When Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) released an extreme fire danger alert last week, some quick thinking was needed to compress the two day event into one day.
The original plan was to race over the hill at Whare Flat on Saturday and for bikers to tackle Signal Hill on Sunday.
Race director Kane Fleury said with concerns Sunday would have high temperatures and "super dry" forest at Signal Hill, he worked to devise a new course at Whare Flat for Saturday.
"We did a bit of a pivot and made sure that we had a good course for Saturday."
Mr Fleury thanked Fenz staff who were "super helpful".
"They worked with us to come up with the best and safest way to still host the race."
He also thanked Mountain Biking Otago for their assistance supporting the race.
The riders ended up completing a 22km course across six race stages, ascending about 1100m.
Given some had cancelled due to the challenges of Cyclone Gabrielle in the North Island, it was a positive result, Mr Fleury said.
"We were pretty lucky to be able to host a race when the rest of the country is, you know, not doing so well."
In the end it was a "super successful" race with athletes leaving happy, Mr Fleury said.
Men's winner was Charlie Murray, of Christchurch, racing for the Specialized Enduro Team on the Enduro World Series.
"He is actually one of the top racers in the world."
Katy Winton, of Christchurch, who races for GT Bicycles, was the women’s winner.
Winton was another of the Enduro World Series riders, he said.
She had taken a break from competitive racing for about the last 12 months and this was her first race back, so winning the race was "pretty awesome", Mr Fleury said.
