Race day dawned wet and overcast for round 10 of Gippsland MTB’s enduro series. Bulldog Junction however was its usual rain-shadowish self and approximately 30 participants were greeted by sunny conditions for the race. The course, taking in partsof Mt. Hedrick, the Traverse and Pete’s Track had been prepared beforehand by several hardworking and somewhat…

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The weather forecast was looking pretty grim for Sunday the 23rd of October, but thankfully the weatherman was off target! A beautiful summer’s day greeted the Gippsland MTB Club at Erica for the 3 Hour Enduro. The warm day saw approximately 51 riders and caught many off guard with wet weather gear and mud tyres the standard.

A tough, challenging course was set for the race which would suit the skilled but powerful riders who also didn’t mind a climb or 3. For some reason the race directors decided to start us at the bottom of a nice steep fire trail hill!! Brenton Jones (TORQ Nutrition Australia) riding his Cube machine took the hole shot, Jones never looked back as he went on to complete the course in 3 hours and 8 minutes and the only person to complete 6 laps. The course proved challenging for most of the riders with not only the obstacles, such as logs and tree roots, but the course was quite slippery to begin with. After some laps, about half way through the race the course turned into the ultimate trail surface. The course dried out a lot and became tacky which allowed for some seriously gnarly and quick descents.

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One dark, cold wet night in June, Trevor Nicklen, Neil Allen and the pygmy kelpie (trev’s dog), sat around a fire thinking out a plot.

• “got to have some rain, not too much, particularly on the day or we’ll get wet”. Tick
• “have some red clay AND some sandy clay treacherous downhills, that’ll stuff em, no one with have the right tyres ” Tick
• “any roots have to be diagonal across the track and as slippery as a butchers” Tick
• “what about a loop that, time wise, is 90% uphill “ Tick
• “that section of uphill they complained about last time , lets close that, form a new track out of soft sand and ‘roll it in’ a couple of days before” Tick
• “and wouldn’t it be the cream on the cake if we could crack a 27 deg day after six millimetres of rain overnight …steamy” Tick

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Sunday 25th September saw approximately 50 riders turn up to compete in the Nowa Nowa 3 hour enduro with another 9 kids competing in the 30 minute kids enduro. The weather was perfect for racing with a cool but sunny day.

A challenging course was set for the 3 hour which was very different to previous Nowa Nowa events. This race was definitely going to suit the climbers with the addition of the climb to the top of the park that is rewarded with a great view to the coast and some challenging corners on the descent.

Brad Fisher got off to a great start and led at the end of the first lap with team competitor Toby Stewart right on his tail with a very fast lap of 29:21. Unfortunately Brad got a sense of déjà vu from last years race when he got a flat on the second lap which let a number of riders pass him. This made for a very competitive race from then on with Brad trying to chase down the riders ahead of him. He eventually caught everyone except Michael and the 2 fastest teams. Stuart Derham showed everyone that training for an Ironman really helps in MTB races, coming in third.

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