For such a comparatively small, flat, and faraway country, Australia continues to produce a steady stream of talented riders who are mixing it up on the World Cup with experienced pros and the best emerging talents.
A handful of young guns have been making waves over the past few years and have been rewarded with the support and recognition they deserve. Ollie Davis, recently signing with the Santa Cruz Syndicate team, has been given the opportunity of a lifetime. In the spotlight on the Syndicate has allowed him to demonstrate his exceptional skills to the world. His progress this season will be one to watch.
The Meier-Smith brothers, Luke and Remy, have been tearing up the Downhill World Cup circuit aboard Giant Factory Racing for a couple of seasons now.
Ryan Gilchrist, who at the time of writing is the current King of Crankworx, is tackling the E-EDR series this year for Yeti Cycles.
Everyone loves the underdog, and Australia has provided. But there is still more emerging talent poised to make their mark on the World Cup circuit. Here are our picks of the latest fresh faces to watch this year.
Bailey Christie | EDR U21 Men
Two races into the EDR World Series, Bailey Christie was the U21 overall leader, having won both rounds.
Christie lives near Perth in Western Australia. Training for enduro around The City of Light can be quite tricky, but Christie shares some of the same training grounds as previous World Enduro Champion Sam Hill.
“Down south, there is Nannup, which is my favourite place to train. It’s steep and loamy,” he says.
“The runs are quite short. They are janky and have tight corners to get more time out of the hill”.
At the ripe old age of 20, Christie has been riding for about eight years, and for five of those, he was racing XC. But in 2022, he found enduro, and things got serious when he travelled to the US to race two rounds of the EWS — DNFing in Burke, Vermont and riding to 16th in Sugarloaf, Maine. Up to this point, he’d basically dominated the WA series, but this racing experience proved to be a bit of a turning point in his career.
“When I went to America to give it a go, I wasn’t satisfied with how I went. So, I knuckled down and went really well at the Maydena and Derby EDRs in 2023.”
These struggles lit the fire at just the right time, with the 2023 EDR landing in Australia for the first two rounds of the season at Maydena Bike Park and the infamous Blue Derby. Christie was leading the U21 Derby EDR going into the last stage when he suffered a mechanical putting him back into 6th place — still quite the result.
Christie tells Flow he wasn’t initially planning on racing the European rounds, but after two successful hitouts in Tasmania, it was his team manager at Theory Racing, Nic Bean, who gave him the opportunity to continue the season. His results were a slightly mixed bag, culminating in P4 at Pietra Ligure.
Christie returned for more this year with the intent to put last season’s struggles behind. He’s taken back-to-back wins in Finale Ligure and Bielsko-Biala and was leading the overall rankings — at the time of writing he’s placed thrid overall.
Coming into the season, he had trained hard and set high goals, but even he was surprised with these results.
“I was working two casual jobs; training was a lot of shuttles from my dad to get in as much bike time as possible,” he says. “I was doing gym twice per week, and on Saturday, I would do a big group road ride.”
“I really wanted to get my first podium, (but) I definitely wasn’t expecting to get two wins in a row,” says Christie.
We are looking forward to seeing Christie take on the rest of the EDR series, this guy is always ready to deliver come race day.
Sascha Kim | EDR U21 Men
In 2023, Sascha Kim made his mark on the world stage, finishing second in the overall U21 EDR standings. Joining the Giant Factory Racing Enduro team in 2024 brought a new level of support and expectation for the season ahead.
Hailing from Tasmania, Kim has some of the best-suited training grounds for gravity racing right on his doorstep.
“Maydena has been my local riding spot for over five years now. This park has helped me progress my riding so much and has been an amazing place to train for enduro,” he says.
Kim has been racing bikes since he was 14, and despite his age, he tells Flow his motivation was to compete on the world stage, donning a number plate whenever he could.
Setting goals has helped keep Kim on track to his factory ride, he has performance goals but also outside of this is focused on his health and gaining extra experience.
“Trying to stay as healthy as I can is a big goal of mine. I also hope to learn as much as I can while being in the fortunate position of riding for a (Factory) team.”
Giant Factory Racing picked up Kim at the start of the season and it has given him the ability to double down on his training and racing.
“I’ve had a very warm welcome, and it’s super exciting joining a team and fulfilling my childhood dream,” he says.
Kim has had a great start to the season, finishing third at the new venue in Bielsko-Biala. His new team has given him an opportunity to extend himself by riding as fast as possible and focusing on the job at hand. With that, he tells Flow he has his sights set on the crescendo of this year’s series.
“Loudenvielle was great last year, so I’m looking forward to the final round there later this year. It’s got good variety and more technical, steeper tracks, which I enjoy.”
Bow Habermann | EDR U21 Men
Bow Habermann from South Australia doesn’t quite have his full license, but he’s already earning top-ten finishes in Europe, where individual stages are more than double the vertical drop of his local trails.
“I’m from the Barossa Valley roughly an hour North of Adelaide. Pewsey Vale is my local tracks, a pine forest with about 140m of vert(cial) climb.”
