MMBCC News - Sun 17 Nov - Wil wins Alain's race

Tenth Alain Guerin Memorial Bike Race

By Jarrod Appleton

This week’s Mansfield Mt Buller Cycling Club’s handicap road race memorialised the tragic death of a beloved club member, Alain Guerin in 2014. Alain’s life was taken by a motorist ten years ago as he was riding along Mount Buller Road close to Stoney’s Road. The driver was convicted on multiple charges and imprisoned.

Despite the sombre occasion, Alain’s memorial race is a highlight of the club’s racing calendar due to the attendance of Alain’s family, and many extra riders who knew Alain, coming from far afield. Thursday evening was warm and sunny with a moderate south-westerly wind. The 25km handicap race started on Malcolm Street at Lords Oval and went out Howes Creek Road to the turn around at Cummins Road before returning along Howes Creek Road to finish near Malcolm Street.

Craig Wilson (Mansfield) won by a huge margin of one minute and eight seconds over Fletcher Christensen (Seymour) and Oliver Hall (Benalla) who sprinted for second and third place respectively. They only narrowly held onto a four second lead over Simon Hall (Benalla) and Damien Grundy (Mansfield). Fastest time was again set by Jake Lay (Seymour) who has established himself as the king pin this season despite the attendance this week of Dan Purcell and Nick Zhang, a couple of Melbourne-based power houses who started off scratch with Jake.

A huge MMBCC thanks to all our marshals and officials and to Tony for the images. Here are the results.

Next week it’s the Buller Road handicap; see you there!

DONALD TRUMP TAKES CONVINCING VICTORY… oops. Wrong race!

By Damian Grundy

Blake Riley has taken his first win… in his first race at Dirt Crits! A two-lap flyer and duly noted by the handicapper for the next race. But a creditable first-time performance zipping around at a very impressive 16km/h (another warning shot from a young rider across the bows of the older crew 😊). It is my prediction that in pretty short time these young guns will be topping the speed charts easily.

The podium consisted then of 2nd - Stuart Clark (welcome back Stuart, first XC race in a while). 3rd – Tim Ross (taking this week’s honors in the battle of the Rosses but sadly for Tim, Ben had the higher speed on the night again.) Tim, I think that horse has well and truly bolted)).

4th – and First female Nicole Hoebergen. 2nd Female Ariel Stava, 3rd Female Micala Jacobs.

And 5th – Mr Consistency David Bock. Juniors please take note of David’s dedication to his sport, continuing on for an extra (practice) victory lap after completing his race, only to sadly miss his podium appearance for this race. Well done David 😊

It was a great turn out as has been the case every week of this season. Great to see everyone.

Here are the detailed results.

Special greetings to first timers Willem Morphett, Blake Riley and Dave Blunden. And welcome back Stuart Clark.

Looking forward to the next XC night on November 26th, I am trying to come up with ideas for a Team Race format or another thought is that we divide off into categories. Men, Women, U17 and U15 and have individual category races. If you have any ideas please call me: Damian 0411 045 771.

I will be doing course reconnaissance as usual on Sunday November 23rd at 9am. Look forward to seeing anyone who is interested to join me.

NICA registrations now open!

A few weeks back we included news of an American MTB series that has been brought to Australia by Trek Bikes. Registrations for the National Interscholastic Cycling Association Try-It-Out Events in Australia are now open.

The closest ones are Falls Creek and Beechworth in January. Plus there’s a race at Stromlo in Canberra in November. For more info and registrations, click here.

MMBCC News - Sun 10 Nov - Apples and juniors

Appleton’s apples!

By Bruce Halket

A breezy evening greeted the Mansfield Mt Buller Cycling Club’s handicap race last Thursday. Starting at the Botanic Park, riders headed north along the Mansfield-Whitfield Road to a turnaround at Sawpit Gully Road, then it was back towards town and around the Barwite Loop to finish on Graves Road - a total of 32km and the longest course on the MMBCC calendar.

Before racing got underway, we welcomed a newcomer to Thursday night racing; Oliver Hall (son of Simon, nephew of Tim) who pinned on a number for the first time.

Then drama at the start when a sudden air leak could be heard from Jarrod Appleton; thankfully it was just his front tyre going down and nothing more anatomically disturbing.

There were 23 entrants on the start list, starting with Micala Jacobs and Judi Duke, off as Limit, through to Talia Appleton and Jake Lay as the Scratch group 19 minutes later. The two most likely groups were the larger ones: the four-strong 9-minute group of Jason Parker, Adrian Dowd, Rueben Bateup and the hastily re-inflated Jarrod Appleton followed by the five-strong 4.30 group of Darren Bakker, Steve Duke, Dave Moore, Ryder Chadd and Ant Bateup.

As expected, the larger groups rode well in the windy conditions, especially the 9.00 group; Parker, Dowd, Bateup and Appleton rounded up all the out markers by the Coombesberg and began to discuss which of them was fresh enough to sprint for the win; they decided it was to be Rueben’s turn.

But two of the Halls, Oliver and Simon, had other ideas. They were the only two caught riders able to hang on over the hill and were looking to become the flies in the nine minute group’s ointment. When it became clear that Bateup didn’t have the kick to outspent the Halls, Appleton sprinted instead and took the win. Jarrod mentioned later it was only his third MMBCC win in his 12 years living in Mansfield.

Simon Hall got up for second ahead of son Oliver who got on the podium in his first race.

Next came Adrian Dowd, Rueben Bateup, Jason Parker, Andy Garrett, Ryder Chadd, Darren Bakker and Bruce Halket rounded out the top ten.

Fastest was Jake Lay in 50.30, which is an average speed of 39.7 km/h!

Many thanks to our Commissaires and marshals, especially the last-minute fill ins. Here are the results and thanks to Tony Copland for the images.

Next week’s race is the Alain Guerin Memorial Handicap, to be held on the Howes Creek Road course for the first time.

Junior MTB race at Beechworth

By Tim Ross

On Saturday a group of twelve current and former Dirt Critters, ranging in age from U7 to U15 travelled to Beechworth for Round 2 of the Alpine Cycling Club's Junior MTB race series. 

This round was an XCO course around the Beechworth MTB Park. On a perfect spring day, around 90 kids from across the north east competed. 

All of the Mansfield contingent rode well on a course that was a bit technical, featuring more than its share of rocks, tree roots and sand. Highlights of the day included Baz and Jarra each completing his first MTB race; well done to both of them. 

Ben (second) and Scout (third) both made it onto the podium, but the real achievers were all twelve kids who fronted up, had a crack and enjoyed a great ride against their peers.

After the race a few of the riders adjourned to the Indigo Epic trails for more fun on their bikes. 

Pictured below are some of the Mansfield crew after the racing.

Rookie Cup at Narbethong

By Luke Vivash

Congratulations to our young riders, Cooper Hoebergen and Sienna Vivash, for their impressive performances in the Rookie Cup!

Competing in Under 13s, Cooper placed 12th with a swift time of 3:02.

In the Under 11s, Sienna took the top spot, securing 1st place with a time of 3:20.

Both showed remarkable skill and determination on the track. Keep an eye on these rising stars.

Fantastic effort, Cooper and Sienna!

Upcoming event

Giro della Donna - Marysville - Sat 23 & Sun 24 November

MMBCC News - Sun 3 Nov - No gravel for you!

Heaps to get through this week.

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Junior MTB Series

By Tim Ross

Last weekend (19th October) a group of twelve current and former Dirt Critters, ranging in age from U7 to U15 travelled to Bright for Round 1 of the Alpine Cycling Club's Junior MTB race series. The series runs over the summer and involves 7 races across the North East, including Bright, Beechworth, Yackandandah, Albury, Falls Creek and Bright, with a mixture of XCO and Enduro events. 

The first event was an XCO course using the Roger Packham loop along Morse's Creek.

