Australian Gravity Enduro Series - Round 1

The lush Glenworth Valley put on a fantastic show hosting round 1 of the Australian Enduro Series.

Events organiser Rocky Trail Entertainment and  Victoria-based promoter Alpine Gravity, did all of the work behind the scenes on a track that was only just scratched in over the last few weeks, it was anyones time to shine as the first series points were on show with no local knowledge to get in the way.

Vision was very limited due to the many grass trees lining the course

Over 100 people from around the country attended the event all eager to see the new trail.

Walking up the trail on a track-walk the day previous to the race we heard mutters to the likes of “this is steep” and “You wait, It gets worse” “that section is nuts!” No matter what bike people were riding this was going to be alot of fun.

One of the many rock chutes, look at the concentration on the young mans face!

Starting off on a dry and dusty fire road which quickly turned into swooping fast single track with hidden undulations to get the heart racing before hitting what must have been some of the best trail I’ve have fun on in a long time. Every practice and race run seemed to be unique due to the changing nature of the course.

Rocks kept moving, new lines were slowly appearing and corners widened complete with newly expose roots and boulders.

Ryan De la rue taking the line I always missed

You could tell by the looks on most peoples faces after their practice runs, that they were slightly scared.

The lesser known secret to this course was staying upright through the 3 minutes of rocky chutes, tight corners and hidden drops in lower three quarters of the course. Braking in this section felt non-existent at times. It was in this section where you were going to make it or break it.

The Giant AMC represent

What seemed to work for me was singing “The Forbidden Zone by The Misfits”, whether I was singing it out loud or just in my head I didn’t know, but it helped take the nevoursness out of my run.

one of the many off camber corners containg magical dirt

Once through the “3 minute long rock garden” you were thrown out onto some fast off-camber singletrack with massive swooping corners and hero dirt for 300 meters before spitting you out onto a final fire road sprint which contained one last slippery sandy corner to the finish which took a few people by surprise.

In a full-race no-one can hear you sing, or can they?

Having a good 30 seconds to a minute between riders helped alot, as in practice, there were a few corners where people climbing out of the bushes looking a bit sorry for themselves.

All in all not one complaint was heard. Everbody stuffed up some where by either not stopping in time, seeing too much red mist or just plain having to much of a good time. We can’t wait for the next one.

Full results can be found here: http://www.rockytrailentertainment.com/pdf2014/EnduroNSW/A65_AustGESeries_NSW-ResultsbyCategory.pdf