Australian National MTB Championships - Eildon, Victoria, AUS March 18-20, 2005
Utopia Mountain Bike athletes smash the competition in the Australian MTB Championships!

French superstar Sabrina Jonnier (Intense-Utopia), winner of the ’03 World Cup Series, took the win for a second consecutive year while vacationing ‘down under’. However, due to Jonnier`s French nationality, the Aussie title was passed on to Tracey Hannah (who placed 2nd).

In controversial circumstances Mick Hannah (Haro-Thor) has won the Australian National DH title over Utopia rider Nathan Rennie (SantaCruz-Utopia). Although not a sponsored rider, Mick Hannah was in fact wearing a set of Utopia ‘Too Dirty’ mx goggles in his Australian MTB victory! Smart choice!

The controversy was concerning some Elite riders purposely holding back so as not to win the supposedly coveted national jersey. Given the strict UCI regulations, which dictate the size of sponsor logos on a national champion`s jersey, some of the major companies gave their riders orders not to win.

The rules stipulate that a national champion must wear his/her champions jersey in World Cup qualifying and finals and for this reason, sponsors stepped in to ensure their freedom to advertise on their star riders wasn`t compromised.

In between qualifying and finals the pits were abuzz with rulebooks, phone calls to team headquarters and tough decisions being made by the riders. One rider who was very outspoken on the issue was the rider who clocked the fastest time of the day (in qualifying), Nathan Rennie (Santa Cruz-Utopia).

"I have orders from a number of my sponsors that look after me quite well who need area on my jersey to promote their product. If I tried to win today then I couldn`t have been loyal to them whatsoever - it`s a catch-22 which sucks. The UCI are being very stubborn with the rule and something needs to change - there are so many options but they are not willing to negotiate."

"If the rule stays the same as it is now... I am never going to be national champ. I`ve got a world championship and a world cup overall under my belt... but not this one."

Mindful of the difficult predicament the riders were put in by the UCI ruling and the sponsor backlash, the race organizers put up a cash prize for the fastest qualifier to give a rider who was ordered not to win the final a chance to show their true form. With cash up for grabs, many of the elite field smashed their qualifying run, with Utopia rider Nathan Rennie putting together a flawless run to prove a point and smacked down a devastating 2:42.40 (which was actually a full second faster than the winning run of the day!)

It looks like it’s going to be a very exciting season this summer & Utopia riders are already making their marks on the podium!


Jeremiah Dean
Bike Team Manager
Utopia Optics International
jd@utopiaoptics.com