All the group acquitted themselves well on a course that was a bit slippery and difficult after some heavy rain overnight (especially for the older kids). 

Highlights of the day included Jedd completing his first race, and older brother Duke popping a mono as he crossed the finish line. 

Congratulations to Ben and to Scout who each placed first in their race.

Old blokes rule, ok?

By Dave Empey

Another perfect evening for Gravity Enduro with mild temperatures and a very dry track.

It was a very pedally downhill (we missed you Bruce Halket) utilising both sides of the mountain bike park and on average a 4-to-5-minute track.

In a turnaround from last week, the more seasoned riders tended to prevail without last week’s winner Rueben Bateup having to sit this week out due to a dirt nap at the VDHS Downhill at Barjarg on the weekend.

In first position was Matthew Empey. He didn’t have it all his own way with Ant Bateup taking the first run by 3 seconds. However, Matt went 9 seconds faster on his second run. He must have woken up and realised it was a race.

Ant Bateup came in second just 4 seconds behind Matt and Luke Vivash pulled one out of the bag for a third closely followed by Cam Dobson and Spencer Carmen on the same time, with Cam taking the honours on a countback having the fastest time over Spencer by just one second.

Stu Clark may have done better but due to being geographically embarrassed he lost a little time on his first run.

Dan Friday may have picked the wrong bike, big travel and lots of pedalling don’t seem to equate to going as fast as you normally do.

Dave Blunden turned up for his first race EVER and finished in the top ten, so well done to Dave.

We had another full class for the women’s race again this week, with Nicole taking the honours (despite an ‘off’ and some bruising/scratching) ahead of Serena and Ariel.

Here are the results and thanks to Kate for the images, above.

Well done to everyone who raced last night. Having big numbers makes the race a lot more fun and interesting.

Alain’s race is moving

By Bruce Halket

Due to a clash with Oaks Day, Coral Guerin has asked the club to move Alain’s race from its original date of 7 Nov to a week later, 14 Nov.

But it’s not just a date change. With the way Police and VicRoads permits work, the race will now be held on the Howes Creek Road course, instead of the usual 32km course finishing on Graves Road.

And due to this course change and time constraints, Coral has asked that we not ride out to Alain’s bike on the Buller Road, but head back to the Mansfield Hotel for presentations instead.

Nowhere to hide on Chapel Hill Road

By Micala Jacobs

In a spirited display of competition and camaraderie, Chapel Hill Road was the site of an individual time trial that brought together 13 enthusiastic participants from the local cycling club. Despite the smaller turnout, the event highlighted the club's commitment to fostering a diverse range of age categories and abilities, making for an inclusive and exciting atmosphere.

The weather on race day was nearly perfect for racing: partly cloudy skies and a comfortable 17 degrees Celsius, though competitors faced a challenging SSW wind that tested their resolve after the turnaround. With staggered starts set at one-minute intervals, each cyclist had the chance to battle against the clock and themselves, a hallmark of the individual time trial format.

Participants pushed through the course, which spanned almost 11 km, with many competitors remarking on the mental toughness required when racing solo. “In this type of race, there’s nowhere to hide,” one competitor noted. “It’s all on you to keep your legs turning and push yourself to the finish.”

Local cyclist Craig Wilson was particularly enthusiastic about the event, showcasing all the time trial gear and creating a festive atmosphere. Darren Bakker also added to the camaraderie with his possibly unintentional vocal encouragement at the finish line, rallying support for those crossing the line.

When the dust settled and the results were tallied - after applying the handicapping that accommodates the varied age categories and abilities - Judi Duke claimed the top spot, followed closely by Micala Jacobs in second and Jarrah O’Brien in third (welcome to MMBCC racing Jarrah!) The results demonstrated not only individual achievement but also the club's spirit of friendly competition.

As always, a big thank you was extended to the volunteers who served as Commissaire, timing officials, and marshals, ensuring the safety and smooth operation of the event. Their dedication is vital in creating a safe and enjoyable environment for all participants. Thanks again to Tony Copland for his images, above.

Looking ahead, the next event on the calendar is a Handicap race that promises to challenge riders with a 32 kilometre course taking them out Whitfield Road to Sawpit Gully Road, and on to Barwite Road, finishing on Graves Road. Meet us at Botanic Park from 6pm to cheers on the starters.

Ride High Country Gravel Network launched

Tourism North East has launched their new gravel network throughout north east Victoria. Here’s the launch information and here is a link to the Ride High Country website to check it all out.

Isn’t it funny how Mansfield isn’t mentioned!? It must be due to all those thousands of gravel cyclists coming here threatening our Mansfield way of life. (Can someone please insert a ‘rolling my eyes’ emoji here.)

We just have to be patient…

Busfleet’s shuttle service for bike riders from Mansfield to Mt Buller for the coming Summer started this weekend!

It’s called the Locals Day Out. With a day pass you can get on and off the bus, with your bike, at different points between town and the hill, including Delatite Winery, the Hunt Club in Merrijig and Mirimbah.

And for MMBCC members, Busfleet are offering a discount on the 8am service.

Use this link to their booking portal and put in the code MMBCC when it’s time to pay.

Go to their website for more details. Please note: the discount only applies to the 8am departure from Mansfield. 

Volunteers wanted

The Great Vic Bike Ride is coming to Mansfield for two days later this month. Bicycle Network and the Shire are looking for volunteers to help out…

Finally…

Congratulations to the Chadd boys for some great results at the Rocky Trail Shred & Flow at Haunted Hills on Saturday.

MMBCC News - Sat 26 Oct - Debuts, Comebacks & Kids

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It was another great week of MMBCC racing, starting Tuesday night at Rifle Butts MTB Park…

Women Dominate

By Damian Grundy

Lots and lots and lots of competitors. And an evening dominated by our female competitors.

Congratulations to Miranda Farrall on her first win at her second race! Winners are grinners!

In second place Arial Stava and third was Serena (soon to be) Vivash. Dan Friday snuck into 4th… great to see you back Dan.

5th was Bruce Halket. Bruce was also the fastest on the night knocking off the race at a very respectable 19.6km/h average speed. Congratulations Bruce, without question one of the club’s most dedicated and deserving competitors.

Thanks to our timekeepers on the night Jason Parker and Nicole Hoebergen. Here are the results.

The next XC race night will be the week after Melbourne Cup Day Tuesday November 12th.

And I’ve had an idea! It is a bit of a process preparing for the XC race nights. A course has to be decided upon and then it needs to be mapped on STRAVA to get the distance in order to sort out the handicaps.

So… for the rest of the season, on the Sunday morning before the XC races I will be at Rifle Butts at 9:00am to do this reconnaissance. Please feel free to join me for the ride; have some input into the race lap for the coming race and even the race format. Also learn the lap for the race (a very useful advantage).

Feel free to ask me for some coaching tips. Even if I don’t know, I will always have an opinion 😊. But seriously I am a qualified coach.

I look forward to seeing you there.

The comeback kids

By Bruce Halket

It was a week of comebacks for the Mansfield Mt Buller Cycling Club’s third road race of the season on a clockwise course around the Barwite Loop on Thursday 24 October. But with a stiff southerly blowing, it was also likely to be a night for the back markers.

First away was the Limit group of Craig Wilson, Dave Jagger and the first of our Comeback Kids, Di Condie, off 11 minutes.

A minute later, next to start was Steve Curnow and Adam Baker; another minute later came Janine Appleton, Tim Ross, Jason Parker and winner of the last three races (including the last one of last season, Ian Conrick; at 7.00 was Jarrod Appleton, Adrian Dowd and the second Comeback Kid, David MacDonald of Tolmie. David, from Tolmie, joined the ATC Gravel Expo ride last Sunday and decided on a comeback to road racing 8 years after his last.

