Erica has been a regular part of the Gippsland Mountain Bike Club serries the past few years with an unfortunate decline in rider numbers over the years. This year was going to be different. With more descending, easier climbs and new trails, Erica is back on the map, with 48 riders competing in the 2017 Erica 3 hour enduro.

Set at the Mill Park trail area, the racing took place on 8km of Erica’s best trails with the best riders completing 6 laps within the 3-hour time limit.

Taking out the both solo male and outright was Bret Murray followed by Shane Stiles in second and Steve Chapman in third place. In the solo female category, Michelle Winnett took out first place followed by Sarah Bowman and Michelle Scurr, all completing 5 laps in hot pursuit of each other.

It was also fantastic to see the number of juniors participating in the event, with 8 kids out on the trails, James Barnes claimed first place amongst our future generation of mountain bikers.

As a dedicated volunteer at Erica and the XC representative for Gippsland MTB, it was fantastic to see the positive attitude everyone had about the trails and I am very thankful to everyone from the club that made the event possible through their input in trail maintenance and helping out on the day. To all the riders out there, I hope you come along to the rest of the 2017 Club Serries and enjoy yourselves as much as you did at Erica.

 

If you missed the event, you can check out the event video on the Gippsland MTB Website or on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzvC3tkFy1I