Echuca mountain biker Shane Roberts (second from left) placed first in the overall classification for the 100 and 50km races at the 2026 Otway Odyssey.
Echuca mountain biker Shane Roberts recently recorded his best time at the Otway Odyssey, placing 19th overall at this year’s 100km race.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
Along with placing in the top 20, Roberts’ time of 5.05:48 also placed him sixth in his category, the veteran male, for riders aged 40 to 49.
It was the 11th time Roberts raced at the Otways, the 100km widely regarded as Australia’s toughest mountain biking track, with the local competing against some of the best riders nationwide.
“People literally come from all around Australia for this one and you're talking hundreds of mountain bikers lining up on the Saturday for that main event,” Roberts said.
“It's a mass start, so you all take off together, it's pretty hectic.
“But it's pretty open, the organisers deliberately make it pretty open for the first probably 10km just so the field can sort of stretch out a bit before you hit any proper single track.”
Shane Roberts during the 100km race.
The track starts at Forrest, a small town within the Otway National Park, where riders are faced with various trails across the 100km.
Negotiating sudden course changes, from car-width to handlebar-width trails, is a challenge, but the most significant tests are the climbs.
Roberts said that such was the steepness of the Otway Ranges terrain, without a good run of momentum into climbs, which are also quite long, riders may have to hop off their bike and walk.
He hasn’t always been able to do the climbs, but this time Roberts did, passing what he suspects was about 10 riders, just by being able to stay on his bike.
Getting up on a climb is only the first part, with the second part, controlling your exit speed on descents, being another obstacle, as riders are travelling up to 70km/h down bush tracks.
Despite the difficulty he faced in the 100km race, meeting the challenge with flying colours, Roberts decided to go again the next day in the 50km race, his first time competing in this event at the Otways.
Adding to an impressive weekend, Roberts won his category, recording a time of 2.28:50.
Shane Roberts during the 50km race.
But there was even more success around the corner.
If riders competed in both the 100 and 50km races, the event placed them in an overall classification for their performance across the weekend.
Roberts placed first with his combined time of 7.34:40.
“I accepted my medal and stuff from the effort on the Sunday and then one of the organisers was like, ‘don't go too far away, we’ve got another award that we're going to give out’," he said.
“So somehow I ended up winning the overall, that was cool, I had no idea that was even an award they were giving out on the weekend, so I guess it’s given me a bit of drive now, I'm going to have to go back next year.”
Meanwhile, Roberts aims to compete in one 50km race each month through the Shifty Fifty Series.
He also notched another accomplishment soon after the Otways in the Curve Border Run, a 250km gravel bike event where the track runs from Melbourne to Echuca.
Roberts departed the CBD at 4.30am and finished as one of three riders to arrive first in Echuca at 12.30pm on the Old Echuca-Moama Bridge, also recording a time that was 40 minutes faster than last year.
Such achievements are only motivating Roberts to keep testing himself.
“I've been pretty fortunate to stay injury free, good health and fitness,” he said.
“When I started out mountain biking, I didn't have any thought of still doing it even at my age now, competitively, not just as a recreational mountain biker.
“But I'm still getting good results, so I'll keep going with it for as long as I can.”
14°C