World’s top riders heading for Cairns
Crankworx Cairns is the first event of its kind to be held in Australia, and with hundreds of participants, a live audience estimated to hit five figures and global media reach hitting 18 million viewers, it is an enormous opportunity for the region to showcase the best of what the Far North has to offer.
“That’s serious profile building for Cairns,” said mayor Bob Manning. “There will be a lot of local people I think, and friends, family that will come, but the real big hit is what goes out to the rest of the world. “
Crankworx, which is referred to as the world’s biggest mountain biking festival, is an event which has something for everyone, allowing junior and teenage riders to be as involved as some of the world’s best performers in the sport across a number of disciplines.
Far North rider Tracey Hannah, the 2019 UCI Downhill World Cup Champion, will suit up for the event, where she will seek to erase the misfortune of the 2017 world championships when she crashed.
She said it was a huge coup for Cairns to land such a massive event.
“It’s so amazing to have Crankworx coming to Cairns, we have such good riding here and some of the world’s best riders have come out of Cairns,” Hannah said. “To have such a huge event like Crankworx come to Cairns is amazing for the community.”
Hannah said that while the main age groups were 16 and over, what made Crankworx stand apart from the rest was that riders of all ages could join in the fun.
Riders will compete a number of disciplines, including the Australian Whip-Off Championships, Downhill, Slopestyle, the Pump Track Challenge and the Specialised Dual Slalom.
Some events will be shown live on Red Bull TV.
The event will be held at Smithfield, with the first official day of competition on Wednesday, October 5, and the final day on Sunday, October 9.
Go to crankworx.com/festival/cairns for the full schedule, including key dates and times for pros, amateurs and CWNEXT racers.