Derby MTB Trip 2025

 

Well, we managed to herd some cats and assembled five of us for a flight from Brisbane to Tasmania for our now annual March mtbing trip. It was almost touch and go this year as cyclone Alfred hit Brisbane in the days before we were meant to leave. As it was, we only had power restored on the Sunday afternoon, then we flew out early Monday afternoon.

Arriving in Launceston with all of our bikes we grabbed two hire cars and hit the supermarket for a stock up. 

It was then on to Derby and our accommodation at the Lazy Queen Air BnB. 

Nice bush ummm....hedge. 

We were pretty beat so it was straight to bed. We will put the bikes together in the morning.

Once the bikes were together we pedaled the short distance to the shuttle pick up point.  No unnecessary pedalling uphill for us this trip! 

Up, Down, Around (UDA) shuttles was our company of choice.  We have found them to have the most regular uplifts during the day and the friendliest drivers.

After rain on the Monday afternoon the trails were in perfect condition - grippy as heck!

We did about six uplifts for the day with the last leading to a long pedal around the Dambusters trail to Troughty trail for the gun riders and Cuddles trail for Dan and I.

Dambusters 

Lunches were at the 2 Doors Down Cafe. It was a bit quiet for the first half of the week - which suited us just fine. 

Dinner at the Dorset Hotel finished a great first day.

Black Stump shuttle drop-off. 

Wednesday was more of the same until a thunderstorm decided to hit the town mid afternoon. 

Kingswall trail. 

 Dan and I retired to the pub for a cold one.......  

 

...while the others kept pedalling... and got their cold one in the form of a drenching. It also made the rock a tad slippery apparently.

It was a cold and gloomy walk to The Hub for dinner that night. Luckily it is only a 290 metre walk.

This necessitated some bike maintenance next day.

All good though as Derby trails handle the rain well and would be mint for the next day. 

Dinner tonight was at The Hub wood fired pizza place.  Great pizza washed down with excellent local Pinot Noir.  Mtbing does give you an appetite! 😉

There are some nice new accommodations in Derby these days. You don't necessarily need to opt for an old miners cottage.

More local riding was had on the Thursday before grabbing the big shuttle up to Blue Teir on the Friday for the trio of First 13, Blue Tier and Atlas trails.  

Blue Tier is like being on another planet.  The trail winds through mossy, tree fern lined gorgeous trail. (that I didn't photograph - apart from this growth on a tree fern.)

This was an epic day on the bikes with lunch at the self proclaimed "Worst Pub in Australia ", the Weldborough Hotel. There was a large group of dirt bikers in the parking area, who had also stopped in for lunch during their guided tour. That looked like fun too.

I think the monika for the pub came from a moto journo in another century - before mtbing brought tourists and money to the town via the Blue Tier/Atlas trail run because it is certainly an awesome little pub with great food and beers these days! There must have been fifty or sixty people enjoying the beer garden with us.

Though we were cursing the huge steak sandwich as we pedalled off down Atlas though, what with our now over-full stomachs! No photos were taken due to the discomfort and fatigue we were starting to feel.

That was soon forgotten however as we finished the day with a big downhill run into Cuddles trail and it's huge rock drop off, again. 😎

Photos don't do the drop on Cuddles any justice. That rock is at least 10 metres high and near vertical! It's an awesome feeling to ride it and survive! I'm pleased to say I rode it a couple of times this year - last year was a big NO.

Shane at the bottom of the drop. 

We rolled into town knackered but very satisfied. 

We rode the Saturday morning - because why not? -  and polished off a trail I hadn't ridden yet this trip, Roxanne, which was quite challenging but also much more fun than last year due to some new works on it's upper section.

Shane on Roxanne. 

Yep, Roxanne is rocks and rocks and rox.......anne... 

Will om Roxanne. 

All packed up we headed to Scottsdale for a beer at the Little Rivers Brewery. Unfortunately they didn't have a very extensive menu so it was off to the Scottsdale bakery, just up the road for a mighty fine pie.

We also called in to the Whiskey distillery which is located very conveniently at the airport in one of the old freight hangers. I'm not a whiskey drinker but it was interesting to look at the old aviation nostalgia on display.

And so it was soon time to check in and jump on our flight home. Almost five days of riding some of the best trails in the country had been a blast and I count myself lucky to do it with a great crew of mates who make travelling away a pleasant experience. We may have only covered 170km but they were all high quality mountain biking kilometres.

Cheers.