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HUNTERS Cycling Team began in 2025
In late 2024 I hatched an ambitious plan to start a race team. I did it on a tiny budget and asked riders and sponsors to put their faith in the project. I had some friends and customers who I value highly and I had the race bikes…let’s go racing!
I approached Lusty Industries for support with MAXXIS tyres and they were on board from the very beginning. Love you, Lusty!!
My initial plan was to take the van and riders to events around NSW and hopefully snare some podiums along the way. Our high point would be the inaugural Sea Otter Australia, we love Rocky Trail and regularly provide event support at their MTB events around NSW.
As the year progressed our plans evolved and we rolled out a Team in three distinct categories.
Gravel Hunters: Phase One
In February ’25 we found out that the 2026 Gravel Worlds would be held in Nannup, south of Perth. This news made me question our somewhat smallish plans – could we take our little team to the Worlds? I believed it was possible (spoiler – it was!).
I built some Keegansteins as a technical project. Carbon MTB fused with drop-bars and lightweight XC forks. Carbon wheels (thanks RaceFace!) and MAXXIS race tyres – of course.
We had two riders on the team capable of qualifying for Worlds. Tanya and Shane were both competitive in their age categories nationally and keen to make it to Worlds. Shane had already qualified for Gran Fondo Worlds 2025 and Tanya was really enjoying the change to riding gravel. Danny was loving his keeganstein but had his plans elsewhere.
I don’t think there really was much more of a ‘phase one’ plan than to go to Gravelista and qualify. As the year progressed, Shane had done some riding on his ‘Gravzilla’ keeganstein and loved the crossover of MTB and gravel bike. He entered the Convict 100 on it and was moving rapidly through the field until a terminal mechanical brought his day to an end. He rode city and country kms in training and qualified for ’25 Gran Fondo Worlds on his Focus Izalco.
Tanya kept on clocking up the training kms on her ‘Gunsynd’ keeganstein and in May she travelled to SA for the Gravel Nationals. This one event proved to be an eye opener for many reasons. Tanya’s normal performance in her age category on MTBs is to win or place but on the gravel bikes the high-performance road riders dropped her quickly. The bike should have been an advantage on the technical terrain but it was too slow for elite racing. We built a great bike but it was too heavy and we didn’t have the budget or factory resources to make it light enough for outright wins. It was time to look for a superlight race bike.
Meanwhile, I had made a couple of trips out to Bathurst with a variety of bikes to entice Mark back to racing. From a long career of racing motocross (where we met in the 90s) and then some success at the Australian Safari, Mark had left the motorbikes behind but kept the cycling and was a regular competitor in the Bathurst road racing scene. He was dropping weight and gaining watts and I cajoled him into joining Hunters for a tilt at Gravel Worlds.
Honestly it didn’t take a lot of cajoling 🙂
Phase One, Part Two: Proper Race Bikes
Shane was by far the easiest rider to sort, he’s the same size as me and so I gave him my ’24 Focus Atlas 8.9. He quickly renamed it ‘Bronzilla’ and with some gearing changes to improve his road speed he was all sorted. Training rides done and he was ready for Gravelista.
Tanya needed a size of bike that I couldn’t buy, as Focus were bringing a new MY26 bike and by mid-25 were sold out of Atlas 8.9 models. I had to borrow one from one of the shop’s best customers (thanks Janey!) and swapped all of Tanya’s race parts onto it for Gravelista. Her first training rides were much stronger on the lighter bike and she felt ready to go.
Mark knew what he wanted and the first two bikes I gave him were good but not great. We tossed ideas about and fortunately he had some spare cash to build a superbike. A Cannondale Super X LAB71 frame was ordered and we spent an excellent day building it into the 8.3kg weapon it is. You can see that video on our facebook page.
Gravelista Sunday October 25th dawned sunny but it quickly turned apocalyptic. The race was a grind in heavy rain and the riders with no fear prospered. Tanya rode strong and finished 2nd in class, automatically qualifying for Worlds in ’26. Shane finished 8th of over 50 starters and also qualified.
Mark did not have his best day and finished outside of the qualifying time.
Phase Two: Worlds ’26
From Nov 1st ’25 we start phase 2 of the plan for Shane and Tanya. They’ve qualified for Worlds next year in WA and I can’t tell you how proud I am. We’re taking Cessnock to the World.
