Albury Super D to Mt Buller and back!

 

The alarm rings with joy at the crack of dawn making sure Graham and I didn’t sleep in as we had a 4 hr drive to Albury where the Super D race was being held. I yelled out to Graham with no response 3rd time around and I got a murmur and knew we would be running behind as graham isn’t much of a morning person. The car was packed last night in preparation for the early start as packing in rain was not going to be fun way to start the morning. The weather had a huge band of rain covering the state but rain hail or shin we were going to go up and support the SuperD race run by the Schilg family (Ann, Geoff and Dave) from Albury Wodonga Mountain Bike Club.

Pics below are to show that the Schilg family can not only organise and run a race they know how to rip it up on the Mtb.

 David keeping the wheels on the ground.

 Geoff getting back and holding on for the ride.

Ann nipping at the brothers heals!

From the second we woke up until 2 hrs into out road trip it was like we were driving in a swimming pool. This was not going to stop us racing and we stuck to our guns, pushed on with the driving and without fail the rain stopped and the sun came out for all of us.

 10:00 on the dot and I had made great time as Graham was unable to drive due to his rather long nana nap session.

 11:00 We stopped off at a super market to grab some supplies for the day. It was at this point I told Graham that Ann was not replying to all of my msgs and letting me know where the start was. Moments later a lady replied with "not sure who you are but you have the wrong number". It was at this point we decided to jump on the trusty I phone to find out directions to the race start.

 

11:30 Super market shop done and now finally with the directions we were on our way once more. The 1st of many pro set ups we had for the weekend.

Super-D weapon ready for action. Thanks Rocky Mountainsd/Adventure Brands for my Element 950!

1:30 By this time Graham and I have ridden around the Nail Can Hill Reserve in search of the Super-D course. We fallowed our instinct and found 1/2 of the trails that were in the race. Once we made it to the end of the course we preceded to make our way back to the car some 20min ride away with some solid pinches thrown in for good measure.

3:00 I stuck with him until we got to a steep pinch that I forgot about and he started to pull away. At the top of the climb the trail turned into single track and Neil started to gain on me once more. It was at this point that I started to back off a little and find my flow once more instead of blowing up. In the last 100m of the course I passed Neil as he went for the money line in the rock garden and payed the price of a flat resulting in him running to the finish.

 Race is over now it's time to chill out!

Time to dry out the clothes and let the bike rest!

Presentation Time: We got stuck into the wonderful food put on by the Albury Wodonga MTB club and graham made short work of the $1 pots. I ended up coming in 3rd place and was super stoked to be up the pointy end given it was only the 2nd time Ihave ridden the course.We got chatting to a super friendly guy by the name of Ashley Humbert. Turns out he has traveled Europe racing road bike for several years and now is running Pushy bike shop in Albury, so if you are in the area drop in and say hi and Ash will point you in the correct direction of where to ride. He was also extremely kind in letting Graham and I stay over night so we were ready for Mt Buller the next day.

Ash giving the 2 finger salute!

MT BULLER

5:30 Crack of dawn and we were on the road making our way yo Mt Buller

8:30 Bakery stop and the final push up to the epic adventure that awaits us.

 

Trail map Check!

 View from the summit of Mt Buller.

12:30 We took off for our assault on our mission to ride Stonefly. The trail was put in by a company called Worlf Trail. World Trail have done a wonderful job of building trails in an alpine environment for all to enjoy.

 View from Mt Stirling

 Climb is now behind us and a rest was on the cards. Fueling up on Torq goodness we were ready to make our decent on Stonefly

Look hard and you can find doubles on the trail.

Graham standing amongst the burnt out Snow gums of Mt Stirling. Mt Stirling and a large portion on the Yarra Valey were devastated by the Black Saturday fires the burnt for 1 month in early 2009. 175 lives were lost 2,200 houses and 3,100 buildings were destroyed.

 Just another sweet sweet view from one of the trails on mt Buller.

Copper Head trail has only just been finished by the guys from World Trail, it is called a "dh flow" trail that lets you get loose and wild or stay controlled and composed. Loads of fun give it a season to break in fully and it will be a go to tail to ride and Buller

The little fellas wanting to stop of and say hi the there relatives on the drive home.