Details are now up on www.wildhorizons.com.au on the BMC Mountains To Beach, Australia’s most exciting new mountain bike stage race. 5 days from the roof of Australia to the surf from 1-6 March 2009.

A rider turned up last week at the race start, the top station of Thredbo’s Kosciuszko Express Chairlift. Ski Patrol had to tell him he was just a little bit early! See attached.

Plans for the event are full steam ahead with great support received from all the Host Partners and Sponsors and a superb week of riding and racing mapped out.

A big welcome to those sponsors on board already: BMC bikes, Berghaus outdoor equipment, Hayes brakes, Manitou shocks, Ay Up lights, Ground Effect cycle clothing, Verofit nutrition, Maxxis tyres, Sigma computers and Cyclecover insurance.

Also on board as Host Partners are Thredbo Village, Novotel Lake Crackenback Resort, Perisher Blue Ski Resort, National Parks & Wildlife Service, Buckenderra Resort, Visit Cooma, Eurobodalla Tourism.

The Highland Fling sells out!

In other news we’re looking forward to putting on another great Highland Fling mountain bike marathon on November 8-9. This event, Australia’s MTB Marathon Championship, sold out all 1400 entries in less than 3 weeks, a record for the event. The Highland Fling takes place in the Southern Highlands of NSW on 8-9 November 2008.

For any further information please contact Huw Kingston on 02 4883 6509, info@wildhorizons.com.au

Thanks for your interest!

Wild Horizons
www.wildhorizons.com.au

source: Huw Kingston

The BMC Mountains To Beach - 6 days of awesome mountain bike stage racing from the roof of Australia to the surf

Imagine a week of mountain biking, a week of racing, that will take you from the highest mountains in Australia, across snowgum lined plains, down along rainforest lined creeks and out to finish with your wheels in the sand and surf. Snaking singletrack, ‘wind through the helmet’ downhills, challenging uphills and some of the most varied scenery you could want.

Event promoter, Wild Horizons, are very excited to announce that the inaugural BMC Mountains To Beach will take place from 1-7 March 2009 and would like to welcome Swiss bike brand BMC aboard as Headline Sponsor of the event.

The BMC Mountains To Beach is a ‘tour’ style event. Entrants, solo or pairs, will ride some 400km on a journey from the mountains to the beach, from Thredbo in the Snowy Mountains to Narooma on the South Coast of NSW. The majority of the riding will be in race stages that will test the full range of mountain biking skills - uphill, downhill, cross country, marathon, riding under lights. Geez there will even be a short navigation stage and the potential of a task or two along the way to test riders mental faciltities! Whilst timed race stages will range in length from 5km to over 100km, there will also be a number of non timed, non race cruising stages along the way.

In announcing the event, Huw Kingston of Wild Horizons said:

‘When we announced the retiring of our 11 year old Polaris Challenge event in 2007, the reason was to allow us to run a stage race on mainland Australia in the month of March. Our Course Director Wayne Byard and myself have been working on Mountains to Beach for well over a year now. We’re really excited by the route and the riding we’ve pulled together and the partnerships we’re forming with host communities along the way. As with all our events, we’re putting on a professionally organized, challenging and fun race with the usual Wild Horizons slight offbeat elements included.’

Huw added:

‘It’s great to have BMC on board as the headline sponsor of the event and we will be announcing other major sponsors and host partners in the coming weeks. Our hope is that the event will establish itself as a ‘must do’ event on the Australian and international MTB calendar.’

Further details on The BMC Mountains To Beach will be available on www.wildhorizons.com.au in July

For additional information please contact Huw Kingston on 0418 977609 or huw@wildhorizons.com.au

source: Huw Kingston 

The weekend of 8-9 November 2008 sees the 4th running of the Highland Fling Mountain Bike Marathon. The race, which again doubles as the Australian MTB Marathon Championships, takes place in the beautiful Southern Highlands of NSW with the event centre in the town of Bundanoon, 2 hours south of Sydney.

The event has sold out each year and in 2008 entries will again be limited to 1300 riders. Entries for this year’s event will open on 23 June 2008 on www.wildhorizons.com.au. The event will include the Full Fling (approx 110km), Half Fling (approx 55km) and 100Mile Fling (approx 160km). New this year will be The Casual Fling, a 16km outing for those people keen to ride but not so sure of their ability to go the longer distances. Entries in the Casual Fling are additional to the 1300 rider cap.

Following on from the successful initiative last year as Australia’s first Carbon Neutral cycling event Wild Horizons, the event organizers, will again make the event Carbon Neutral, including allowing entrants to offset their travel to the event. The event will also expand upon the programmes introduced in 2007 to reduce the waste produced by the event and increase the rate of recycling at the event.

As well as the existing Major Sponsors VAUDE, Virgin Blue, Ground Effect, Specialized, GU and Forests NSW; a number of new Major and Support sponsors will be announced in the coming weeks.

The website www.wildhorizons.com.au will have fully updated details in the coming weeks.

For any further information on the event please contact the Event Director Huw Kingston on huw@wildhorizons.com.au , Tel 02 4883 6509, Mobile 0418 977609

Thanks for your interest!

Wild Horizons
www.wildhorizons.com.au

source: Huw Kingston