Mark is at phase 1.5 and we’re looking at what needs to be done to get him qualified next year. We’ll reload and go again at the next qualifier event in May ’26 – watch this space.
Bushranger Hunters
From the inception of the team, Danny was focused on the new Bushranger Series run by the excellent folks from Graveleur.
I built him a keeganstein and he loved it straight away, still loves it a year later. At the first round of the series – Thunderbolt’s Adventure in Gloucester – a GPS fail took him off course and he lost an hour to the error. He finished the event for series points and a personal record for a single ride: 230kms with 5500vm.
Rd 2 at Mudgee for Mary’s Mayhem saw another solid overall finish (in very tough conditions of rain and wind) for series points. It was a bitterly cold day out there but there he is, always smiling.
On Saturday Nov 8th Danny will start the final round at Clarke’s Gambit in Nelligen with a clear shot at a series podium result. This was our objective for the year and he’s looking good to secure it. Go team!
Enduro Hunters
For 2025, Michael took his Focus SAM2 6.0 across NSW competing in the State Gravity Enduro Championships.
From cool autumn rides in Tamworth to below-freezing mud hunts in Orange, Michael and his son Campbell were there taking the A-line and clearing the jump gap.
They came home with some trophies this year too. Michael finished 3rd in NSW State Enduro Champs in the eBike Veterans class and both he and Campbell won their classes in the HMBA G-Flow Club Championships. They’re also vying for podium positions in the HMBA XC Club Championships with two rounds to run.
These local championship results are really important for our team as they promote our store within the local riding community. Win on Sunday, sell on Monday!
Of course we didn’t do this ourselves because teamwork makes the dream work.
A big grippy thanks to our major sponsor Lusty Industries and Distributors for the amazing MAXXIS range of gravel tyres.
Thanks to our fantastic partners at Focus Bikes for amazing bikes – the Atlas 8.9. We can’t wait to get our hands on the new model.
And thanks of course to Ridefox Australia for the Raceface wheels. There’s no better way to drop weight and gain performance than a new set of Raceface carbon wheels.
Our jerseys and team kit are done by the magicians at a small local business that pays no taxes and prefers to remain nameless. Thanks Chris, you know who you are (and the ATO does not).
Our Riders
TANYA CLARK
Bike: Focus Raven ‘Keeganstein’
Events: Gravel Nationals, MTB XCO & XCC – State & Nationals, MTB Marathon Nationals, MTB XCO Masters World Championships, Gravel Worlds Qualifiers
Tanya’s palmares is a long list of Masters Women’s victories in XCC and XCO across multiple State and National Championship titles, plus gold medals in 24hr solo events. She says her favourite place to ride is anywhere the weather is good, and that racing is all about travelling to new places with new challenges.
In ’25 Tanya finished third in her class at Nationals and will qualify for the Gravel Worlds in ’26 where she will lead the team on the world stage.
DANNY HANLY
Bike: Focus Raven ‘Keeganstein’
Events: Bushranger Gravel Series
Riding 8,000kms this year is Danny’s goal and along the way he’ll be found at the toughest gravel events on the calendar.
With previous success at the Wollombi Wild Ride and Westpac Ride 4 Rescue, Danny was one of the few finishers at 2024’s brutal Thunderbolt’s Adventure.
Danny has a reputation for speed and endurance plus the determination to finish that makes a great racer.
Danny’s favourite place to ride is our local Werakata National Park where he’ll be training hard for a strong performance in the ’25 Bushranger Gravel Series.
SHANE MATTISKE
Bikes: Focus Raven ‘Keeganstein, Focus Atlas 8.9
Events: NSW/VIC Gravel, Club Road, Gravel Worlds Qualifiers
Shane lives in Sydney & Orange and competes in the Masters 5 category.
Shane has qualified for Gran Fondo Worlds this October in VIC, and will combine this goal with gravel , XC and road racing. He’ll be travelling to the key gravel races on the east coast to gain experience in gravel racing and to push his road riding harder.
With favourable winds this should set up a much stronger 2026, where the big goal is UCI Gravel Worlds.
MICHAEL ROYCROFT
Bike: Focus Sam2 6.0 Race Edition
Events: HMBA Club rounds, NSW Enduro State Rounds
A former junior BMX racer, Michael’s favourite riding playgrounds are Awaba and Ourimbah MTB parks. He lives in Cessnock and rides to keep fit and to hang out with his three sons.
