Motatapu elite MTB field taking shape
Competition is heating up in the elite field for this year’s Motatapu mountain bike race with National U23 and U19 Cross Country National Champions Maria Laurie and Eddie Adams the latest athletes to add their names to the start list.
Winner of the Coronet Loop Mountain Bike held as part of Motatapu 2024, Laurie is currently preparing to compete at the Cross Country MTB World Cups in Araxa, Brazil in April 2025.
“Motatapu will certainly be a great hit out before Oceania Champs later in the month and then Brazil,” she says.
While also studying engineering full-time at Canterbury University, the 19-year-old has achieved impressive results in cycling including winning the overall series in the MTBNZ Cross Country Series, second place in the elite field at the Cyclocross National Championships and second place in the U23 field at the 2024 Oceania MTB Championships.
Zania Roberts, 17, will be another rider to watch out for at the head of the field with a couple of fourth-place finishes in the Junior ranks at recent National Mountain Bike Series races.
In the men’s mountain bike field, it promises to be a tight race between Adams, Cam Jones – another former National U23 Champion – and 16-year-old Levi Gear.
Adams, a member of the NZ Cycling Project team, not only has the confidence of a national title to fuel his ride but has gained valuable experience on the international stage including a third-place result at the Copa de Espana Ciudad del Ciclismo UCI race in Spain.
Adams says: “I’m looking forward to taking on the Motatapu for the first time. Being up against some strong competition makes it an exciting race and is a great way to push myself further.”
Meanwhile, Jones has been racing the Lifetime Series in North America, achieving some impressive results there as well as picking up second place at the Downieville Classic All-Mountain World Champs.
Gear may be the youngest of the three but he’s the only one to have ridden the Motatapu course before, taking third place in last year’s event, and has been on top form, also topping the podium at National Mountain Bike Series races.
The Motatapu Off-Road events will take place on 1 March with competitors in the Mondraker Mountain Bike and Allpress Espresso Trail Marathon enjoying one-day-a-year-only access to the Motatapu, Soho and Glencoe stations high-country stations.
Around 3000 competitors are expected to be on the Motatapu start lines including 1200-1400 mountain bikers. Entries are open until 21 February via Motatapu.com
