Australian Mountain Bike Issue 193

Where will your bike take you in Thredbo? The Alpine season is here, and Thredbo will be pumping! With three chairs giving you lift access to the Cannonball Run, the All-Mountain trail, Ricochet (above), the Flow trail and the brand new Sidewinder trail (below) – there’s plenty of gravity fed riding for the summer ahead. After a hiatus since December 2019, the Cannonball Festival party is coming back to Thredbo from 8-12 February, 2022. Take your bike, take your mates and take a fun-filled attitude. Whether you ride, race or just catch up with mates you haven’t seen for ages – this is a date that needs to be on your calendar for the new year.…

Over 18 months ago, we ran a cover line of ‘Get out and ride!’. With a couple of weeks between printing magazines and having them delivered to dear readers like yourselves, I was certainly concerned that the tag line may not be the best advice. Still, as the majority of states have eased restrictions on movement already, it really is the time to get out and ride. Riding bikes has been a popular method of escapism for lots of riders over the past 18 months or so, and was for a long time before that as well. But I reckon with some expanded horizons for most of us, this summer is the time to stretch our legs and see where we can go – especially in Australia’s unique alpine regions. We’ve got…

AusCycling released the majority of event dates for the 2022 National Championships across all mountain bike disciplines in early November. For 2022, Observed Trials will have a standalone National Championships, and a Gravel National Championships will also be held. • Observed Trials (OT): Stromlo Forest Park, ACT - 29 January • DHI, eMTB, XCO, XCC and Pump Track: Maydena Bike Park, TAS - 14-20 February • Fat Bike: Broome WA -, 13 May • Gravel: Noosa, QLD - 31 July • Gravity Enduro: Red Hill, VIC – 22-23 October • 24 Hour: Rydal, NSW – 3-4 December • Marathon (XCM): TBC With some national titles being missed in the past two years, or being run at reduced capacity due to travel or venue restrictions, having seven different events covering a range of Australian states and territories will let…

MOGO, NSW With 155km of planned trails in the networks, 125km of this will be new trails, with the current 30km in Mogo State Forest and Deep Creek Dam being formalised and brought into the networks. The total network will connect Mogo and Batehaven, as part of the approved master plan from 2020. There will be an adventure trail hub to help create a significant destination for Australia. That means, somewhere we’ll all want to visit, with a range of trails to cater for beginners, intermediate riders and advanced riders as well. With a projected cost of $8 million, $5 million will come from a grant from the NSW and Australian governments’ Bushfire Local Economic Recovery Fund, with the other $3 million grant from the NSW Government’s Growing Local Economies fund. KUNANYI/MT WELLINGTON,…

The classic Otway Odyssey weekend is back again in 2022, with the Otway Odyssey marathon and Great Otway Gravel Grind filling the weekend of 23-24 February. With a new course for the Odyssey, and distances for just about anyone, this is a chance for a great weekend of riding off-road in the Otway Ranges. The village of Forrest comes alive with the two events in town, and while the racing attracts the best in the nation, the trails in Forrest attract all sorts of mountain bikers. The gravel event on Sunday is the perfect way to either keep the competitive spirit going, or chill out and enjoy the forest roads and catered time out zones – along with a section along the Great Ocean Road. Get all the details at the…

One of the impacts on mountain biking from a global pandemic is the lack of development pathways for Junior riders and those moving into the Elite ranks. Packing up bikes and gear and doing a stint of racing in Europe or North America has been a rite of passage for many generations of mountain bikers – and it is a process that has helped a number of Australian riders score factory rides on some of the biggest teams in the world. Private enterprise and hard work is looking to fill that gap for four riders, as the Collab Racing Team has been put together for 2022. “The team was set up due to Covid 19 restrictions, and Junior riders not being able to compete in the World Cups,” explained first year…