Rollercoaster powered by Flow - 2014 NSW State Series and Championships

trailburner

trailburner

Rocky Trail Entertainment
It's time to get excited again about the Rollercoaster series. Now in it's third year Gravity Enduro is here to stay!
http://www.rockytrailentertainment.com/events/Rollercoaster-overview.html

3 Rounds + Championships.

We initially planned to have more rounds but instead we teamed up with promoters all over the country to bring you the Australian Gravity Enduro Series 2014.
http://www.rockytrailentertainment.com/events/GravityEnduro-overview.html
Rocky Trail will hold the NSW and ACT rounds.

Round 1 of the Rollercoaster will be at Ourimbah on Monday after Australia day. We plan to use a modified version of the DH track as well as a second longer slightly more pedally track. Same start and finish for both and we will have shuttles.
Registration will open soon.
 
OK ... shall we start the speculation as to the Round 3 location?.

Maulbrooks Rd, Mogo?
Glenrock?
Patterson?
Mt Canobolas Orange.
Tathra
Kowen Forest
Kembla

Lots of possibles, few probables.


 
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Still with the shuttles ... When are we going to harden up and ride to the top like everyone else in the world racing enduro. As it stands there's not much endurance involved, it's just a slightly longer but easier version of DH. :pop2: I'm aware you can choose to ride up if you want but it doesn't make for a fair race with people shuttling.

Maybe give people who ride up a time bonus ... Say 10 seconds off. :eyebrows:

I'll still be racing:rockon:
 
Cronar said:
Still with the shuttles ... When are we going to harden up and ride to the top like everyone else in the world racing enduro. As it stands there's not much endurance involved, it's just a slightly longer but easier version of DH. :pop2: I'm aware you can choose to ride up if you want but it doesn't make for a fair race with people shuttling.

Maybe give people who ride up a time bonus ... Say 10 seconds off. :eyebrows:

I'll still be racing:rockon:
Click to expand...

I agree with this. The Best round of this years series was del rio. Way more fun riding up with different crew and having a yarn than riding in a bus. Ourimbah should be without shuttle or if it is shuttled should have more length or a bigger uphill. Throw in jelly leg climb onto Rollercoaster and make it interesting! Could even add the wall ride near 5 ways for some more fun!

The new track at Glenworth valley sounds pretty promising, lots of vert and rough terrain. Again shuttled but I'm hoping it's a varied course.

Ccomtb ran a good format for the last round of their AM series. 3 tracks announced on the day and only one practice. It was shuttled but the multistage race sounded far more interesting than doing the same track over and over again. The other states series seem to have a lot more varied terrain with a better mix of descents and climb. The elevation series in Vic seems the pic of the bunch.
 
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Yep, enduro should be all about the toughest guy/gal winning. Shuttles, at these venues, with 'enduro style' tracks is downhill racing for peeps who dont want to race downhill. Riding up a hill only makes you stronger.
Say .no. to shuttles at enduros! Say .no. to extended practice. Ride up, one sighting run, then race!
 
http://p.vitalmtb.com/uploads/1154/UCI_Rules_2014.PDF

whlist this is the UCI rules, the EWS rules are not that different. The key thing is the number of different stages and the total combined race time. The wording around shuttles is very vague but if you look at the Euro events for the "vibe of the thing" mechanical uplift is only used in extreme circumstances.

Come up to QLD to see how it is done.
 
Wow - third year in and nothing has changed / progressed. Still shuttling to the top at every round, still putting entry numbers ahead of listening to the riders who have been supporting your series for the past two seasons. Don't you read what's happening in the rest of the world Rockytrail? Don't you read articles in magazines (some of which you are quoted in right next to the likes of Michael Ronning and Josh Carlson? Read the latest Flow article on Jared Graves - they all say the same thing - the way you're running these events is NOT Gravity Enduro - it's soft DH racing on trail bikes.

Enduro is about blending xc fitness and dh skill. I'm sorry but Thredbo - as fun as it was - is just a dumbed down DH trail. Same goes for Stromlo. There is little to no endurance aspect to it at all (race run fitness yes, endurance no). But hey - same weekend as the DH race - I'm sure that'll get you lot's of extra $$$ as the DH guys who don't want to pedal up a hill will likely all enter.

