Queenstown Mountain Bike Club president Lance Brown said this year had seen an increase of riders in the resort, and put it down to the "huge impact" the new bike-lift access on the Skyline gondola had on Queenstown bike culture and biking awareness in town.
"The club has been working on tracks for the last six years and now that the gondola has opened up for bikers, Ben Lomond has kind of become the jewel in the crown."
He said the end of the biking season was fast approaching, with the gondola bike lifts closing on May 29, and the focus changing from biking to working on trails.
The club had been a key player with Skyline on the Ben Lomond access and development, and was now looking to put a lot more back into the areas it manages during the winter and spring seasons.
This winter will see the national cyclocross championships and the mountain bikes on snow events happening with the winter festival, as well as an international cyclocross event as part of the winter games.
However, before the cold fully sets in, he said riders would look to keep on track as long as possible, including a core element who continue to ride at night using high-powered headlamps.
"You will find there will definitely be a hard-core night riding crew that will initially be out riding. Once it gets cold, that kind of winds down a bit, but as long as the trails are open, people will be using them," Mr Brown said.
The club's annual general meeting takes place on June 1, and, looking ahead, he said Queenstown needed to keep up the momentum of development and biking awareness driven by the gondola access and the "good success" of the first ever Queenstown Bike Festival.
"[We need] more trails open in the Ben Lomond forest and to continue promoting ourselves as a biking mecca and showing the other areas of biking we have, not just the hard-core ones. There's a solid base here and it's just a matter of keeping the momentum going for the next four or five years - it could become quite a big tourism drawcard for the town."
