Source: Sharon Payne

Current World 24 hour solo mountain bike champion, Jason English, from Port Macquarie, tops a quality field competing in this weekend’s “JetBlack twenty four hours Sydney Race”.


Held at the Del Rio Resort at Wiseman’s Ferry just north of Sydney the race is the only New South Wales qualifying event for the 2010 World Solo 24 Hour Mountain Bike Championships to be held in Australia in October.

English has already qualified but will be using the race to keep track of his form.

“I am planning to do several qualifying races like this one so I can practice and get different strategies on different tracks.” said English.

The 29 year old school teacher is also the defending champion from this event and now has the added pressure of being a World Champion, but English is hoping a new sponsorship deal with JetBlack Cycling and their Pivot bike will make things a little easier.

“It is the closest race for me and I can’t wait to try out my new bikes. We require two bikes to perform well so I will be racing on two new 'high end' bikes. They’ve got all the top gear including Fox forks,” explained English.

English sees this event as the perfect testing ground and already has a race plan.

“I’ll need to get used to the bike and use the heart rate monitor to make sure I’m not going too hard too early,” he said.

The “JetBlack twenty four hours Sydney Race” is in its second year and organiser, Rocky Trail Entertainment, has attracted over 450 riders from New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia, Queensland and the ACT.

For the Elite Male & Female categories – only the top 50% of finishers will obtain automatic qualification to the upcoming World Championships. Amongst the solo riders racing alongside Jason will be young David Ludenia from Lawson NSW, 2nd in last year’s JetBlack 24Hr Sydney race and the 6th, Shane Taylor from Canberra ACT. Taylor who is supported by Rocky Trail will ride on the Merida team and last year was a serious contender in the Crocodile Trophy where he finished 8th in elite for one of Australia’s toughest stage races. Also racing this weekend will be Queenslanders, Andy Fellows (3rd at 2009 24Hr Solo World Championships) and team partner Sam Bekkers (winner of the 25-29 age group at the same World Championships).

Racing in the JetBlack 24Hr Sydney race kicks off at the Del Rio Resort at Wiseman’s Ferry on Saturday, 6 February 2010 at 12pm and event organizers are confident that the heavy rain that dogged riders during the night in last year event will hold off.

The winner will be the rider that records most laps by the end of 24 hours - English won with 27 overall 8km-laps last year. The newly built track sections will give riders even more versatile racing however the extended 9.3 km long circuit which includes fire trails, single track,172 m of climbing will make it a tough but good quality race. Riders will get views of the beautiful Hawkesbury River and travel through private bushland.

“The event centre and transition zone will be located in the heart of the Del Rio River Resort and we designed the track to accommodate different skill and endurance levels of our racers,”,said event organiser Martin Wisata from Rocky Trail Entertainment. With JetBlack Cycling the event has a major industry sponsor on board with great product prizes and giveaways for the racing crowd. Winners in Elite Male & Female Solo categories race for cash prizes of $1,500. The first three places in each of the other main categories will be awarded product prizes.

For more event information & race coverage go to www.rockytrailentertainment.com