Mountain bikers get set hit the trails as community sport given the green light

Tamworth Mountain Bikers will be one of the first back in action, getting the wheels turning on their popular twilight racing series on Wednesday.

"I'm very excited," TMB president Alyssa Rogan said.

"We've been up there today (Tuesday) spring cleaning the park and doing some last minute plotting on how we're going to do the course."

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Originally aiming at October 27, Rogan said a lot of the preparation work had been done so when NSW reached the magic 80 per cent double vaccination milestone over the weekend they thought "why not" start this week.

After consulting with their governing body, Aus Cycling, and checking that everything fell within the government guidelines, they "pressed the go button" on Monday.

Much to the delight of the mountain biking community with the news creating plenty of buzz.

While they have still been able to get out and challenge themselves on the trails for the past few months with the Mountain Bike Park remaining open for exercise purposes, Rogan said "nothing beats face-to-face racing".

"It has a different energy to it, than just going for a ride around the park," she said.

"When you're surrounded by other riders, you tend to push yourself a bit more."

The series runs through term 4 and term 1 with race plate pick-up at 5.30pm ahead of the main race at 6.10pm. Prior to that the gravity groms and dirt masters will ride from 5.30-6pm.

In accordance with government guidelines any participants 16 and over must be double vaccinated.

Despite the tougher restrictions, chiefly the 'no jab no play', Rogan said it has been a bit easier to navigate what they need to do this time round.

"I can't explain why, maybe because we've been through the process before," she said.

"(But) It's been really clear."

Tamworth Senior Oztag and Tamworth Touch Association are also preparing to kick-off their summer competitions over the next couple of weeks.

Touch players will be able to lace up the boots next week with the primary competition slated to commence on Monday (October 25).

The mixed competition is locked in to start on Wednesday and the senior competition the following night. Registrations are still open for both senior competitions and close this Friday.

Oztaggers will return to the field the following week with the association confirming the start date for the senior competitions as the week of November 1.

'Option 2' of the proposed starting dates, it includes an allowance of two weeks for washouts, and a break for Christmas and through January, with the grand finals scheduled for the week commencing March 7.

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