Wet and wild in Cairns

It has been a long time between drinks for Cairns but the UCI MTB World Cup has finally arrived, and its been wet, wet, wet.

The first race held here in 1996 was a long remembered legendary event held at a time when the sport was exploding. Today a whole new generation of riders have returned to experience some of the most demanding trails in Queensland, if not the country.

The racing takes place today, Saturday and Sunday but before that there was training and practice runs to do, along with a bit of tourism.

Cairns is tropical and we've had that demonstrated in spades over the past few days. Did I mention that it's wet?

To say that its been raining is an understatement. It's been bucketing down, adding another technical dimension to the already difficult courses designed by trail impresario Glen Jacobs.

The courses for the cross country eliminator (XCE), Downhill (DHI) and cross country (XCO) are totally drenched which will add some unpredictability to the outcome.

Not that the riders have been grumbling, they are like pigs in the proverbial, with the conditions just another variable they have to deal with.

In South Africa for the first World Cup of the season it was a dust bowl. This week in Australia it's a red hued swimming pool.

You get the picture.

The racing starts today with the eliminator when all eyes will be on Australian and world champion Paul van der Ploeg, it'll be fun, fast and wet and anything can happen.

Tune in to SBS 2 at 4:15pm AEST for all the action, you won't regret it.

Follow@Philip_Gomes

SBS will broadcast the Cairns MTB World Cup XCE, DHI and XCO events live on SBS2.