Bringing a world-class mountain bike event to Queenstown

The largest mountain bike event ever to be held in New Zealand takes place in February, and a world-class course has just been completed on Arthurs Point’s Treespace-Mt Dewar.

The inaugural Natural Selection Bike Aotearoa will feature 26 of the world’s best freeride mountain bikers and will combine the three most dynamic disciplines in mountain biking: Big Mountain Freeride, Slopestyle and Downhill; against the backdrop of Queenstown’s dramatic landscape.

The event was formerly known as Proving Grounds, and had become a fixture at Prineville, Oregon USA. This is the first time the event is being held outside of the United States. Organisers visited Queenstown in 2022 in the bid to scout out the event's next location.

"Our American colleagues just fell in love with Queenstown and the Southern Lakes region, said event director Sophie Luther. "They thought it was just the best place ever to ride, full stop, let alone the landscape that we've now made into our beautiful course." 

Landscape planners Yvonne Pfluger and Amanda Anthony undertook the landscape and visual assessment for the mountain bike course. Planner Chris Ferguson, managing partner of the Queenstown office, lead the resource consenting for the course construction.

“The new trails have been designed in character with the existing landscape on Mount Dewar,” says Yvonne. “Following construction, all downhill slopes of the berms and jumps were re-planted with tussocks that were removed to make way for the bike trails.

“The re-use and re-planting of the tussocks on the disturbed and earth-worked areas ensures the visibility of all earthwork cuts are appropriately mitigated and managed within the proposed bike trail area.”

“The bike trails will be a permanent feature in the landscape, but some built structures – like the wooden take-offs built on the course – will be temporary and only utilised during the event,” explains Chris. “The Natural Selection event will also require temporary infrastructure, such as tents and food vendors, during the days of operation.”

The successful resource consent application covered all aspects of the event, including the construction of (permanent) trails and the (temporary) buildings, structures and servicing infrastructure needed on 15 February.

In addition to the main mountain bike trails, an existing forestry track has been widened and for use as an uphill shuttle road. The proposed shuttle road will be used by a small vehicle to transport riders from the finish zone to the start zone.

Natural Selection Bike has the backing of MBIE, through the New Zealand Major Events Fund, and will be New Zealand’s leading ultra-low emission sporting event.