Dunedin's Zac Williams will go into next week's mountain bike festival in Rotorua full of confidence after a strong performance in the Trans NZ Enduro race last week.
The 26-year-old finished second in the five-day race, which included stages in Craigieburn, Mt Hutt, Queenstown and Alexandra.
Williams, who is a former New Zealand representative, was one of just 10 New Zealanders in a 64-strong field.
With riders required to ride uphill to the start of each stage before being timed downhill, Williams' final time across the five days was 2hr 4min 15sec, 2min 21sec behind Canadian Stu Dickson.
Australian Deon Baker was third in 2hr 6min 13sec.
''The cool thing was there was only 10 Kiwis in it,'' Williams said.
''It was a really international field because of the huge amount of people in New Zealand for Crankworx [next week].''
Williams, who mainly competed in downhill racing before getting into endurance racing two years ago, said last week's race had set him up well for Crankworx.
''It will be a big step up. I should be OK, though,'' he said.
''I'm pretty happy with how everything sits. The reason I did it was the real good training base I got from it.''
Crankworx is a multiday festival highlighted by more than 600 of the top competitors from around the world.
Entries include New Zealand's London 2012 Olympic silver medallist Sarah Walker.
The festival, which is stopping off in Rotorua on its world circuit for the first time in its 12 year history, will include duel speed and style, pump track challenge, downhill, endurance and slopestyle competitions.
Williams, a former King's High School pupil, will compete in the endurance section.
Dunedin mountain-biker Shannon Hope won the New Zealand secondary schools senior girls title in Auckland over the weekend.
Hope (17), a year 13 pupil at Bayfield High School, won the event after finishing a close second in the downhill event.
But she won the cross-country event and then clinched the overall title with a first place in the super sprint leg, a relatively new style of racing in the sport.
Callum Booth, of King's High School, finished sixth in the under-17 downhill event.
