The final results from Sunday’s Gravity Enduro at the famous Tathra trails saw Sebastian Webber claim the Open Men’s division victory.
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“It was a great day of nice overcast weather and about 22 contenders in the open division and 37 in the under 15’s competition,” Mountain bike race committee member Justin Roscoe said after Sunday’s race.
“The idea behind the format is to have timed descents with liaison stages.
“It is more of a social way to race because everyone waits for the group to finish before moving on to the next stage,” he said.
The quickest riders of each stage were Aaron Bashford in stage one with a time of 3 minutes 56 seconds, Webber claimed stage two with a time of 2 minutes 7 seconds, stage three in 5 minutes 31 seconds and stage four in 5 minutes 44 seconds.
Webber’s quick times saw him take out the Open Men’s event with a total ride time of 17 minutes 22 seconds, with Aaron Bashford finishing closely behind him in a time of 17 minutes 47 seconds.
Third place went to Micheal Parker with a total time of 18 minutes 15 seconds.
The Open Female section was won by Kate Whitton in total time of 23 minutes 56 seconds over four stages.
Sports Male was the other hotly contested group on the day with line honours going to Brendan Alcock in 19 minutes 10 seconds, followed by Josh McCarthur in 22 minutes 28 seconds and Josh Whitby in 22 minutes 34 seconds.
The Sports Female category was won by Robyn Alcock, making the event a very successful day out for the Alcock family.
Robyn claimed top spot in 25 minutes 52 seconds followed closely by Ankie Van Haperen in 26 minutes 14 seconds.
The format is known internationally as Enduro, after motorised versions of the same concept.
The race was designed as a point A to point B journey which includes a number of timed stages within the course.
Roscoe was pleased with the event which hasn’t been held on the Tathra trails course in five years.
“There’s generally shorter stages with more downhill runs, it is actually a pretty popular format of racing at the moment around the world,” he said.
Roscoe said the most important thing when racing downhill in this format is to have confidence in both yourself and the bike.
“Commitment is the biggest thing and you really have to commit to the quickest line which at times can be the roughest, over rocks or pieces of wood,” he said.
“You need confidence in your bike making it through the course as well.
You also need more technical skills than in the cross country races,” he said.
The next Gravity Enduro event will be held early next year.