Late last season we through together a nice little friends and family group ride. The day had all the makings of an epic adventure. A high of 2 degrees, snow down to 1500 metres and a crew of rowdy, beligerant all sorts that happen to be friends and coincidentally  know how to ride bikes.

We don’t often get a group like this together in the season…that may have to change.

 

It was a lot of fun…..

Rain/snow/sleet gear was key…We were all putting our chosen attire to the test.

Our first stop. An old Canmore rental suite.

One sport juice down and we were off!

The jackets didn’t stay on long.

 

Dean Christou crushing it.

 

That Highline climb sometimes rips the shirt right off your back.

Pat is all smiles on the switchback climbs.

A rare photo of Bill Knight not breaking something on his bike.

 

This guy has been on the trail a long long time.

TIG!!

 

Not sure what this was all about. The mouth hole is at the top kids!

 

 

Many bikes and one cat.

 

A couple weeks ago Curtis and I went  out to Golden to see what the crew at KHMR had been up to. Having some real tough terrain to work with the boys and girls on trail crew did some amazing work to increase the fun factor tons. Some great changes that added some amazing flow to Pioneer race run and blaster,  the additions/changes to Swamp Donkey as well as the revamp and continuation to the dirt jumps.

Wide open alpine shredding.

Blasting the berms.

Overwatch.

Cleaning the slabs on P[oneer.

Alpine hips……mmm

There’s no shortage of rocks in golden.

DEEEEP berms.

 

If you are going to Victoria, Australia and only do one bike ride (ridiculous proposition!) while you are there, go and ride the Epic Trail…. It may hurt a little but it is worth it. Oh, and you may as well go while they are hosting the first round of the Australian Enduro Series…why not?!

Graves, Hill, Brosnan, Clementz??? …yep, that is a good enough reason I think.

Some call this the best trail in Australia, and for good reason. The Epic is over 40 km of largely single track. With solid, well thought out climbs, amazing summit views and long flowy descents , this was well worth the 3hr drive from Melbourne.

Our loop was a slight variation of the proper epic trail. We completed the Stonefly up and down, a true classic and then cut across to the Telephone Box Junction (a magical haven found deep in the forest) to finish the ride down to the base of Mt Buller. All in all this made for a slightly longer loop at 51km! But hey, we are athletes…right?

 

Where do we go? whats happening? beards look ok??

 

 

Prime singletrack. We saw a lot of this in the 50km of trails we sessioned.

 

An absolute gem in the middle of nowhere, gourmet food, coffee and a repair shop!

 

A full service centre to keep you rolling through the day.

 

Callum sending a sausage roll down before the 11km climb.

 

It takes a while to get to this sign, The steep climb out of TBJ is only made worse by the fact you have already done 25km or so to get here, this is the last place you will stop before the fun of the final descent begins.

 

Or maybe you’ll stop to take a photo.

 

The beautiful views of Mt Buller and surrounds.

 

That was our Saturday complete….now for some Sunday Enduro heckling.

 

An evening stroll down to the main village area..pump track and all.

 

yep..mmhmm

 

 

   

Some of the guys checking on their seeding times for Sundays event.

 

 

   

Sram tent.

 

   

Hill, Jones, Clementz out for a final practice.

 

One or two nice steeds in the lineup. Both Richie Rude and  Jared Graves chose to ride the SB5C on race day opting for the shorter travel of the two bikes.

 

Following some riders up to the start of stage 3 on the Sunday. The pros had already begun the Stage 3 climb at this point. We were driving to a spot to hopefully catch em on the way down.

 

 

Mr Sam Hill was the first to descend Stone Fly. Still rocking flats.

 

The pros came down at their own leisure. Troy Brosnan a few minutes later on. He looked extremely smooth and extremely fast.

 

A post Stage 3 chat at the main food station.

 

You could here this guy coming!. Heaving breathing all the way down. Graves looked like he was working harder than everyone else. Extra pedal strokes wherever he could..Thats the kinda thing that pays off in the long run.

 

 

Jerome Clementz. Fast and smooth.

 

Stage 4

 

Another smooth line from Brosnan. Cornering so precise outta this section.

 

 

The start of Stage 5 had a sprint style start which eventually looped onto parts of the DH trail network at Mt Buller. The Pros still looked fresh at this point.

 

 

 

Graves finished the final stage with a flat but basically still crushed everyone by over a minute over all. Quite ridiculous really, but I guess that is what you expect from a world champion.

Pauls first Gopro edit is short but sweet…come back summer…we miss you!