Darren Baker and Ryder Chadd were the 4 minute group; then came the 2.30 group of Fletcher Christensen, Bruce Halket, Carl Simmons and James Steward, brother of Seoul Olympian Scott and the third rider on the comeback trail, racing on the road for the first time in 10 years! It’s never too late.

Block saw Ruby Dobson and Talia Appleton start together off 45 seconds, just in front of the lone Scratch rider, recently returned from racing in Belgium, Jake Lay.

The outward leg saw most groups break up. One that stayed together was the 2.30 group of Christensen, Halket, Simmons and Steward who rode strongly with the wind and had caught Bakker and Chadd just after the Long Lane turnaround; Bakker rolled through for a few turns but his ticket expired not long after turning left onto the Barwite Road; Chadd had only booked a passenger’s ticket, so he hung on.

The other group riding well was the 9 minute group of Appleton, Ross, Parker and Conrick. But they were also the only group to be stopped by the traffic marshal at the turnaround, losing them about 30 seconds.

All the while, Jake Lay was stalking. He picked up Talia Appleton and set about hunting down the field.

After the decisive turn onto Old Tolmie Road, the headwind played havoc with riders spread all the way up the Coombesberg. Ross and Parker first dropped Conrick (there was to be no three-in-a-row for him!) then Appleton, picked up all the out markers and looked to have a good lead going over the top.

The 2.30 group picked up Jarrod Appleton over the hill and with Chadd in tow, could see the Lead Car and catch a faint glimpse of the two riders in MMBCC kit up ahead. But it looked like they had enough lead.

At the ford over Ford’s Creek, the Lay train, with Talia Appleton on board, caught them all and the pace lifted again! Suddenly, Ross and Parker were within catching distance.

With just 300 metres to go they were caught as Lay whistled past.

Simmons sprinted for second ahead of Chadd, Halket, Jarrod Appleton, Christensen, Talia Appleton, Steward, Ross and Parker.

Surely, without the traffic stop, Ross and Parker had it won. They was robbed!

Lay was also fastest in a corrected time of 31.56.

Here are the full results.

Many thanks all our wonderful volunteers and marshals, with a particular thanks this week to John Eisner, who made a temporary comeback to Handicapping with great success. And to Tony Copland for his images.

Next week will see more comebacks at the Individual Time Trial on Chapel Hill Road, with the return of club Handicapper, Dave Moore, after a fortnight cycling the Munda Biddi trail in WA.

There was also talk of legendary Australian cyclist Sir Hubert Opperman making a comeback from the dead. But in an administrative mix up, Dr Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, was named instead. It should be a real blast!

TREK Youth MTB program for 12-17 year olds launches in Australia

The National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA) is a US-based youth development organisation dedicated to building strong mind, character and communities through mountain biking.

NICA is for everyone aged 12-17 who wants to give it a go. There's a place for everyone.

Trek is a Lead Partner of NICA, and is supporting their Australian pilot program of "Try-It-Out" and Race events across this summer.

Try-It-Out events start 30 November, and are free to participate. Registration opens start of November.

Visit the NICA Australia website for more information and to sign-up to stay informed.

Finally…

The Specialized gravel demo bikes are still available for the coming week at All Terrain Cycles. Call in and take one for a ride…

MMBCC News - Sun 20 Oct - Demo a gravel bike!

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Dirt Critters gets off to great start

By Tim and Luke

Great to see so many of the Dirt Critters on Tuesday, including several new recruits. We had 8 in the older group and 9 in the younger group, all of whom enjoyed riding the upgraded tracks at Rifle Butts. 

Rifle Butts is riding better than ever now so I hope you can take the opportunity to get your kids using it during the week and not just on Tuesday afternoons.

Dirt Critters follows a rough program designed to expose the kids to some different types of riding; some nights it'll be XC (cross country), some will be more Enduro/ Downhill, and some will be Single Track rides. Next Tuesday we'll be doing some timed XC laps; then just before the Christmas breakup we'll do it again to see how much the kids have improved over the term.

MTB riding doesn't finish after Grade 6, and it has been pleasing to see a number of our ex-Dirt Critters moving up into the open-age ranks (at Rifle Butts Reserve from 6pm each Tuesday).

We do encourage kids to have a go at MTB racing once they are confident on their bikes, through our participation in the Alpine Cycling Club's Junior MTB race series. There are seven races over the summer, and we will post a link to info/entry details prior to each one. We have 12 current or former Dirt Critters travelling to Bright this weekend to compete in the first race; best wishes to Blake, Duke, Ben, Errol, Hunter, Baz, Finley, Alastair, Miles, Angus, Jedd and Scout.

We have plenty of room for extras, so please feel free to spread the word around and invite friends to come along.

Contact dirtcrits@gmail.com or call Luke on 0455 604 785 for more information.

Gravity Enduro Review

By Dave Empey

It was the first Gravity Enduro of the year on Tuesday and following on from the huge turn out for the XC the week before we had 26 riders turn out in near perfect conditions.

The trail work that has been done recently has been a big improvement and made racing a lot more pleasant (if there is such a thing as pleasant racing?).

Racing was tight but Rueben Bateup showed everyone a clean pair of heels and took the win by 10 sec from Ryder Chadd and family bragging rights. In third place we had Ant Bateup with a solid performance. Ant, may I suggest buying Rueben, a 26-inch bike that weighs 30 kgs?

We had a dead heat for fourth in the battle for All Terrain Cycles workshop bragging rights with Archie Smith and Shannon Rademaker not being able to be separated, even on a count back.

Another significant family contest that took place was Ross’, with Tim being outdone by Ben ;although Tim did have quite the dirt nap at the last corner.

The Vivash’s also had a 3-way family battle with Luke coming out on top followed by Sienna and Serena.

It was great to see The Workshop team turn en mass with Stu Clarke, Ronnie and Fred all racing.

It is good to see so many new faces and old faces turning up and enjoying the racing.

We had a full class of female riders last night again; this is very pleasing! Sienna Vivash took the win over Serena Vivash closely followed by Arial Stava.

Here are the results.

Many thanks to Ant Bateup, Damian Grundy and Cameron Dobson for the work they have done in rectifying the trail damage of the past wet years. It’s a great improvement on the past trail conditions.

It was a dark and stormy night…

By Tim Hall

20 riders lined up for the second race of the season, held Thursday 17 October on the Howes Creek Road ‘out and back’ course. Only two late scratchings from the list and, given the inclement weather, that’s fairly good. We’re a hardy bunch at the club! (A note to anyone who scratches late before the race, it’s helpful to the handicapper if you send them a text message as well – thanks.)

We rode between the bands of rain, with a dump before the start, drizzle throughout and a dump afterwards when we were finished and rolling back into town. Everyone stayed upright in the wet, so well done riders.

Micala Jacobs was the lone Limit rider, followed by the pair of Craig Wilson and John Eisner. Tim Hall, Simon Hall and Ian Conrick followed, riding solidly together with Simon cracking the whip to keep the pace up. (Simon) Hall was over from Benalla for his second ride with the club. Hall, Hall and Conrick picked up Eisner and Wilson before the turn around point at the end of the sealed road to make a group of five.

Behind them, Steve Curnow, Jason Parker, Janine Appleton, Adam Baker and Tim Ross started well together, but dropped Curnow and Baker early. Second block consisted of Jarrod Appleton, Adrian Dowd and Rueben Bateup, riding well to stay away from Block with Ryder Chad, Steve Duke, Ant Bateup and Darren Bakker. Nice to see a bit of young blood out on the course with Ryder and Rueben.

Talia Appleton and Andy Garrett rode together from Scratch, Garrett coming over from Euroa to join us for the night. Bit of a mis-match between these two in terms of size, with Garrett probably twice the body weight of Appleton and looking powerful, and yet was heard lamenting afterwards that Appleton was riding away from him even on the downhills. It’s all in the power-to-weight ratio Andy.

Second Block, Block and Scratch all stayed away from each other, so they are all riding well.

