For the first time ever, be a #rockytrailracer in the Orange region! The Shimano Mountain Bike Grand Prix 2020 season opening event will be held at Kinross State Forest, supported by the Orange City Council and under the patronage of the local Orange MTB Club.
The race is on the 15th February, right after Valentine’s Day… why not make it a romantic getaway – lots to do for your partner while you race and so many experiences together in the region afterwards – find out more in our destination blog! – Why not race together? – All registered couples in mixed teams go into the draw for a special prize! ♥♥

This will possibly be one of the last big rides in this area. The local club does amazing work and created a unique and amazing trail network in partnership with Forestry NSW. We can only highly recommend you test these amazing trails before the logging begins later this year.
The smell of pine, the tacky dirt, the flow, it has it all! 5 minutes out of an amazing town, its worth the visit. We can’t wait to be there this year with thanks to:

This is the RIDER BRIEFING for the Shimano MTB GP in Orange on 15 February 2020.

This is classic cross-country lap racing at its best – race solo or in teams for four or seven hours!

If you have already signed up, it’s awesome to have you on board! Still one the fence? Online registrations are open until Friday before race day! Should we be getting close to selling out, we will communicate it via our website and our social media platforms.
Are you coming with a group of riders, club or racing team? Let the events team know if you’d like to reserve a dedicated prime team spot in the Event Village? Here are the contact details –
Event Managers:
- Bob Morris 0458 299 558
- Jo Parker 0424 955 332
The venue – Kinross State Forest
The Kinross mountain bike trail network is located just 5 minutes out of town and they are pure flowy trail goodness with that distinct fresh pine forest smell. We’ll be sure to use every bit of terrain on offer and will showcase the amazing mix of pine forest and native vegetation that surrounds the event centre.
The trails are managed by the Forestry Corporation and built and maintained by the Orange MTB Club
Camping is allowed at this venue but please let us know if you intend to camp so that we have idea of numbers.
More accommodation options & experiences are on our destination BLOG. Read more…
You can find a map on the EVENT WEBSITE.

A lot of legends from the Orange MTB Club have helped us. Special thanks go to: Rocket Farrell at DG Cycles for his input, club president Jack Rahilly, Austrian expat Leo Presslaber and Scott Charlton – local trail legend.
The tracks have been cleaned up by the club and we have been informed they are riding great.
At Rocky Trail we love supporting and working together with local clubs – they know the best trails and it gives us great pleasure to be a funding stream for their trail building efforts and club initiatives. With a lot of the clubs having their home trails in State Forests, we are also closely working together with the Forestry Corporation, liaising with them on trail usage and sustainability.
The hosting town – Orange NSW
With hundreds of historical sites, wine trails, dining experiences and natural wonders to choose from it can be hard to know where to begin your visit to the Orange NSW region.
“The beauty of a weekend in Orange is that there’s so much to do between events. Whether it’s a visit to a local vineyards, a relaxed meal at a cafe or a browse around the shops, families coming to Orange in February have many options.” – Mayor Cr Reg Kidd
The official Visitor Portal is called Orange360 – they have done the work for you and shortlisted the very best attractions and things to do in Orange and its surrounding villages. Discover a range of itineraries which have been designed to maximise your precious holiday time when you visit Orange and get the most out of the region, to suit any budget or taste.
Find out more about What’s On in Orange & A Special Winery Offer!

Bring the family, partners & friends – there’s so much to do for them while and after you race! We collected information of What’s On that weekend in Orange and what experiences await you – click through to our BLOG for accommodation, excursions and visitor information!
Read more in our #rockytraildestination blog…
!!! Special Offer by Highland Heritage Estate !!!
Voted Cellar Door of the Year, Highland Heritage boasts an expansive vista overlooking the Wellwood Estate. When our crew visited the vineyard we learned that it sits on rich basalt soils and the elevation of 890m above sea level make for premium cool climate award winning wines.
What’s On at the vineyard: This weekend sees the start of the estate’s Blackberry season and were you are able to pick your own sweet, juicy berries that this warm summer has produced! Containers for ‘pick your own’ are $10 (aprox 1 kg) and $6 (aprox 500g) available at Cellar Door.
The estate and cellar door is OPEN 7 DAYS 10 – 5PM – Rocky Trail Racers get 10% off at the cellar door on wine purchases.


