HUNTERS Cycling Team continues in 2026
In 2026 our primary focus will be Gravel Worlds. We have one rider yet to qualify and two riders to train and prepare.
We’ll also field one rider in the Bushranger Gravel Series – he’s the Defending Series Champion!.
Gravel Hunters
The 2026 Gravel World Championships will be held on October 11th at Nannup, south of Perth.
We can expect a large contingent of riders from the US to be here on a course that will suit their style of technical gravel racing.
Tanya and Shane are already qualified and will be receiving their ’26 race bikes in January. These will be the new Focus Atlas 8.9, a carbon race bike with SRAM XPLR AXS 13sp wireless and ZIPP 303 carbon wheels.
Thanks Focus Bikes for your continued support.
Mark is prepping for the next qualifier event in May ’26 – this is the SEVEN race in Nannup. This race will also be a pre-ride for the Worlds race in October.
Bushranger Hunters
For 2026, Danny will defend his title in the Bushranger Series run by the excellent folks from Graveleur.
Danny’s bike for ’26 is not yet finalised…because he hasn’t decided what he wants yet!
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. In ’26 we’ll be mostly using the race tyres in the Gravel range – Reaver and Receptor.
Thanks to our fantastic partners at Focus Bikes for amazing bikes – the Atlas 8.9. This new ’26 model is something else.
The Riders
TANYA CLARK
Bike: Focus Atlas 8.9
Events: Gravel Nationals, MTB XCO & XCC – State & Nationals, Gravel World Championships.
In ’25 Tanya finished third in her class at Nationals and second in her class at Gravelista, qualifying her for the Gravel Worlds in ’26.
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.
DANNY HANLY
Bike: Focus Raven ‘Keeganstein’
Events: Bushranger Gravel Series
You’d have to say that 2025 was a success for Danny, his reputation for speed and endurance brought him home as the inaugural Series Champion at the ’25 Bushranger Gravel Series.
He’s back to defend his title for ’26 and clocking up 10,000kms in training, he’s riding from Darwin to the Hunter this winter with Ridin4Mates!
SHANE MATTISKE
Bikes: Focus Atlas 8.9, Focus Izalco Max 9.9, Focus Raven ‘Keeganstein’
Events: NSW/VIC Gravel, Club Road, Road Worlds qualifiers, Gravel Worlds ’26
Shane lives in Sydney & Orange and competes in the Masters 5 category. With a solid finish in his hotly-contested class at Gravelista he has qualified for the ’26 UCI Gravel Worlds.
Shane is back on his Focus road bike awaiting his new ’26 Gravel race bike, plus he’ll be taking another shot at the Convict 100 MTB race on his Keeganstein – he says he has unfinished business there!
MARK SIMONS
Bike: Cannondale Super X LAB71
Events: NSW gravel events, Gravel Worlds Qualifiers
After a busy ’25 that included building a new race bike, Mark is back in training for the two remaining UCI Gravel Worlds qualifiers.
He plans to join us in Perth for the Worlds race so he’ll be racking up the frequent flyer points as he chases another Worlds qualification.
The Bikes
The Focus Atlas 8.9
This brand-new race bike for 2026 is a gravel racer’s dream build.
Carbon frame and fork with a stash port for essentials plus SRAM XPLR 13-speed Rival AXS groupset, ZIPP 303XPLRS wheelset straight out of the pro peloton.
Custom Hunters Team graphics by Sign Style right here in Cessnock. Yes we can add them to your Team Replica bike 🙂
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.
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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