The Bike Shed Shredder, the trail's official name, was built late last year after logging at Hylton Park, a disused quarry and the venue for the games' mountain biking competitions, destroyed many of the tracks. The Whanganui Mountain Bike club wanted a new track to showcase the sport and the city.
Club president Doug Rennie said the one kilometre Shredder was professionally built by South Star Trails, a Rotorua-based company that has built mountain bike tracks throughout New Zealand.
It took 22 days to complete and opened in November, costing $24,000, including some Powerco Wanganui Trust funding "plus the majority of 25 years of club savings," Mr Rennie said.
"It is a very cool track, plenty of rolls, table tops, jumps, berms, fast sections." Development of the track is ongoing and club members can be seen most days adding tweaks and improvements.
Despite all the hard work, the Shredder has yet to become the drawcard it perhaps deserves to be.
According to Mr Kennedy, who is also the games mountain biking co-ordinator, there are just 28 entries for the games so far.
"We would hope to double that closer to the day. We would really like to see more locals enter," Mr Kennedy said.
That should not be a problem given the Whanganui club alone has in excess of 300 members.
If the Shredder is too scary, Mr Kennedy said the recreational track at Hylton Park is designed for newcomers to the sport.
The games' website says riders who have ridden in past Masters Games at Hylton Park will not recognise the park as it's devoid of many trees due to logging. Nonetheless, it says, the new track is an exciting mountain biking track.
"The tracks consist of flowing downhill, short uphills, tight hairpin corners, single track and some gravel road as well as the usual twisty track through the village."
There are three grades of competition, expert, sport and recreation. Age groups range from 30-plus.
Competition happens on February 5 starting at 9.30am.
