ABOUT
RIDE COLLIE
Events in another place
Collie is an exceptional place and we love it here! It has great country town community spirit, incredible forests, amazing waterways, rich heritage (spanning industry-farming-railways-forestry-sporting and more) and almost everyone we talk to seems to have some connection to this place. It's just incredible!
What we particularly love about this town it it's rich cycling heritage and the opportunites that lie ahead with regards to cycling. If you're not aware Collie is at the forefront of the Western Australian 'Trail Town' movement and is supported by both local and state governments - plus the local community and associated stakeholders.
RideCollie was born out of a desire to get people to Collie and enjoy the incredible roads, forestry tracks and dedicated mountain biking trails - all sanctioned, mapped and supported so that they could be enjoyed by more than just the Collie locals. Part of this push towards visitors/tourists being able to safely enjoy the trails was to make sure people know about them - which now happens with a range of marketing initiatives. One of the ways we can showcase our great trails is with a great event!
With our history of regularly working at some of the best cycling events in WA we thought it was only fitting to bring this experience to Collie and host all you 'adventurers' and your mates. We hope you love what you see and experience in Collie - and please make sure you tell your other mates that it's worth the trip - for a day out on the trails - or a week away! We'd love to see you here. You never know - you might event fall in love with the place like we have and end up staying here event longer...
Background
"Ride Collie" began well before it was named. Erik Mellegers took on the local Collie bike store in February 2007, renamed it 'Crank'n Cycles' and set about getting involved in the local cycling community. Within a couple of years Erik helped start a movement to change the local cycling landscape in Collie before getting more involved in events locally and abroad.
We've been involved in organising events for well over a decade and love getting people back into the great outdoors!
Initially working with the Collie Cycle Club and South West Cycling clubs helping at various road events - before jumping on board the "SouthWest Eventures" (Now Ride WA) road train which delivered amazing events like Delirium 24 hour racing and Tour of Margaret River in the early 2010's.
From here Erik helped lead the delivery of a number of State Cross Country MTB Series events in Collie alongside the Collie MTB Team (Working under Collie Cycle Club as their parent group) - and more recently State Cross Country MTB Marathon Events. With a strong network of support around the WA in the cycling event business Erik has been blessed to be able to call on other event management teams (like the wonderful Ride WA) to help deliver some of these events when Erik has been under the pump... (Thanks xxx).
At the end of January 2024 Erik stepped away from the retail cycling store to focus more time and effort into delivering bigger and better cycling events in Collie. With the help of our fantastic events team, the community and corporate partners we look forward to having you along for the ride!
History
Erik grew up with bikes. Loved riding them. Loved the challenge of going as fast as he could on any stretch of road or trail. Loved riding.
This passion led to racing bikes, and later selling bikes - working in bike shops since 2005 and subsequently owning a bike shop since 2007.
Having taken part in plenty of races over the years Erik became involved in the SouthWest Cycle Club (Bunbury) and later the Collie Cycle Club and found his way into helping at races and then organising races. This led a to a fantastic partnership with what we now know as Cycling Eventures / RideWA - Brendon Morrison and his fantastic team who are best known for events like 'Tour Of Margaret River', 'SEVEN', 'Delirium', 'Dirt' and 'Tour Of WA'. From this sprang a new career for Erik in Commentary and MC roles at a variety of sporting and social events outside of RideWA- with invitations to some fantastic events such as the 'Ring Criterium Series', Goldfields Cyclassic, Element Road Series, Westcycle Fondo Series, Dams Challenge, Dwellingup 100, Kalamunda50, Rottnest Channel Swim and more.
During this time Erik was also busy working alongside a great group of local mountain biking enthusiasts, the Shire of Collie and Parks and Wildlife/CALM/DBCA to help develop mountain biking trails/networks in the Collie area. Collie has been amazingly blessed to have an abudance of beautiful forrests, rivers, dams and lakes - and is rapidly growing its trails network thanks to the tireless work of a core group with support from the WA State Government, DBCA and the Collie Shire.
