Series update:
We would like to thank everyone for their support and for the many positive emails, phone calls and encouraging messages after we announced that Round 1 of our SHIMANO MTB Grand Prix will be held at Awaba MTB Park on Easter Monday, 1 April. We'll be sure to kick off this awesome racing series in style and with a bang - watch out for those hidden Easter treats!
The remaining series races are as originally planned and Round 2 promises to be not only the inaugural race at James Estate Winary but also a culinary highlight. James Estate is located in the Upper Hunter Valley, about 2 hours West of Newcastle. The race track will be just under 10 km long and feature awesome singletrails through the bushland surrounding the vineyards and offer spectacular views of the Upper Hunter Valley wine country as you make your way back to the event centre, right in front of the cellar door. And here's the kicker: every rider who registers online will be treated to a delicious bottle of James Estate wine - how good is that? For more information about the venue and Round 2, click on the location tab and check out our James Estate MTB Trail photos here from our recent gettaway there.
Location:
http://jamesestatewines.com.au/
James Estate Winery, 951 Bylong Valley Way, Baerami NSW
How to get there:
The beautiful vinyards and cellar door of James Estate Wines are located in the Upper Hunter Valley, about 2 hours West of Newcastle. Coming from Newcastle, we recommend that you take the National Route #15 towards Maitland and after Branxton continue on the Golden Highway #84. Go through Jerry Plains and Denman and stay on #84 (Unless you want to come up close with cattle and other creepy crawleys on the side roads the GPS suggests... nice views, but the road is quite windy and small.) Just before Sandy Hollow you turn left onto Bylong Valley Way and soon you'll be driving through the James Estate Gates.
Track - map
Graeme Scott, avid SHIMANO MTB GP racer and General Manager of James Estate has been building singletrails in the bushland next to the winery for the past four years and it is unreal what this one mountain biker, his bike, shovel, reik and trail dog Raz and with the help of a few friends has put together! A network of trails that is fun to race it is built on quite sandy bushland, so we would recommend not going overboard with tire pressure and bringing nobbly tires, if you have them. There are a lot of nice and rocky sections with log roll-overs and the singletrails will lenght-wise be at least half of the race track, time-wise probably more than 2/3 as you will ride from the event centre across fire trails to get to the bushland and on the way back race straight through the vineyards, past vines and with an amazing view of the surrounding Upper Hunter Valley.
Food - we will provide catering with snacks, sandwiches, wraps and pasta on Saturday and are planning an "Après Race" gettogether with wine, cheese, olives and crackers. Let's wrap up the race day under the stars!
We will also ask near-by cheese and olive-oil makers to let us have a good taste of their fares throughout the day. For people camping overnight on Saturday, we recommend bringing breakfast, however, we'll double-check with our caterer if he can look after us on the morning after the race as well - watch this space and the upcoming newsletters for updates.
Water - will be provided on-site.
Accommodation nearby - we can recommend the nearby towns of Sandy Hollow (5 min) and Denman (15 min) or Musswellbrook (30 min drive).
http://www.visitdenman.com.au/index...nt&view=category&layout=blog&id=59&Itemid=215
http://www.sandyhollow.com.au/
http://www.muswellbrook.org.au/accommodation.asp
Camping
Graeme from James Estate has offered us to also camp on-site. We've had some inquiries already of groups of friends who want to make it a whole weekend out - what a great idea, apart from the race track there will be heaps of more trails to explore, which will be marked as well. For riders arriving on Friday and those with large camper vans, Graeme and his team will prepare one of the winery paddocks for camping. The set up will be basic with portable toilets and we'll set up a camping shower near the event centre and at the paddock as well. The paddock is not far from the event centre, maybe a 2 minute ride.
For one-night campers on the Saturday night we're more flexible and we'll mark out some spots for you. You're most welcome to head to the paddock after the race also to set up and then we'll invite everyone for "Après Racing Snacks under the Stars" at the Cellar Door.
