WA Gravity Enduro Round 3 – Golden Grove goodness!

[cover picture – young lads taking a breather on the way up]

What an absolute ripper of a weekend! 9km’s of course bunting, 3 intense enduro stages, 180 competitors, a shed load of oranges, slope-style jumping, a magical Autumn’s day and fun, competitive mountain bike racing were the ingredients for a huge Round 3 of the CHAIN REACTION CYCLES WA Gravity Enduro Series 2015.

It took a scrum of volunteers to tackle the trails with work first beginning 4 days out from the race with the ‘godfather’ Paul Neve of Three Chillies Trail Design and Construction marking out the trails at Golden Grove Orchard in Chittering, about 1 hour out from Perth, Western Australia.

3 days out from the race, the trails were further dialled in and checked it adhered to the enduro format, ensuring 80% descent and 20% ascent/flat guidelineswere maintained.

With 2 days to go, Stage 2 was the focus with the construction of a huge slope-style jump as a unique way to cross a fence boundary, which turned into a bit of a whip-fest on raceday. The rest of the day was filled with trail bunting which saw the team of Phil, Paul, Jimmy and Vlad work until sunset when the well-deserved lemonades were opened. With 1 day to go, all hands were on deck to bunt Stages 1 and 3, and a well-oiled team of Steve, Phil, Jimmy, Rich, Rikkie, Ryno, Ross and Paul finished off the 6km of course bunting. By 1pm, the course was open for inspection with strict rules on walking only and no course riding were in place. This allowed all riders to be on the same playing field come raceday, and this format was very well received. On Saturday afternoon, the race village was getting prepared for an early start on Sunday.

Raceday. With riders very keen to get their tyres dirty and test out their lines, it left most riders about 3 hours to get a feel for the trails and memorise as many things as possible. Come 11am, the race briefing began at the village, and then the field was split into 3 groups, with each group heading to a different Stage. This is WA Gravity Enduro’s usual format as it helps riders get through the stages in a timely manner which allows us to present results quickly after the race once all riders are accounted for.

Stage 1 saw the Male Elite riders first as they pedalled through the trees at the top of the hill, and then broke out in the open field filled with rock drops and jumps, before they disappeared into an orange orchard maze. The orchard was great to watch, as riders had to keep their eyes up to see the course bunting, but at the same time, keep their heads down as they received orange braches to the face. A little of 3 minutes of intense racing for the Elite racers, Stage 1 finished in the orchard and riders then transitioned up the hill on the other side of the valley to tackle Stage 2.

After a 30-40min climb for most, riders were understandably quite happy to have a rest and take in the rolling panoramic views from the top of the hill. Once riders tagged-on, a longer flat section at the top soon dropped away for riders to generate speed into the slope-style jump to clear a boundary fence which quickly flowed into some steeper switchback descending. As the riders exited the trees into another open field, the sheep in the paddock were very well behaved and kept clear of the course and didn’t eat any bunting, so big thanks to them. Riders then flew down another fast section, scrubbing a small mound in the terrain, blasting through a rocky section, and flying down a short fireroad buzzing orange trees, before a quick right to tag off in a little over 4 minutes for the elite riders.

Passing back through the race village on their way to Stage 3, riders replenished with some much needed HIGH5 SPORTS NUTRITION to give them the strength to push back up the same hill as Stage 1.

Tagging on at Stage 3, riders made short work dodging trees before heading back out into the open paddock where wide bunting allowed riders to choose their own adventure – either the quicker but more difficult A line or the slower but easier B line. These features were perfect for spectators to cheer on the competitors, which was heard all the way back down at the village! The riders had to negotiate some steep switchbacks, rock drops and pinch climbs before setting themselves up to drop into a mad 22% decline fireroad before flattening out over the 300m to really test the nerves and the brake fingers! A quick left to tag off at the race village saw riders exhausted but thrilled, before they headed over to their free lunch! Wooo!

Once all riders were accounted for, presentations shortly followed and with plenty of flat tyres, spills and new trails on offer, it saw an interesting change in the results.

In the Male Elite, we had a tie for third place and on a countback between Jimmy Pritchard and Carl Pickersgill, it saw Carl take the place.

