Well, if the sun is shining, you may as well take advantage of it.

So far more than 100 riders are signed up to tackle the 24 Hours of Light Mountain Bike Festival starting at the Copper Belt Museum (just before the Fish Lake turnoff) at noon on Saturday.

The single-lap course will take riders on parts of the Mount McIntyre cross-country ski trail system, and who ever accumulates the most laps, wins.

Anyone interested in registering for the event can do so at http://24hoursoflight.ca until midnight Thursday. The race costs $65 per rider, which includes swag, random prizes, a midnight snack and breakfast.

Categories are solo riders or teams of two, four or eight people, either male, female or mixed. Teams can also have less than the maximum number of riders. For instance, six riders can sign up for the eight-person category.

Coordinator Jessica Thiessan has ridden in the event previously but this year is helping with organization.

"I'll be responsible for rabble-rousing and herding cats, making sure that everything goes very smoothly,” Thiessan said.

"I'm a mountain biker, so I love any chance to be out on the trail, and to be out there in the brilliant sunlight of the middle of the night was pretty awesome.”

"I tried my best to sleep on the course (last year). But that's impossible.”

Most riders stay up all night, she added.

Isn't that exhausting?

"I don't know. I didn't feel exhausted. Maybe that's because I'm crazy. There's constantly music going … and there's food at midnight and breakfast again at eight, so there's always something happening that kind of makes you want to stay up and keep track,” Thiessan said.

"The gist of the race is to come out and to get on your bike and hang out with a bunch of mountain bikers. The mountain bike community doesn't get together all that often, so this is a real lovely opportunity for people to just be in the same place, swap stories and make some memories.”

Wait, people do this thing solo?

"Yes.”

How's that possible?

"They're awesome – that's how it's possible,” Thiessan laughed. "And whoever manages to get the most laps in gets a giant trophy.”