Hooray!! UCI World Cup starts this weekend!

I love the UCI World Cup events – in particular, the DH. It is my favourite annual race.

Much to the delight of Southern Hemisphere riders, Cairns has been included on the DH and XC schedule for the last couple of years.

For me, that has meant an annual pilgrimage to Cairns for the big event.

This year the World Champs round will be in Cairns, which means local tracks need prepping early.

So this post is a review of the last two UCI World Cup events – and an invitation to join the Cairns 2017 UCI World Champs Working Bee Team!

Great memories of the last 2 Cairns UCI World Cup Events

Last year I went to the Cairns UCI World Cup with mates and it was an all social affair.

Last year I posted about what a great event the 2016 event was and what blast it was catching up with old friends, making new ones and soaking up the World Cup vibes – here’s a few mates I managed to catch up with…

Above: Me and Ratboy (Josh Bryceland) – Peatty’s Team Mate/Mentee and British DH Champ and World Cup Racer. He has been on the UCI World Cup podium 9 times. He is also well known for his mad riding and hard partying ways. It was great I got to catch up with Josh last year as it ended up being his last year racing the Pro circuit and he retired soon after this photo was taken.

Above: Me and Julien Absalon – the most winningest (and considered the best) Elite Men’s Cross Country (MTB) rider in the world …ever!! Too many accolades to list here…Woohoo!!

Above: Me and Troy Brosnan. Brosnan was Junior DH World Champ for 2010 and 2011. He won the overall junior world cup in 2010 & 2011 and Aussie DH Champion in 2011 & Oceania Junior Continental Champion 2011. In 2012 he went Elite, with a third overall in the DH World Cup (2014) and won the Fort William third round. He also won the DH World Champs bronze in 2014 and third overall for the 2015 and 2016 DH World Cup series. He is Australian National DH Champ for 2012, 2014, 2015, and 2016 (*Phew!*).

Last year’s UCI World Cup in Cairns

For me, last year was a total contrast to 2015. I worked the 2015 Cairns event, which was epic given that it rained non-stop a week prior to race day.

This turned all the tracks into slick and slippery death-defying shoots covered in thick gluggy toothpaste!

Boy did everyone work hard that round!!! Ahhhh the memories!!!

(See Instagram @Bicycles_Create_Change for more past UCI DH World Cup pics).

Remember Cairns UCI World Cup 2015- aka ‘Rumble in the Puddles’?

If you need to refresh your memory of how epic the 2015 UCI DH Cairns round was – check out this 2’32” Badass mashup video…

…and yes…that is me in the opening sequence!!

But this year will be a little different. I’ll be watching remotely as I won’t be making the trek to Cairns this year for the big event (*sniff*).

2017 UCI MTB World Cup Calendar

Redbull’s Official MTB website has the follow details outlined for the current 2017 UCI World Cup Calendar schedule:

There are six rounds each for XCO and DH – and the World Cup 2017 is starting this weekend – woohoo!!

The World Championship heads to Australia and Cairns at the end of the World Cup season with a full program of XCO, XCE and DH racing on show.

I can’t wait!!!

The UCI is expected to confirm the calendar in late June and the dates will be subject to change until then so don’t go booking trips to the events until then! Scroll down for all the downhill (DHI) and cross country (XCO) rounds.

April 29-30: (DHI) Lourdes, France
May 20-21: (XCO) Nové Mesto, Czech Republic
May 27-28: (XCO) Albstadt, Germany
June 3-4: (DHI) Fort William, Scotland
June 10-11: (DHI) Leogang, Austria
July 1-2 (XCO/DHI) Vallnord, Andorra
July 8-9: (XCO/DHI) Lenzerheide, Switzerland
August 5-6: (XCO/DHI) Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada
August 26-27: (XCO/DHI) Val di Sole, Italy
September 5-10: (XCO/DHI) UCI World Championships, Cairns, Australia

Cairns MTB World Cup Working Bee Shout-out

As a member of Cairns MTB Club, I received this shout-out invitation for World Cup working bee helpers. So if you are keen to be part of the action and for anyone in the area… here are the details as sent to me FYI:

With the UCI MTB World Championships just around the corne, there is a way you can be involved now. The Cairns MTB Club has been asked to construct a new spectator/media trail in the “Vines” section of the Downhill track. We have been offered an incentive to get it done ASAP and we want to pass some of that incentive on to the people that help build the trail.

We need are people to help out on regular Saturday/Sunday morning working bees from 7:30am-10:30 am, for about six – eight weeks beginning on the 10th of June.

We do have a budget to meet so the quicker we can get it done, the less we spend on it, giving the club more funds to put back into trail maintenance and development. The job is to create a 1.5m wide riding/walking trail in “Vines” area running alongside the downhill track. There will be a lot of shovel and mattock digging involved.

The Reward

For every working bee (3 hours long) you can attend and do productive work you will receive a gift voucher to use at the bike shop of your choice.

You can put it towards that new something you have wanted or you can donate the money back to the club to help fund the Black snake rebuild and extension. The Gift Vouchers will be handed out at the end, once the work is completed and has been approved by National Parks. All workers will need to “sign in” with their details at each working bee so we can keep accurate records of attendance and hours worked.

If this is something you are interested in getting involved with, please email Club President Craig at President@cairnsmtb.com with your expression of interest.

Reminder

The first Working Bee will be held on Sunday 10th of June and then every Saturday and Sunday morning until the job is done.