Thredbo has been a leader in Australian mountain bike events for quite a few years now, hosting multiple different races during Summer. The Cannonball Festival has been run for the past 4 years, the National Downhill Series returns year after year, NSW State Downhill and Flow events, Interschools MTB Championships and Gravity Girls – a women-specific mountain bike clinic. The Super Enduro came about to fill the gap between the single disciplines, to combine all into one race and see who could be the fastest overall.
Watch the video below.
Race Format.
The unique part of the racing format saw two options; group, or single entries. In the groups, there were three riders who each had one dedicated track to put down their times, with all three adding up into the overall rank of the group category. For the singles, riders were restricted to one single bike for the various mix of the brutal Cannonball Downhill, Kosciuszko Flow, and Thredbo All-Mountain Trails. They had to choose the middle ground between ease of descent on the downhill trail and pedalling efficiency on the all-mountain.
Practice took place on Saturday, where the weather didn’t seem ideal from the village, but once on the trail there was nothing but hero dirt. The foggy conditions stuck around for the whole day and kept the air nice and cool and the moisture in the dirt. Nothing but enormous smiles on rider’s faces as they passed by.
What Bikes?
The majority of the field competed on all-mountain/enduro bikes, between 140-160mm of travel. This allowed them to get on the pedals for the long all-mountain trail while also taking the big hits on the downhill. A few of the younger riders were on downhill bikes while others opted for short travel xc weapons.
Come Sunday, the fog hadn’t lifted until halfway through racing. Almost every rider chose to start off with the all-mountain trail, aiming to put the lung-busting stage out of the way straight up. The line for the start spanned 100m down the fire road at the top of Gunbarrel Chair. This left the Flow and Downhill trails basically empty, which was great for the guys who wanted a clear track so they wouldn’t get help up.
Winners!
The Crimmins brothers were on form as always, with Thomas taking first and Andrew third in Elite. Between them saw Brock Newling finishing the top 3 in second place. Thomas finished with a total time of 25 minutes 54.9 seconds. In the women, Claire Whiteman took the top spot, closely followed by local Tegan Molloy and Philippa Norton.Under 19’s were taken out by Harrison Dobrowolski and Ellie Smith, with Harrison pinching the fastest time recorded on the all mountain trail.
For full results – click here.