HUNTERS are the Hunter Valley’s newest multi-discipline cycling team.

In 2025 there’ll be five Gravel Hunters and one Enduro Hunter.

Rider: TANYA CLARK
Bike: Focus Raven ‘Keeganstein’
Events: Gravel Nationals, MTB XCO & XCC – State & Nationals, MTB Marathon Nationals, MTB XCO Masters World Championships, Gravel Worlds Qualifiers

Tanya’s palmares is a long list of Masters Women’s victories in XCC and XCO across multiple State and National Championship titles, plus gold medals in 24hr solo events. She says her favourite place to ride is anywhere the weather is good, and that racing is all about travelling to new places with new challenges.
In ’25 Tanya will try to qualify for the Gravel Worlds in ’26 where she will lead the team on the world stage.

Rider: NICK GOODCHILD
Bike: Focus Raven ‘Keeganstein’
Events: HMBA Club rounds, NSW XC State Rounds, Bushranger Gravel Series

Nick’s passion for cycling took him to a silver medal in NSW State XCO in ’24 in the Mens Masters class. He’ll be backing up for another shot at the title this year, plus he’ll be training hard with Danny for a strong performance at the inaugural Bushranger Gravel Series.

Rider: DANNY HANLY
Bike: Focus Raven ‘Keeganstein’
Events: Bushranger Gravel Series

Riding 8,000kms this year is Danny’s goal and along the way he’ll be found at the toughest gravel events on the calendar.
With previous success at the Wollombi Wild Ride and Westpac Ride 4 Rescue, Danny was one of the few finishers at 2024’s brutal Thunderbolt’s Adventure.
Danny has a reputation for speed and endurance plus the determination to finish that makes a great racer.
Danny’s favourite place to ride is our local Werakata National Park where he’ll be training hard for a strong performance in the ’25 Bushranger Gravel Series.

Rider: TBC – but we know who it will be!
Bike: Focus Raven ‘Keeganstein’
Events: NSW/VIC Gravel, Gravel Worlds Qualifiers

TBC is a Wollombi gravel legend and rides over 15,000kms/year. He has a long history of road racing but now travels the gravel roads of Wollombi and Laguna searching for big hills.
TBC splits his time between the Hunter and his holiday home in Sydney and his two-year plan is to take the prize in the Masters 7 class at the ’26 UCI Gravel Worlds.

Rider: SHANE MATTISKE
Bike: Focus Raven ‘Keeganstein’
Events: NSW/VIC Gravel, Club Road, Gravel Worlds Qualifiers

Shane lives in Sydney & Orange and competes in the Masters 5 category.
His favourite place to ride is the countryside around Orange and he races bikes because it’s a great combination of seeing new places, meeting new people and honing his competitive edge. With recent wins in club Crit racing, Shane’s recent highlight was taking out the inaugural Geoff Scott Retro Trophy at Randwick in ’24.
In ’25 Shane will focus on gravel racing and continue his love for road racing. He’ll be travelling to the key gravel races on the east coast to gain experience in gravel racing and to push his road riding harder.
With favourable winds this should set up a much stronger 2026, where the big goal is UCI Gravel Worlds.

Rider: MICHAEL ROYCROFT
Bike: Focus Sam2 6.0 Race Edition
Events: HMBA Club rounds, NSW Enduro State Rounds

A former junior BMX racer, Michael’s favourite riding playgrounds are Awaba and Ourimbah MTB parks. He lives in Cessnock and rides to keep fit and to hang out with his three sons.
In 2025 Michael will ride in the eBike Mens class and plans to add a ’25 State Championship title to his Club Championship from ’24.

The Focus Raven ‘Keeganstein’

In 2024, Keegan Swenson won the Leadville 100 on a bike that took the world by storm. Based on a carbon hardtail MTB with 100mm of fork travel, it had gravel drop bars and road shifters, plus gravel gearing on an MTB drivetrain.

Our team bike isn’t built with the same budget as Keegan’s, but follows the same fusion of MTB and gravel bike. The Keeganstein will be particularly suited to gravel racing with sketchy technical courses, plus it’s highly suited to the riders we have, who mostly come from MTB competition.

Built from the standard platform of a Focus Raven 8.8, we strip the entire bike and replace much of it.

The forks are RockShox SID SL Ultimate Raceday with 100mm of travel and a 3-position crown lockout. These 32mm forks shave nearly 1kg off the weight of the bike, with only a 900g weight penalty over a quality pair of rigid carbon gravel forks. This extra weight can be reduced elsewhere on the bike, and gives the riders a valuable edge when the terrain is severe.

The groupset is Shimano GRX 12-speed, with a 10-51 rear cassette. The Shimano MTB crankset is retained but respaced on the drive-side to allow for a 42t front NW chainring.
As you can see, the frame clearance with this large chainring is very small…

The brakes are Shimano SLX 2-piston with 180/160 rotors. They’re light and strong, with great performance in combination with the GRX hydraulic brake-shifters.

With their competition backgrounds in MTB, some of the team riders have opted for dropper posts which are operated by the LH brake lever.
We’ll do testing and team rides as the riders assess the need for a dropper and the potential weight penalty they bring.

Some of the team riders opted for power meter setups as part of training and raceday performance management.
For Tanya we’ve upgraded the crankset to SRAM GX with a DUB bottom bracket, and used a Magene P505 spider power meter with a 5-bolt AbsoluteBlack CNC 42t chainring.

Testing for most team riders begins in late January as the bike builds are completed.

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