Category	Raceplate	Last Name	First Name	CatPos1	CatPos2	CatPos3	OVERALL (HH:MM:SS)	OVERALL CAT POS	Difference
Male U19	73	CARRUTHERS	Bill	1	2	2	0:10:31	1	0:00:00
Male U19	61	PEARCE	Blake	1	3	3	0:10:45	2	0:00:14
Male U19	152	RUBERY	Samuel	9	1	1	0:10:57	3	0:00:26
Male U15	195	JENKINSON	Riley	1	2	1	0:11:54	1	0:00:00
Male U15	194	ROBSON	Kristopher	3	5	2	0:12:44	2	0:00:50
Male U15	198	STANLEY	Greg	2	4	3	0:12:56	3	0:01:02
Male Masters (50+)	176	NEVE	Paul	1	4	1	0:12:23	1	0:00:00
Male Masters (50+)	131	TWINE	Rick	5	2	2	0:12:28	2	0:00:05
Male Masters (50+)	50	JOYCE	Merv	2	1	4	0:12:35	3	0:00:12
Male Masters (40-49)	215	STAFFORD	Devin	1	1	2	0:11:06	1	0:00:00
Male Masters (40-49)	103	KERKLAAN	Michael	2	2	3	0:11:33	2	0:00:27
Male Masters (40-49)	122	ALSOP	Lindsay	7	4	1	0:11:45	3	0:00:39
Male (19-39) Sport	320	NATOLI	Luke	1	1	1	0:10:49	1	0:00:00
Male (19-39) Sport	341	WELLMAN	Garry	3	5	2	0:11:18	2	0:00:29
Male (19-39) Sport	39	STEPHENS	Dave	2	6	6	0:11:20	3	0:00:31
Male (19-39) Elite	16	BAKER	Deon	1	3	5	0:10:17	1	0:00:00
Male (19-39) Elite	180	PROCHYRA	Jordan	9	1	2	0:10:18	2	0:00:01
Male (19-39) Elite	144	PICKERSGILL	Carl	3	5	3	0:10:23	3	0:00:06
Female U15	285	EDDY	Nerys	1	1	1	0:22:04	1	0:00:00
Female Masters (40-49)	77	HOLMBERG	Penny	1	1	1	0:14:10	1	0:00:00
Female Masters (40-49)	342	EDWARDS	Nicole	2	2	2	0:15:57	2	0:01:47
Female Masters (40-49)	322	EDDY	Kyra	4	3	3	0:18:32	3	0:04:22
Female (19-39) Sport	337	YOUNG	Catherine	1	1	1	0:15:43	1	0:00:00
Female (19-39) Elite	164	GARCIA-WEBB	Claire	1	3	2	0:13:44	1	0:00:00
Female (19-39) Elite	93	BURFORD	Leonie	4	1	1	0:14:00	2	0:00:16
Female (19-39) Elite	148	ALSOP	Katja	2	2	3	0:14:15	3	0:00:31

 

 

Congratulations to all competitors that took part in the fun, and special thanks to Paul Neve of Three Chillies Trail Design and Construction, Rocco and the team at Golden Grove Orchard, and to all the Mum’s who let their husbands, son’s and daughters take part on Mother’s Day and to the Mum’s who thought the best way to celebrate the day is to come out and race!

Huge thanks once again to the volunteers as this race would not happen, would not be safe or well organised without them – Phil, Paul, Vlad, Jimmy, Rich, Ryno, Ross, Rikkie, Amy, Russ, Trent, Terry, Peter, Stephan, Chall, Riley and Rene.

Huge thanks also to our sponsors and supporters: CHAIN REACTION CYCLES, HIGH5 Sports Nutrition, Hybrid Linings (Quality Internal / External Ceilings and Walls), Common Ground Trail Planning Design Construction, Rock n Roll Mountain Biking, Foothills Cycles / Jet Cycles Kelmscott, EMR Suspension Specialist, Prodigy Painting, Three Chillies Trail Design and Construction, IGA Beeliar and Petal Parcels for organising the beautiful flowers and keeping the riders out of trouble with some WA Gravity Enduro special Mother’s Day Gift Packs!

Full results available here, and we look forward to compiling the course video in the coming weeks.

The next race in Round 4 on June 14^th at the Goat Farm, Greenmount, which is also a part of the MTBA Enduro National Series. Head to www.wagravityenduro.org or find us on Facebook for further updates.

[All images courtesy www.aperature123.com]