The Briars Highland Fling is one of the best attended Marathon Mountain Bike Races in the Greater Sydney region. It offers variety, with three distances available, a relay option, and it even caters for unicyclists and those who would prefer to race a cyclocross bike (although allowing tyres over 35mm seems lax.) For 2011 it is the final round of the Real Insurance XCM Series, powered by CycleNation. This series as a whole has made great steps to increase the presence of cycling in the media – and tie a lot of fantastic events together that national governing bodies have little care for.
Knowing a course can reap huge benefits for competitors. Tour riders are known to visit the areas that they will race through as part of their earlier training. Cross Country and Downhill racers use the days preceeding race day for practice. Knowing the fast lines, obstacles, where you can feed and where you may be able to find a small advantage is valuable information – even for amateurs.
MTNBike.com.au has been leading Mountain Bike instructional trips, road cycling trips and general riding holidays for close to two years, in Australia, New Zealand and Europe. But for this coming Fling, MTNBIke.com.au will be teaming up with MarathonMTB.com to take you to Wingello for a pre-race training trip. More than just riding some public trails, the day will be spent finding the fastest way through some sections, getting advice on equipment setup, nutrition and pacing.
The day trip is planned for Saturday 5th November, with a great shuttle service on offer from Sydney for your bike and rider. Or you can just meet the crew at Wingello. Anyone who comes along will also receive a discount voucher to be used at Cranks Bikestore (North Sydney). Full information can be found here.
Even if you’re not racing the Fling, this day trip will provide useful information if you plan on racing more Marathons in the future, or would just like to see if you can become a little bit more competetive.