In a scathing attack Dickerson, who did a lot of the groundwork to get the series up and running in 2015, said he believed years of good work done to promote the brand had gone to waste.

Billed as the richest mountain biking series in Australia, Evocities MTB was designed to engage promotion of the seven locations involved – Dubbo, Bathurst, Orange, Tamworth, Albury, Wagga Wagga and Armidale.

A statement released late on Tuesday afternoon, quoting Evocities spokesperson and chair of the Inland Forum, Albury councillor Kevin Mack, said the decision not to continue with the series was made “following evaluation of last year’s series and the benefits of hosting a future series in 2017”.

“A report was commissioned by the Inland Forum to consider the success of the 2016 Evocities MTB Series and the resourcing implications of hosting another series in 2017,” Cr Mack said.

“Surveys were distributed to each City’s mountain biking club and member Council to seek their input, this information was considered in addition to entrant numbers and financial analysis in the report.”

“Based on this report, the Inland Forum have determined that it is not viable for Evocities to move forward with the 2017 Evocities MTB Series.”

Dickerson refuted those claims, saying the ground work had already been done to ensure the series was viable well into the future.

“All the hard work had been done to get it going, it just needed someone to drive it. I had been doing that but when our council was amalgamated last year and an administrator brought in that ended that,” he said.

“My understanding is our administrator was against retaining the series, which I think is very shortsighted. The idea behind the Evocities MTB Series was very much a long-term plan but now it’s gone after two years because it was too hard.

“In the space of two years we had been able to get the series on SBS, which gave exposure to not only the Evocities brand but also every one of the cities individually.

“I’d spoken about the concept on Sydney radio, about 1500 people followed the series’ Facebook page and we had done this with no help from the State Government and with it costing the councils basically nothing.

“We’d sought sponsors to cover the costs and we had in some cases a world champion in Jason English competing. The competitors largely came from the Canberra and Sydney regions and we were bringing them to our cities and spreading the message for a minimal financial outlay.

“There had been talk of potentially doing similar things through harness racing, golf and other things. But again, it’s all gone and I think the decision was made partly due to Dubbo’s lack of involvement because a lot of the work done in the past had been done by Dubbo.

“The series is a victim of amalgamation, which is disappointing because a lot of the competitors were planning their race schedules around when they would be competing in each of the Evocities events.”

An attempt was made to get a response from Dubbo Regional Council administrator Michael Kneipp, however council’s media and public relations department indicated he would not be commenting on the matter.