A pageant of mud, sweat and gears hits Mt Major this weekend.
Goulburn Valley Mountain Bike Club hosts the second round of the Joyride Rookie Cup on Saturday and Sunday, bringing together some of the nation’s best junior riders for two days of downhill domination.
The cup, Australia’s first dedicated youth downhill series, was recently rolled out by Joyride, a coaching company owned by world-class rider Cooper Downey.
This weekend’s action sees the event reach its second leg at Dookie and is a massive coup for the club.
“Before this series there’s been no dedicated series for juniors,” club president Greg Brassil said.
“They sort of just get lumped in with the pro series and they just get romped when they’re trying to get into the sport.
“This one’s aimed at kids starting out with downhill racing pretty much.”
Brassil said the Mt Major leg of the series has 280 riders registered and counting.
Around a dozen are Shepparton-based.
Entrants will descend from across Victoria and NSW, with national championship winners glittering a highly talented field.
Brassil anticipated an attendance of around 1500 throughout both days.
The sheer volume of people flocking to Dookie for an event hosted by a club mere months after its inception is a yardstick for the thriving mountain bike community in Shepparton.
“The whole reason for starting up the club was our junior kids around here that are into downhill racing pretty much have nowhere to ride locally,” Brassil said.
“As a group, we’re always travelling to Bright and other places — the closest downhill track other than this one is two hours away.
“We got about 50 members in Shepp in the first few weeks and 90 per cent of them are juniors.
“They’re all tight friends now; they’ve all been hanging out at Mount Major every day of the school holidays. It’s been really good.”
According to Brassil, the former Goulburn Valley Mountain Bike Club disbanded before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Knowing the interest and need for a locally-based entity, Brassil started the new club in winter and set up an agreement with Melbourne University, which owns the bushland reserve at Mt Major.
From there, the crew started from scratch and rebuilt the tracks, and now the dirt slopes are in fine condition ahead of a weekend’s worth of course carving.
“It’s very spectator-friendly out there, it’s the only downhill track where you can actually see the track,” Brassil said.
“Normally when you go to these races, you can see someone come past for about three seconds through the trees and they’re gone, whereas Mt Major you can stand down the bottom and see 90 per cent of the track.”