Your inside line on the epic 17km race loop that’s been custom-made for the upcoming 2025 Transmoto 8-Hour at Tumut.
Are you still in two minds about signing up to this year’s Transmoto 8-Hour at Tumut? Do you like the sound of the event’s spectacular 1200-acre private property, but want to know more about this year’s 17km custom-made race loop? Easy done! Here’s the inside line…
Nestled into the north-west foothills of the Snowy Mountains, the Tumut venue is home to massive tracts of grasstrack and bushland, with lots of elevation ensuring commanding views over Blowering Dam (where Ken Warby set the long-standing World Water Speed Record in 1977) and the surrounding Riverina region.
The 17km race loop at this year’s 8-Hour kicks off with 1.5km of God’s own grasstrack, which winds its way around the pit paddock’s perimeter before spearing you up a long, fast, hardpack firetrail (with the odd rock shelf that’ll keep you on your toes). That peels off into a series of ridgeline trails – flowing access roads and a few tricky off-camber singletracks – en route to the plateau, some 600m of altitude above the pit paddock. And it’s from here that the famed “Promised Land” section of the loop comes into view – an 8km long by 2km wide ‘dish’ of glorious grasstrack that’s punctuated by sections of tree-lined trails and the odd short, sharp hillclimb. There are a few small logs, seams of rock and natural terrain drop-offs, but nothing you’d call particularly technical, and no creek crossings to drown your bike in!
The revised route back to the pit paddock this year gives riders a couple of options. There’s the faster but more technical ‘Rooster’ line down Tumut’s notoriously steep, loose-terrain gully for experienced riders, or the slower but safer ‘Chicken’ line that zigzags down a firetrail for those who aren’t fans of beelining gnarly downhills. Whatever the case, everyone gets to cap off their 17km lap with a few big show-pony power slides where it all started: on the pit paddock’s rock-free rolling grasstrack!
Not quite convinced? Need to get the family on board as well? Well, you can always sell them on the fact the Tumut region is renowned for its fly fishing and kayaking, its vineyards and breweries, and its scenic Snowy Valleys Way, which meanders along the foothills of the Australian Alps through rolling farmlands, forested vales, snowgrass flats and picturesque villages. That, and the convenient fact Tumut is just a two- to three-hour drive from the likes of Canberra, Albury-Wodonga, Cooma and Narrandera, and a little over four hours’ drive from Sydney.
