Bike Buller 2011

For the past three or so years we have been meaning to get our act together and attend the Bike Buller MTB Festival that is on every March. This year however the stars must have aligned as we all got organised and we signed up for some riding.

The Bike Buller Festival ran over the first weekend of March this year and although the weather forcast was for overcast skies and the chance of light rain, the weather on the mountain at Buller was nothing but perfect 16deg during the day and sunshine all day long, absolutely perfect for riding.

I had the opportunity to head up to MT Buller early on the Friday and we all were staying with friends on the mountain. On arrival our good friend Ian was absolutely itching to go for a ride. It was about 5pm when we finally started riding, the plan was to head over to Mount Sterling and check out the brand new Glenn Jacobs designed trail called Stonefly. We descended out of the village on the Gang Gangs trail towards the saddle between MT Buller Village and Corn Hill which is a nice short piece of flowing trail to get you started, once at the saddle there was some more new trail heading up Corn Hill instead of the old slog straight up to the top. As we were heading over there were some really promising signs of more singletrack to come which is always a good news.

Once we arrived at the other side of Corn Hill known as Howqua Gap we were at the base of the trail that has been talked up as one of the best cross country mountain bike trails in Australia. I have to say the climb is absolutely epic, physically and technically challenging for the entire climb with amazing things to look at the whole way up. Once at the top the view out over the ranges is quite spectacular and the decent that follows is one of the most enjoyable rides I've had in a long time taking around 10 mins. All up it was roughly about a 3 hour return trip probably a much shorter ride for those that are much fitter than me.

The following day featured the 25km Cross country race in the morning followed by the 4 hour Brake Burner Enduro in the Afternoon. I took the morning nice and easy with a big breakfast and completely skipping the 25k XC Race. Early afternoon came around pretty quick and so we got all our gear together had some lunch and prepared for the Enduro.

Left to Right. Ian, Raenier, Doug, Andy and Carli

The race setup was that everyone started in groups of up to six so we decided it would be nice to all start together. The first lap saw us all split up a little although while we waited in the queue at the bottom for around 25mins to get on the chair lift back to the top we were able to see each other and gauge how far behind or how far ahead each of us were.

The lap consisted of all types of terrain from XC single track to fire access track to sealed roads.

The final laps saw me crash my brains out on the final descent, Ian and Carli pulled out after getting some inside knowledge from another rider that the final leg wasn't that great and that they had ridden the best bit of trail already. Both Andy and Doug powered through to the bottom and received finish times to be well respected.

Post race was spent eating dinner out and sitting on the couch discussing the best bits of the previous two day. A really great weekend had by all.

I have a feeling we may be spending a bit more time over up on the Mountain.

Cheers
Raenier