Construction begins on Sydney's new MTB venue

Construction is underway on a world class mountain biking facility close to the city of Sydney, with Olympic Park the venue for the $250,000 mountain cross course - the most expensive of its type ever to be built in Australia.

The course is also the most geographically central mountain bike facility in Australia, with most of Sydney's population located within an hour of the site. This is good news for mountain bikers, who would otherwise have to travel for upwards of an hour to reach other comparable riding destinations.

Work began one week ago, and will take a total of four weeks to be completed - on completion it will be open to all members of the public. It should be finished in time for the opening race in the national MTNX series, with the Bicycling Australia Mountain Cross event to be held on Friday 21 October, drawing many of Australia's top mountain bike riders returning from a season spent racing in Europe and the US. Nathan Rennie, former world champion and world cup winning downhill rider, will lead the line up of riders. However, you don't have to be a professional rider to take part, with the event open to all riders, from juniors to elite men's and women's categories.