Coming back into town, (Simon) Hall and Conrick slowly whittled away at the group. Eisner first to go, then Wilson and then (Tim) Hall.

Conrick took the honours at the line over (Simon) Hall, bearing witness to the benefits of all the gravel-ride training he has been doing. That’s two in a row for Conrick; actually three in a row if you count the last race of last summer.

Ross, Parker and Appleton were storming in behind them (pun intended), but (Tim) Hall couldn’t hold onto Wilson even on the uphills, thoroughly cracked after the effort with (Simon) Hall and Conrick.

Here are the results.

Thanks as always to the marshals and officials, particularly for keeping us safe with the rain and the road traffic. Racing next week is on the Whitfield Road, turning around at Long Lane and finishing on Graves Road. Hopefully it’s a bit drier.

Demo a gravel bike!

Many thanks to all of you that came along to have a look at All Terrain Cycles’ Mansfield Gravel Expo on Saturday. One of the highlights was a chance to go for a demo ride on one of the gravel bikes brought to town by Specialized.

The even better news is the bikes are still here! If you’d like to try one out over the next week or two, call into All Terrain Cycles and have a chat to Shannon, Bruce or Andrew.

Or maybe join the weekly ATC Gravel Ride on Monday at 5.30 and take one for a ride then. We have the Specialized Diverge STR in 52cm, 54cm, 56cm and 58cm available. (Although Bruce already has his name on the 58 for this Monday night’s ride.) We also have the Specialized Crux Expert (lightweight carbon CX bike) in 54cm and 56cm, plus the Specialized Turbo Creo 2 Expert (e-bike) in 54cm, 56cm and 58cm.

Just bring your shoes and pedals.

And finally…

Did you know the club has a WhatsApp feed? It’s a quick and easy way to communicate to other members about all sorts of things, like bikes, rides, riding bikes, races, sunglasses, weather, nuclear non-proliferation treaties and the viability of foam rubber fence posts.

It’s also a valuable source of information on other club members. For instance, did you know that Ian Conrick is only the second MMBCC roadie to win three races in a row? The other MMBCC ‘threepeater’ is local electrician and lapsed cyclist Craig Veneman; but Craig’s were all in one season, which makes them more important. There’s also the fact that Craig barracks for St Kilda whereas Ian follows Geelong, so there you go.

Send Bruce an SMS on 0419 533 120 to get invoived. Especially if you have an idea on how to make these bleedin’ fence posts stay up!

MMBCC News - Sun 13 Oct - And we're rrracing...

Don’t forget…

The MMBCC Annual General Meeting will be held at the Mansfield Hotel at 7pm this Wednesday 16 October.

Please RSVP to Cam Dobson on 0407 971 237 if you’d like to start with dinner from 6pm.

Start with consistency

By Damian Grundy

What a fantastic first night out for the Dirt Crits in the 2024-2025 season.

25 competitors with heaps of first timers and even an International competitor. It was a fun night for me and I hope everyone else had a great time.

One of the many highlights was the five female competitors. Great to see Serena, Nicole, Ariel, Rachael and Miranda. I hope to see you all regularly up there.

There were a number of younger competitors upgrading from Junior Dirt Crits, welcome and good luck for the season. For the 2024-2025 season the club is kicking off new season trophies for the Junior age category riders. There will be prizes for these categories at the end of the season.

The course and Race Site are in great shape after the recent rejuvenation works. We can’t thank Ant Bateup enough for all of his work. THANKS HEAPS ANT! And to those that gave you a hand!

Plus the working bee last weekend has made an amazing change to the Start/Finish Area, a huge lift in appearance and the feel to the place, so also a huge thanks to everyone who helped out with that.

There is still a lot of work that needs to be done so keep your eyes open for the next working bee day.

The racing for the night was our now traditional first week event of a 2 Lap Consistency Test. The winner on the night is the person who can complete 2 timed laps with the least time difference for the comparative times.

Have a look at the results sheets. It was a VERY competitive night. The eventual winner and 1st place getter for the evening was Reuben Bateup. He completed 2 laps in EXACTLY the same elapsed time of 9 min 51 sec. 0 seconds difference. I believe that that is an unbeatable result 😊

In Equal 2nd place were 3 first time Adult Dirt Crit riders all with a miserly 1 second difference, including the 2 highest placed women Serena Moring and Nicole Hoebergen. Also in equal second was Ben Ross. I think Ben deserves a special mention, still an U15 competitor and looking very quick. I predict it won’t be too long before he can show most, if not all of us older folks a clean pair of heels.

Luke Vivash managed a remarkable 3 second difference which on any other night would have potentially been a winning score but this night it was good enough for 5th place only - that’s cruel.

Other special mentions:

• Fastest 2 laps combine on the night – Cam Dobson.

• Fastest 2 lap Female – Serena Moring

• Fastest 1 lapper – Ryder Chadd

Here’s a link to the results.

Thanks everyone for turning out. I look forward to seeing you all for the second XC night in a fortnight’s time.

Busfleet are going to operate a shuttle service for bike riders from Mansfield to Mt Buller for the coming Summer.

It’s called the Locals Day Out. With a day pass you can get on and off the bus, with your bike, at different points between town and the hill, including Delatite Winery, the Hunt Club in Merrijig and Mirimbah.

And for MMBCC members, Busfleet are offering a discount on the 8am service.

Use this link to their booking portal and put in the code MMBCC when it’s time to pay.

Go to their website for more details.

Please note: the discount only applies to the 8am departure from Mansfield. 

Dirt Critters is back this week

By Tim Ross and Luke Vivash

A reminder that Dirt Critters resumes this Tuesday afternoon.  Meet at Rifle Butts Reserve on Tuesday after school – 4pm for Grade 3 and younger, 4:45pm for Grade 4 and older. 

Dirt Critters is for primary-school age kids who like to ride and learn new skills in a fun and social environment. 

Don't forget that a current Auscycling membership is required for all participants, but otherwise no charge.  Potential new riders are most welcome to come along for a look and ask any questions.

It is good to see that some of our older (ie: secondary age) ex-Dirt Critters have moved up to senior Dirt Crits which starts at 6pm on Tuesday afternoons and are giving some of the adults and older kids a run for their money.

The Alpine Cycling Club Junior MTB series kicks off next Saturday (19th October) in Bright.  These are friendly and relaxed events; there is no better place to give racing a go!  We expect a number of Dirt Critters will be entering making this a good chance to ride with friends. Details including entries here. 

For more details please email us.

A perfect start

By Dave Jagger

A perfect evening welcomed the start of the 2024/25 road cycling season.

A warm day, no breeze and a setting sun greeted the riders as they assembled on the Mt Buller road. They were all wondering how they would perform, had they trained enough during the winter, who was fitter. These were all unanswered questions that the riders were thinking about and would only be answered only as they crossed the finish line, 21 km away.

It wasn’t just the riders; the handicapper was also wondering who was in form and who had an easy winter.

First to start were Micala Jacob and Judy Duke. It was Judy’s first race for a few years and it was good to see her back.

Dave Jagger, Dave Bock and Ian Conrick were next to head off keen to keep a gap between them and the next group of Craig Wilson, Simon Hall and Tim Hall.

Jason Parker, Steve Curnow and Janine Appleton only started a minute later, and they had the advantage that they could still see the taillights of the earlier group as they headed out. This was no advantage as a minute was still too much of a gap for them and they never managed to catch them.

The race may have only been 21 km long but just after the start was a short steep climb that can make or break a group of riders. Stay together and the ride back to Mansfield along the Barwite Road would be fast and easy. Split up and it’s a long, slow, trek back by yourself.

Jarrod Appleton was able to join the next group of riders of Ryder Chadd, Steve Duke and Darren Bakker as they caught him but his partner, Adrian Dowd was not able to hang on.

