Adventure Festival's RRR highlights growing MTB popularity
Friday 7 June 2013
Dirt in the skirt: Port mountain bikers on victory trail
Last Sunday morning, 338 mountain bike (MTB) riders made their way to 'The Bump Track', a legendary trail at Wetherby Station, Port Douglas.
East from Mt Molloy, the 6km track serves as the start of the 35km RRR (Rural, Rainforest, Reef) Challenge, Australia’s longest running “Point To Point” MTB race and feature of the Cairns Airport Adventure Festival. From 48 female competitors across age categories, Port Douglas locals Jean Macdonald and Jacky Cook claimed gold in the 35km Masters and Super Masters, respectively.
“They did incredibly well,” said Jean’s husband, Mike Thurtell, himself a MTB rider and 35km Super Masters silver medallist, “getting two firsts…against a really strong field from Cairns. There were some really good riders in amongst all that.”
The trio excelled in navigating the traditional course, an area steeped in 140 years of North Queensland mining and farming history. A 70km course was added this year, but it’s the original that had its 23rd version on Sunday.
Mike and Jean have lived in Port for 18 years; they’re RRR regulars. Sunday’s event was Mike’s fifth and Jean’s fourth consecutive. “Every year I sort of snuck up a bit in the placings,” Mike said, “Jean won it two years ago, came third last year, and won again this year,” he noted with pride. Jacky’s lived in Port for 22 years, and joined the Douglas MTB community six to seven years ago.
Clearly, the active, adventurous sport stereotypically associated with a young, male audience, is appealing to a wider audience. The three riders rush to explain the attraction.
“It’s fun, it’s more adventurous –“
“You’re free, you’re out –“
“It’s more interesting than road riding!”
“There’s something about...riding around the bush on your bike, without the pressures of all the traffic...I think it’s just the freedom, and the constantly changing terrain,” concludes Mike, and the women nod.
With a brief history, mountain biking is still very much a sport in progress in the cycling industry and wider sporting community. Over the Cairns Airport Adventure Festival weekend in June, it's dwarfed in competitor numbers and publicity by the more visible Coral Coast Triathlon and Great Barrier Reef Ocean Challenge for outriggers.
“To be honest, I was a bit disappointed with what I’ve seen in the papers…it’s still really focused heavily on the triathlons…I suppose the more visible events,” Mike said.
“Nearly 600 riders participated in the RRR on the weekend, but I don’t think it got much airplay. And the standard of some of these athletes - nearly world-class! In fact, there’s not even one mention of the 35km race, which was the original distance. The 70km was only added a couple of years ago, when USM [Events] took over. For the last 20 years, it’s been a traditionally short course that the majority of bikes still do, but it got nothing.”
“I think it’s ‘cause not many people do mountain biking,” Jacky said.
Though Mike and Jean are members of the Cairns Mountain Bike Club, there’s no counterpart in the Douglas region. The Cairns Club, formed in the 1980s, is a breeding ground of mountain biking fanatics, with a number of members elite level national and world cup riders in the cross country and downhill disciplines.
There's no doubt it's growing. MTB events around the world regularly attract thousands of participants. In Queensland, the trend is largely due to increasing popularity of Far North events like the RRR.
“It’s starting to arrive,” said Jean, “[the Douglas region] has some of the best mountain biking and trails and tracks and facilities for training in the whole Far North. I’d like to see more events up here… that incorporate the bump track, black mountain road. We’ve only got the one a year at the moment with the RRR."
Mike agreed, “we’ve got the mountain bike park at Smithfield, but it’s a bit of a drive to get down there. And Cairns Mountain Bike Club runs events…but it’d be great to see more events up in our local area, as well.”
There's no doubt it helps the Douglas MTB cause to have so many local success stories. “There were so many mountain bikers from Port Douglas,” said Jacky, “it’s good to see. There should be more.”
“They missed out on placing, but the guys did really well,” Mike said, as the trio return to describing the sport’s appeal.
“A certain kind of person does mountain biking,” Jacky muses.
“It’s almost like a second childhood, you get up here and just ride your bike around the bush, exploring and challenging yourself, and sometimes you just stop and sit near a mountain creek,” Mike said.
“How good’s that?”