PREVIEW: Bike SA Dirty Weekend 2019

19/02/2019 Editor 0 Comments

Courtesy of http://www.mtbiking.com.au/

With an earlier and extended calendar spot, guaranteed 23% increased heckling (!) and more ride options than you can poke a suspension fork at, the 2019 BikeSA Dirty Weekend in South Australia is going to be epic!

MBA’s James Raison dove deep into arguably Australia’s premier 24-hour event to find out what makes Dirty Weekend such a must-do.

Fill that coffee cup and kick up your cleats… it’s time to talk Dirty!

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GENESIS OF ‘DIRTY’

Aside from being South Australia’s premier MTB event, and arguably the country’s, Dirty Weekend is also the state’s only 24-hour race. It’s grown exponentially since its inaugural running in 2001, and has been held every year since then. That success is a testament to event organisers BikeSA, the sponsors who support the event and the army of volunteers who make it possible every year.

Rider numbers run consistently over 400 across all grades and events each year. Spectators flock in their hundreds too; supporting, heckling and enjoying South Australia’s biggest celebration of big tyred bikes. And when we say celebration, we mean it, as multiple Dirty Weekend solo 24-hour winner Kevin Pullen describes.

“There’s guys out the back side of the course with their own disco going. It’s especially funny when there’s smoke machines, lights and a disco ball going in a forest all through the night. They put on quite a show!”

For 2019, Dirty Weekend has expanded too. There’s been a calendar shift to the final weekend of April (26th-28th) rather than its traditional first weekend of May spot. These new dates mean riders can set up camp from 3pm on ANZAC Day (Thursday the 25th – be sure to book with BikeSA), with the event village open from the Friday night. From the Thursday, trails will also be open and rideable to anyone keen to cut some practice laps and familiarise themselves with the course, allowing both interstate and local competitors the chance to turn their Dirty Weekend experience into a 4-day epic.

WHERE?

The Cudlee Creek Forest sits just a short 35km from Adelaide’s CBD. Intertwined within the forest is the Fox Creek Trail network, a dirt playground with a broad spectrum of tracks and trails that cover downhill to cross-country, as well as some learner skills tracks. It’s widely regarded as the best trail network in South Australia.