The part to the finish is a 5km rollercoaster ride down into Mansfield. Carl Simmons and Bruce Halket must have thought they still had a chance as they were still in front of the fastest group of Andy Garrett, Shayne Kirby and Talia Appleton.

Out on his own was the fastest rider of the night, Jake Lay but was he quick enough? In a 45-minute race, could he really catch up 18minutes?!

The fist race of the season is always hard to predict as there are so many unanswered questions.

How fast were Jake and Talia after their European races?

How good were the new riders of Shayne Kirby and Carl Simmons?

What had Andy Garrett been doing over the winter?

In the end, the handicapper did a good analysis with all the riders crossing the finish line within a few minutes of each other.

Ian Conrick held onto the lead for most of the race followed by David Jagger, David Bock and Micala Jacobs. Jake Lay came in with the quickest time of 27 minutes, 54 seconds.

Many thanks to all our marshals and officials for keeping us safe and well-organised and to Dave Moore for his handicapping.

Here are the results.

Next week it’s the rolling hills and river flats of Howes Creek Road.

Upcoming Events

Seymour Broadford CC - lots of road races on Saturday afternoons and on Tuesday evenings starting in November. Download the full summer 24/25 calendar here.

Mansfield Gravel Expo - 19-20 Oct - that’s next weekend!

Lake Hume Challenge - Sunday 16 February

MTB National Championships, Mt Buller - 12-18 March 2025

UCI Masters MTB World Championships, Cairns - 14-18 May 2025

MMBCC News - Sun 6 Oct - Thank you & reminders...

Thanks!

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who turned out on Saturday morning for the working bee at Riflebutts. Everyone did a fantastic job and it now looks amazing around the start finish area!

Reminder 1: Dirt Crits

Daylight Saving has started so the first XC Dirt Crits will be this Tuesday 8 October. 6pm start.

And a reminder that an Auscycling membership is required for ALL participants; either a Four Week Free Trial if you’ve not previously been a member, or a Race Off-road or Race All Discipline membership. If you’re an existing member, please make sure your membership is current and active.

For more details on an AusCycling membership go to the MMBCC Join Now page or you go directly to the AusCycling Membership page.

Reminder 2: Dirt Critters

First official night is Tuesday week (second week of term) but we’ll be there this Tuesday 8 October for anyone who wants to come up and say hi.

And a reminder that an Auscycling membership is required for ALL participants; either a Four Week Free Trial if you’ve not previously been a member, or a Race Off-road or Race All Discipline membership.

For more details on an AusCycling membership go to the MMBCC Join Now page or you go directly to the AusCycling Membership page.

Reminder 3: Road Racing

Road racing starts this coming Thursday 10 October; rego from 5.30, racing starts at 6pm.

Entries will open on Entry Boss at 9am tomorrow morning.

And a reminder that an Auscycling membership is required for ALL participants; either a Four Week Free Trial if you’ve not previously been a member, or a Race All Discipline membership.

For more details on an AusCycling membership go to the MMBCC Join Now page or you go directly to the AusCycling Membership page.

Reminder 4: the AGM

The MMBCC AGM will be held at the Mansfield Hotel at 7pm on Wednesday 16 October.

Please RSVP to Cam Dobson on 0407 971 237 if you’d like to start with dinner from 6pm.

Are there any changes you want the club to make? Is there something not being done that you think should be done? Is there something we’re doing you think we shouldn’t?

This is your chance to have your say and get involved! All the Executive Committee positions will be declared vacant and nominations are open to members.

Upcoming Events

ATC Gravel Expo - Sat 19 & Sun 20 Oct

Gravelista - Sun 27 Oct

Vic MTB Championship Series - Nov to Feb

MMBCC News - Wed 2 Oct

The MMBCC Summer of Cycling for 2024/2025 is about to start…

Dirt Crits starts next week!

By Damian Grundy

Yep it's that time again.

Daylight Savings kicks in on Sunday and the first Dirt Crits will be Tuesday 8 October.

The Trail Fairies have been hard at work repairing and renovating some of the trails; so far that’s included much of the XC Loop, Critters and some of Joyride. More will be done in coming weeks!

This Saturday morning I'd love to see as many of you Dirt Crit types as possible at 9am at Rifle Butts MTB Park to do a clean up of the race site. Grass cutting, raking trails, a general tidy up of fallen branches, etc. It might stretch to two hours of your time.

Please wear suitable work clothes:

• Bring a hat;

• Bring gloves; and

• Bring a rake if you have one.

There will be a quantity of smaller, fire-suitable timber that we could remove if you have a trailer and a fire at home needing fuel.

Please SMS Damian on 0411 045 771 if you can be there.

See you ALL there.

Road racing starts next week too.

By Alex Green

We’re all set to start road racing Thursday week, 10 October.

The Commissaires have been busy renewing their qualifications and (almost unbelievably) we already have all our permits!

Here is the duty roster. Please check when you’re rostered on.

Once again, all entries are online through Entry Boss. The duty roster for each race is on the Entry Boss page for that race too. Entries for each Thursday race will open at 9am Monday.

Dirt Critters starts soon too.

By Tim Ross and Luke Vivash

Dirt Critters is for primary-school age kids who like to ride and learn new skills in a fun and social environment.

We meet at Rifle Butts Reserve on Tuesday after school – 4pm for Grade 3 and younger, 4:45pm for Grade 4 and older. 

Secondary school kids are encouraged to move up to senior Dirt Crits which starts at 6pm.

First official night is Tuesday 15th (second week of term) but we’ll be there on Tuesday 8th (next Tuesday) for anyone who wants to come up and say hi.

An Auscycling membership is required for all participants.

For more details, please send us an email,

MMBCC News - Sun 15 Sep

AGM

The MMBCC Annual General Meeting will be held at the Mansfield Hotel at 7pm on Wednesday 16 October.

Please RSVP to Cam Dobson on 0407 971 237 if you’d like to start with dinner from 6pm.

Dirt Crits

MTB racing at Riflebutts MTB Park will start for Adults on Tuesday 8 October at 6pm.

Junior Dirt Critters will likely start a week later on Tuesday 15 October. Time to be confirmed.

Summer Road Racing Series

Road racing will start on Thursday 10 October at 6pm with a lap of the Barwite Loop. The duty roster is available here (keep an eye on it, there might be changes before the first race) and the full calendar and Entry Boss links will be up soon.

ATC Gravel Ride will change to Monday

With Dirt Crits about to start on Tuesday nights, the weekly ATC Gravel Rides will move to Monday nights, starting on Monday 7 October.

Congratulations Elise!

In case you’ve been living under a rock, Elise Empey finished 9th in the Elite Women’s Downhill at the MTB World Championships in Andorra a couple of weeks back.

Here’s a roundup of the Worlds from PinkBike and Elise gets a mention. And here’s a brief interview after qualifying in 2nd place for the Loudenvielle World Cup a week later, where she finished 7th.

Lachy’s Lap of Oz

EF ProCycling’s Lachlan Morton is riding around Australia, raising funds for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation along the way. As of Sunday afternoon he’s almost made it to Western Australia, having covered just over 35% of the total distance. You can see his progress here.

ProVelo Super League

The National Road Series is no more. But next year it’ll be replaced by the ProVelo Super League, running from January to March. And SBS have announced that they’ll broadcast all the races!

Presentation Night

Thanks to everyone who came along to the Mansfield Hotel last night to celebrate a great summer of racing! All the details, including points scores, are below.

Thanks also to all the crew at the Mansfield Hotel. And to the MMBCC Exec for organising the night.

Fun Fact: racing starts again in 8 weeks! Time to dust off the bike, or rather… bikes, and get training!

Summer Road Race Series

The Mayor of Jamieson, Darren ‘The Baron’ Bakker, has finally won the road trophy after being a consistent racer since the formation of the club.

L to R: Dave Jagger, 2nd; Darren Bakker, 1st; Bruce Halket, 3rd.

