Welcome to the official
Savings & Loans Credit Union Top End Tour website.
This year brings with
it some exciting changes to the format of racing that was
traditionally associated with the Top End Tour. For the first
time, the event is being run as an event of the Arafura Games.
(Multi Stage Cycle Race)
The Arafura Games will
still have the other usual road racing events, but these do
not count in the general classification of the Savings &
Loans Credit Union Top End Tour (Except the Road Race which
is the first combined event of both the tour and the games).
In the past, we would
have teams of cyclists up here to attend the Arafura Games,
and then 1 month later, a whole different group of cyclists
would travel up to participate in the Top End Tour. We want
to encourage riders who would be attending the Arafura Games
to also participate in the Savings & Loans Credit Union
Top End Tour, and visa versa.
The tour is in it's
29th year and during the event cyclists will race in 3 road
races, 2 criteriums and 1 time trial. The races will be held
in the surrounding greater Darwin and in Batchelor (Litchfield).
It is expected that everyone will stay in Batchelor overnight
on the night of Monday the 14th of May.
The tour is part of
the Cycling Australia National Road Series and is counted
as a level 2 event. Interstate and International entrants
are expected, and like in previous years, there is a team
component to the event. The Arafura Games atracts up and coming
cyclist from many Asian countries, and we look forward to
seeing these cyclists race the tour.
In previous years, the
likes of David Betts, Robbie McEwan, Brett Aitken, Stephen
Cunningham, Chris Jongewaard, James Hannam and Matt King have
riden the event. Below is an extract from a letter Robbie
McEwan sent the Darwin Cycling Club:
"Riding the Top End
Tour was an important stage in my cycling career and as
part of the National Series, my performance there helped
me to win the domestic series and secure a place in the
Australian Institute of Sport Road Cycling Program for
1994."
