As WA continued to keep COVID at bay, we’ve been busy behind the scenes making sure that our members - both locals and visitors to the South West - kept their MTB stoke high!
From new trails and new sponsors to our continued support for MTB events in the South West, MRORCA has been working hard to keep the club well funded and make progress towards our five core objectives:
To promote, encourage and develop off road cycling for people of all ages, abilities and disciplines in the Margaret River region
To act as advocates and liaise with land managers for the purpose of planning, establishing and maintaining regional trail networks.
To ensure that off road cycling access and trail planning become an integral part of the recreational and tourism philosophy of the Margaret River region.
To foster appreciation and care of our natural environment via the sustainable use of our natural assets.
To foster community health and wellbeing through off road cycling.
Here’s what happened during 2021 since our last AGM:
New Trails
Working with DBCA, JD and the crew at Magic Dirt Trailworx have built over 15 km of new trails above compartment 10 in the old pines. The new trails have something for everyone: from smooth rolling berms in “Loosey Goosey” (aka Angry Dolphin), to pumpy flows like “Pumpty Dumpty”, or even jump lines like “Epilogue”.
The official opening and launch party will be Thursday 3 January 2022. Watch this space for more details on the party.
You can find the new trails here:
DIG DAYS & TRAIL MAINTENANCE
It’s awesome to see members - new and old - turn up to dig days and give back to the trails. This year has had over 10 dig days with works completed on pretty much every area of trails in the network. South Carters needed some love after last summer’s burn and Comp 10 needed a whole lot of work from the winter rains.
Just before this year’s Cape to Cape, Magic Dirt Trailworx were commissioned to bring some life back into Pugsley, Line Managers (have you tried it yet?!), WRC and Paper Trail, as well as work on drainage throughout Comp 10. The trails are in great condition for the dry summer ahead.
NEW WEBSITE
The club now has a new website. It not only improved the user experience for the site’s visitors and members, but made it easier for the committee to communicate with and manage membership. The new site is also far easier to keep up to date and should serve as a solid platform for years to come.
Most photos throughout the site came from legendary photographer Denzil Heeger who won the photo competition and some great prizes from MRORCA sponsors! Other photo credits go to Ryan Grondal & Nic Quinn.
WAGE
Once again, MRORCA helped support the Margaret River round of the WA Gravity Enduro (WAGE) series. Our blend of good vibes, great trails and family friendliness ensured that the WAGE round at Margies attracted more participants than any other WAGE stop.
WAGE organisers paid the club over $4k to help make sure the trails were back to mint condition after the event. The club also put on a sausage sizzle that raised over $3k towards trail maintenance and gave us a chance to show off our new gazebo.
MRORCA winners from the 2021 Series:
Women U11’s: Sage Dingey - 1st
Women U13’s: Meg McKenzie - 1st
Women U17’s: Alyssa Holland - 3rd
Women 45+ Supermasters: Bec Steele - 2nd
Men U19’s: Gus Kyme - 2nd
XCO with PMBC
Once again this year, we worked with Perth Mountain Bike Club (PMBC) to organise the Cross Country Olympic (XCO) State Series Round as part of the Down South Mountain Bike Festival. Thanks to all the volunteers that made it happen! We didn’t get a huge turnout from local members, but were able to raise more than $3k from the event. Although not hugely popular in Margies, XCO is the format followed at the Olympics and also at the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup. It consists of 3-5 laps of a 6-7 km loop which are all completed in about 90min. Don’t let the lycra discourage you, it’s not just for roadies.
Keen to give it a try? Get in touch with Leo Cerda (@leocerda)
downhill
A great season for MRORCA DH riders with two rounds nearby in Nannup, including the State Championships at Spur Rd in October held by the Peel Districts MTB Club.
We came away with four local State DH Champions!
U13 Male - Travis Smith
U19 Male - Gus Kyme
Masters 1/2 - Matthew Bell
Elite - Mich Delfs
Overall 2021 Series podium results:
Elite Men 1st place - Roly Kyme
U19 Men 2nd place - Gus Kyme
U17 Men 3rd place- Zac Wilson
Bigger things are happening for DH racing next year in WA including a Nannup Summer event planned for Jan 22.
Thanks to Neil Fraser for the pic of Gus Kyme at the State Champs.
LIL MISS ORCAS & GROMMETS COACHING
Year after year the coaching program for young girls and boys continues to grow and this year was no different. We were able to add three new certified coaches to the lineup which in turn allows us to add more kids to the groups.
Sorry if you’ve been on a waiting list to get your child signed up, but if you are keen to give us a hand (every Thursday 4-5pm) or become a coach, please get in touch. It’s great to be able to give back to the lil frothers.
Special thanks to all the coaches who give up their time every week!!
SUMMER SERIES
Once again, the club organised the Summer Series over the school holidays in January in partnership with Cape Mountain Bikers. The Summer Series always sells out with a huge turnout from local shredders from the South West.
The Summer Series will be back, bigger and better in 2022 starting January 3 2022.
CAPE TO CAPE
Despite the covidness over East, the Cape to Cape (C2C) event went ahead in 2021 and without a doubt; the Margies stage was the highlight of the event. For the first time in the event’s history, MRORCA was able to collect a fee-per-rider that resulted in about $3k straight into our trail maintenance fund.
Kudos to Susie Ormonde and the race director from Ironman for making it happen.
TRAIL SPONSORSHIP
This year, the club started a corporate trail sponsorship program. With the growing number of trails in town, the need to raise funds to maintain these has never been greater. The trail sponsorship program allows local businesses to sponsor a specific trail in exchange for trail signage displaying their company’s logo and direct promotion and endorsement to our members. It’s a win-win for everyone and a great way to keep a healthy trail maintenance fund.
If you are keen to find out more or sponsor a trail, get in touch here.
Thanks to our inaugural sponsors:
Lifecycle Bikes: Pugsley
Hairy Marron: Line Manager
Margaret River MTB Tours: Fluid
RAC: Thumper
Settlers Tavern: Golden Carrot
Burger Baby: Bender
Empire Cycles: Big Pine
On Track MTB: Paper Trail
Colonial Brewery: Cash & Karri
We'd like to thank DBCA for their support and guidance for the trail sponsorship initiative.
TRAIL ADOPTION
New for 2022 MRORCA membership have the opportunity to adopt a trail, keep it running sweetly with some pruning/raking & drainage maintenance throughout the year. Open to individuals, families, or get a group of mates together.
In conjunction with regular Dig Days & communicating with the Trail Sub Committee on your trail issues requiring significant work & resources we can keep our trails running the best we can.
We feel this will help generate a greater sense of ownership and involvement in our trail network for MRORCA members.
To register your interest:
Click the button below,
Scroll to the bottom to complete our volunteer registration form, and;
Let us know your preferred section (Creek, Comp 10, etc.) and three preferred trails in the “Tell us a bit about yourself” box.
AMB IN THE SOUTH WEST
We worked closely with Australian Mountain Bike Magazine (AMB) for their feature article on trails in the state's South West. The WA "Road Trips that Rock" feature will be in issue 194 which will be published in January 2022.
We also wrote an article for AMB on the experience gained by our committee member Leo on organising a club race in Margs.
THANKS TO OUR MEMBERS, SPONSORS AND VOLUNTEERS!
From businesses to individuals, giving up their time and keeping the stoke alive in Margies.
A huge thanks to all our members, sponsors and DBCA for your continued support.
We couldn’t do this without you!