JUMP START

‘It’s MTB, but not as you know it!’ shouts the promotional poster for GV Amp’d, touted as Australia’s first ever electric mountain bike race (or technically speaking, a Class 1 pedal-assist e-mtb specific event). Promising the ‘steepest climbs, gnarliest descents and most excitement ever packed into an XC course,’ it’s happening only 20 minutes from MBA’s palatial multi-storey office complex – okay, my spare upstairs hall closet – at the growing Green Valleys Mountain Bike Park, southwest of Wollongong.

Let’s get one straight down from the get-go – I am old school when it comes to bikes, but I get the e-mtb thing… I really do. My first electrically-aided ride opened my eyes to possibilities I’d never considered, and subsequent exposure to the notion of a pedal-assisted mountain bike has – for the most part – affirmed my view that it’s a relevant