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Queenstown enduro rider Bradley Harris is “stoked” to be representing New Zealand at the UCI Mountain Bike Enduro World Championships in Italy next weekend.
The 25-year-old is one of three Kiwis, and the only elite male, to be selected by Cycling NZ for the event in Finale Ligure from October 16 to 18.
Speaking to Mountain Scene from Nice, France, this week, Harris says it is a reward for perseverance after steadily developing his skills over the past five northern hemisphere seasons.
Dunedin-born and Alexandra-raised, he got hooked on the sport as a high school boy in the Central Otago town.
He moved to Queenstown in 2021 to progress his riding while continuing with a building apprenticeship.
Racing as a privateer on the UCI Enduro World Cup circuit, he has begun turning experience into results, progressing from the fringes of the top 50 to a career-best 25th at La Thuile in July.
At La Thuile — one of three World Cup rounds he has raced this season — he finished inside the top 20 in three of the four stages, including a 16th-place finish on the final stage.
Harris says he had “come a long way from that kid in Alex”.
“I’ve stuck at it, and here we are.”
Enduro is often described as mountain biking’s equivalent of rallying, with riders racing a series of timed competitive stages linked by untimed transfers.
Although it has a lower profile than downhill, Harris reckons it is just as difficult, if not harder, with riders having to be “fit as well as fast”.
They also have to manage their effort and strategy across an event that can have anything between five and nine stages.
For the past two seasons, he has combined Enduro World Cup racing with downhill events and appearances at Crankworx events in Canada and Australia.
