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CHAIN REACTION CYCLES WA GRAVITY ENDURO SERIES 2018 Race Report Round 2 – Linga Longa Bike Park, Balingup WA 8th April 2018

Sunday April 8th 2018 saw the second round of the 2018 CHAIN REACTION CYCLES WA Gravity Enduro Series at Linga Longa Bike Park in Balingup and it didn’t disappoint. With ideal racing conditions once the early morning fog cleared to a day nearing 23°C, conditions were perfect for competitors and spectators.

Saturday practice saw about 150 competitors checking out the 7-stage course. There were a few crashes – particularly on the huge jumps of Stage 5 – Boxers Blast – but the trails were running very

well even in dry conditions. Those that camped the night enjoyed the beautiful location at Linga Longa Bike Park with plenty facilities including hot showers, toilets, enclosed camp fires and an on-site café thanks to ‘Cakes by Tasty Edibles.’ With just over 300 competitors in the starting lineup on Sunday, the banter was high but the comradery even higher.

We had a strong turnout for our Giant WAGE Whippets with 18 Under 13’s shredding the 2 stage course we had on offer. Mark from Rock n Roll Mountain Biking watched over the field as they descended firstly down Little Miss Enduro - a new descent for all in 2018. The shuttle bus was waiting for them at the bottom which swiftly took them back up to the top to complete Mr Enduro. It was great to see Harper O’Donnell and Taashi Dingey race neck-and-neck with Harper winning with only 0.7 seconds separating the two friendly rivals.

Race morning view at Linga Longa – photo by Jarrad Lawrence

Male U13 Lynas BUTLER Male U13 Lenny JENKINSON Male U13 Toby WINTER

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CHAIN REACTION CYCLES WA GRAVITY ENDURO SERIES 2018 Race Report Round 2 – Linga Longa Bike Park, Balingup WA 8th April 2018

With the Whippets back and presentations complete, we opened up Stages 1 and 2 for competitors in the main event to post their times.

With 7 awesome trails on offer, we opened 6 stages initially whereby everyone had to finish Stage 7 within their first three stages. This allowed us to close Stage 7, move the timing gear over to Stage 5 and control the start of Boxers Blast so that spectators had a great spectacle to finish the day. Little did we know that carnage on Stage 7 would throw our nicely planned schedule into chaos!

We also made things a little more challenging as usual for our Elite and Expert competitors. Their categories had to head up the hill twice under their own power, and the rest of the field needing to push/ride up atleast once. This was policed with a check-in marquee half-way up the hill with marshal Adam being inundated at the start of the day with most deciding to pushup first. Credit to Adam - he worked fast and got the competitors through as quickly as possible.

Well done to all the Giant Whippets that took part at Linga Longa! Note: some Whippets didn’t want to miss out on the action and ran up to Boxer’s Blast after there race and are not in this shot 😊😊

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CHAIN REACTION CYCLES WA GRAVITY ENDURO SERIES 2018 Race Report Round 2 – Linga Longa Bike Park, Balingup WA 8th April 2018

So onto the 7 stages on offer for Round 2 of the Chain Reaction Cycles WA Gravity Enduro Series at Linga Longa:

Stage 1 – Little Miss Enduro This brand new trail had something for everyone with plenty of technical features with some pedaling thrown in for good measure. A long stage, Roly KYME clocked the fastest time for the Male Elite with a 4:29.64 and Jesse MORGAN for the Male U19 clocking in at 3rd overall with a 4:36.76.

Stage 2 – Mr Enduro This double-black diamond trails descends 180m over 1.8km and posts the longest times of the day. Roly KYME clocked in the fastest time with a 4:39.29 and for the women, Female Junior rider Jen ROUGHTON posted a blistering 5:49.85 putting her in 127th out of 262 overall competitors on this stage.

