Fun At The AusCycling Fat Bike National Championships

While the iconic sunset camel trains have dominated holiday selfies, in May this year there was an entirely different form of transport capturing the attention of beachgoers with the 2021 AusCycling Fat Bike National Championships held at the famous Cable Beach in Broome, Western Australia.

The event was a challenging 22-kilometer course incorporating hard-packed tidal beach sands, Minyirr walk trails, sand dunes and the ancient Lurujarri song-lines of the Yawuru people.

Racers were set off in two waves with the senior competitors sent away first, picking their race lines through the pindan sandstone formed 135 million years ago in the Cretaceous Period that now forms ‘The Rocks’. Rather than prehistoric sauropod footprints or the carefree bare footprints of beachgoers, competitors left the tell-tale blocky tracks of fat bikes in the sand as they raced out towards Gantheaume Point.

Once past ‘The Rocks’, it was a simple case of choosing the best line from the hundreds of meters of beach left by the outgoing monster nine-meter tide. Spring Tides can provide as much as a ten-meter tidal variation in Broome, creating hard-packed sands that promise flat, fast-rolling beaches that pushed our competitors into their red zones.

A few savvy riders formed small pelotons and took turns at the front, like their skinny tire road riding brothers and sisters to shelter from the wind and keep their energy levels high. There was even a couple of fat bikes equipped with aero-bars, with their riders crouched low over the handlebars.

Competitors found relief from the wind once they left the beach and climbed the red pindan cliffs of Gantheaume Point, before entering the maze of trails within the Yawuru Minyirr Buru Conservation Park.

Thanks to the generous consideration of the traditional owners, the usual walking trails were transformed temporarily into tightly contested single track that offered a unique race experience through the living cultural landscape of the Yawuru people.