Fresh from his tilt at the gruelling 700 kilometre Absa Cape Epic mountain bike race in South Africa, Brendan Johnston is back on home soil and ready to defend his Epic Series Oceania title starting with the Port to Port MTB.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Johnston, from Canberra, is a back-to-back champion of the four-day Port to Port mountain bike race that is held in stages across the Hunter Valley, Lake Macquarie and Newcastle.
"Port to Port is a really easy race for us to get to. It is a convenient race and a beautiful spot to race your mountain bike," he said.
"I have done it several times and I am very comfortable with those trails. There are a few changes but I do know those stages pretty well."
Johnston produced a clean sweep of the Epic Series Oceania events last year which included the Port to Port, Cairn's Reef to Reef and Margaret River's Cape to Cape.
He said he is hoping the experience of racing in Absa will be the edge he and teammate Jon Odams need to hold off all challengers this year.
"The Epic Series is where mountain biking is in Australia," he said. "The events were really close last year, especially Port to Port and Cape to Cape that were decided by a matter of seconds, which is incredible over four days. It is making for great racing."
Port to Port will kick off at Pokolbin in the Hunter Valley on May 23, pick up at Lake Macquarie's Killingworth on May 24, move into the Awaba state and Watagans national forests at Cooranbong on May 25 and finish up in Newcastle's Glenrock State Conservation Area on May 26.