How Good Was That!

Run Down of thew 2025 Collie River MTB Marathon

It would take a lot of words to describe everything that was amazing about the 2025 event - the trails were running sweet, the event crew was fantastic, the weather was soooo good, riders and spectators had a great time, we’ve had some super feedback, there were some very happy faces on the face of riders, supporters and crew - plus, of course, some very happy winners including the winner of the Merida Mountain Bike (Congratulations Elian - you’ll grow into is soon enough! And a massive thanks to Merida Bicycles Australia!).

Training Paid Off…

Winners!

The crew and winners looked sensational in the Cuore of Switzerland clothing - and great to see a number of riders getting in on the action and purchasing some of the event jerseys from event village. We’re also going to be seeing 10 happy riders in the next couple of weeks getting their hands on the SMITH Optics Prize bundles - so we’ll keep you updated with how they look in their SMITH Helmets and Glasses…

We had some incredible results - headlining with Connor Wright taking a break from racing in Europe and coming down to smash the event record and numerous Strava Segments out on course in the process!! Well done Connor. Great ride from re-emerging super star Sarah Tucknott as well with a convincing win over three times race champion Tracey Chapman! Super effort. Juniors were out in full force with some exceptional times set by the likes of Jess Wardle, Euan Macdonald, Alayla Schmid and Travis Wardle. Plenty of other great results in age group racing across all the distances - and congrats to our wonderful Adaptive Riders as well!

Also - for those people who places 1/2/3rd in their age groups and were not at presentations we have your trophies. Contact us and we’ll try to get them to you so that you can enjoy the spoils of your efforts!

You can check out all the results thanks to the great team from BLUECHIP TIMING - click on this link and check out your race times and segment splits:

More than just a ride-

Big Thanks To…

Tourism WA through the Regional Events Scheme - and SYNERGY Power Generation - for their continued support!

We have some incredible support for this event both from the local community and the cycling industry (Like MERIDA Bicycles, SMITH Optics, Cuore of Switzerland Clothing, Koda Nutrition, Collie Rotary Club, Collie MTB Association, Adventure Connections, HRE Winery, Crank’n Cycles, Event Crew Legends) who are a great help.

But - without the support of long time partner SYNERGY and also TOURISM WA through the Regional Events Scheme - we would just not be able to put on a big event like this. We really appreciate you all paying your taxes and having a state government that is able to support events like Collie River MTB Marathon to bring people to the regions and enjoy the great outdoors with us! So thank you!

We’re hoping to have support from both again next year so that we can continue to run (and grow) this fantastic event!
In fact - we’ve set a date for the 2026 event - it’s the first weekend of the July School Holidays again - so Saturday 4th July 2026. So pop that in your calendars. We look forwards to having you and your mates back with us again!

You can stay up to date by reading the newsletters and we’ll be updating our website as we work out the new course and distances for 2026. We’ll be putting out a questionnaire in the next couple of days to get some feedback about what worked - and what didn’t - at this years event and see what we can improve on for 2026

Digging Deep and Keeping Things On Track…

Michael Brookes

This guy is an absolute legend. Early mornings, late nights, planning, clearing, marking arrows, and everything in between. Michael Brookes from Margaret River Mountain Bike Tours is one of the most recognisable faces in WA Mountain Biking and is super passionate about what he does. It is an absolute privilege to have him on board as part of the Collie MTB Marathon event. Big Thank You to him for his efforts this year!

Brooksey was the first to shut down any talk about cancelling the event when signage started to go missing… and then continued to go missing… helping pull everyone together and saying that we’ll get through this and can make it all work.

And - indeed it did. Brooksey came back at the end of the event and said that it was the best Collie River MTB Marathon we’ve ever run, trails in the best shape, trail marking was great, weather was amazing, and the team worked really well in delivering the event.

THANKS BROOKSEY!! Appreciate everything mate! Now send me an invoice so I can pay you buddy…

When the WA MTB ‘commentator’ runs an event… who steps in?

We found the best commentator we could for the Collie River MTB Marathon!

So good to have Jethro Nagle back for 2025. He’s been my main man on the Microphone for Collie River MTB Marathon for some time and we love having him here! Jethro and Erik actually have a similar voice and delivery with our commentating - so there were a few confused people who thought they were listening to Erik, only to see him walking around and doing ‘event work’ - then realising it was Jethro on the PA system…. quite amusing.

Jethro keeps the show going at the event and appreciate his informative commentary and sharing event information. Great to him there! For the first time in some years Erik managed to get in front of the crowds to help with trophy presentations and also the race start - so thanks Jethro for giving that up for the day.

Jethro is my pick for the next person to replace Matt Keenan as the Road Cycling Encyclopedia on legs at somewhere like SBS, commentating races like the Tour de France, Giro and Vuelta. He’s been working hard on his craft and now commentates cycling races around Australia. Well done Jethro, and all the best. We’ll keep on supporting you and think you do an amazing job on the mic!

If you’re keen to check out some of Jethro’s work click below and check out his ‘Roadside Cycling Podcast’. It’s a ripper and at the moment is teamed up with Perth Local Tom McKracken talking all things road cycling:

Lost and Found…

Did you happen to pick up a pair of RUDY PROJECT Glasses?

One of our long time riders managed to lose a pair of Rudy Project riding glasses with Photocromatic lenses - white upper frame. Would have been in a white pouch with ‘Rudy Project’ branding on it and most likely dropped in the event village area - around the start/finish line.
If you have picked these up could you please let me know so we can get them back to their very sad owner…. that’d be super.

For 2025 we’ve actually had very little in the way of lost and found - there were some bottles left from the bottle/food drop at checkpoint 8 and a mini pump - and that’s about it. If there is something you have lost and need to get back please let us know and we’ll see what we can do.,

Also - for those people who places 1/2/3rd in their age groups and were not at presentations we have your trophies. Contact us and we’ll try to get them to you so that you can enjoy the spoils of your efforts!

What now for this Newsletter?

Well, now that the Collie River MTB Marathon is done for another year this newsletter normally ends up as an afterthought till the next year as we gear up for another Collie Event.

But… with my life getting a bit more manageable I might start writing a bit about the events that I work at and the travelling I’m doing around these events.

So, the newsletter won’t be strictly about ‘Collie River MTB Marathon’ or ‘Ride Collie’ - but more about my commentating business ‘Sprockets Adventures’… so might need to re-brand some things to suit. We’ll see how we go.

The next event for me is commentating the Bunbury Pedal Prix - which is largely school kids racing in enclosed recumbent trikes. If you haven’t seen this before then sit tight because we’ll do a bit of an exposè on it in the coming weeks. My next ‘big event’ will be the Dwellingup100 MTB event - so you’ll see a bit surrounding this as well.

In the mean time there’s also the ‘BACKROADS’ Gravel event in Geraldton. I’m not up there as Rob Goyne commentates this one and has a strong connection/history with Geraldton - but all the best to those taking part. I reckon in the next email I’ll put a bit of a calendar together of some of the events coming up and a bit of a blurb about some of them.

No promises, but I’ll do my best to get an email out every 2-3 weeks.

I’ll also send out a feedback questionaire for the Collie River MTB Marathon soon - and we’ll have some random prizes to give out to some of the people that complete it :-)

Thanks Everyone!

Erik Mellegers
Collie River MTB Marathon - Ride Collie - Sprockets Adventures

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