The city will host the 2018 UCI Oceania Continental Mountain Bike Championships from February 9-11.
The championships are expected to attract more than 200 competitors and 500 to 700 support staff.
It is a post-Christmas bonanza for the city and a coup for Mountain Biking Otago, which is hosting the event in partnership with Cycling New Zealand and Mountain Bike New Zealand.
``This is a big deal,'' Mountain Biking Otago president Kristy Booth said.
``It is a week before O Week . . . when the students are rocking back into town. And the Dunedin City Council have been so supportive of all the work we do on the hill.
``So to have an event like this and showcase mountain biking in Dunedin at its best is pretty good.
``It is the last big race for the cross-country guys going into the Commonwealth Games.
``And for the downhillers, we've got a lot of guys overseas at the moment, so it will be good to have riders of that calibre right here in Dunedin.''
Dunedin last hosted the event in 2010. On that occasion, the downhill was at Signal Hill and the cross-country at Forrester Park.
``Our plan is to stage both races at Signal Hill, which means we will be constructing a new cross-country track there, which is exciting.
``It is great to attract an event of this size to our city.''
Former junior and under-23 world champion Anton Cooper will defend his elite Oceania title in Dunedin. He has also been asked to help design the course.
``I'm really excited to be racing Oceania champs in New Zealand again, and on a new course in Dunedin,'' Cooper said.
``As far as international mountain bike events go in New Zealand, this is as big as we've had in recent memory.
``With lots of top Aussie competition bound to come to our shores, it will be an exciting spectacle also.''
Booth said the Signal Hill tracks had held up well in the recent rain, and most of the damage from the fire in February had been repaired.
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Bicycles should not be allowed in any natural area. They are inanimate objects and have no rights. There is also no right to mountain bike. That was settled in federal court in 1996: http://mjvande.info/mtb10.htm . It's dishonest of mountain bikers to say that they don't have access to trails closed to bikes. They have exactly the same access as everyone else -- on foot! Why isn't that good enough for mountain bikers? They are all capable of walking....
A favourite myth of mountain bikers is that mountain biking is no more harmful to wildlife, people, and the environment than hiking, and that science supports that view. Of course, it's not true. To settle the matter once and for all, I read all of the research they cited, and wrote a review of the research on mountain biking impacts (see http://mjvande.info/scb7.htm ). I found that of the seven studies they cited, (1) all were written by mountain bikers, and (2) in every case, the authors misinterpreted their own data, in order to come to the conclusion that they favoured. They also studiously avoided mentioning another scientific study (Wisdom et al) which did not favour mountain biking, and came to the opposite conclusions.