Greater Shepparton City Council is excited to be heading into a year of cycling celebrations with a number of high-class cycling events secured for the region.
AusCycling announced the 2023 national calendar this week, awarding Greater Shepparton as the host city for two prestigious national events.
The Junior and Masters National Road Championships will come to Shepparton in September 2023 followed by the BMX Racing National Championships to be held at the Shepparton BMX Track in October 2023.
Greater Shepparton has a proud history of successfully hosting BMX events of State, National and International status and warmly welcomes the return of the BMX Racing National Championships having previously held the event in 2010, 2014 and 2019.
The BMX Racing National Championships will see upwards of 1,200 riders ranging from ages 4-years-old to 70-years-old and around 4,000 overnight visitors staying for the entire competition from Tuesday 31 October to Sunday 5 November 2023. Greater Shepparton is also working on creating a Pre National Championships Test event the weekend prior to extend visitors’ stay for up to 10 nights.
The Junior and Masters Road National Championships is anticipated to have more than 800 riders for the Junior event for age groups of Under 15 and Under 17 and Masters 30 years plus events. Greater Shepparton has previously hosted the Junior event in 2011 and 2015 and it will be great to see the Masters National Road Race event for the first time come to our region.
The National Junior and Masters Road Race Championship will be held on Thursday 21 September to Sunday 24 September 2023, the exact courses are yet to be determined but will take place across the region.
In the past we’ve seen young athletes such as Caleb Ewan win national junior road titles in Greater Shepparton, and now he’s conquered the world having won stages at the Tour De France along with BMX legend Sam Willoughby who won the BMX National Championship in 2014 in Shepparton to go with his multiple World Championships and Olympic silver medal.
Our region excels in many sports and BMX and Cycling is one of the many we enjoy returning to our region, Mayor Cr Shane Sali said.
“It’s always a stand out when a cycling event is in town as our streets, accommodation venues and local businesses are buzzing with riders experiencing our services and everything that Shepparton and the Goulburn Valley has to offer.”
“Council is excited to support these events which bring large visitor numbers to our region and support our local visitor economy. We are expecting great things from these two events. Analysis of the 2019 BMX National Championship demonstrated that the region saw an economic boost of more than $6 million from the 4,000 plus overnight visitors who stayed in the region at the time.
“Combing that expected boost with the additional multi day Junior and Masters Road National Championships, which will see another 2,000 overnight visitors from all around Australia converge on the region, it is likely to inject a further $2million into the economy and see a combined economic stimulus of more than $8million helping support local businesses and keeping our economy strong.”
Securing these two events is a testament to the region’s ability to deliver high status events and is a proud achievement for the entire community.
“Council will continue to secure these major events in our region, it only strengthens our status as the regional sporting events capital of Australia and proving Greater Shepparton has the high quality sporting facilities and services perfectly suited to host events for the 2026 Commonwealth Games.”
AusCycling will release additional details of the events at a later date. To see more events and activities coming to the region view the events calendar on visit Shepparton