As the the body running these events in NSW and ACT - you have a responsibility to grow and develop this discipline so that riders who participate, particularly the younger ones, one day represent us favorably on the world stage. I'm sure as a commercial entity your motivations must be divided but at the end of the day if the series - now in it's third year - isn't at least making an effort to mirror the format(s) as seen internationally - and are clearly geared towards quantity of riders not quality of event - there is an obvious problem.

Ok - I'm commercial. You want to get the numbers - fine - I understand the reality of running a small business. So how about this:
- Offer uplift at all the races for practice. (that'll get you your numbers and make it fun for everyone as we all want to smash runs out without being spent for the race runs).
- As far as tracks go - include some decent fitness elements like short uphill sprints like you had at Stromlo last year - (not that dog of an XC track number 3 that everyone hated this year) or Jelly Legs climb at Ourimbah etc. You have enough racers who've been doing this for a few years who's opinions you can canvass as to what tracks suck and which ones are good. You don't race GE so perhaps you should be asking those who do?
- Once racing starts - it's climb to the top under your own power and pedal between stages (like this years Stromlo but without the Shuttle - if you could get one - to the top). If you want to encourage newbies - great - shuttle Sport class and perhaps the kiddies to the top for their race runs. Make the big boys and girls work for it.

Idea:
What about this for Thredbo: Chairlifts for practice. Three races runs. First run - chairlift to top, race half way down . Pedal back up the mountain within a set time (miss your start - clock starts ticking as it's done in the EWS). Second run - top to bottom on flow track. Third run - pedal half way up the mountain and race from the middle back down. How about using part of the DH track but if you have to - bunt off the big jumps / nastier features. Yes, people will need DH lids. These can be bought for $100 and people should be wearing them anyway at many of the tracks (racing the first half of the Ourimbah track in an XC lid is flat out dangerous).

Finally - make registration for all events online only. This way - you'll know beforehand how many shuttle vehicles to have so the Stromlo shuttle fiasco is avoided.

Rant over (for now).
 
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Gravityfreak said:
Wow - third year in and nothing has changed / progressed. Still shuttling to the top at every round, still putting entry numbers ahead of listening to the riders who have been supporting your series for the past two seasons. Don't you read what's happening in the rest of the world Rockytrail? Don't you read articles in magazines (some of which you are quoted in right next to the likes of Michael Ronning and Josh Carlson? Read the latest Flow article on Jared Graves - they all say the same thing - the way you're running these events is NOT Gravity Enduro - it's soft DH racing on trail bikes.

Enduro is about blending xc fitness and dh skill. I'm sorry but Thredbo - as fun as it was - is just a dumbed down DH trail. Same goes for Stromlo. There is little to no endurance aspect to it at all (race run fitness yes, endurance no). But hey - same weekend as the DH race - I'm sure that'll get you lot's of extra $$$ as the DH guys who don't want to pedal up a hill will likely all enter.

As the the body running these events in NSW and ACT - you have a responsibility to grow and develop this discipline so that riders who participate, particularly the younger ones, one day represent us favorably on the world stage. I'm sure as a commercial entity your motivations must be divided but at the end of the day if the series - now in it's third year - isn't at least making an effort to mirror the format(s) as seen internationally - and are clearly geared towards quantity of riders not quality of event - there is an obvious problem.

Ok - I'm commercial. You want to get the numbers - fine - I understand the reality of running a small business. So how about this:
- Offer uplift at all the races for practice. (that'll get you your numbers and make it fun for everyone as we all want to smash runs out without being spent for the race runs).
- As far as tracks go - include some decent fitness elements like short uphill sprints like you had at Stromlo last year - (not that dog of an XC track number 3 that everyone hated this year) or Jelly Legs climb at Ourimbah etc. You have enough racers who've been doing this for a few years who's opinions you can canvass as to what tracks suck and which ones are good. You don't race GE so perhaps you should be asking those who do?
- Once racing starts - it's climb to the top under your own power and pedal between stages (like this years Stromlo but without the Shuttle - if you could get one - to the top). If you want to encourage newbies - great - shuttle Sport class and perhaps the kiddies to the top for their race runs. Make the big boys and girls work for it.

Idea:
What about this for Thredbo: Chairlifts for practice. Three races runs. First run - chairlift to top, race half way down . Pedal back up the mountain within a set time (miss your start - clock starts ticking as it's done in the EWS). Second run - top to bottom on flow track. Third run - pedal half way up the mountain and race from the middle back down. How about using part of the DH track but if you have to - bunt off the big jumps / nastier features. Yes, people will need DH lids. These can be bought for $100 and people should be wearing them anyway at many of the tracks (racing the first half of the Ourimbah track in an XC lid is flat out dangerous).

