The final weekend of January saw Mt. Buller host the first round of the Rockshox Enduro Challenge. Mt. Buller is a familiar place to anyone who races downhill having hosted many races over the years of operation, but this was to be a fresh race style for the mountain with a six stage enduro race, with liaison stages to link each section together. The event pulled in some big names such as Jared Graves, Richie Rude, Jerome Clementz, Sam Hill and Troy Brosnan, for anyone out there who is observant, you’ll see all of those riders are current or past world champions, quite an impressive field!
The track linked some of Mount Bullers classic tracks such as parts of international with some lesser known track around the mountain, and then with some of the newer Epic trail network. The tracks had a lot of up in the liaison stages, taking more than a little puff out of many riders, but the slog was rewarded with some great downhill sections, some opening up to some amazing alpine views.
The results were as follows:
Pro Men
1. Jared Graves 23:28.05
2. Troy Brosnan 24:27.04
3. Ryan De La Rue 24:29.68
4. Richie Rude 24:38.41
5. Sam Hill 24:45.73
6. Ben Forbes 24:49.82
7. Paul van der Ploeg 24:53.10
8. Ben Cory 24:54.54
9. Jerome Clementz 24:56.70
10. Chris Panozzo 24:59.73
Mount Buller provides an awesome alpine background to the excitement of Nationals racing, whether it’s looking out over the surrounding mountains, or amongst the beautiful Australian Gums.
In 2014 nationals style, heatwaves were once again forecast for a long weekend of racing. Dust is practically jumping off the ground, as lift-assisted practice run mean efficient and easy practice sessions for everyone. After a nasty accident during practice yesterday left a rider airlifted to hospital with a broken Femur, practice was delayed so many were making up for lost time with another full day of practice on Saturday. Here’s a taste of the action!
Jackson Davis is impressive in all areas of his riding. Whether it’s jumps, rocks or wallrides, the confidence and speed with which he tackles the trail has spectators eyebrows high indeed.A foot through the lens is never ideal; in this case a high-risk, high-profit photo opportunity was put to the test (followed by very fast moving after this frame).Shelly Flood has a strong hold on her confidence this year, seen here railing a rocky berm near the top of the track. What will the Elite women’s podium look like? Time will tell.Line choice is highly varied in the wide-trailed, super rough top section. With near constant riders, the trail won’t get any smoother come Sunday racing.
Ben Hill swoops through, passing the rock hit and taking an inside line, hovering above the rocks and keeping good pace through the rough top section.Troy Brosnan was as rare as a drop bear on track today, with a number of practice runs you could count on one hand. TB still stood out as one of the very fastest on track, we can’t wait to for seeding and racing tomorrow!
Plenty of action tomorrow with practice, seeding and racing! Keep up to date and join us for a wild ride.
A different kind of start gate with an urban feel, as riders departed through Mt. Buller Village before dropping into the lush wilderness.The forested areas made for an excellent shady retreat with awesome riding, solid berms and great scenery.
The 3rd round of the Alpine Gravity All Mountain Series had us arriving at Mt Buller, a venue that has had its fair share of mountain biking events over the years. The weather was looking fantastic for the weekend, and as we arrived there was a small sense of delight as there was small patches of snow hidden in the shadows, and while there wasn’t any to ride through, it was a lot of fun to throw at passing riders (Media is allowed to have some fun right?!).
Karl Peel shows us that just because there is no berm doesn’t mean a corner cannot be slayed!One of the more picturesque crossings, this time theres no getting wet while crossing one of many bridges on the Delatite River trail.
As riders started flowing past and we made our way down track, we realised we were infact making our way up track, with the first section of the track being a slow, but steady climb, out of the village and along the ridge of Mt. Buller, slowly snaking our way towards the Delatite river and the aptly named Delatite River trail. After a leg burning climb, the trail slowly started dipping downwards again into a nice flowy section with berms and a traverse along the hillside. It then hit some very fast and loose fire road sections, though just a fire road, your amount of dedication would make or lose time here; if you were confident to let go of the brakes and put full trust in the bike there were valuable seconds to be made up.
More amazing views along the trail, it hard to keep the concentration on the track with views like these.
The fireroads opened up onto a valley with the Delatite River at its base, as we traversed along the walls of the valley we began getting closer and closer to the river, and then started snaking across it over some awesome bridge crossings, and occasionally we got wet, crossing a small tributary feeding the river. These small river crossings were much welcomed as by this time most riders where pooped, with this being a very long track, taking it out of alot of riders, and also the media crew.
This time its full scale wetness……not just for the cyclist.And then we decided to get a little bit arty.
Just when you thought the track was done there are also two pinch climbs to push you over some small but tough hills and then eventually to the base of Mount Buller and the finish. Queensland’s Michael Ronning took the Elite Men’s title, while Victorian Jo Wall claimed the Elite Women’s podium.
One of the final river crossing bridges delivered us out of an amazing valley along which the Delatite River flows.‘Hux’, a name very well known in the Vic riding scene for photography finds himself on a bike for once!Oskcar White looking right at home on the opening section of trail.‘Leachy’ on the hunt for the Alpha Wolf title over reigning ‘Nato’.Can you say, perfect riding weather?