In 2025 Michael will ride in the eBike Mens class and plans to add a ’25 State Championship title to his Club Championship from ’24.
Mark Simons
Bike: Cannondale Super X LAB71
Events: NSW/VIC Gravel, Gravel Worlds Qualifiers
Mark is a Bathurst road and gravel legend with a long history of road racing and an impressive list of KOMs.
Mark qualified for the Masters 7 class at the ’24 UCI Gravel Worlds and plans to repeat that for ’26 Worlds in WA.
Mark has completed several gravel events in ’25 on both a Keeganstein and a Focus Atlas. In the search for further aero performance, we’ve built him a Super X race bike and he’s now head-down in training to qualify for Worlds ’26.
The Bikes
The Focus Raven ‘Keeganstein’
In 2024, Keegan Swenson won the Leadville 100 on a bike that took the world by storm.
It’s a frankenstein bike, based on a carbon hardtail MTB with 100mm of fork travel, modified with gravel drop bars and road shifters…then it gets an MTB crankset (with gravel 42t chainring) and an MTB derailleur/cassette combo.
It’s a real parts-bin special but he wins on it! We wanted to tap the same vein.
Our team bike isn’t built with the same budget as Keegan’s, but follows the same fusion of MTB and gravel bike.
The Keeganstein will be particularly suited to gravel racing with sketchy technical courses, plus it’s highly suited to the riders we have, who mostly come from MTB competition.
Built from the standard platform of a Focus Raven 8.8, we strip the entire bike and replace most of it.
The frame is carbon fibre – of course!
The forks are RockShox SID SL Ultimate Raceday with 100mm of travel and a 3-position crown lockout. These 32mm forks shave nearly 1kg off the weight of the bike, with only a 900g weight penalty over a quality pair of rigid carbon gravel forks. This extra weight can be reduced elsewhere on the bike, and gives the riders a valuable edge when the terrain is severe.
The groupset is Shimano GRX 12-speed, with a 10-51 rear cassette.
The Shimano MTB crankset is retained but we respace it on the drive-side to allow for a 42t front narrow-wide chainring.
As you can see, the frame clearance with this large chainring is very small…
The brakes are Shimano SLX 2-piston with 180/160 rotors. They’re light and strong, with great performance in combination with the GRX shifters.
With their competition backgrounds in MTB, some of the team riders have opted for dropper posts which are operated by the LH brake lever.
We’ll do testing and team rides as the riders assess the need for a dropper and the potential weight penalty they bring.
Cannondale Super X LAB71
In the search for weight reductions and better aero performance, we built a Super X for Mark to ride this year. He’ll evaluate this bike through the Spring and at the first qualifier event – Gravelista.
The frame/forks/seatpost weighed a crazy 1.43kg!
For the evaluation period, the bike is a hybrid of SRAM AXS components from road and MTB. The shifters and brakes are SRAM Red, the crankset is an SRM powermeter with 40 or 42t NW chainring, the derailleur is SRAM Eagle GX Transmission with 10-52 XD cassette.
Once Mark has settled on the gearing combination he needs, the derailleur and cassette will be upgraded to X01 spec to save weight. He also has a set of custom wheels coming for it to improve weight and aero.
First build weight of the bike is 8.6kg ready to ride with pedals, bidon cages and garmin mount. We expect this to come under 8kg in race trim.
The wheels for the Keeganstein and Atlas racebikes are the NextSL by Race Face.
The SL is for Super Light, they’re built lightweight for XC hammering so in a Gravel bike they’re spot-on. The UD carbon layup and Vault hubs give our riders fast road speed and confidence when the course gets technical.
Critical to the performance of the riders is the choice of tyres – we choose from the MAXXIS range of gravel tyres.
For fast rolling events on smooth dirt roads and fire trails, we’ll use the Reaver 700 x 45. It’s a fast gravel race tyre with good grip.
When the course is sketchy or wet, we’ll use the Ravager 700 x 45. It has larger knobs for traction in loose gravel and mud.
Some of the team riders opted for power meter setups as part of training and raceday performance management.
For Tanya we’ve upgraded the crankset to SRAM GX with a DUB bottom bracket, and used a Magene P505 spider power meter with a 5-bolt AbsoluteBlack CNC 42t chainring.
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