Stage 3 – Valley of Dreams The first trail built at Linga Longa Bike Park, welcome to 1.3km of setup descents, off-cambers turns and plenty of rock features. Heidi STRICKLAND posted the fastest time for the women with a 3:31.66 just edging Jen ROUGHTON out by 0.2 seconds and for the men, Blake PEARCE – the 2017 Series Champion - was clear by more than 2 seconds with a 2:52.35. For the Male U19, Jesse MORGAN posted a hot lap of 2:55.89 clear of Tate MCBROOM by 7 seconds.

Stage 4 – Devins Descent into Madness (DDM) Caution – Road Gap! This double black diamond has you at full-pucker with more steep off-camber terrain, log drop-offs and tight switchbacks. Devin STAFFORD posted the fastest time for the Male Masters with a 2:59.64 which was also 6th place overall. Jimmy PRITCHARD is consistently showing some great form and won this stage with a 2:55.78.

Jen ROUGHTON on her way to 1st Place for the Female Juniors.

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CHAIN REACTION CYCLES WA GRAVITY ENDURO SERIES 2018 Race Report Round 2 – Linga Longa Bike Park, Balingup WA 8th April 2018

Stage 5 – Boxers Blast For the jumpers, this trail offers plenty of opportunities to catch some air-time with some of the largest jumps in the 2018 series and is definitely a favourite for the spectators. We were forced to abandon official times for this stage due to the schedule running over, but that didn’t stop some huge trains and yahoo’s from riders heading down the hill and turning it on for the spectators!

Stage 6 – Rake N Ride If ‘raw’ is your trail of choice, then you can’t go past Rake n Ride. Built in a day by legend Sam Hill, the name says it all. With some seriously off-camber dusty trails towards the bottom-end and some rock-drops testing risk vs reward, Luke BALL showed us how its done posting the fastest time of 2:32.16 for the Male Elite with Sandra CONNOR steaming ahead in the Female Masters with a 4:08.37 – clear by almost 40 seconds.

Stage 7 – Edge of the World And finally, if 6 stages weren’t enough, Edge of the World is another Sam Hill designed trail featuring very steep descents, cliff faces and plenty of rocks and roots. Tanya BAILEY is showing some excellent form posting the fastest time for the Females with a 3:42.00 and for the Male Sport, Peter CRICHTON set an quick time of 3:20.35 – clear of 2nd place Jamie WOOD by 12 seconds. It is also great to see Sam RUBERY highlighting his competitive form after winning the 2017 WA Gravity Enduro State Championships at Linga Longa, posting the fastest time for the men with a 2:54.34.

Rikkie ZOUTENBIER on his way to a solid 16th place for the Male Expert.

Plenty of action to catch at the jumps on Boxer’s Blast

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CHAIN REACTION CYCLES WA GRAVITY ENDURO SERIES 2018 Race Report Round 2 – Linga Longa Bike Park, Balingup WA 8th April 2018

Plenty of things happening on the ground with shuttle lifts available throughout the race managed perfectly by Linga Longa

And plenty of things flying through the air – jumps on Boxer’s Blast are always a hit and the wind behaved itself!

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CHAIN REACTION CYCLES WA GRAVITY ENDURO SERIES 2018 Race Report Round 2 – Linga Longa Bike Park, Balingup WA 8th April 2018

It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for some riders with Linga Longa trails offering little mercy if you come unstuck

Our awesome marshal Jo keeping the competitors fully informed at the trail head

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CHAIN REACTION CYCLES WA GRAVITY ENDURO SERIES 2018 Race Report Round 2 – Linga Longa Bike Park, Balingup WA 8th April 2018

Our awesome marshal Adam checking riders through the pushup area and keeping watch over Boxer’s Blast

Another busy morning for Amy checking in over 300 riders in a few hours

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CHAIN REACTION CYCLES WA GRAVITY ENDURO SERIES 2018 Race Report Round 2 – Linga Longa Bike Park, Balingup WA 8th April 2018

Plenty of good times and shenanigans at Race Village

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CHAIN REACTION CYCLES WA GRAVITY ENDURO SERIES 2018 Race Report Round 2 – Linga Longa Bike Park, Balingup WA 8th April 2018

