Trans Tasmania 2023 Recap

Yeti Trans Tasmania Presented by Shimano and supported by Events Tasmania, came together this month for its second edition. Riders from all over the world flocked in from as far as USA, Canada, UK, Portugal, and Madeira and as close as NZ and New Caledonia to take part. It was also a pleasure to welcome the Yeti / Fox Factory Team as a last minute addition to the event which included Richie Rude, Bex Baraona, Slawomir Lukasik, along with Jared Graves joining in the fun too.

Yeti Trans Tasmania is a 5 day all inclusive enduro stage race, where riders get 6 nights accommodation, 3 meals a day, on course food, airport transfers, shuttles to the start line each day, transport between towns, and much more.

Follow along below for the photo epic to immerse yourself in the 5 day event from this month, covering the riders journey from Maydena, to Queenstown on the West Coast and finishing in the famous Derby trail network.

Getting things started:




Medics have a little pow wow to get things ready for day 1. Or was it to discuss how to keep their team in tact during the week?

MAYDENA

The event got kicked off at Maydena. A tiny town just 1hr 15 mins drive from the heart of Hobart where Dirt Art trail building company bought a closed down school, turned it into a mountain bike hub and built over 100km+ of trials on the mountain range above that boasts 820m vert in elevation.

Megan Rose (Event Creator/Director) mentions that planning a race course here can be incredibly fun with all the various option to connect the trails in so many different ways and put together a top to bottom run that includes every type of trail you can ride from flow and big berms, to steep and tech, to rocky, to hero dirt to dry dusty powder, all in one stage! But she goes on saying that it can also be challenging with so many intersections crossing over each other and the climb trail intersecting several times through stage runs and 2 days of courses overlapping. The course crew seemed to manage the flow and to keep the racers on track and having a good time!



With no surprise the Yeti / Fox Factory Team set the pace right off the bat while your every day hard core riders watched in awe!





However local rider Harvey Lee (image below) very quickly proved he wanted to be among the top 3 for the week

QUEENSTOWN

Off to the west coast for day 3 of the event. Queenstown is like none other. The best part about this event is vast difference in terrain between the 3 locations it visits. Day 3 started with a welcomed shuttle via Roam Wild's 4x4 vehicles up a very steep and narrow access road. Riders then continued climbing until they reached 360 degree views of nothing but spectacular views.

Round 2 and 3 however meant no more shuttles and the push up this road got harder and harder with every step. But by the time they descended Stage 3 (Natural Selection), it drew them closer back to town and the grueling climb was a distant memory after their wild ride down this iconic incredible trail. Natural Selection is rated up there as one of the best trails/stages of the week from the racers.














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DERBY

After the long drive from Queenstown to Derby, the racers hit the trails of Derby for an afternoon of racing. Day 4 was voted the most favorite day of the week. We hit all the best trails of the network including Kumma-Gutza, Detonate and Shearpin.





















* Disclaimer: although chugging beer on the podium is a tradition at Trans NZ, BC and Tas, riders are given the option to choose something else. Even a glass of water with ice proves to be more challenging to chug then beer!

Results

Full RESULTS can be found HERE

Open Men

1st. Slawomir Lukasik: 106:52:53
2nd. Richie Rude: 107:05:05
3rd. Harvey Lee: 111:01:74
4th. Jared Graves: 115:05:42
5th. Mark Conliffe: 116:18:15

Open Women

1st. Bex Baraona: 122:37:77
2nd. Rae Morrison: 124:10:09
3rd. Leanna Curtis: 126:13:20

Master Men 40+

1st. Ali Jamieson: 130:40:95
2nd. Xavier Delahaye: 131:59:99
3rd. Matthew Wilkins: 132:48:25

Old Boys 50+

1st. Dea Nuttall: 129:25:76
2nd. John Jacob: 131:38:83
3rd. Shane Snyder: 134:50:51

Master Women

1st. Abbie Bull
2nd. Ludivine Vercellone
3rd. Annie Craig


Thanks to Lot 40 for inviting us to use your facility for meals and awards while in Derby before you have even opened your doors to public. For those that aren't aware, Lot 40 is a new distillery/brewery that is opening in just a few weeks time. It's a fantastic space and something that will be an amazing addition to Derby. They don't have a website or social media to link into yet, but be sure to give them a visit next time you are in town.



The volunteer team always know how to have a good time:






Megan Rose likes to create useful podium prizes. She was excited to finally buy her own laser etcher to get even more creative! She created a topo map design of the Derby trail network to etch on to these pizza boards and hoped the racers would enjoy them.




We couldn't have done it without Gravity Isle. Those boys sure know how to take care of getting the racers from town to town in style. Terry, Matt and Tyler (along with Jo organizing things behind the scenes), have this part of the event dialed for us. And to Vertigo Mtb in Derby for getting the racers to the start line on Days 4 and 5.



TRANS TAS FUTURE

We are going to start to alternate Trans NZ and Trans Tasmania each year instead of running them both every year. This means Trans NZ will only happen every second year and Trans Tasmania on the alternating years. So which will it be for 2024? We are still working on those details. We are waiting on word in regards to a few other events to avoid clashing with them, then working out the plan from there. However we are leaning a little more towards it being Trans NZ for 2024. We want you to have your own voice, so please click HERE to pitch your vote on which event you want to see for 2024!

That's it for now. Until next time!

Thanks to Jesse Chirizzi and Jack Fletcher for all the images throughout the event.