Southern Roots Captures A Season Worth Remembering

If you’ve spent any time around downhill racing in Australia or New Zealand over the past few years, you’ll know the scene has changed. More riders are chasing World Cup starts than ever before. Every weekend seems to produce another junior rider capable of mixing it with the elite field, and every season another handful of Australians and Kiwis make the jump onto the world stage.

What often gets overlooked is everything that sits behind the results. The weekends spent driving from one round to the next, the early starts, the late nights in the workshop, and the reality that most riders are funding the whole thing themselves while trying to balance work, study or family commitments.

That’s the world captured in Southern Roots.

Produced by photographers Clancy Kelly and Riley McLay, the new 126-page yearbook follows the 2025 Oceania Continental Downhill Series from start to finish, covering every round, the Oceania Championships and both the Australian and New Zealand National Championships.

“This book intends to highlight the extreme level of talent that is competing in the Oceania Continental Series and the dedication these riders put in for a shot at World Cup racing. This dedication deserves recognition more tangible than a results sheet or a social media post. The broader mountain bike culture has been documented by countless talented outlets and individuals over the years, and we are fortunate enough to have had these works as inspiration and motivation to deliver something for our local scene. We hope to use this book to tell the story of the Australian and New Zealand race scene for years to come.”

Clancy and Riley have spent enough time around the downhill scene to know what matters. The book follows the 2025 season from round to round, documenting not just the racing but the people and places that make up the series. It also arrives at an important time for the sport. New UCI qualification pathways have increased the significance of the Oceania Continental Series, with strong performances now carrying genuine World Cup implications for riders looking to take the next step in their careers.

For many racers, these aren’t just local events anymore, they’re an integral part of a pathway.

That’s what makes Southern Roots interesting. It’s not focused solely on the riders already making headlines overseas. Instead, it shines a light on the broader community that keeps the sport moving on a domestic level. The riders trying to break through. The volunteers standing trackside in the rain. The mechanics, families and supporters who make the weekends happen.

Photography is a major part of the story.

Alongside Clancy and Riley, contributions from Matt Rousu (AMB Photo Awards Judge) and Jamie Fox help bring the season to life, with electric imagery that anyone who has spent time around downhill racing will instantly connect with. Dusty corners, wet race runs, nervous moments in the start gate and celebrations in the finish area all find their place throughout the book.

Perhaps the most refreshing thing about Southern Roots is that it exists at all. At AMB, we’re obviously a little biased when it comes to print, but there’s a reason we still believe in it. A good magazine or book becomes a record of a moment in time. Long after the Instagram posts have disappeared and race results have been buried under the next season’s headlines, you can pull it off the shelf and be taken straight back to that year, those riders and those races. That’s exactly what Southern Roots feels like, a genuine snapshot of where downhill racing in Australia and New Zealand sits right now.

Only 200 copies are being printed in the first run, making Southern Roots as much a record of the season as it is a collector’s piece.

For anyone who follows downhill racing in Australia and New Zealand, it’s likely to be one of the most interesting mountain bike publications released this year.

Get your copy here.