HEAT FROM THE START | Bikesportnz

The heat will go on right from the start of this year’s New Zealand Enduro Championships.

The seven-round KTM-sponsored series kicks off in the Riverhead Forest this Sunday with Auckland’s defending champion Chris Birch again the favourite to win.

However, the man from Glen Eden may come under fire from a fresh foe this year, for a part of the series at least, with Pahiatua’s two-time former American cross-country champion Paul Whibley now back home in New Zealand to stay.

Whibley has indicated that he intends to be a serious contender at Riverhead this weekend.

But, while the 34-year-old multi-time champion Birch might have his work cut out at the start of the season, he is still expected to be on top when it really counts, at the end of the final round’s action, in Tokoroa on May 10.

Calendar clashes between motorcycling codes mean Whibley will be unable to mount a full enduro campaign, with his prime focus, not unexpectedly, on the separate but parallel New Zealand Cross-country Championships.

Rounds one and two of the national cross-country champs clash with a couple of the enduro rounds and this perhaps ruins what could have been an intriguing battle between the two Kiwi internationals.

It could be a similar story, too, with another top cross-code campaigner, Titirangi’s Callan May.

May finished sixth in the 250cc class in the Grand National Cross-country Championships in the United States last year and has in the past been a regular enduro competitor, but he is home only for a short spell before he returns to tackle the 2015 series in America.

May will be racing at Riverhead on Sunday and should also be a threat for outright and/or class honours. He heads to the United States on February 20 and so will leave the country before round three of the New Zealand Enduro Championships.

Birch can also expect tough opposition again from riders such as former national enduro champion and current national cross-country champion Adrian Smith, of Mokau, fellow Kiwi international Sean Clarke, from Tokoroa, Morrinsville’s Simon Lansdaal, Auckland pair Freddie Milford-Cottam and Chris Power, Wellington’s seven-time national moto trials champion Jake Whitaker, Tauranga’s Reece Burgess, Northland’s Mitchell Nield and possibly also from Taupo’s rising young star Greg De Lautour, to name just a few.

Directions to Sunday’s race, in the Rodney District, will be signposted from the corner of State Highway16 and Old North Rd.

Following racing at Riverhead on Sunday, the series continues with round two at Whangamata on Saturday, February 14. Round three is near Wellington on Saturday, March 14, followed by round four near Christchurch on Saturday, April 4, with round five just two days later, near Mosgiel on Monday, April 6. Round six is at Waimiha on Saturday, May 9, with the seventh and final round set for Tokoroa on Sunday, May 10.

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