While Habermann doesn’t have the big mountains in SA, like Troy Brosnan before him, he works with what he has access to, and the pine forest supplies the loamy riding that Habermann needs to get ready for the World Cup Circuit.
“I’ve always been riding bikes but didn’t start racing until 2019. It’s been a pretty flat out past five years, I’ve spent a lot of time travelling interstate,” he says.
It was in 2023 that Habermann had his first taste of international racing. Eager to learn, Habermann made it his mission to make the most of going overseas. He gained valuable experience at his races last year and had some solid results.
“It was the best timing. I had nothing to lose and everything to learn, as a 16-year-old racing against mostly 19/20-year-olds,” Habermann continues.
Last year, he finished P15 at the opening round of the EDR at Maydena Bike Park and P21t at the Pietra Ligure EDR. This year, Habermann is aiming to ramp up and utilise the lessons learned last year — he already had an impressive start to his season.
“At the start of the year, my goal was to race the full EDR World Cup series and get a top-ten finish. I’ve managed an eighth and seventh position in the first two races,” he says.
But those results haven’t come easy, and just getting to the races has been an exercise in balance.
“I started straight into 12-16 hour shifts, six days a week, working for a grape harvesting contractor. During that time, I did my best to fit in as many workouts or rides in between sleeping.”
Is harvesting grapes the secret to EDR results? Only time will tell, but it’s clear Habermann’s hard work is already paying off.
Elise Empey | DH Elite Women
Elise Empey is having a breakthrough year in the DH Women’s Elite field. Her first trip to the top twenty in Bielsko-Biala, Poland, set her up nicely for the rest of the season.
Empey, from Mansfield, Victoria, spent her off-season at Maydena Bike Park getting ready for her third Downhill World Cup campaign. The time riding Abbotts Peak gave her the prep she needed for the gnarly DH circuit tracks, in addition to the experience and race craft she’s picked up over the last couple of years.
“I’ve been pretty fortunate to be able to do a few races in juniors over in Europe and I did the full World Cup season last year — which has been amazing to learn my race procedures. How I race and how to do it on the tracks over here, which are something else compared to the tracks back home,” she tells Flow.
Empey’s pre-season training has obviously been working, with her best-ever Elite World Cup result, making it to the Semi-finals for a P16 finish in Poland. The sibling rivalry with her brother Matt Empey also proves some added motivation and always gives her someone to train with when she is at home in Victoria.
Battling injuries going into the 2023 World Cup season, Empy was fired up and full strength coming into Fort William in 2024. Unfortunately, a crash in training saw her on the sidelines for Leogang, but she expects to be back for Val di Sole.
“Last year, I injured myself, so I missed most of the home races. So, when I came to Europe, I was fresh off the bat. Not having ridden a bike I was lacking a bit of confidence, and the shoulder was a bit weaker.
My coach, Tracy, has been amazing to give a bit more structure and expertise to my training,” she says.
Balancing enough bike time and making a season injury-free can be a tricky balance in any sport, especially downhill. Empey has managed this well so far and is only gaining more experience. She tells Flow she is looking to build on her big result in Poland.
Harry Doye | XCO Junior Men
Harry Doye is from Victoria and races XC bikes. He has made his winning debut in Europe at some competitive European races and the XCO World Cup in Nové Město this season.
“I started racing mountain bikes in 2015. Over the years, I started to understand more about how to race and what works for me. The more you race, the more you learn and how to fight for the win,” he says.
Doye has gained experience quickly and has used it to dominate the XC scene in Australia in his category as a junior.
He knows the importance of race craft and learning to capitalise on his strengths, identifying where he can gain an advantage at each event. Being competitive in such a highly physical discipline also requires Doye to have a good team around him and keep his fitness high, come race day.
“Having Adam Kelsall as a coach has been really beneficial for me. I started off with a base block towards the end of 2023. This led to a more intense block of training. Followed by the final details to be my best at National Champs in March. We then made sure to hold that form to be my best when racing overseas.”
Going to Europe with a good block of fitness after claiming the Junior XCO National Championship in Awaba boosted Doye’s confidence. Also balancing his skillset of downhill speed and fitness was important for Doye this off-season.
“During the off-season, there’s a lot of riding done on the road bike and training camps. In the past, I’ve also tried enduro and downhill,” he says
“I found that my descending skills on the bike, in general, got much better. I feel like descending is overlooked in XCO. Being able to descend fast at max heart rate is definitely beneficial at XCO races.”
Straight away, he had some really good results, winning the second race of his 2024 Europe season at the AC Heating Cup in Stříbro.
The Nové Město World Cup didn’t go to plan, but he pushed on and finished the race. Despite this, Doye took the positives from this adventure, building his mindset and taking all the opportunities given to him when racing, only building his experience more.
Harry Doye is one to watch on the XC World Cup Circuit as he progresses through the ranks.
Photos: Clancey Kelly / @clancykelly_
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