Women’s Road Trophy

Ruby Dobson added to her trophy collection by earning the most points for the Women’s Road trophy.

L to R: Ruby Dobson, 1st; Micala Jacobs, 2nd.

Dirt Crits

Dave Bock’s consistency has triumphed again! Bocky took the win ahead of a couple of Gravity Young Guns, Reuben Bateup and last year’s winner, Archie Smith.

L to R: Dave Bock, 1st; Reuben Bateup, 2nd.

Alain Guerin Memorial Crossover Trophy

For the first time ever we have a tie! Darren Bakker and Dave Bock will share the Crossover Trophy for the next year!

L to R: Darren Bakker and Dave Bock - joint winners!

MMBCC News - Wed 31 Jul

SUMMER PRESENTATION NIGHT

It’s taken a while for us to get organised but Summer Presentations for the 2023/24 race season will be held at the Mansfield Hotel on Thursday 15 August.

Presentations will start at 7pm. But… please come along for dinner, starting at 6.

The club will shout each member a drink.

Plus… we’ll shout all Junior members DINNER and a drink (In case you’re wondering, that will be a NON-alcoholic drink - Ed.)

If you would like to come for dinner, you need to RSVP with Janine via SMS on 0428 150 800.

MMBCC News - Tue 21 May

“A mountain bike is like your buddy.
A road bike is your lover.”
Sean Coffey.

Jake Lay GoFundMe

For those of you that road race on Thursday nights, you’ll have met Jake Lay. He drives over from Euroa each week to give us a flogging. He did really well in our Tour back in March too!

He’s aiming higher now. He’s been offered a ride with a Belgian U23 team and needs a hand to get himself to Europe. Click here for details.

Wahoo Kickr Core for sale

Ryan Schultz has a direct-drive smart trainer for sale. It’s a bargain!

ATC Gravel Ride

Tonight will be the first All Terrain Cycles Gravel Ride.

Meet Bruce and Wayne at ATC shop at 5.30 pm for an hour long ride. Sausage sizzle and recovery refreshments afterwards; probably.

Vic Schools MTB Series

By Tim Ross

Auscycling are running the Victorian Schools MTB series again this year with details just to hand.

The series consists of four events, one per month from June to September, on a Sunday (except that the last event is a Sat/Sun double-header). It is similar to the Alpine Cycling Club races that a number of our kids participated in over the summer, but all cross country rather than a mixture of cross country and downhill. As with the summer series, kids can do the whole series or just pick and choose dates that work for them.

A large number of Mansfield kids from years 2 to 11 participated in the series last year. Our experience was of a well-organised event that was fun for the kids and prioritises participation, although the competition is keen!

Go to www.auscycling.org.au/page/mountain-bike-schools-stateterritory-series for more details, including dates, venues and the series guide.

Contact me if you have any queries. Hopefully we can get a group of Dirt Critters to take part this year.

MMBCC News - Sun 24 Mar

“Ned Flanders: You were bicycling two abreast?
Homer Simpson: I wish. We were bicycling to a lake.”
The Simpsons, “Dangerous Curves”, Season 20, Episode 5.

Dirt Critters coming to an end

By Tim & Luke

For our final Dirt Critters THIS TUESDAY, we will;

• Meet at Rifle Butts Reserve at 4pm (BOTH the younger and older groups);

• Have a quick ride around some of the trails there;

• Ride down to the Botanic Park via Rifle Butts Road, Monkey Gully Road and Highett Street;

• Have a BBQ tea; and

• Finish up at around 5:45pm (parents to collect their kids from the Botanic Park).

We should have a couple of 'Jigsaw Jumps' at Botanic Park for kids who'd like to have a go.

We need plenty of parent riders to ride with the kids so that they get safely down to Botanic Park. Thanks in advance to our wonderful parent helper riders.

We also need a couple of volunteers (perhaps parents who aren't riding) to head down to Botanic Park and cook a BBQ ready for our arrival. We will organise the food, etc. If you are able to help in this way please let us know via email.

Looking forward to wrapping up a great summer of Dirt Critters. See you on Tuesday!

MTB Nationals at Awaba NSW

By Kate Stonnill

By all accounts it was a technical, “janky” course. I was glad they were all in one piece by the end of the weekend, as were their bikes!

• Elise - 2nd in Elite Women.

• Matt - 24th in Elite Men, made up 15 sec from his seeding run. (That’s him in the black kit.)

• Zac - 30th in Junior Men but changed before I could get photo.

Final Dirt Crits

As has often been the case this season, a storm last Tuesday forced another Dirt Crits cancellation.

Hopefully, this coming Tuesday’s last Dirt Crits for the season, a Gravity Enduro, will go ahead without any weather interruptions.

A perfect Autumn evening

By Dave Bock

Perfect Autumn conditions greeted the sixteen cyclists fronting up for the final Thursday evening race for the MMBCC Summer Road Race Series.

For the bunch of four riders setting off first, as the Limit group, Ian Conrick, Dave Jagger, Dave Bock, and John Eisner, the task was straight forward; head out on the Mansfield-Whitfield Road, turn around at the Sawpit Gully Road intersection, then race back and swing left to the finish line in front of the Mansfield Showgrounds. All this while working together to keep their speed high enough to avoid being overtaken by the chasing riders.

The first trio of chasers, with a time gap of four and a half minutes to close down, were Janine Appleton, Steve Curnow and Craig Wilson.

Tim Ross and Adrian Dowd followed four minutes later. Setting off ten minutes after Limit, the quartet of Steve Duke, Mick Pearce, Carl Simmons and Dave Moore had a minute and half on the Block pair of Damian Grundy and Dave Empey. With a minute to close down to catch Block, in a solo effort, and twelve and half to overtake Limit, Andy Garrett, the one Scratch rider, faced a huge task to have a shot at the win.

After the turnaround, seeing the gaps back to chasing groups, Limit began to think they might be in with a shot.

At the 80km sign coming into town, with not a chase in sight, they dared to dream of a win as they turned left into Battery Road.

They ceased to be a team and became competitors! Ian Conrick took the win ahead of Dave Bock, Dave Jagger and John Eisner.

Over two minutes later, the first of the chasers crossed the line with Carl Simmons taking fifth and fastest time of 42.25. Then came Pearce, Moore, Ross, Dowd and Appleton. Block and Scratch finished in the order they started.

A big thanks to all the volunteer Marshals and Commissaires, particularly the non-racers, who give up their time so others can.

Here are the results and many thanks again to Tony Copland for his pics. Another great season of images - thanks very much for all your snaps Tony!

With Easter/Good Friday holiday traffic expected to be an issue next week, that was the final race of the MMBCC Summer Road Race Series.

Thanks to everyone who helped organise the races, to all those that officiated and all those that competed.

Keep your eyes out for news of the summer series presentations soon. That’s when we’ll find out who won the Summer Road Race Series, the Road Race Women’s Trophy, Dirt Crits and the Alain Guerin Memorial Crossover Trophy.

This weekend’s results…

From the 2024 Gravity Enduro Victorian State Championship and round 3 of the Victorian Enduro Tour.

• Rueben Bateup - 3rd (out of 17) in Under 15 Men.

• Ant Bateup - 9th (out of 30) in Veteran Men - 35 seconds slower than Rueben!

• Archie Smith - 14th (out of 38) in Under 21 Men.

• Adam Baker DNSed after discovering his frame was broken!

Well done all.

Roof racks for sale

This week’s road race winner, the bloke who claims he’s half an inch too tall to be a midget wrestler, has some roof racks for sale.

Finally…

Notification has just come through that the Ridley Fenix scheduled to be ridden on the Tour of Flanders Sportive ride next Saturday won’t arrive in time. It’s been swapped out for a Scott Addict with Ultegra Di2. Forecast is for rain - proper Flanders weather! :)

Upcoming Event…

MMBCC News - Sun 17 Mar

CONGRATULATIONS…

to Elise Empey for her silver medal at the Downhill Nationals in NSW yesterday.