Always exciting racing and so many trail features at Linga Longa Bike Park

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CHAIN REACTION CYCLES WA GRAVITY ENDURO SERIES 2018 Race Report Round 2 – Linga Longa Bike Park, Balingup WA 8th April 2018

MALE GRAND MASTERS 60+ 2 Ron WETTSTEIN - 1 Kevin STAFFORD – 3 Clem RYAN (due to the removal of Stage 5, 3 – Graham DIXON)

MALE U15 2 Joel IRVING – 1 Nicholas REGAN – 3 Tom RUBERY

FEMALE MASTERS 40 – 49 1 Sandra CONNOR – 2 Belinda MCENTEE – 3 Kelly DOYE

FEMALE SPORT 1 – Lara SMITH 2 – Jessie OVENDEN

Congratulations to everyone that took part and well done to our podium placers!

MALE SPORT 1 – Peter CRICHTON 2 – Peter EVERY (present) 3 – Brett WALKER

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CHAIN REACTION CYCLES WA GRAVITY ENDURO SERIES 2018 Race Report Round 2 – Linga Longa Bike Park, Balingup WA 8th April 2018

MALE EXPERT 2 Aaron KANTERS – 1 Darcy CLEVELAND – 3 Yann BARTHELEMY

MALE MASTERS 40 – 49 2 Dave STEPHENS – 1 Devin STAFFORD – 3 Ben MCGRATH

FEMALE SUPER MASTERS 50+ 2 Carol WILLCOCKS-DANIEL - 1 Cas RYAN

FEMALE JUNIOR 2 Caelin STUART – 1 Jennifer ROUGHTON 3 – Sophie TAYLOR

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CHAIN REACTION CYCLES WA GRAVITY ENDURO SERIES 2018 Race Report Round 2 – Linga Longa Bike Park, Balingup WA 8th April 2018

MALE U19 2 Cadel ADAMS – 1 Jesse MORGAN – 3 Tate MCBROOM

MALE U17 2 Campbell LYNE – 1 Gus KYME – 3 Aaron DELLA VECCHIA

FEMALE ELITE (shown) 2 Katja ALSOP – 1 Heidi STRICKLAND – Lily GREVETT Revised after Stage 5 removed from overall 2 Heidi STRICKLAND – 1 Tanya BAILEY – 3 Katja ALSOP

MALE ELITE 2 Jimmy PRITCHARD – 1 Roly KYME – 3 Luke BALL

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CHAIN REACTION CYCLES WA GRAVITY ENDURO SERIES 2018 Race Report Round 2 – Linga Longa Bike Park, Balingup WA 8th April 2018

Huge thanks once again to our amazing marshals – we could not have run a safe, fun and fair race without you! Cheers Amy, Russ, Terry, Frank, Lynn, Jamie and Jo, Mel, John, Adam, Deb and Rob! They each had their challenges on the day and are a credit to us all.

Thank you to Linga Longa Bike Park – Boxer, Brydon and Devin and all the support crew and shuttle drivers! The competitors had all the facilities they could dream of at Race Village and amazing trails as always!

Thank you to Cakes by Tasty Edibles who always brings delicious meals and drinks to these events.

Thank you to the St John Paramedics who did a fantastic job looking after our riding wounded with professionalism as always.

And a final thanks to the Shire of Donnybrook-Balingup for their ongoing support for our events.

Special thanks once again to our Major Sponsor

CHAIN REACTION CYCLES.

Also, thanks to Loan WA Asset Financing and Leasing, Jump n Pump Nation, Common Ground, Carmel Adventist College, Rock n Roll Mountain Biking, AMD Power Solutions and Giant.

Full results available here Official Photography here Round 2 in 60 seconds

Registrations are now open and we look forward to seeing you all at Round 3, Goat Farm on May 6th for the WA Gravity Enduro State Championships!