News

Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race 30 Jan-2 Feb 2020

In 2020, Sport Projects delivered the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race for the third time. The sixth edition of the event was a huge success and certainly the best consumer and fan experience in the event’s history with a whole host of new and exciting innovations added to the program. 

For the first time, Towards Zero Race Torquay was introduced, moved from Melbourne, to the vibrant surf town of Torquay. Fast and furious twilight racing dashed along the foreshore of Torquay’s front beach and out around a new 13km course. Crowds and beachgoers were thrilled by the sight of the  world’s best on display, as a prelude to the weekend of World Tour racing for women and men.

The weather conditions across the four days of the event, Thursday through Sunday, were the most challenging that have been experienced by the event, with everything from 45 degree extreme heat, to severe thunderstorms, damaging winds and heavy downpours! The Sport Projects team were well prepared, with more than 100 staff and key personnel deployed across the venues and courses, as well as a team of agency partners, coordinating a response to any challenges that presented, from our central control room. What could be controlled, was controlled, by our big team of event experts, applying professionalism and a sense of calm across all parts of the event. 

The racing itself was the best we have seen at the event. The course changes designed by our Race Director, produced the animation and unpredictability we wanted to achieve. From the warrior women that prevailed through epic conditions on Saturday, which unfortunately included a huge crash towards the end, to the dynamic and unpredictable race on Sunday, with a surprise result, sprinting out of a small breakaway for the win. In both races, Challambra and Melville were crucial in deciding the outcome, just as we hope. The bold and brave were rewarded in each case!

On Saturday, we managed to get all of our nearly 3,000 riders in the Peoples Ride, back home safely before the huge deluge arrived into Geelong and its surrounds. The decision to reduce the distance from 115km to 65km, completely validated. The distance might have been reduced but there was no shortage of smiles as they crossed the finish line on Geelong’s waterfront. Sunday morning was also full of smiles, after we made some accommodations, and allowed for a re-run of the canceled Family Ride. The extreme heat on Friday meant the Family Ride was a casualty, but the kids were still given the opportunity to take to part of the course on Sunday, riding under the famous gantry, just like the pros!

Events are almost never predictable but over the years we have been tested more times than most on the CEGORR, a logistically complex event that exists in a challenging time on the calendar. We work hard on predicting the unpredictable and building plans that allow us to absorb and respond to the challenges. This year was no exception and reflecting on it, means that we are even further prepared for future challenges, based on what we worked through in 2020! 

Well done to the project team on their meticulous assembly of this event, certainly our largest project of the year. Thankyou also to all of the bigger team that makes this possible, our venue managers, our course crew, signage superstars, drivers, lifters, shifters, athlete assistants, the sport team, ConEx crusaders, commissaires and of course our very many volunteers! 

UCI Tissot Track World Cup 13-15 Dec 2019

With near full stands every night, the first UCI Track Cycling World Cup in Australia since 2010 was a great success. With experience working with the UCI, with previous Track Cycling World Cups and with the Brisbane venue, through our Six Day work, Cycling Australia entrusted us with the task of delivering the first major event in the summer of cycling. 

With the all-important qualifying points up for grabs as they look towards Tokyo 2020, the international teams turned out in force, with strong teams and large numbers. The venue was stretched to capacity, for the first time since the Commonwealth Games in 2018, but the Sport Projects team, and the Anna Meares Velodrome was able to respond. As truly one of the best velodromes in the world and with a friendly, helpful team of staff and volunteers assembled, in one of Australia’s very best cities, the experience for the UCI, athletes and teams was a great one. 

Each day and night was filled to the brim with world-class racing, nation vs. nation, with the Australian team shining through by the end with the trophy for overall top performer of the Brisbane round! There were thrills and spills at times, with several major falls on the track, keeping the medical team busier than we usually like, but the entertainment for those in the venue and for those at home watching on 7 was constant. 

Well done to our project team for all of their hard work to make this event a great success, for CA, the UCI, for the event’s partners and for Sport Projects ourselves. We can’t wait to get back to Brisbane in April for Six Day where tickets are still available for this cycling party!

Sport Projects have secured another prestigious cycling event, with Cycling Australia appointing us as the organiser for the Brisbane round of the UCI Track Cycling World Cup. We are so pleased to be part of an event that sees the best of track cycling battle it out for gold and valuable qualifying points ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

The Tissot Track World Cup is the first major UCI world track cycling event hosted by Australia since the UCI Tissot Track Cycling World Championships in Melbourne in 2012. A Sport Projects delivery of the UCI Track World Cup in Brisbane comes after working with Madison Sports Group and nurturing the expansion of the Six-Day Cycling Series into Australia last season, both in Melbourne and Brisbane. 

In announcing that Sport Projects will deliver the Track World Cup in Brisbane, Managing Director Steve Peterson said “While we have a healthy roster of high profile outdoor sports events, we are pleased to be expanding our indoor activity, capitalising on our demonstrated capacity to deliver high-quality stadium and venue experiences. The Anna Meares Velodrome is one of the leading velodrome venues in the world and we are thrilled to be back there and working with Cycling Australia and the Stadiums Queensland team again! Whilst we are proudly Melbourne based, The Track World Cup in Brisbane on top of the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge in Sydney and Six Day Track Cycling, also in Brisbane, means we are just as active outside of our home state as we are within it”.

The UCI Track Cycling World Cup will take place at the Anna Meares Velodrome in Brisbane on December 13-15. You can find out more about the event and buy tickets here

23 August 2019

Sport Projects Deliver a Cycling ‘Triple Treat’ this Events Season

At Sport Projects we continue to build our repertoire of cycling events with a season that now features every major cycling discipline. From mountain biking through to road and track cycling we have a ‘triple treat’ of cycling this summer. 

