Reimagined courses and stacked athlete fields to unleash roar of the jungle at Crankworx Cairns

With just three weeks to go before some of the world's best mountain bikers head to Cairns for the unofficial "Party Edition" of the Crankworx World Tour, May 21-25, the trails are shaping up to create the ultimate experience in mountain biking.

With world class fields and upgrades to the courses it is looking to be another outstanding experience for athletes and fans on site or watching from home with a week of intense battles amongst a picturesque backdrop of a tropical rainforest.

Reimagined Courses

For the last three decades the iconic rainforest trails of Smithfield Mountain Bike Park have hosted some of the world's biggest mountain bike competitions including the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships and four iterations of Crankworx Cairns.

The legacy will have a new chapter with innovation pushing the boundaries even further. A team of expert trail builders from World Trail and Flux Trail has been on course since early April, carefully crafting challenging and inspiring trails that will bring fans closer to the action.

The introduction of Crankworx Full Tilt, a brand-new race format with three riders going head-to-head on a demanding new course, testing their speed and agility, has given the team freedom to design something new giving the former Speed & Style course a new life.

"It's built to a scale that will have some cool features and basically depending on how game you are will make you lead the race pretty much," said Flux Trail Director Remy Morton.

"The build is definitely creating some fairly exciting racing. It's full of fast knuckles, and jumps and balance. Everything on the whole build is quite landscaped and rolled off and built in a way so you can crisscross and turn and go in any direction of the trail."

Additionally, the course for the Official Australian Whip-Off Championships has been reimagined and is set to see riders send bigger than ever. The new layout has kept the fans front of mind, opening up spectator areas right next to the action for an incredible viewing experience.

"This should just give a lot more spectator space and make for a much smaller and efficient push up for the riders, which will basically create a more action-packed event for both the rider and spectator," Morton explained.

These exciting changes are all part of a much larger jigsaw puzzle which has enabled major improvements to the design for the Specialized Dual Slalom, concluding the festival on Sunday afternoon.

Morton and the team including World Trial’s Glen Jacobs have utilised space saved from moving other courses to deliver huge upgrades to the Dual Slalom course, adding in plenty of corners from the previous straight heavy design."

We have had the wall ride removed, we've added a bunch of rhythm sections and back-to-back s-bends in the bottom. It has quite a supercross inspiration going on, with on offs and rollers and a fair bit of line choice and variations of how you can ride the rhythm sections."

Last, but definitely not least, the Crankworx Cairns Slopestyle course will see some significant revisions, with the ‘Croc Tail’, ‘On/Off Switch’ and Quarterpipe retired, and a new jump line under construction. These updates will provide riders an open canvas for more speed and air to showcase the best tricks in their arsenal.

World Class Fields

Course improvements and the new Crankworx Full Tilt event means we will see one of the best rider fields ever assembled in Cairns.

Crankworx Full Tilt

Royal watching will be the name of the game in the first edition of Crankworx Full Tilt, with a battle royale expected with former Kings of Crankworx Sam Blenkinsop, Bas Van Steenbergen and Queen Caroline Buchanan, and current royalty Martha Gill and Ryan Gilchrist eyeing the title.

Don’t count out multi-discipline athletes Niels Bensink, Tegan Cruz, Jayce Cunning, Jackson Frew, Mick Hannah, Charlie Makea, Bailey Meares, Sabina Košárková and Cassie Voysey either who will have their eyes on dethroning royalty in this new event new to all riders.

Crankworx Cairns Slopestyle

Tickets to the Slopestyle competition are expected to be hot commodities with what might arguably be the most competitive field ever. Twelve of the world’s best riders will compete for the 2025 Crankworx FMBA Slopestyle World Championship (SWC) title.

2024 champion David Godziek went on a rampage after winning last year swiftly collecting two more golds and is back and looking to defend his title. Godziek is returning from injury as are fellow top riders Erik Fedko and Emil Johansson.

Fresh from winning his first SWC gold at Crankworx Rotorua earlier this year, Tim Bringer, who had three podium finishes last year will be looking to keep his roll of podiums running.

Debuting last year, Alma Wiggberg claimed her first gold in Cairns before picking up silver in Innsbruck, and another gold at Red Bull Joyride. After missing this year’s season kick-off in Rotorua due to injury, she will be eyeing a return to the top.

Next to her on the rider list are Robin Goomes, two-times gold medalist in last year’s Slopestyle World Championship and first female winner of Red Bull Rampage, and young talent Patricia Druwen who claimed the top spot at the 2025 Maxxis Slopestyle in Memory of McGazza at Crankworx Rotorua. Notably, all three women have emerged victorious in their first ever SWC competitions, showing off their skills and fortitude.

Aussie Watch

In addition to Ryan Gilchrist and Caroline Buchanan, both vying for the royal title this year, there are plenty of Aussie names to watch on home soil.

Jackson Frew the runner-up in last year’s King of Crankworx standings, has kicked off his 2025 season strongly winning the Crankworx Rotorua Pump Track Challenge in February. The Crankworx stalwart is a regular on the podium and for fans wanting to watch tight and exciting battles in head-to-head disciplines including Pump Track, Specialized Dual Slalom and Full Tilt, then he is a name to watch closely.

Another rider that has been chasing the crown on the Crankworx World Tour for years is Cassie Voysey, looking to repeat her first Crankworx elite podium last year.

Sian A'hern will be looking to shred it at the RockShox Downhill and Cairns’ hometown hero Mick Hannah is returning once again to showcase his prowess on the local trails.

Crankworx World Tour Standings

With Crankworx Cairns hosting another round of the Dual Slalom, Pump Track, and Downhill Series, the race for the 2025 championship titles goes into the next phase – and current standings show that everything is possible.

Ryan Gilchrist and Jenna Hastings lead the race to be crowned King and Queen of Crankworx going into the Cairns festival, with multiple riders hot on their heels. See the current standings here.

Start Lists

Preliminary start lists can be found here.

Event Program

The full event program is now online. Start planning your week to ensure you don’t miss the action. Check it out here.

Get Involved

Athlete registration is open for the Crankworx Cairns Quadzilla Enduro and can be entered here.

Children aged 5-12 can join Crankworx Kidsworx. For more details: https://www.crankworx.com/cairns/kidsworx/

Locals get a 15 per cent discount with tickets available at www.crankworx.com/cairns. Follow Crankworx Cairns on Facebook or Instagram.

Crankworx Cairns is supported by Cairns Regional Council, Tourism Tropical North Queensland and the Queensland Government through Tourism and Events Queensland.