What it's like doing a Quad Crown MTB event
The Quad Crown events are 4 new mountain bike events running over a weekend on some of the best trails in Australia - so what's it like on the dirt?
The Quad Crown is Australia’s newest mountain bike event series and after years of work and a few setbacks, the four long-weekend events was finally able to kick off in Tasmania in April. The firest event, the Wild Penguin, earned its name by taking in the Wild Mersey and Penguin networks of trails around Devonport. Since then, we’ve seen the Sunny 80 thrill riders with perfect weather and sweet trails on Queensland's Sunshine Coast. We caught up with the series and some of its riders to find out what all the buzz is about. In our recent reader survey you told us how much you like to travel with your bike (and travel just to ride your bike), and the Quad Crown is bringing together all those ingredients that make a weekend away special – some friends, some family time, some singletrack, and yeah, some sweat.
Quad Crown sails to Newcastle this November for The Black Pearl
Travel to ride
While the Quad Crown takes a fresh look at stage racing, the events also take riders to trail networks that are either brand new, or lovingly maintained by local clubs, so the 2023 Quad Crown is basically a tour of some of Australia’s sweetest trail networks. From the Wild Mersey trails in Tasmania, to the Sunshine Coast’s sweet pockets of trail goodness, to Eden in NSW’s fast developing mountain bike nirvana, and finally to Newcastle, a place that has long been popular for mountain bike events.
The format is pretty straightforward: On Friday afternoon, riders line up for a TT-style ‘prelude’, a 10-kilometre (give or take) blast through some sweet trails. The Saturday generally takes riders on a longer traipse through some of the best trail networks, generally with a few tricky climbs thrown in, before everything is sewn up on a Sunday that pulls together more trail time and a shorter day to ensure everyone makes it home in time to finish a load of washing before heading back to work. While the result is a chilled-out, holiday vibe with a family-friendly setup and plenty of social time – that doesn’t mean the racing is easy. Some of Australia's best riders have visited the Quad Crown events for the trails, the racing, and the very relaxed atmosphere.
Quad Crown outakes: Peta Mullens, Bendigo
“I love the format, I love the Friday night start which means you can just travel down that morning – it makes everything so easy. We get to be in a really cool holiday destinations with cool breweries to share time with the other riders, and I’ve just found the most amazing trails in locations I wouldn’t otherwise have visited.”
The story so far: Penguin
We headed to Devonport in Northern Tassie in late April and enjoyed a couple of rolls around the sunny waterfront, everything dwarfed by the Sprit of Tasmania (a big ship for those who don’t know) docked across the river. On the Friday afternoon, the event scooted over to the Penguin trails for the prelude.
At just 10 kilometres, usually taking somewhere around an hour, this is a proper heart starter, and in Penguin it featured some very old-school trails built by hand back in the days of 26 inch wheels and V brakes, before crossing the road and taking in an epic switchback climb and a sweet smooth, swooping singletrack descent with some pedally bits thrown in. The changeable weather saw a darkening sky and freshening wind and we finished covered in goosebumps and diving into our bags for our jackets. It was easy to warm up though, the event social function landing us at Penguin Brewing Co. for presentations, hot chips and of course, a few beers.
The second stage at the Penguin edition of the Quad Crown sent us into the sweet Wild Mersey trails at Warawee near the chocolate box town of Latrobe. At this point we probably should have noted that just because it’s a fun event, that doesn’t mean the Quad Crown is easy, and we were given a pretty solid wakeup call when we hit the brand-new Raptor Trail climb about a third of the way through the race. Taking at least an hour for most riders, this climb was a total test. We slogged up and up at an achingly slow pace. But when there’s effort, there’s reward, and having completed most of the stage’s 1200m of climbing, we soon dove down an epic descent full of jumps and drops, and back through some sweet forest singletrack to finish the stage, with plenty of time for lunch before State Island Brewing in Devonport hosted us for presentations and some socialising.
The final stage took us another 25 minutes from Devonport, this time to take in the locals’ favourite–the Railton trails. Otherwise famous for its topiary, Railton is well-loved for its sweet, flowing trail network full of jumps and berms, reached by gentle, rhythmic switchback climbs. It was a fresh start at three degrees, but after just two hours of racing we were all in t-shirts and shorts enjoying the sunshine at the finish line celebration at the Seven Sheds Brewery.
The Sunday stages are organised so there’s plenty of time to shower, pack the bikes, and get back to the airport or the ferry and be home in time for dinner. Which is exactly what we did.
Taking it on holidays: The Sunny 80
Nothing says holidays like a trip to Queensland in winter, and while the Sunshine Coast isn’t yet known as a major mountain bike destination, with Parklands trails anointed the chosen destination for the 2032 Olympic mountain bike events, it’s not going to fly under the radar for long.
Like the Penguin prelude, the 10 kilometre Friday time trial out of Sugarbag Road was a total heart starter, taking riders through the twists and turns of tight singletrack with dozens of hand-made features that made for super tight racing and plenty of hard accelerations to load up the legs. With a little bit of a sting in the legs, it was time for a dip in the ocean and a moment to enjoy the sunset, before a welcome beer at Moffat Beach Brewing Co and priming the bikes for day two, the toughest stage.
Race central for stage one was at Hidden Valley at Yandina, a glorious hinterland macadamia farm where kids could walk around and collect some very expensive nuts while mum and dad toed the start line. The local Bushrangers MTB club had played a huge part in working on the trails to get them primed for the event, the trails a mix of super tight corners, fast flowy trails, rainforest singletrack and some amazingly steep climbs that were hidden away.
With over 1000m of climbing in around 30 kilometres, this stage was completely demanding on all fronts, from the high concentration required in the dark and twisty rainforest, to the techy features and line choices, with the tight trails giving a funpark house of mirrors effect that meant you could never tell who was behind, in front, or how far away.
The final stage held out of Ewen Maddock Dam and Dularcha National Park was split into two parts to negotiate some trail closures, the first testing riders’ power with a flat blast around Ferny Forest, with the second half punishing tired legs with some super tough climbing before a flat out burn around the dam-side trails. Riders emerged for a chilled out function at the Mooloolaba Country Club before dispersing to their various hometowns, a solid weekend of racing and holidays breaking up the first month of winter.
Quad Crown outakes: Daniel Huang, Brisbane
“I saw this on everyone’s social media, so I thought I’d give it a crack. It’s nice to ride some different trails and doing back to back races. I’d absolutely recommend this, it’s one of my favourite events I’ve ever done. I’d definitely go down for the next rounds.”
The Quad crown way:
- All stages are within less than 30 minute’s drive from race central
- Easy to complete with just a Friday off work, with heaps of trail time packed into a weekend
- Working with local trail builders to surface hidden Aussie trail gems
- Finding new holiday destinations for MTBers and their families
- Social events after every stage
Quad Crown Kings and Queens
While the elite racers are always going to show up to any event with a start and a finish line fit and wary, the Quad Crown isn’t really about the competition at the pointy end. The Quad Crown team have come up with a complicated, proprietary algorithm that finds the best racer over the event based on various handicaps and abilities, naming the highest achiever, who is crowned with, of course, a massive crown at the end of each weekend’s racing.
