Rocky Trail’s SHIMANO MTB Grand Prix Series is one of the longest-standing cross-country series in Australia. All events of the series are stand-alone races and participants can collect points for an overarching series classification!
For the next event think: racing Saturday, beaches and cafes Sunday.
Yep, you read that right! The next SHIMANO MTB GP Series race on 27 July is happening at the Coondoo trails in Nowra on the beautiful South Coast – Jervis Bay is only a few kilometres from our event centre, which is in the Nowra State Forest, just 10-15 min drive South of the town. The relatively flat Coondoo course, it was one of the most-talked about in 2018 with trails that dictated an incredibly fast pace for an exciting finish in every category.
Here is the rider briefing with some bits and pieces of information to get you ready for and into the mood for racing with Rocky Trail Entertainment!
Offering 4 and 7 hour competitions for solo and team riders across many age categories, you can look forward to racing on the trail network that is hailed as the “Jewel in the Crown” of the local South Coast United Mountain Bike Inc. club!
Register now
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.
>> Click here for the RIDER LIST
The venue – Nowra State Forest, Coondoo SCUM home track
For the second time Rocky Trail will head to the trails of SCUM who invited us to race there. Located just south of Nowra this trail is fast and flowy with little climbing per lap. The area is managed by the Forestry Corporation. Camping is allowed at this venue and is free.
Expect fast and flowy trails and a race track that is about 9km long. There are only small changes altitude but plenty of course variation – it’s going to be a high-paced racing experience!
You can find a map on our website’s LOCATION tab. Please note that we will finalise the track in the week before the race; the area has had a bit of rain recently and we want to consult with the local club and caretakers and inspect some sections ourselves to put together the safest, most sustainable and fun track for you! We’ll send out a newsletter with those final details.
Some local ‘insider tips’ about access to the event centre:
The quicker way into Coondoo event centre is off Forest Rd and into Western Rd. You can also take Comberton Range Rd (turn-off the Princess Hwy a bit further south from Forest Rd), which links up with the other (Southern) end of Western Rd. Location Map on the website!
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. Here is a great video by the local club in Nowra – the South Coast United Mountain Bike Inc and their cooperation with State Forests.
The surrounds – Nowra and South Coast
We have already booked an entire house on the beach just a few kilometers from the event centre for us and our crew and we want to tempt you to make a weekend out of it too! Bring your family, come with a bunch of mates, take along your loved one… there is a lot to do and to explore in and around Nowra!
Here are some links to help you plan your stay:
> Link to Nowra/Shoalhaven tourism site
> Link to Accommodation and Things To Do in Nowra (Destination NSW)
The racing – a social affair
As the owners of Rocky Trail, Juliane and Martin, we created the GP events around our favourite trails and we love that we get to discover new venues and re-discover the classics every year. From one race in 2009, the events have evolved over the years and albeit all being stand-alone races they all are part of the over-arching annual series. Riders competing in two or more events get to accumulate series points and get trophies and bragging rights for collecting most points (the best 4 out of the 5 race results count).
We created a 4 and 7 hour competition within each race and there are quite a few categories to choose from – solo and pairs across both options as well as a team of 3 category in the seven-hour.
Everyone gets results in a General Classification as well as in Age Divisions.
Are you riding an e-Bike? You’re most welcome to compete at Rocky Trail events! Tick the e-Bike BOX when you register online to go into the special classification! Click here for the category information.
It has been very important to us to keep this series a set of very social races. We are attracting some of the big names in the XC racing world – often the local guns come out for a play or come along for the series to keep training throughout the year, or, as we’ve been told quite often, “we come because it’s fun and you guys put on a good show”. That’s flattering to hear, however, you must know that with our crew and suppliers, we strive to organise professional events that are safe, fair, value for money, that take you to exciting venues and those where we mountain bikers are welcome.
We want to deliver a series that is less of an elite- and winners-only-focused competition, but a positive and inclusive experience for all participants. The majority of our racers are amateur riders and we love riding and racing ourselves, so we do like to put on some good tunes and most of the time our “honorary Entertainment Manager”, DJ Nigel from Pedal4Pierce, our charity of choice, will spin not only his wheels but also the decks to crank out some tunes that will push you out onto each lap and keep you entertained as you are having a rest in the event centre.
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
Racing starts at 9am – pick up your number plate from 7am.
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
1:00pm Race finish – FAST GP
2:00pm Ceremony – FAST GP
4:00pm Race finish – FURIOUS GP
5:00pm Ceremony – FURIOUS GP
Race atmosphere
The atmosphere in our event centre is friendly, happy and inclusive and you will see that Martin is very much in charge. We have been working with most of our suppliers for years – from first aiders to marshals to caterers to photographers, it is our top priority for you to have an amazing time out on your bike and to lend a helping (and rescuing) hand if need be.
Event Facilities
Food & Drinks
You can bring your own supplies and we’ll have our caterer on-site who will look after you all day with hot and cold drinks of course and they always have something up their sleeves when it comes to the food and snacks. Choose from yoghurt and muesli and fresh fruit as well as pasta dishes, your classic sandwhiches and snacks to tasty shakes and sweet treats.
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
Having said that, we welcome visitors and spectators and 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 colouring-in pages and little giveaways and free junior races – these are very simple time-trial style races around the event centre or on kids tracks if the venues allow it.
There will be a fun and free kids race around 11am and did you know about the Rocky Trail Cruzee Kids Bike Fleet?
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
GC winning number plates!
Each GC winner at every 2019 race will get a pre-assigned and pre-printed number plate, which you can keep and race with for the rest of the series! It’s your exclusive race number that will be reserved for you across the entire series!
Doesn’t matter if you are racing in a different category or team across different Shimano MTB GP events, this is assigned to YOUR name and valid all season! We are trying to pre-assign as many as possible for each event, but of course can make changes on the day. Have a chat to us at rego!
Series information
The August series race will be held at the Central Coast’s Ourimbah State Forest and in a first since the inception of the series a Championship event will conclude the series at Awaba MTB Park in October.
For any more questions, please contact us via cycle@rockytrailentertainment.com and visit the event website.
A huge thanks to the continued support by our headline sponsor Shimano Cycling Australia – you guys ROCK!
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