Mountain bike race organisers from Rocky Trail Entertainment were expected to return to the Eurobodalla in November with a completely new event introducing a new line-up of activities for local and visiting cycling families and groups of friends in mind.
The event was to be based at Corrigans Beach Reserve in Batemans Bay with activities are spread across two days on the weekend of 30 November and 1 December.
After the inaugural Jetblack Wild Wombat race in 2018 at Mogo, this year's the event was to have been revamped from a 12-hour endurance competition to a family and kid-friendly mountain bike race and early-summer getaway.
A statement issued by the organisers advised that, with ten days out from the event, they had to make the decision to postpone the Wild Wombat, because they didn’t get enough rider numbers to go ahead with the event.
They advised on their website that the few registered participants received a full refund.
In a statement they said "The original event centre at the botanic garden in 2018 was so pretty and yet logistically quite challenging with limited phone reception and open to the public with car and foot traffic across the race course.
"We are now starting to put together the picture of why we didn’t get enough rider numbers, which led to the decision to re-think the event and postpone it to next year. Less than 2 weeks out from the race we had such little registrations that it was impossible to put the logistics, operations and supplies in place at the high standard that we set for our events. We had to contain not only our risk but that of the many suppliers, local partners and supporters lined up."
"We will no doubt talk to many of our Rocky Trail racers in the coming weeks and months and seek more feedback. It’s always tough to make such a call and we are really thankful for the guidance, advice and support by the teams from Destination NSW as well as Eurobodalla Shire Council. The new date penciled in with these major partners is 1+2 August 2020 and we will return to Batemans Bay with a different event format."
"So, for now, it’s back to the drawing board for us and we have a big 2020 ahead of us"
Image: Race start to the first Jetblack Wild Wombat in Mogo. Photo: OuterImage.com.au
