Riders brave slippery conditions for Dodzy

Mountain bikers from across the country descended on the Wairoa Gorge for the Dodzy Memorial Enduro ( DME) this weekend, despite slippery conditions pushing riders to the limit.

About 280 riders took on the challenging trails at the 840 hectare private park, 20km south of Wakefield.

The stacked field including professional racers Brook Macdonald, Katy Winton, Raewyn Morrison and Sam Blenkinsop, who has won for the three previous years.

Even getting into the popular event is competitive, with entries for this year’s race selling out in less than two minutes.

Heavy rain and wind late last week had organisers scrambling to prepare the trails, which were practiced on Saturday before racing Sunday.

More rain on Friday and Saturday nights made the challenging tracks much more difficult due to the slippery conditions.

Trek Factory Racing Enduro rider Katy Winton said conditions were easier on Sunday.

Winton, who is based in Scotland but in New Zealand for the summer, said the trails at the Wairoa were ‘‘unbelievable’’.

‘‘I’ve ridden all over the world and these are some of the best tracks I’ve ever ridden.’’

Brendan Morton is part of the team which runs the race. He said it had a ‘‘festival atmosphere’’.

Morton said a lot of people did not think of it as a competitive race, but a cool weekend with a racing element because racing was Dodds’ thing.

The annual race is held in memory of James ‘‘Dodzy’’ Dodds, who was killed in a hunting accident in 2012. Dodds was a well known rider who co-owned NZ Trail Solutions, the company that built over 70km of trail at the Wairoa Gorge.

Stage one was dedicated to Steve Coleman, a trail builder at the Wairoa Gorge who passed away last year.

Stage two was in memory of the late Mark Dunlop, a DME regular.

Results were not available at the time of publication.