St Helens to ‘roll with the punches’ after international mountain bike event canned

The inaugural Dragon Trail mountain biking event scheduled for next week has been called off due to coronavirus.

A WORLD-class mountain biking event that was expected to attract hundreds of international mountain bikers and media to St Helens this month has been canned.

Break O’Day mayor Michael Tucker has confirmed the inaugural Dragon Trail event scheduled for next week had been called off due to coronavirus.

More than 300 riders were set to tackle the three-day staged mountain bike race through the Tasmanian wilderness, including Derby and St Helens’ new Bay of Fires Epic Trail and St Helens Trails.

Only 17 per cent of the riders booked to attend were from Tasmania.

Last month Cr Tucker pegged the event to be the thing that would put St Helens on the map globally and called it “one of the best outcomes any community could ever ask for”.

On Wednesday he lamented his disappointment in its cancellation.

St Helens Mountain Bike Trails to be opened in November. Picture: Jasper da Seymour

“It is what it is and we need to deal with it,” Cr Tucker said.

“We’ve just got to keep rolling with the punches.”

Cr Tucker said as far as he knew, the company behind the event, Geocentric Outdoors, had been in touch with everyone involved to let them know.

He said most of the money and resources invested into this year’s event could be rolled over to next year’s event, which was likely to be even bigger.

“People will be looking at it over the next 12 months saying, well s---, we missed last year because it was cancelled, we’ve got to go this year,” he said.

“So it’s going to be bigger and better.

“It’s a bit of a learning curve too, so next year will be now probably be easier than this year because all of the hard work has already been done.”

Cr Tucker urged all Tasmanians to support their local small businesses.

“Local businesses more than ever need the support of local people now, so at the end of this, the business is still there, whether it’s your granddaughter, your wife, your mother, they’ve still got a job.”

Geocentric Outdoors was contacted for comment.