MARK DUNLOP MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP - 2022, Charlie millington

At the beginning of 2022 after some quite good results in XC races and a couple giant 2W Enduros Charlie decided he was going to commit to a couple months of XC racing in Europe and America, here is his story.

Obviously international travel and racing comes at a very high cost. Luckily I had done plenty of work and saved up enough for my trip. I decided to also apply for the Mark Dunlop scholarship as I see international MTB racing as a long term prospect which comes at a cost so I knew if I won the scholarship it would 100% secure my racing plans for 2022 and 2023 and would enable to have a good time and sleep in a proper bed most nights and not in places like the Nove Mesto Grand Stands like I know people have done before.

Along with a bit of extra work and training I left for Europe and then America for 7 weeks and in that time I was going to race 4 World Cups in 5 weeks, Lenzerheide and Andorra in Europe then Snowshoe and Mont Sainte Anne in America and Canada. I completed my World Cups bettering my result in every race with my final race result being 46th as a 1st year U23, with another 3 years in this age group I'm excited for what the future holds.
After arriving home I had heard about a race series in 7 weeks time in Greece which is 14 UCI cat 1, 2 and 3 over 3 weeks so pretty full gas. I decided to commit and booked my flights along with two other mates. I took a week off the bike then got stuck into training again, after 6 weeks of 18 hours of riding each week I'm sitting on a plane for 24 hours writing this on my way to Greece.

None of this would have been possible without the help of the Mark Dunlop scholarship and all the sponsors that go along with it. I'm excited to see what the future holds and to try my hand at more Enduro races outside of giant 2W. 
Big Thanks to Rotorua MTB club, Giant 2W Enduro, and the Dunlop family for giving us young racers opportunities not many people get to have. These funds will be an immense help with my upcoming racing plans across Tassie and Europe. 

APPLICATIONS FOR THE 2024 SCHOLARSHIP CLOSE APRIL 7, Apply now