Opinion: Busy time of year for mountain bikers

The Enduro World Series is returning as part of Crankworx Rotorua. Photo Clint Trahan

Only three weeks till Crankworx Rotorua 2017. How did that happen?

It's already been a hectic start to the mountain biking year and the forest is crammed every weekend and busy on weekdays. It's only going to get busier.

This year the 9 days of Crankworx (March 19-April 2) includes round one of the Enduro World Series, the Giant Toa, as it did in 2015, though not last year. Having EWS back is very good news. The entry list is star-studded and an opportunity for local enduro riders to lay down a marker against world-class competition on home turf. Those locals will include Keegan Wright who was crowned National Elite Men's Downhill Champion in Wanaka last weekend. An outstanding effort by the 20-year-old in a field stacked with some battle-hardened pros.

The rest of the Crankworx line up of events is lip-smackingly terrific: www.crankworx.com/festival/rotorua/

The third Mountain Biker's Ball on Saturday, April 1 at The Blue Baths is part of that. This is always a fine opportunity to celebrate. And make a difference.

This year the focus of the ball is suicide prevention and the importance of post concussion recovery, in memory of mountain biker Mark Dunlop who died last year. Some lovely locals organise the ball, all in their own time. Chapeau, Susan Brown, Philly Angus, James and Paula Alexander, Carol Tew, Sophie Gimblett and Tak Mutu.

There'll be silent auctions and live ones (very noisy with the aforementioned James on the mic), crazy BMX racing around the Blue Baths pool (maybe even in it), a DJ and a band, a delicious supper and complimentary beverage when you arrive.

Proceeds will go to mental heath services and the Rotorua Mountain Bike Club's First Response Unit. Get your tickets from the What's On page at www.bluebaths.co.nz/

Crankworx is only the second-best mountain biking event on the local calendar in 2017. The Singlespeed World Championships is on Saturday, November 18. Entries may open on April 1, scratching the seven-year itch. In 2010, when the event was here for the first time, it attracted around 1000 riders.

I'm kidding about Crankworx being second best, of course. I'm hands-on involved with SSWC2017 and have to stick up for it.

Wherever it sits on the best-of list for the year, it is an eccentric, hilarious, slightly unhinged event that people seem to love and anyone can enter. When it was announced that Rotorua would host again, most of the feedback from those who rode in 2010 was very positive. "Best event, ever'" was a common response.

Tak Mutu from Crankworx Rotorua is part of Singlespeed folklore. He was a bike scrutineer at the Anzac Singlespeed Championships in 2015. After he'd finished terrifying entrants he hung out at the legendary Rosebank trail stream crossing with a very big and loud crowd.

He shot some video on his phone and cut a catchy little film.
That's been viewed more than two million times worldwide, nearly a quarter of a million times since Christmas. Tak, I think the beverages may be on SSWC17 host club, the Rotorua Singlespeed Society, e hoa.

Check out the Facebook page for more: facebook.com/SSWC2017NZ/