We have recently been reappointed as event management supplier for the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race for the next three years. Taking pride of place in the Sport Projects calendar, this ‘festival of cycling’ contains a UCI World Tour status mens and women’s elite race, Towards Zero Race Torquay (formerly TZ Race Melbourne), the Swisse People’s Ride and the Family Ride. The scale of the event is unlike anything else on our calendar and it’s a challenge making sure all those moving parts work together smoothly. But at Sport Projects we are all about taking on challenges with a smile and that’s why the delivery of the 2018 and 2019 events was such a success. And it’s why we can’t wait to continue be part of innovating and improving this event over the next three years.

But it’s not just road cycling on the calendar this season. We are already the organiser of the Australian leg of the ‘Six Day Cycling’ series, an event that combines elite track cycling with a party atmosphere. And now we are venturing even deeper into the world of track cycling with 

Cycling Australia appointing us as organiser of the Brisbane round of the 2019-2020 Tissot UCI Track Cycling World Cup. This is sure to be an exciting event as the world’s best track cyclists battle for gold and valuable qualifying points ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. If you fancy a long weekend in Brisbane buy your tickets here.

And finally our foray into mountain and gravel biking and independently running our own event. While Sport Projects is a company founded on delivering high quality projects for a range of clients, we thought it was time we spread our sporting wings a little and take on an event ourselves, in all its glory. And when, ‘Race the Train’ needed a new organiser the timing could not have been more perfect. Founded and operated by the amazing Paula Ewing of Cranked Up Events in 2015, this event pits mountain bikers against the might of a historic steam train on the Goldfields Railway. Over the past four years it’s built up a significant cult following, with hundreds of riders taking part. In 2018 Paula stepped down as organiser and Sport Projects became the new owner and operator of a shiny new train race. You can find out more and register to be part of the action here.

After delivering the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race (CEGORR) since 2018 Sport Projects has had its contract renewed as event management services supplier for the next three years. The CEGORR is one of the largest road events in Australia. Running since 2015 the first CEGORR was host to Cadel Evans’ final professional road cycling race. From here it quickly became a world class cycling event attaining UCI world tour status in 2017. 

Sport Projects have been involved with the event since 2017, delivering ‘Towards Zero Race Melbourne’, a new addition to the CEGORR weekend of cycling in Albert Park. In 2017 we were appointed by Visit Victoria as the event management supplier for the event, in its entirety. This includes the Elite Men’s Race, Elite Women’s Race, Race Melbourne, the Swisse People’s Ride and the Family Ride. It’s a festival of cycling and we have enjoyed the challenge and excitement of delivering every part of it throughout 2018 and 2019.

We look forward to continuing to deliver a CEGORR that is always changing, innovating and improving the rider and spectator experience. In 2020, the Deakin University Elite Women’s race is elevated to World Tour status for the first time. The first UCI Women’s World Tour event ever to take place in the Southern Hemisphere. Find out more about the CEGORR weekend here.

Sport Projects are excited to announce a new addition to our event management portfolio with an expansion into Sydney and NSW for the first time. The JP Morgan Corporate Challenge on October 30, 2019 is a unique event, a one of a kind road race series running in thirteen cities across seven countries and five continents. In Sydney the 5.6 km course runs through the beautiful Centennial Park and attracts over 9000 participants. 

The JP Morgan Corporate Challenge focuses on promoting corporate teamwork, camaraderie and a sense of community. That’s why participation takes place as part of a company team. Participating companies use the event as a platform to promote health and fitness in the workplace, foster goodwill and camaraderie among their employees, and show their commitment to the community and best environmental practices. 

The Sydney leg of the Corporate Challenge has been running for eighteen years. And in the last nine years the event has consistently grown in popularity with last year’s event attracting the city’s highest number of participants yet with 9,256 runners and walkers.

The Corporate Challenge strives to make a difference through a donation to a not-for-profit organisation in each host city, and in Sydney the beneficiary is the Indigenous Marathon Foundation.

Sport Projects are proud to be the Local Race Organiser of the only Australian leg of the this very successful event, and we look forward to putting our own SP spin on this enormously successful event.

Entries go live next week so make sure you keep an eye on the event website, gather together your work colleagues, appoint your corporate captain and partake in an event that is equal parts fun and fitness!

We are pleased to announce that after a brief hiatus in 2018 the ‘Race the Train’ gravel and mountain bike race is set to return in November 2019 under the management of Sport Projects.

Up until last year the event was run by Cranked Up Events, under the guidance of Paula Ewing as a one-person show. After five years, Paula stepped down as organiser and sought new management for the event. Paula did an amazing job running and growing this event, almost entirely on her own. It’s a spectacular achievement. We are excited to take over such a well-established race and look forward to growing it even further.

Sport Projects will now organise the 2019 ‘Race the Train’, set to take place on Saturday 16 November.

At Sport Projects we have organised some of the largest sporting events in Victoria, including the Herald Sun-Citylink Run for the Kids, the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race and the Olivia Newton John Wellness Walk and Research Run. We look forward to drawing on this experience to make ‘Race the Train ’a marquee event for the region and for the state of Victoria.

Registration will open in the coming weeks. You can be the first to know when this happens as well as having access to special offers by signing up to the Race the Train newsletter via the website www.racethetrain.com.au and following the Race the Train Facebook page.

For any event enquiries including registration, sponsorship opportunities and to learn more about this unique event contact info@racethetrain.com.au 

We look forward to seeing you out on the track!