Race Report

16 degrees celcius? That’s cold for us Aussies, but it didn’t stop over 180 competitors and 250 spectators flocking to Mt Gunjin, Kalamunda, for the Western Australian round of the Australian Gravity Enduro Series hosted by WA Gravity Enduro and fuelled by Chain Reaction Cycles.

Competitors from all over Australia flew to their most isolated capital city, looking to tame the loose pea gravel of ‘Lazarus,’ drop in on the hand-crafted ladders of ‘Luvin Shovels,’ pedal hard on the flats after ‘Goldilocks’ and the ‘3 bears,’ and link it all together with climbs up ‘Rocky Balboa’ and ‘Drago.’

The Mt Gunjin trails were officially opened in August last year by the WA Gravity Enduro team, with Sam Hill jumping through the ribbon to start the 3-stage enduro race. This year, the Gravity Enduro team built it, and they came. With a licensed area, food servery pumping out 12hour slow cooked pulled pork rolls and paninis – hosted by Murphy’s Irish Pub, Mandurah, mechanics on-course, 5 enduro stages and hundreds of spectators lining the trails, the atmosphere was a buzz!

The race village had picturesque views overlooking a valley of vineyards, where competitors started the day with their registration and race briefing, before warming up with their ride to the top of Mt Gunjin. Elite riders were offered first priority to power up the hill to lock-in some clean runs and record some fast times, where as other riding buddies chose to ‘train’ down the stages, tagging on without leaving a gap – which made for some interesting ‘tag off’ procedures, much to the spectators delight.

On the other side of the mountain, an unofficial ‘whip off’ contest was building down the bottom of the 7m jumps on ‘Luvin Shovels’, with the spectators cheering on ‘big whips!’ all morning. It caused some competitors to push outside their comfort zone, with adrenaline assuring their whips were bigger and off-balance than ever before.

The Gravity Enduro mountain biking race format again showed its flexibility to incorporate all ages and experience, with competitors ranging from 13yr old Lachlan Clarke from New South Wales who also placed 2^nd in the Male Under 15 category, Rosemary Barnes of the Australian Capital Territory who placed 1^st in the Female Elite Category, through to our Male Super Masters 50+ competitors including Kevin Stafford from Western Australia who placed 2^nd, through to 3 x UCI World Champion Sam Hill and Male Under 19 1^st place winner Samuel Rubery, who also came in 3^rd place overall with a cumulative race time of 22mins 12 seconds.

WA Gravity Enduro raised $1,325 for the local Kalamunda Collective Mountain Bike Club, helping to maintain the trails after a big weekend of practise and racing, and ensured any money raised through parking collection will be directed to ‘master classes’ in descending techniques and training for women in mountain biking.

It was a huge weekend and successful day’s racing, and WA Gravity Enduro look forward to hosting the Australian Gravity Enduro Series next year.

Results from the race top 3 in each category are as below:

This event could not have happened without the major support of Chain Reaction Cycles, and local support by Jet Cycles Kelmscott, EMR Suspension Servicing and Apparel, Kalamunda Cycles, Camelback, Sea to Summit, FreeWheel Bike Store, Giant Canning Vale, Drift Cameras, Midland Cycles, Kalamunda Mountain Bike Collective, Prodigy Painting and Murphys Irish Pub Mandurah.