THE BLACK PEARL

Newcastle has become an epicentre for MTB Stage Racing over the past decade in Australia and the roots to major mountain biking events extend well into the decades before that.

The Newcastle and Hunter Region is home to a number of historic and well-developed mountain bike trail networks headlined by Glenrock, AWABA and Killingworth, a location that was considered the “home” of NSW mountain biking in the late 1990’s.

Now MTB stage racing is set to return to Newcastle and Lake Macquarie courteousy of the Quad Crown Series, whose management team have extensive experience in conducting major mountain biking events in the region.

Born out of an unforeseen delay in the trail building plans around our Omeo event, the “fifth” event in the inaugural Quad Crown Series has been nicknamed “The Black Pearl” and will hit the northern NSW towns in early November.

“The Black Pearl” event name reflects the nautical history of the Newcastle port town but also bares cheeky links to the fictional pirate ship from a well known movie which was sunk at least three times. But, just like Jack Sparrow, The Black Pearl is notorious for being nearly impossible to destroy, and seemed a great nickname for a reborn MTB stage race in this region.