Contact Huka Challenge

This year is our second Contact Huka Challenge building on the success of last year’s inaugural event, an off-road event designed specifically for mountain bike riders. It is a non competitive 80km mountain bike ride on a par in time and difficulty with the iconic 160km Solo ride around Lake Taupo. You will find that due to a few changes forced on us in the forest, the course will be slightly longer than last year.

In the interest of safety a new feature will be a bridge across SH1 near the finish. This will mean bikers don’t have to ride on the state highway and fight with the traffic to loop around the Spa Road roundabout. It will be interesting riding ‘over’ the traffic and will be quite spectacular from the ground watching the riders negotiate the single lane bridge.

The Course

The course takes in 80 kilometres of Taupo’s most popular mountain bike tracks, most of which is flowing single track.

Like all other solo rides the Contact Huka Challenge starts and finishes on Taupo’s Tongariro Street. They then head off-road – following the Waikato River before riding through a tunnel under SH1 into the Wairakei Crown Forest Park (next to Craters of the Moon and the Wairakei International Golf course) where all 45km of mountain bike tracks are used before heading back out through the tunnel.

After riding an event-only section down to Aratiatia Dam, they cross the dam and then come back to the Huka Falls trail, through the Rotary Ride before completing a brand new section of the trail.

Riders will then cross State Highway 1 on the temporary bridge finishing their 80km mountain bike challenge.

The course is primarily single track reaching Grade 4 in difficulty and event organisers stress that it is demanding and therefore suited to fit and experienced riders.

Times are recorded by transponder as riders cross the start and finish lines.

Click on the following link for more detailed information http://www.biketaupo.org.nz/content/view/431/113/