The South Island Secondary Schools’ championships begin today on Mt Hutt.Close to 500 young mountain bike riders will take to Mt Hutt over the course of the next few days for the South Island Secondary Schools’ championships.

The event, which begins today, is expected to bring more than 1000 people into the Ashburton District for the weekend with teachers, supporters and family members expected to travel alongside competitors.

Bike Methven’s Clare Harden said that preparations for the event were well under control ahead of today’s opening events and that a huge base of supporters and volunteers from around the district have made that possible.

“It has been a huge process, but we’ve been incredibly lucky,” Harden said.

“We’re shaping up really well and the weather is starting to play ball too which is great.

“We just need a really good drying day today (Thursday) and we’ll be ready to go.”

The championships begin today with the enduro event which will see almost 300 competitors being ferried up to the top of Scott’s Saddle to race their way down the mountain before the downhill stage of the competition on Saturday.

Harden said running the event would also require a large amount of volunteer work and there would be more than 50 volunteers across the course over the weekend doing marshal work to ensure competitors are going in the right direction.

“Bike Methven has a huge member base which has helped a lot with getting people on board to help and we’ve had some people from the Mid Canterbury Mountain Bike Club helping us out as well which has been a big help.”

The competition is run under Cycling NZ rules and Harden’s role over the weekend will be ensuring that everything runs smoothly and working alongside the judges to ensure all requirements are being met.

The championships are open to the public for viewing and a free shuttle will be running from the information booth up the access road of Mt Hutt to ferry people to the best vantage points.

Racing begins today around 1pm through until 4.30pm and then tomorrow from 9am until 4.30 with a short break in the middle for lunch.

By Matt Markham © The Ashburton Guardian - 28 March 2019