New Zealand has been suffering with some of the worst droughts in recent memory. But forget rain dances – all you need to do to guarantee some precipitation is to organise a mountain bike race. Even after two days of downpours and lethally slick trails, the organisers of the NZ Enduro felt that the riders weren't wet or muddy enough, so they routed the finishing straight of the final stage through a 15ft-wide, 2ft-deep flooded stream. Carnage ensued, as riders came in blind and had to make a split-second decision whether to attempt to surf across the top, pull up and pray, or just grit their teeth and plough through. As you can see, the various techniques weren't all successful. We reckon more races should end with a finish line spectacle like this! 'Ard Rock 2019, anyone?
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Pushing the eject button
Getting friendly with the stem
One expensive camera about to get a soaking in 3,2,1...
After a hard day riding it's always important to stretch
A textbook scorpion dismount
Ex-World Cupper Cam Cole is a beast, and a bit of the wet stuff is no match for him
Comedy trail features aside, the NZ Enduro is a great early season proving ground to see who's on form, and a good place to spot ex-world champs, with the likes of Peaty and Fabien Barel in attendance.
"Cheers!" Beer has and always will be Peaty's secret to racing success
In the end it was Canyon's Dimitri Tordo who tamed the conditions – finishing just ahead of British/Norwegian privateer Guy Gibbs.
Guy Gibbs (second place overall) taming the flood
Ines Thoma secured the women's victory, making it a Canyon double win. In second was up-and-coming Brit Ella Conolly. The first major enduro race of the season is the opening round of the EWS at Crankworx Rotorua this coming weekend.
Dimitri Tordo hanging on to take the overall win...
... and looking rather chuffed with himself after coming out victorious from three days of tough racing
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Former Mountain Biking UK features editor Ed Thomsett is a downhiller at heart but has been riding bikes of all types since a young age. He's raced both nationally and internationally in downhill and enduro, and has spent several summers living in the Alps and Canada, riding, roadtripping and living the dirtbag lifestyle. Now Ed calls upon his years of experience riding bikes to the limit as a writer and reviewer for MBUK and BikeRadar. He's also an avid trail builder and has scraped out numerous steep and technical lines in the woodlands of his native North Yorkshire. These days Ed will happily turn his hand to any discipline and believes the sign of a good week is when every bike in his shed ends up muddy by the end of it.
