This weekend saw the second round of the Fox Rollercoaster Gravity Enduro series take place at Del Rio Resort near Wisemans Ferry (about an hour north-west of Sydney).
Located just near the Hawkesbury River with all the resort facilities close at hand, it proved to be a great location for a family getaway or a social weekend with mates. Both the event centre and trails were a few hundred metres from the accommodation, so it was a simple case of park the car and go ride.
If you’ve never been there it’s definitely worth a look. There’s a great pool, bar and bistro, a café and plenty of entertainment for the kids; two giant jumping pillows, pedal cars to hire, craft activities and there’s even a cool little BMX track. And with the kids taken care of, there’s no need to feel any guilt when you hit the trails – cheering!
Gravity enduro remains an emerging and constantly evolving part of our sport. Every event is different and the format varies depending on the venue. Whilst the timed sections always involve more descending than climbing, many of the Rollercoaster events can be tackled confidently on a short travel XC bike. At Del Rio things definitely swing towards the gravity end of the spectrum.
Rocky Trail was running three timed trails for the event and two of them (Rubena and Bike/Box Gravity) were particularly steep, loose and rocky with a few serious features to really make you think; sizable drop-offs and some big roll downs too. The BH Valley Trail offered some reprieve and was more XC oriented but even it had a decent sized rock garden that claimed a few victims over the weekend.
Many riders opted for full-face helmets, and with shuttles operating for practice it really wasn’t that different to a downhill race. Unlike downhill however, you had three courses to memorise and a couple of uphill pedally sections on the BH and Bike/Box Gravity trails, and when race time rolled around, everyone had to pedal up the climb.
The main access road wasn’t steep, but with the temperature in the high 30s, the conditions tested everyone. Some chose to use a shorter but steeper access road to get to the top but whichever way you tackled it, climbing the 165 or so vertical metres to the top was going to hurt – especially when you needed to do it three times!
The combination of high temperatures and demanding tracks resulted in a high attrition rate. More than a few decided to pull the pin after two runs. Of course it was also a very rewarding event for those who met the challenge – if you thought gravity racing was easy then you’d be wrong. The technical aspects of the courses definitely kept everyone on their toes, and from what I saw, most competitors the relished the challenge – from the super masters riders right through to the under 15s.
Despite the harsh and testing conditions, the racing remained super close. Michael Vanos took out the elite men’s event, winning by just 2 seconds over Jon Odams with Chris Martin a further 12 seconds back in 3rd.
Having helped with the trail construction at Del Rio, Joanne Fox made good use of her local knowledge to win the Elite women’s race, with Vanessa Thompson 13 seconds back and Becc Wyatt in third. For all the results go to: http://www.rockytrailentertainment.com/events/Rollercoaster-results.html
For round 3 the Rollercoaster series swaps the rocks for flow as it moves on to Thredbo (11th April 2015). The berm filled course will be the longest of the series and it makes use of the ski lift for the upwards journey – a welcome relief after Del Rio.
It will form a Rocky Trail gravity racing weekend, as the Rollercoaster will run in conjunction with a round of the RedAss downhill series – it’ll be a big weekend of racing all round.
Check the Rocky Trail website for details.
Photos: www.katharinawisata.com
