By Sam Hope & Sam Paris
Multi day enduros are generally physical events with the Trans Tas ranging from 700-1400 vertical meters of climbing a day, 5 days in a row generally with more descending as there is often an initial shuttle up in the morning. They are a great way to get shown around the 3 main riding destinations of Tasmania and they feed you as well. BONUS!!
After getting picked up from Hobart airport we were on the bus to Maydena where we do the first 2 days of the event.
Day 1 we woke to a drizzly cold looking day and the nerves as to what the tracks would be like were high. Luckily after the first stage we were out of the mist and the tracks were in primo conditions. Tracks were a mix of flowing grade 4 trails to technical grade 6 trails which were similar to the riding back home so we both felt comfortable on the dirt.
4hr. 23.7km. 953m climb. 1800m descending.
Day 2 in Maydena was both our favorite day. The tracks had a good amount of fun and technical sections and the day being a bit shorter meant we had more energy for the whole day. Our favorite tracks were King Brown and Billy Bob.
2hr45min. 15.1km. 673m climb. 1530m descending.
Day 3 was at Queenstown (in Tasmania). Queenstown was established when they were mining for copper years ago. The barren landscape was caused by acid rain when burning rock to extract the copper, which still means little vegetation can grow here. This was a different kind of riding as it was very loose and gravelly terrain. This was the biggest day of the event and consisted over 2hr of pushing up a very steep road to the top of the mountain.
5hr40min. 32.8km. 1370m climb. 2020m descending.
Day 4 and 5 were at Derby which is well known worldwide for its good riding. The first day we were racing was after a 6hr bus trip from Queenstown in the morning. This made it hard to go riding and we were straight into some of the most challenging stages of the race all being either black or double black (grade 5&6). Sam P had 1 off but with minimal damage we were both happy to make it through the day.
4hr40min. 27.8km. 694m climb. 1000m descending.
Day 2 in Derby was a lot easier with the trails mainly being blue (grade 4) with 1 black to finish the day off. It was nice to have easier tracks for finish with as everything was getting rather sore and tierd by then.
4hr50min. 35.6km. 863m climb. 1183m descending.
Total. 22hr. 135km. 4553m climb. 7533m descending.
Final placings
Sam Paris 7th overall
Sam Hope 4th Female
There was a good crew of New Zealanders there and we meet a lot of others from all over the world. It's very social event as you all meet up for dinner and breakfast and 4 of the 6 nights were in air bnb houses which was a great way to hang out with all sorts of people.
We both really enjoyed the event and would recommend it to anyone keen to be shown the good trails Tasmania have on offer. We'll be back for sure.
We were lucky enough to have 10 more days after the race in Tasmania before flying back to NZ. We stayed on in Derby for another 3 days before heading back to Hobart to stay with some friends. We got to ride South Hobart, Meehan and back to Maydena for a day. It was nice to do some other tourist things such as a walk to Cape Hauy in Fortescue Bay, Port Arthur Historic area and Mona art museum. A lot more to explore so will have to go back!