Marlborough Express - Weekend Express
Offroad addition to GrapeRide
Marlborough’s Forrest GrapeRide is celebrating a new milestone on its 15th birthday in 2019.
For the first time, the 2500-strong ride will include mountainbike trails along with the traditional road ride, set to take place on March 30.
Event organiser Duncan MacKenzie said the new addition had been a long time coming.
‘‘It’s something we’ve had on our radar for a number of years, but we’d never been able to satisfy ourselves we had the right course.’’
MacKenzie said the new tracks would start and finish at Forrest Estate along with the other courses.
Aimed at the beginner to intermediate rider, the 20km and 42km tracks would take in a variety of surfaces, from sealed road to riverbed stones, tree roots, rutted tracks and pine plantation.
The road course remained unchanged, with cyclists traversing the 101km circuit from Forrest Estate in Renwick, through Blenheim, Picton, Queen Charlotte Sound, and Havelock.
Variations of the track included races over 202km, 101km and 42km distances.
MacKenzie said entries were going well at this stage, with most coming in during the six weeks or so before the first race day.
He said more riders were expected to make the trip up State Highway 1 from Christchurch this year, with the road between Kaiko¯ ura and Blenheim open 24/7 for the first time in three years.
In previous years, the disruption caused by the road closures had put off many people from Christchurch and further south from making the trip.
Along with mountain bikes and road bikes, there had also been an increase in the number of e-bikes participating in the race in recent years.
MacKenzie said 2019 was the fourth year e-bikes were allowed, although those riding them were not eligible for prizes.
While four or five years ago e-bikes were considered an oddity, MacKenzie said they becoming more and more popular, giving people the opportunity to extend their life as a cyclist.
In the past few years e-bike numbers had risen to about 3 per cent of entries in the ride, with that number possibly rising up to about 5 per cent this time around.