TRAILS & LOGISTICS

25+ years of guiding experience tells us this: “How hard is it?” is not an easy question to answer.  What’s easy for one, will be child’s play for the next, and it depends on your own personal strengths and weaknesses. Steepness & exposure are relative to what you’re used to, and let’s not get into on how morning moisture on beech roots mixes things up a bit.   We believe that no matter how skilled you are, no-one enjoys to be repeatedly pushed way outside their comfort zone and made to feel like they’ve forgotten how to ride a bike. We’re certainly not here to do that at the NZ MTB Rally. We’ve carefully selected our stages to be fairly challenging for mere mortals, but still enjoyable for everyone from keen weekend warriors, to full-on EWS pros.  

Meticulous course design with regular and extended options each day, allows us to keep the hardcore riders happy whilst keeping everyone else safe and challenged, but not overwhelmed.

If you’re unsure wether you’re up for it, this probably means that you’ll have a few ‘moments’ throughout the week where you might well find yourself reconsidering your life choices. However, perhaps that’s part of the fun & challenge of it You need to answer that for yourself!  Know that our typical racer is aged 40-60 years, and many of them are ‘racing’ for the first time.

Know this: THERE ARE NO EGOS HERE. We’ll encourage you to get through the week safely and with a smile on your face. There’s no shame in walking a section or two, if you need to (you probably won’t be the only one).  It’s a free start order, so you can always set off near the back of the pack if you’d prefer to set a more relaxed pace.

Compared to other most other mutli-day enduros, we max-out on our shuttles & uplifts. This means less time spent grinding up fire-road in granny gear. (We figure you probably already do more than enough of that back home).  But to us, that only means more time and distance to throw in some extra descents.

We’ve got 6 FULL days of riding lined up for you – stamina, endurance, pacing yourself, good nutrition, sleep hygiene, and personal care are more useful to you, than your peak fitness. But all of us who live in the real world –  with family and work commitments – months of hardcore training to prepare for your trip is not a realistic option.  That’s what shuttles are for, as far as we are concerned.   Sounds like you? Don’t stress it – in the absolute worst case scenario you can sit out a couple of stages each day if you need to, and we’ll work out getting you back to base, safely.  In year one, pretty much everyone got through the whole week and a good few of those riders were more focussed on grabbing our cold beers, than scrutinising their times at the end of each day.  (Great priorities, if you ask us!).

The NZ MTB Rally is designed for adventurous, experienced amateur riders with an intermediate skill level as a minimum.  Alpine or backcountry experience; even skiing, hiking and tramping – will be a particular bonus and can go a long way to make up for your ability to pop a manual or flick an euro-style ‘endo’ in a switchback.  Everything is raced ‘blind’ and on-sight and therefore setting a sensible, sustainable pace is part of any winning strategy.

Grading is especially inconsistent on backcountry trails that were not originally ‘purpose built’ for mtb. These trails are our bread & butter.  You can expect some exposure or narrow trails at times, and if it’s wet, plenty of slippery roots to keep you honest.  As well as that, we’ve also got a whole heap of off-the brakes, fast & flowy stuff, too. After all, Nelson (our start and finish point for the week’s itinerary) is one of only two IMBA Gold-Level ride centres in the world, outside of the N America.