And to Talia Appleton for winning A-grade Women at the Mansfield Hotel Tour p/b Orcoda today, winning all three stages!

Final call…

The Ventou portal for club kit is about to close! Email Bruce for the password, then click this link to go to the Ventou website to order your kit.

So far it’s known there have been speed suits, jerseys, bibs and at least one mountain bike jersey ordered.

Pink defeats Gravity Enduro

Dirt Crits Race Report - Tue 12 Mar

By Damian Grundy

The Empeys chose Pink over mountain biking! What is the world coming to?!

In their absence the Baker Boys (Adam and Finn) stepped up to set and mark two courses for the evening. Cam Dobson and Peter Carman stepped in to help with the starts and finish timing and so the Gravity Enduro night proceeded.

And so the crew rode themselves to the top of Stage 1 and competition was underway.

Ant Bateup and Archie Smith tied in Stage 1 with both finishing on 2 minutes 6 seconds. Adam Baker and Ruben Bateup were then in equal second place on this run with a time of 2.14.

In Run 2, a longer and more pedaling course, Ant Bateup put the pedal to the metal and clocked 3.18, 4 seconds clear of Archie Smith with Ruben Bateup a clear 3rd on 3.25.

All up it was a close result at the front of the field.

Overall Ant Bateup finished with a combined time of 5 minutes 24 seconds, 4 seconds clear of Archie Smith in second place with a combined time of 5.28.

Ruben Bateup was third on 5.39; Finn baker 4th on 5.49; Rylan Fox 5th on 6minutes even.

Special mention to the first woman on the night, Arial Stava with a combined time of 9.54.

Here are the results.

Only two more weeks of Dirt Crits left in the season - see you next week for the final XC night!

Riding bikes and bulls

By Ian Conrick

Writing an article for a Thursday night bike race should be pretty straight forward.

Well… let me tell you the footy is on the TV, Carlton has attacked Richmond and is leading by 10 points,

I’m also thinking Dusty Martin has had a bit more ink put on over the off season and then out of nowhere an ad for Yencken’s Hardware pops up on the screen that reminds me I should get a couple of bags of blood and bone for my garden. Anyway, back to the bones of the race…

Don’t be disturbed or bewildered if you read the term “I think” more than once in this report. Also the expression “those blokes” would refer to the other 20 riders that started in the race. Not to forget “that mongrel“ would be a term referring to the handicapper and not a pair of size 10 work boots from Yencken’s Hardware.

By now the race is well and truely under way l think the course is out the Mansfield -Whitfield road to a Long Lane turn around back to Barwite Rd down to the Old Tolmie Rd; another turn around then retracing Barwite Road and back into town, allowing for the additional turn arounds. I think Strava had me on about 25-40 km by now although I recall not recalibrating my computer.

Look, apart from a bit of a head wind coming back into town nothing was going to stop “The Bull Rider” - yes, young Jake Lay used to follow the rodeo circuit; riding bare back on those powerful half-mad outback bulls. But now that I’ve talked him up, I’ve checked the results and realised he came second!

First and fastest was Stuart Darling, a visitor for the night, who started with Jake and, in my defence, in the green kit they wore, looked like Jake’s twin. Stuart averaged 41.8 km/h over the 26km.

Ian Conrick (half an inch too big to be a midget wrestler) held on for 3rd place.

As usual we thank the volunteers, friends and families for helping out in running our events also to the Brown family and staff from the Mansfield Hotel for their ongoing support to the club and cycling community.

Here are the results and thanks again to the maestro, Tony Copland, for the pics.

Next weeks race will be the last of the Summer Road Race Series, starting again at the Botanic Park, out to Sawpit Gully Road and back, finishing again on Mt Battery Road near the Showgrounds.

MMBCC News - Sat 9 Mar

“Few articles ever used by man have created so great a revolution in social conditions as the bicycle”
US Census Bureau Report, 1900.

Club kit still available.

The Ventou portal for club kit is open for one more week! Email Bruce for the password, then click this link to go to the Ventou website to order your kit.

So far it’s known there have been speed suits, jerseys, bibs and at least one mountain bike jersey ordered.

Only one week to go…

Dirt Critters News

The Vivash family had an incredible experience at Thredbo last week, competing in the Australian MTB Interschools, alongside 1200 other competitors (across all divisions).

Both kids competed in all 4 events - Miles was 15th in Norco All Mountain, 20th in Fox Flow Motion Cup and 12th in the Oakley Cannonball Downhill. Impressive results for a Grade 2 student competing against Grade 3 and 4s.

Sienna, also in Division 5, took out podium finishes in all events - 1st in the Fox Flow Motion cup, and in what was her favourite event, 1st in the Cannonball Downhill beating her competitors by a whopping 1min 45 sec.

They both backed it up with 1st place wins at the Alpine Cycling Club Gravity race in Albury on Saturday.

Go Team Vivash!

the Long Lap Extravaganza

By Damian Grundy

First of all a very special thanks to the trail marking crew! The course used at least 95% of the available trails in the park. The long lap was 6.4km in length and the short lap 2.4km. It’s a demanding course with several very technical and physically demanding sections.

On the night the fast guys were tackling two long laps, the intermediate riders were on one long and one short and the least experienced got to tackle just one long lap.

There was a good turn out of 14 competitors - check out the results here. As usual with the Irish handicaps the start was time staggered.

At the end it was Mr-All-Terrain-Cycles Shannon Rademaker trundling into the finish in first place. Rylan Fox finished second 57 seconds later and David Bock was third 38 seconds after Rylan. The average speeds were down for everyone on the night, a testament to the toughness of the course.

Congratulations to all competitors and a special thanks to Adam Baker for taking care of the timing.

Second in the third last

By Janine Appleton

For the third last race of the season and a week before hosting the three stage Mansfield Hotel Tour, the Cycling Club started at the Nutrien, Buller Road and raced the Barwite Loop in an anticlockwise direction. With five riders from Seymour and most of the regulars attending, the precious points in the local championship would be hotly contested.

Dave Bock was first to roll out with a tail wind, followed by Ian Conrick and myself two and a half minutes later. 

Knowing the next group of Tim Hall, Adrain Dowd, Craig Wilson and Adam Baker were only 90 seconds behind, I was determined to get to the top of Coombes Hill at my pace. Ian was quick to regret the massive ride to Whitfield and back earlier in the week when he encouraged me to leave him on Graves Road.

Adrian Dowd was too strong for his group and caught me a few kilometres onto Barwite Road, where the head wind was causing all the riders to go into a higher level of hurt. The three, first-time Mansfield event riders of Ryan Schultz, Ian Baker and Bret Bender were caught by Darren Bakker, Steve Duke, Mick Pearce and Dave Moore and the Mansfield crew took no hangers on. 

It wasn't until 1.5 km to go on Mansfield Whitfield Road, near Dead Horse Lane, that the now combined group of Jake Lay, Talia Appleton, Bruce Halket, Chris Miller, James Hender and Michael Thomson thought they had a chance at a place. It was a tight squeeze around the corner into Mt Battery road, where full gas was applied for the uphill finish.  

Adrian Dowd was able to pull away easily from my poor, sprint-finish legs. The handicapper was applauded tonight as 3rd place, Michael Thompson was only another 8 seconds behind me, with a mixed group of 9 riders finishing in the next 30 seconds, with Jake Lay taking out fastest time. 

Thanks to the Mansfield Hotel for the appetisers for everyone and their weekly special $25 prize - going to Jenni Sparnon this week for making herself available to marshal, at very short notice, despite never participating in races.

Here are the detailed results and many thanks again to Tony Copland for his images.

