Rotorua World Mountain Bike Champs – Taking an Event into the Community
The World Mountain Bike Champs and the Bike Festival
RDC saw the opportunity to bring the WMBC ‘out of its box’ and into the community during and beyond the main event. One way that RDC made this happen was to run a range of complementary events that were not just about mountain biking – a Bike Festival.
The Bike Festival
The Bike Festival was managed by the mountain biking community and supported by the Council. Other events, such as “undie races” (street races with people dressed in silly underwear) in the city, helped raise the profile and increase interest among locals in the World Mountain Bike Championships. The number and mix of people attending these other events were larger than those in the mountain bike community. In this way, the champs and the Bike Festival improved each other – both sides gained leverage.
Undie racing
What appeals about events like undie racing is that people will watch - it will grab their attention. It also broadens the potential audience from people who are interested in mountain biking to everyone in the city. Undie racing gave the WMBC a lot of free media coverage.
The venue
Equally important to the strategy was the choice of venue(s). Rotorua’s Whakarewarewa forest is a fantastic local resource that had been under-used. The strategy aimed to bring local people to this local place throughout the year, in order to experience mountain biking. The world champs was a great way to introduce people to the sport, and to the opportunities for recreational riding in the forest.
Biking events before and after
Prior to the event there were other mountain bike competitions in Rotorua: the National Championships in 2005 and the Oceania Champs in 2006. These helped build momentum and were good preparation for the main international event. Since the World Champs, RDC has set a deliberate policy to maintain the biking momentum. There continue to be more, similar events around Rotorua. Check out
www.riderotorua.co.nz for more information.
Updated | 09 May 2008.
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