For the first time, the mountain biking Nines event has a female category and Canberra's Caroline Buchanan will be there.
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The 30-year-old is off to Germany for her first international mountain biking competition since February.
The two-time Olympian was left off the roster for the Australian BMX team in Tokyo in June and later made the decision to retire from the code; to put all her energy into mountain biking.
The Nines MTB returns to the quarry in Hunsruck-Nahe, Germany for a week of sessions between August 24 to 28.
The event brings together a group of the world's best slopestyle and freeride mountain bikers in a stone quarry in Germany's Rhineland-Palatinate state.
The year's event is the fourth edition and will include a female category for the first time in its history, with eight other competitors confirmed for the MTB event.
Buchanan documented her journey through Melbourne International Airport to leave the country on social media.
She was one of only a handful in the airport waiting to fly internationally.
"Everything has risk, but it's my job to compete on the global stage," she said on Instagram.
"[I'm] taking all the precautions and following the guidelines."
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Since the outbreak of COVID-19 early last year, it has made it increasingly hard for athletes to compete internationally and return to Australia.
In order to leave to compete in Germany, Buchanan outlined some of the requirements she needed to meet.
She had to seek approval to leave - by showing proof of the competition - a negative Covid test to depart, letters of invite from the Nines event, a negative Covid test for arrival, German declaration forms, travel insurance and proof of funds to pay for her return flight and quarantine.
Isobel Cootes
Sports reporter at The Canberra Times. A Novocastrian with a passion for football (or soccer as they call it in the capital) via The Examiner and The Port Lincoln Times.
Sports reporter at The Canberra Times. A Novocastrian with a passion for football (or soccer as they call it in the capital) via The Examiner and The Port Lincoln Times.
