An urban stage, including a ride down the Dowling St steps, will feature in a race around the hills above Dunedin.
The Three Peaks enduro will be raced in Dunedin on Friday and Saturday, and will feature a maximum field of 220 riders.
Former professional mountain biker Kashi Leuchs said, growing up in Dunedin, he had always wanted to have a race in the hills around the city.
''I had a dream of having a race like this. Looking at those hills they are such a natural place to want to ride. You want to get up there and get close to the country right here,'' Leuchs said.
The race started last year with a field of about 80. Word has got round the mountain biking community and some big names are lining up.
The race will begin on Friday, about 6.30pm, with an urban stage, starting at Kavanagh College.
Riders will bike through the college, including down some alleyways and lanes, before heading down Tennyson St.
Riders will have to negotiate the Dowling St steps and some jumps along the way before heading into Princes St and another jump, with the finish line by the Robbie Burns statue in the Octagon. Each rider should take about 90sec to cover the stage.
Leuchs said the urban stage was a good way to get the Dunedin community involved in the race.
On Saturday, the enduro part of the Three Peaks race will start about 10am.
The race will start at the Bull Ring on the Pineapple track, the riders going to the top of the track and then heading down on the timed run, ending at the Wakari car park.
Riders will then ride over to Mt Cargill and be timed riding down the Cargill walking track.
From there, the riders will head to Signal Hill and finish the final run down Signal Hill, ending at Logan Park High School.
Enduro racing was changing mountain biking throughout the world, and had quickly become the favourite form of racing for most riders.
It was a format which most resembled what riders did when going out for a ride in the weekend, Leuchs said.
Downhill was too hard and too expensive, while cross-country was too demanding for most.
Competitors were timed on specific downhill sections, and then could ride at their own pace in the distances between the timed legs.
The Three Peaks race covers 36km in total with the timed sections expected to take just over half an hour.
Leuchs said there were some talented riders lining up.
Former Dunedin rider Justin Leov, who has come out of retirement to ride in enduro events and is now living in Christchurch, is lining up along with the promising Anton Cooper, also of Christchurch, while Nelson rider Jamie Nicol is a chance. Last year's winner,
Tom Lamb, of Dunedin, is back to defend his title.
Olympian Rosara Joseph is out to win the women's race again.