The racing – a social affair
Our GP series may just be the most inclusive cross-country racing series in Australia! From the first time between the tape to people who have spent a lifetime training for power output, we have you covered.
The SHIMANO MTB Grand Prix Series is in its twelfth year in 2020. Under the patronage of SHIMANO Cycling Australia and with its host of major sponsors and supporters it has grown to one of the major cross-country endurance racing series in Australia.
Categories & racing action
Generally, the series aims to reward as many riders as possible with prizes at each event and across the series. There are age-group and eBike category podiums. Racers receive a placing in their age category and there will also be a General Classification (GC) online.
Each event offers a stand-alone race and race winners in the age categories are awarded with trophy number plates and accolade plaques, which can be collected and displayed on the number plates.
Each race also offers the opportunity to accumulate points to go into the overall series ranking.
Are you riding an e-Bike? You’re most welcome to compete at Rocky Trail events! Tick the e-Bike BOX when you register onlineto go into the special classification!
Race schedule
Friday
All day The track is marked and you can practice on it but we won’t have any services (marshalls, first aid) in place.
Saturday
7:00-8:00 am Registration open to pick up your number plate.
8:45am Rider briefing, be race ready.
9:00am Race start – FAST GP + FURIOUS GP
approx. 11:00am Kids race (sign up for free at the rego desk)
1:00pm Race finish – FAST GP
2:00pm Ceremony – FAST GP
4:00pm Race finish – FURIOUS GP
5:00pm Ceremony – FURIOUS GP

Event Facilities
Camping
As this is a State Forest venue, camping is allowed and for free. We will have toilets at the event centre from Friday afternoon; our caterer comes on Saturday morning.
Parking
Plenty of space at the event centre; please follow instructions by our crew when you arrive. Cheers!
Food & Drinks
You can bring your own supplies and we’ll have our caterer on-site who will look after you all day. Merv’s Eatery will cater for us during the event with Food & Coffee available from 7am:
- Breakfast – Fresh bacon, egg and tomato relish rolls, toasted muesli and yoghurt cups, fresh fruit salad cups.
- Lunch – house made quiche and salad, a selection of gourmet wraps as per our cafe menu, fresh traditional sandwiches, sausage rolls, assorted cakes/muffins. Hot lunch option would be beef nachos with fresh salsa.

Water
Please bring your own water and hydration.
Support Service
We will have the crew from FIZO Cycling on-site to assist you with mechanicals – they have some cool offers when it comes to bike service and set-up, have a chat to Jason “Moxy” Moxham and he can sort you out.

Entertainment for visitors & kids – We welcome visitors and spectators and entry for spectators is free! We’ll have the RedBull DJ pump out some choonz!!
We invite you to bring your families and kids and friends and parents and partners along to watch you race. For the little visitors we do a free junior race – this is a very simple time-trial around the event centre or on kids tracks if the venues allow it.

The hard facts – what you get
We want to reward as many riders as possible with prizes across the series. Therefore,
We will hand out the prizes BEFORE the race start!
Rather than handing out the prizes we get from our fantastic sponsors to the winning riders only, we are spreading more spot prizes across the entire field. We will issue as many raffle giveaway tickets as we receive prizes from our sponsors at each race and they will be categorised according to item value. Each rider with a “winning ticket” will be able to pick a prize from the “Rocky Trail Bazaar” of spot prizes. All other tickets go into the draw for a selected number of major prizes, which will differ from race to race. Having said that, here’s what you get:

- FREE rider photo package valued at $60 by the OuterImage.com.au crew thanks to our major sponsor, SHIMANO Cycling Australia
- A chance to win a prize via a raffle ticket draw

Winning number plates!
The top three age category winners at the Orange Shimano MTB GP will get a race plate that you can use at any Rocky Trail event for the entire 2020 Season. Yep, it’s reserved for you all year!

Series information
At the core of all our efforts to put together the annual racing calendar have and will always be the trails. We are working very closely with property managers and organisations, local councils and clubs and our aim is to deliver a versatile selection of terrain, regions and mountain bike trails.
There are quite a few regional trail networks on the calendar for 2020 – this will give more #rockytrailracers the chance to race at their local trails and let visiting riders compete with the growing Rocky Trail community, discovering favourite and brand new trails.
Please note that you don’t have to be a member of a club to participate at Rocky Trail events and that you are responsible to cover your own insurance for the race. As a member of a MTB Club you can arrange for such an insurance and if you have any questions, please email us or chat to our Event Managers. Detailed race regulations, a copy of our race waiver and FAQ’s are on our website.
For a map of all 2020 locations visit the event website and if you any more questions, please contact us via cycle@rockytrailentertainment.com
A huge thanks to the continued support by our headline sponsor Shimano Cycling Australia – you guys ROCK!


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