Alongside the Commentary and MTB trails advocacy work Erik was also busy heading up a number of new cycling events locally (Collie) adding to the existing premier road cycling events (Collie-Donnybrook and Tom Lowry Memorial) and hoping to increase Collie's reputation as a cycling hot-spot in WA. A rundown of some of the events we've organised in partnership with the Collie MTB Group/Collie Cycle Club and RideWA include:
20?? - Collie CBD Criterium as part of the South West Cycle Club Summer Criterium Series
20?? - Collie - McAlinden return road cycle race as part of the South West Cycle Club Road Racing Series
2014 - State Cross Country MTB Series Collie Round (XCO) Harris River Winners (Elite/A) -Craig Cooke / Simone McCallum
2015 - Northcliffe Bushfire Relief Fundraising MTB Event, Harris River Winery/Arklow MTB Trails.
Winners (Elite/A) - Matt Veleff / ?? TBC
2015 - State Cross Country MTB Series Collie Round (XCO) Harris River
Winners (Elite/A) -Dave Nairn / Bronwyn Sax
2016 - State Cross Country MTB Series Collie Round (XCO) Harris River
Winners (Elite/A) - Mark Frendo / Sarah Tucknott
2017 - State Cross Country MTB Series Collie Round (XCO) Harris River
Winners - (Elite/A) - Nav Coole / Sarah Tucknott
2018 - State Cross Country MTB Series Collie Round (XCO) Harris River Winery/Rays Trail
Winners (Elite/A) - Jon Greg / Tracey Chapman
2019 - Inaugural 'Collie River Valley 50' MTB Marathon Race
Winners (50km) - Brian Sing 1:44.05 / Jo Bennett/Tracey Chapman 1:59.57 1st/2nd sprint finish.
2020 - Collie River Valley 70 - cancelled due to Covid...
2021 - Collie River MTB Marathon (in partnership with RideWA)
Winners (70km)- JP Van der Merwe 2:54.57/Tracey Chapman 3:24.17
2022 - Collie River MTB Marathon (in partnership with RideWA)
Winners (80km)- Christie Bailey 3:29.49 / Elyse Lambert 4:06.17.
2023 - Collie River MTB Marathon (As Ride Collie)
Winners (90km) - JP Van der Merwe 3:32.12 / Tracey Chapman 4:12:16
2024 - Winners (90km) - Mark Chong 3:33.31 / Tracey Chapman 4:14:15
2025 - Be There to be the First To Find Out!
Other Collie Events
If you want to check out some other great events in Collie make sure you check out the Collie Labour Day Festival - it's on the March Long Weekend annually and organised by the Collie Cycle Club Inc. in partnership with a heap of local companies and community groups. Well worth a visit to Collie to check it out - and it also incorporates the XCO MTB WA State Round "Wambenger Cup' run by the Ferguson Valley MTB Club - so bring your mountain bikes and have a crack at that! Two days of racing, one day at the new Wellington National Park MTB Trails, and the other at the Wagyl Biddi MTB Trails just adjacent to the Collie CBD.
If you're into road cycling then one of the oldest road cycling races in Australia is run mid August annually in Collie - The Collie Donnybrook and Return road cycling race is an epic 104km race that starts and finishes on the main street of town and is one of the most coveted races to win on the Western Australian road racing calendar.
Also held annually in Collie is the Tom Lowry Memorial Cycling Classic. More recently this race has been based at the fantastic motorsport facility 10km out of town - The Collie Motorplex - which is a great venue to host the road cycling race. Keep an eye out for this race in May each year - one day is a criterium race around the motorplex and the other day a road race.
Information on both of these races can be found by searching on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/colliecycleclub
If you're into BMX racing - make sure you check out the local BMX club. They are a very active club and would love to have you along!
https://www.facebook.com/CollieBMXClubInc
