With two months until the start, well over 700 riders are entered so far in the VAUDE Highland Fling MTB Marathon. Being run in the beautiful Southern Highlands of NSW on Sunday 12 November. The Fling Starts and Finishes in the village of Bundanoon, 1.5hrs from Sydney and 1.5hrs from Canberra.
Competitors have the option of racing the Full Fling (104km), Half a Fling (58km) and Flinging Threesomes Relay taking on the VAUDE Stage (29km), Forests NSW Stage (46km) and Specialized Stage (29km). For the real masochists there is also the 100mile Fling (160km) but riders in this must finish within 8hours - a tough ask.
The promoter reports that the route for 2006 is now finalised. Whilst 80% of it is as riders enjoyed in 2005, organizers Wild Horizons have taken out a couple of early bottlenecks and added some great new sections including Boags Draft on the VAUDE Stage, some new singletrack and some different tracks in the Forests NSW Stage and some new tracks in the Specialized Stage. The track breakdown is 16km Singletrack/No Track (eg open paddock), 67km Rough/4wd/Forest Track, 18km Dirt Road and 2km Sealed Road.
Entries for the VAUDE Highland Fling, which offers over $7000 in prize money and triple that in prizes, will be capped at 1100 riders.
