TROPICAL ESCAPES AT REEF TO REEF

New for 2018, Reef to Reef completes what some are calling Australia’s MTB Triple Crown, as the 4-day event follows in the footsteps of Cape to Cape and Port to Port. But this time – it’s in Tropical North Queensland.

Once a year, the world’s best mountain bikers are selected by their country to go into battle – racing the clock or racing bar to bar to see who will win the World Championship title and earn the rainbow stripes. This is an honour not just for the next 12 months, but it offers mountain bikers a chance to etch their name into the history books. In 2018, the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships took place in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. A country and town that is bike mad could only mean one thing – epic courses and racing and insane crowds. The racing in Olympic Cross-Country and Downhill did not disappoint. One week later, the party would shift to Auronzo di Cadore in Italy, where a demanding course in the Dolomites would decide who would be the men’s and women’s Cross-Country Marathon champions. The World Championship races in Cairns in 2017 were immense, and the whole area and even country lifted for the event. But even with efforts to globalise cycling, Europe is the heartland of cycling – mountain biking included. In Europe, cycling is part of life. It is something just about anyone can engage with. Everyone knows what it is like to ride a bike. To ride into a headwind. To get stuck in the rain. In Europe, cycling and mountain biking are far better understood than in many other areas around the world. And that’s why a World Championship event in Europe is unlike one off the continent. Next year as the Enduro World Series comes under the watch of the UCI, we expect the finale in Zermatt to be a similar level – but for now, these two weekends of racing determined the sport’s world champions. Here’s what we saw.

For more, find the galleries on AMBmag.com.au.