Down and dirty in Lancefield

He once rode on the professional cycling circuit in Europe. Now, Mitch Docker is determined to show country cycling is as good as it gets this weekend.

He’s spent an entire career as an elite cyclist on the international stage, even living abroad in Sprain with his young family.

Now Mitch Docker spends his days living a quieter life with his family in the Macedon Ranges in regional Victoria, with a renewed passion for making cycling as accessible and fun as possible, creating a community of country cyclists in the process.

This is part of the motivation behind his upcoming event, Dirty Docker, two days of gravel cycling and old-school cross country trail running, taking place this weekend.

“I want to show people that you’re missing this, it’s a chance to get out of the city and reconnect with family and friends,” Mr Docker said.

“Sometimes I feel it’d be easier to do this in Melbourne. But I don’t live there, and that’s not the idea anyway.”

Professional cyclist Mitch Docker has become a mover and shaker in the small rural town of Lancefield where he lives. Picture: Zoe Phillips

After 15 years spent living in a village in Spain with a strong cycling culture, the Docker family moved to Lancefield three years ago, where he fell in love with Lancefield’s natural beauty, quiet roads, and trail networks.

“It was a real fresh start, I didn’t know the area asides from riding around and really loving that.”

He’s the first to extol the virtues of regional living, and relishes the strong sense of community in his town, and even recently hosted a running event called the Pub to Pub where participants ran from the Lancefield to Romsey pub and back.

“It’s so awesome up here. The wineries are so good and accessible, you can actually chat to the winemaker themselves. The roads are fantastic, and I just love the area,” Mr Docker said.

“Why not embrace that there’s not much in Lancefield? You’ll come up for the ride, stay in the village, and that’s a novelty for city folk, they can come up and camp and that’s the festival. My point of difference, I hope, is people come back because it’s a festival, and that the ride’s not the only thing they come for.”