Bright, Victoria played host to Round 2 of the Alpine Gravity Series, one of Australia’s only true enduro downhill races and series. With Elite Men taking overA�ten minutes to complete the course, there was some serious descending to be done!A�Sections of the BrightA�track would be considered just as technical as ‘traditional’ downhill races, in fact, after the first practice session many riders put their ‘all mountain’ style bikes backA�and brought out the full blown downhill rigs! The consensus being this track suited more technical style riders, as opposed to round 1 whichA�appeared toA�have favoured fitter riders more.
Overall the event was run well, transport was ample, timing was spot on and of course the track was good! Around 100 racers enjoyed the day, the track started at the sameA�altitude hang gliders start their ride from and there was only one real big pedal slog at the bottom about 3 minutes. Results are as follows;
Elite Men:
1.A�Daniel Macmunn 10:02.37
2. Oliver Zwar 10:56.21 + 53.84
3. Tom Macmunn 10:59.13 +A�56.76A�
4. A�Ben Crundwell 11:23.17 + 1:20.80
5. Luke Dewar 11:30.47A�+ 1:28.10
Elite Women:
1. Jacqui Lovett 13:21.79
2. Lucy Brandon 16:23.19 +A�3:01.40
3. Amy Phillips 19:51.77 + 6:29.98
Continuing on with the enduro downhill focus, it has just been announced a World Enduro Series will start in 2013. Driven by Chris Ball, formerly of the UCI, he was one of the players that has lifted the World Cup Downhill series to where it is today. He is not going solo, rather,A�joining forces with organisers from events such as the Enduro Series in Europe and the Crankworx collective, they have created both a newA�series and a new association; The Enduro Mountain Bike Association. There is plenty of discussion going on within the mountain bike industry (and on the forums) whether the move away from the UCI is a good one. However, with the UCI not committing to one of the biggest growing areas within the gravityA�discipline, it was just a matter of time. Having done some riding with Chris Ball we can tell you the tracks he will select are going to be no walk in the park! Combine this with riders such as Dan Atherton and now Aussie Jared Graves, committing to the enduro format we areA�only going toA�hear more about enduro in the future, which is definitely not a bad thing!A�The race locations and final details of the new series haven’t been released yet but expect more details soon. What’s great is that events like the Alpine Gravity are already up and running here in Australia, getA�on board now and beat the bandwagon!
All photos: Jason Stevens Photography
Cheers for a pretty honest article and great pics as usual from Jason Stevens Photography.
This course was definately steeper than round one, but as mentioned on the lead up to this series that every track is very unique to each other, and the rider with both skills and fitness will do well. A bike that can do everything and has a dropper post would also be an advantage!
I dont think a dh rig would have been faster overall, with the trails “pedal to the death metal” and “grevids way” being very pedally. I do them on my Norco Aurum, but a mid travel bike with the right pilot would be faster.
Having said that, the track does drop 1350 vertical feet every run, so if you were happy to just spin on the pedally bits, you could cruise on a downhill bike.
Improvements for the next round is more transport, for even less wait times and more runs, and the track will be finished alot sooner than the race. Two trails (out of the six) for Bright were literally finished at 12 midday friday before the event, as I was waiting for the rain before I dug them in, but it never came, hence why it was pretty loose in sections. The ten days leading up to Bright were seven days of digging interupted by three days for the Maldon dh race.
On another note, I emailed Chris Ball on the World Enduro Series, and I hope one day to get it here in OZ. Our mountains are big enough to have a world class gravity enduro, so hopefully we will see it here eventually. Great to see these guys stepping away from the UCI and doing it properly. The reason NORBA died in the states is cause the wrong people ran it the wrong way and it became stale, so as these guys already know what they are doing ive no doubt it will be awesome.
Ill be heading over to MEGAVALANCHE in the French Alps in July, so hopefully I can bring back some euro influence and add some of the worlds best race organisation into the 2013/2014 Elevation series, and going from five rounds to seven, im sure it will grow in a positive direction.
See you all at round 3, Myrtleford January 12 & 13.