This past weekend saw two team members, Rupert Elkington-Cole and Colin Jeffery, visit James Estate Winery in the Upper Hunter Region for round 2 of the Shimano Rocky Trail MTB Series.
Conditions were on our side with the area being one of the only in New South Wales without seeing rain. James Estate played an excellent host to the 300-plus riders entered on Saturday. Even gracious enough, given the remote location, to provide a camp ground Friday and Saturday nights for riders, family and support teams. Not to mention a complementary bottle of their finest.
The course through the winery has been around for a while, but the race line was developed recently to host this event specifically. 10.5 kilometres travels down fire road, through grassy fields between growing grapes on the vines, and into a singletrack wind cut into the forested hillside. This new line hadn't seen much use before the event, and as the day progressed the loose sandy corners and narrow pinches packed in to develop a more predictable flow. The days' fastest riders were just shy of 25 minutes to make it around.
Rupert and Colin entered Mens Elite Pairs 7-hour category. The days' effort netted a podium finish with 3rd place and the boys were stoked with a successful outcome.
Rocky Trail Entertainment are great event hosts and Manly Cycles team is looking forward to the next three events. We're aiming for more contestants in the coming races; going for the shop series trophy this year.
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| Set up camp and coffee near the start/finish transition |
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| Starting line in the Upper Hunter country side |
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| Rupert fastidiously tracking race progress; big thanks to the timekeepers for your attention to detail. The ladies always had a smile for us. |
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| Straight lines here are fire road or grassy vineyard |
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| The 10.5 km course elevation chart, maxing out at just under 250m high point |
