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Gloucester Mountain Man Tri Challenge

Steve Cooper / SleepMonsters Aus / 27.08.2007

From its early beginings Gloucester has been on many peoples list of races to do.

Held in picturesque dairy farming country, the Gloucester Mountain Man Tri Challenge kicked off in 1991. That year i met the then race director Terry Hayes and his family,it was Terrys\' infectious passion for this new event and local community spirit that had me convinced this event was for me later that weekk i asked if he minded if i drove, (yes drove) over the mountain bike course. Lets just say i was greeted by a rather curious farmer when i took a wrong turn in my car and ended up in a neighbouring paddock with one of his prize bulls. This was probably a good thing as there was no way my trusty subaru could have navigated the traverse on the MTB course, but nevertheless i was hooked.

The MTB is a 22km ride over the Gloucester Bucketts, on bitumen and mostly dirt tracks, ending with a descent to Rocky Crossing causeway. Over much of its history this has been rideable, but i certainly won\'t forget the year the river was running at 0.7m, upon hitting the water at some speed my bike had all intentions of doing the paddle leg also, thankfully it didn\'t.

The Paddle takes you down the scenic Barrington River to Barrington township, a multitude of craft are used, from K1s with trailing rudders to Multisport craft to racing skis, (but make sure your rudder is trailing or non existent), one thing is for certain, it is all smiles for most folk enjoying the paddle.

Once out of the river at Barrington its a cross country run of 10km back to the township of Gloucester.

So feel like getting involved enter here.

Now if you feel like a holiday why not duck over to the coast for the next couple of weeks, you can either test yourself at Forster with the Anaconda 2 Day race, more details here.

Or why not head back towards the central coast for the Max Adventure 24hr, more details here.