Finally - make registration for all events online only. This way - you'll know beforehand how many shuttle vehicles to have so the Stromlo shuttle fiasco is avoided.

Rant over (for now).
Click to expand...

Well said.

1. Safety, need to take it seriously, been lucky so far.

2. Organised, rider briefing, online entries

3. It's now on a world stage , let's follow that same format.

4. Listen to the riders. Analyse who is commenting, understand the demographic.


Shuttling is great, but should be left to practice where possible.
Thredbo will evolve, new tracks etc, what about a late arvo stage after the lift has closed, where we have to ride up to bunny walk, so we don't waste the chair?

Full face helmets are a must. This shit is dangerous, 2 deaths in the last few months, both head injuries (stromlo & Brisbane)

Hope to enjoy some great racing next year!!

See yous out there
 
Funny thing is that I agree with the shuttle situation and I would like to get rid of them alltogether. However we have to work with the tracks that we have here and while it's great to compare the NSW series to the European ones they terrain is slightly different (mountains vs. the hills we have here) and while there are a lot of tracks out there we need to choose the ones we can legally race on.

The track at Glenworth Valley only has 1 road going back up and that is the main access road with quite a bit of traffic on it. For safety reasons we have to shuttle there.

At Stromlo we won't have shuttles anymore because they aren't necessary at all. It's as quick if not quicker to ride back up. The tracks we plan to use there (for the Australian GE Series round) are: top of DH track and then turn into Luge, back up to Playground and down there. Track 2 most likely Pork Barrel, Double Dissolution because it's just too much fun. If you ride up the fireroad to the start you're back there in notime.

Thredbo: I rode up that hill twice in my life - I will have no friends left if I make you ride up it. Last year we had the format of the better of the 2 runs count while this year we will combine the time of the 2 runs which favours the fitter guys.

Ourimbah: We talked about shuttle/no shuttle options here. Because of the traffic on the fireroad I don't want to send riders up on it. So we can ride up to fiveways and then to the end of the pallets and start from there. We could hike-a-bike up the the rest too but I doubt this will be popular with you guys. While we still have to pick an option that will get a good rider field (the club round got about a dozen or so) I am more than happy to discuss options about it. Registration hasn't opened yet and we can offer it cheaper of course if we don't need shuttles.

The final track which we haven't decided which one yet is unlikely to have shuttles on it either.
 
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Thanks for the reply, for me personally I like the technical tracks with plenty of features and obstacles. With specific reference to the Ourimbah track I would be dissapointed if the normal start was bypassed as I really enjoy that top section on the DH track and don't mind a hike-a-bike to get there.

I hope that as this racing format takes off we see some purpose built tracks going in around the country and hope that we can incorporate lots of technical elements with "B-Lines" that incur a time penalty but still keep the flow of the track, although not an all mountain track there is a great example of this in the Glenrock trail network on Kenny's.

Two years old for this genre means it is still in it's infancy and still developing, as typically Australian's we will always have our own style and borrow the best bits of the Enduro format from all over the world, give it time and I am sure we can develop something that is accessible, enjoyable and challenging to all levels.
 
Regarding the Glenworth Valley track:

We have scouted it out and will start building on it soon - if you want to directly influence where the sport is going help us build the track! This way you can build lines that suit you, know where the best lines are and race for free as we don't charge people to race on tracks they built themselves. The technical section in the middle is pretty much an existing walking track that we need to cut back and put in a few B-lines. At the start and the finish we can go nuts in terms of where we want to take it.
 
trailburner said:
Regarding the Glenworth Valley track:

We have scouted it out and will start building on it soon - if you want to directly influence where the sport is going help us build the track! This way you can build lines that suit you, know where the best lines are and race for free as we don't charge people to race on tracks they built themselves. The technical section in the middle is pretty much an existing walking track that we need to cut back and put in a few B-lines. At the start and the finish we can go nuts in terms of where we want to take it.
Click to expand...

More than happy to help, will there be organised build days or can we contact you directly with our availabilities, get a copy of the plan and head down to chip away at our leisure?
 
cokeonspecialtwodollars said:
More than happy to help, will there be organised build days or can we contact you directly with our availabilities, get a copy of the plan and head down to chip away at our leisure?
Click to expand...

We will have organised build days. Some midweek some on the weekends. Will post it here when we head out there. Thanks for the offer to help.
 
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