Smooth
operators
With just six weeks before kick-off, the 2017
Myrtleford Alpine Rally was forced to find a
new home.
Luke Brock, Chris Bonacci and their
merry crew worked their guts out and made
the impossible possible; all new trails from
a totally new staging area and it worked out
brilliantly. John Costenaro from the
Department of Environment Land and Water
Planning (DELWP) is a keen rider and he
helped get things in order so we could all
enjoy a cracking ride on awesome trails.
I reckon we need to get Luke, Chris and
John into Canberra to visit uncle Malcolm
at Parliament House where they could show
him how things can actually get done.
through third-gear firetrail before it
tightened up and the heat was on.
The ground was dry but not yet dusty.
We dropped off the side of a trail and
ducked beneath a fallen tree, through a
dry gully and into what was some
prime single-line stuff. The corners got
tighter, the trail thinner and the fun
factor escalated to 10.
We popped out onto more firetrail
that climbed in altitude. Surrounded by
trees we couldn’t see much off to the
sides, which was probably just as well.
We climbed some really steep trail,
dodging rocks and rain ruts. The little
Sherco chewed it up and hauled my
beer-drinking and pizza-eating arse up
with ease. I was clicking gears and
loving life.
We popped out into a clearing and
were greeted with amazing Alpine
views. To be honest, I was sucking in
some big ones and feeling a bit
puffed, but it felt so damn good. That
Alpine air... it was like filling my
lungs with life.
The trail plummeted into more bush
and we soon found ourselves at some
extremely prime singletrack. The dirt
was moist, the track was pure single
with no room for more than a set of
handlebars in places. The soil was like
caramel fudge and we cranked on the
throttle. We were having such a good
time I forgot to stop and take
photographs. It makes me grin just
thinking about it.
The single stuff was fresh and
although it opened up a bit there was
only one line. It was so much fun to
ride. It snaked back into some tighter
stuff with some off-camber climbs and
eventually opened up again.FEED OR FIRE
As the singletrack ended we climbed
up again where the wind was
howling. The dirt was drier with a
clay base and it was getting dusty.
Luckily the wind was hammering
across the top and, fair dinkum, it had
enough grunt to blow a dog off a
chain, so visibility wasn’t an issue.
We began plummeting down a huge
hill that went for ages. It was a real
thigh burner and there were enough
rocks and rain ruts to make precise line
selection a very wise move. I was
starting to feel the effects of no riding
combined with a crap diet, and admit I
wasn’t upset to see the end of the loop.
The Alpine Rally crew had the
One bloke parked himself in a blackberry bush barbeques burning and smell of snagsThe hillclimbs bettered a few ridershttp://www.adbmag.com.au JANUARY 2018 | 143Tuffy had to stop to catch his breath