have fun and when it's less busy we'll run our events. It's time for change as well; we're ready to try something different," Farmer said.
This year's event includes 15km, 25km and 40km, and caters for a wide range of age groups, from 5-year-olds to veterans. For the first time it will also include a 40km E bike race.
"We've got 266 entries all up so far, that's about the same as other years. There's a lot of other things on this weekend, so we're happy with numbers. With all the damage to the forest with the storms over the last few weeks the courses have been slightly altered. They're definitely cross-country orientated, grade two with a little bit of grade four for the longer distance and the more skilled riders.