The first Fox Superflow, sealed by Stan’s event was held at Stromlo Forest Park on the weekend of 1+2 June and with 450 racers it turned out to be the second-largest race in the 12-year history of Rocky Trail events in Australia. One third of the field was under 17 years old with racers as young as eight competing alongside some of Australia’s greatest gravity enduro racers, including Elite winners Josh Carlson from Wollongong and Canberra’s Cara Paton.
It was the event that had been seven years in the making, said Event Director Juliane Wisata from Rocky Trail Entertainment. “As the first private event organisers to run enduro-style events based on the European and North American formats in Australia, we have been fine-tuning and upgrading our systems to design a race that is made for Australian racers and the local terrain here”, she explained. “With our steady and engaged cross-country audience, we sort of untapped the crowd of social riders who still like a good challenge, especially if it is against their mates”, Wisata said and added that the Fox Superflow events were unique in that the events didn’t stipulate any start orders and allowed riders of all ages spend the whole day together on the bike.
New track launch at Stromlo Forest Park gets thumbs up
The event at Stromlo Forest Park was the first series event in 2019 and supported by Events ACT. With neutral rides to the start of three race stages, the event also launched a brand-new track at the park, called Sunset Boulevarde, which proved to be an instant crowd favourite.
It was one of the most successful Australian gravity racers, Giant Factory Off-Road Team racer Josh Carlson from Wollongong, who took out the Elite victory in a race time of 17:36.1 minutes against strong local competition from Tim Eaton (2) and Rowan Beggs-French (3).
On the podium Josh Carlson said, “This is a really cool event, it had a mad vibe all weekend. The trails were really fun and kept everyone stoked and involved – coming down the bottom and seeing live timing was super-exciting!”
Elite female winner Cara Paton agreed, thanking the local trail builders for getting the brand-new “Sunset Boulevarde” track ready for race day and stated, “I had an awesome time out there, it was an amazing atmosphere.”
Each Fox Superflow race is a stand-alone event and riders can also collect points for an overall series classification with special awards at the end of the season for the top three racers with the most points in each category.
Keen juniors, ambitious masters
With the elites fighting for every second, the remaining field of racers was equally as ambitious to take on the endurance challenge. Riders were able to clock in up to five race times per stage and many recorded more than 40 km and well in excess of 1,000 vertical meters.
With one third of the field in the junior categories, which included U13, U15 and U17 for both male and female competitors, more than 100 racers were 40 years and older.
With large groups of young races and best mates riding together, there were also many parents comparing race times with their keen juniors at the finish lines.
Fox Superflow moving North for NSW events
The next Fox Superflow will take place at Awaba MTB Park near Newcastle on 30 June and the local Hunter Mountain Bike Association has been building and upgrading trails after last year’s first superflow event.
Port Macquarie will then host the Fox Superflow Championship event supported by Port Macquarie Hastings Council on 14 July. The Rocky Trail crew said that they picked Jolly Nose MTB Park for the Championship event, because they wanted their racers to discover the most well-kep ‘enduro-secret of the North’. “We had overwhelmingly positive feedback from last year’s event there and we set it in the school holidays for people to make this year’s race part of a getaway with the family”, said Juliane Wisata. “It will be easy to entertain the race entourage in Port Macquarie and surrounds and we can see our racers practice on the Saturday and then kick back and relax with their family and besties on the local shores”, she said of the event schedule that was specifically designed with those social activities in mind. “We have all race tracks always ready and marked for the Saturday, so people can come and do some recky rides in their own time, before hitting race day on the Sunday”, she explained.
Further events include Ourimbah State Forest Park near Wyong on 1 September, supported by Central Coast Council followed by Taree in Kiwarrak State Forest on 22 September and Greenvalleys MTB Park on 17 November.
For more information, visit https://rockytrailentertainment.com/fox-superflow-sealed-by-stans/
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