Just a reminder to all vehicles on the road on this coming weekend - we have a few hundred competitors visiting for the Mansfield Tour, with Stage one on Saturday morning around Stoneleigh road and Merinda Way,

Stage two on Saturday afternoon on Mansfield Whitfield Road, Barwite road and Old Tolmie road; and Stage 3 on Sunday morning on Mt Buller road finishing at the top of Mt Buller. Please be patient with all the cyclists and official cars over the weekend. We would like to continue to receive the wonderful feedback we always get - a safe, well-organised event run by super friendly, community volunteers.

prize revealed

Exciting news! A new prize will be awarded to the winners of each of the Summer-long competitions run by the MMBCC; both the Summer Road Race Series and Dirt Crits.

With many thanks to an anonymous benefactor, the winner of each series will now receive a new Giro time trial helmet, just like that one in the images below.*

Second place gets two helmets!

*Possibly not. This should really have been published on the first of April.

MMBCC News - Sun 3 Mar

“Training is like fighting with a gorilla.
You don’t stop when you’re tired.
You stop when the gorilla is tired.”
Greg Henderson

Club kit is GO!

The Ventou portal for club kit is now open! Email Bruce for the password, then click this link to go to the Ventou website to order your kit.

We’ll use All Terrain Cycles as the address (somewhere central in town where you can collect it). Or you can pay a bit extra and have it sent straight to your address.

A BIG week for Dirt Critters

By Tim Ross

Dirt Critters enjoyed a Gravity Enduro night at Rifle Butts Reserve last Tuesday. Course setter Luke Vivash sent the younger kids down the Critters course, with Dayna clocking the fastest time. He then set the older kids a course from the very top of the hill. Not sure what tracks they used but there were some astonishingly quick descents over the two passes, with Blake just pipping Micah for fastest time with Cooper, Miles and Jarrah hot on his heels.

A large group of kids from Mansfield Steiner School participated in the Falls Creek MTB inter-schools on Friday. This is a well-organised and fun event on a great XC course. Cheered on by enthusiastic parents, all the kids gave 100% and enjoyed their races.

Podiums to Ruby Rademaker, Rueben Bateup, Keeva Morris-Webb and Edwin Morphett.

Coming up is the next race in the Alpine Cycling Club’s Junior MTB series. This time it’s at Albury’s Nail Can Hill track and takes the form of a Gravity Enduro next Saturday 9 March. As we’ve noted before, this series is well-organised and participation focused. And inexpensive, with just $10 entry.

Dirt Crits Gravity… finally!

By Kate Stonnill

Senior Dirt Crits finally had another Gravity Enduro night on the 27th after the last one had to be cancelled due to weather.

Zac Empey designed a new course, with a new starting point. He said the top section was quite technical but otherwise was a very fast track. All riders rode the downhill track twice, and interestingly the older the rider the bigger the improvement on the second run down.

It was great to see the return of some of the younger riders. With 18 riders in total the more technical track definitely seemed to favour the more experienced downhillers. The timed descents were added together for one total time.

Sadly Will Anderson took a wrong turn at the top of the first run and designed his own adventure.

Adam Baker and Luke Vivash came in 6th and 7th respectively. The Podium was then followed with Rueben Bateup in 5th (3:25), Zac Empey 4th (3:24), Archie Smith 3rd (3:17), Shannon Rademaker 2nd (3:16) and the top step being easily won by Ant Bateup in 1st with a time of 3min :11sec.

Ariel Baker again flying the banner for female mountain bikers.

The usual contest between Dave Bock and Steve Curnow continued again this week, with Bocky edging in front for the first time. Steve was possibly still recovering from his win at the Otway Odyssey on the weekend. Well done Steve.

A cool change, new course, some new faces, a couple of returning ones, plus old dogs with no tricks.

By David Bock

A drop in temperature to a pleasant 26*C, in the hour before Thursday’s race, was welcomed by the twenty two competitors gathered beside the cemetery, preparing to race. The 23 km course, consisting of two and a bit laps of the Stoneleigh Road - Merinda Way - Monkey Gully Road circuit, hadn`t been used for the Mansfield Mt Buller Cycling Club`s Thursday evening racing before, so was something of an unknown quantity, particularly for the Handicapper. A slight wind also added to the uncertainty.

Two Dave`s, Dave Jagger, and Dave Bock, were the first to set off, as the Limit group, for the faster riders to try to chase down.

The next pair off consisted of Janine Appleton, racing after a bit of a hiatus, and Ethan Nealon, racing with the Club for the first time.

The following group splintered early, losing first Craig Wilson, then Steve Curnow. After dropping Adam Baker, Adrian Dowd and Ryan Schultz were able to work together for a while, before Ryan proved too strong and pulled away, so they all continued on solo.

Working more effectively as a group were Darren Bakker, Steve Duke, Mick Pearce, Carl Simmons, and Dave Moore, in his first race for a year or so.

The fastest competitors set off as two groups of four, the Block group of Bruce Halket, Dave Empey, Chris McKnight, and Chris Miller, having a two and a half minute head start over the Scratch bunch of Jake Lay, Talia Appleton, Dan Purcell, and Andy Garrett.

On the uphill run to the finish line, still clear of the chase, Dave Jagger opened up a ten second gap on Bocky, to take the win, not far ahead of a bunch sprint of seven, charging for third place. Ethan Nealon claimed that prize, ahead of Darren Bakker, Carl Simmons, Mick Pearce, Steve Duke, Adrian Dowd, and Ryan Schultz.

Just over thirty seconds later, Dave Moore crossed, to round out the top ten, five seconds in front of Dan Purcell, who claimed fastest time, crossing with Jake Lay.

Many thanks to the Commissaire, Allan Gerrans, and all the other officials and to Tony Copland for his images, below.

Here are the results.

Next week it’s the Barwite Loop.

With only three race left, the top ten of the current point score for the Summer Road Race Series sees Darren Bakker leading on 105 points ahead of this week’s winner, Dave Jagger on 81. They’re followed by Ruby Dobson on 78, Bruce Halket - 76, Jake Lay - 67, Andy Garrett - 65, Mick Pearce - 63, Tim Ross - 61, then Steve Curnow and Adrian Dowd on 59.

MMBCC News - Sun 25 Feb

“I thought of that while riding my bicycle.”
Albert Einstein (on the Theory of Relativity)

Club kit

We’ve had some enquiries regarding club kit.

If enough members are interested, we can get Ventou to open the online portal for you to order.

And don’t forget, Ventou have added a long-sleeve mountain bike jersey to the offerings.

Email Bruce if you’re interested.

Dirt Critters

By Tim Ross

Last week, Dirt Critters rode the single track along Rifle Butts Road, to the lookout and back. Despite pretty warm conditions all the kids seemed to have plenty of energy. 

Next Tuesday, we’ll be doing an Enduro course at Rifle Butts Reserve. 

Coming up next Friday is the Vic Inter-Schools MTB Race at Falls Creek with a big contingent of Mansfield kids attending, many of them current or former Dirt Critters. Best wishes to them all.

Sealed Irish Handicap 20 Feb

By Damian Grundy

Another great week of fun dirt racing!

A warm welcome to another first timer Lachlan Storer.

For a twist everyone started together for this race with handicap time corrections being applied to the completed times at the end of the race. The course was longer at 2.37km per lap than the previous XC night and lap numbers were similar so a longer race was the challenge for the riders. Three lappers were to race 7.1km and the fast people at six laps had 11.85km ahead.

Luckily it wasn’t too hot, though definitely on the warm side.

A field of 14 riders greeted the starters yell of “GO!”

Ruby Dobson was in attendance and so there was a very fast bunny to chase. Ruby led up the first climb and despite a small mechanical issue towards the end of the first lap, and a wrong turn at the start of the second, was untroubled to finish as the fastest on-course completing six laps in 43min 18sec at an average speed of 19.7km/h.

The first rider to complete their allotted number of laps was Ariel Stava completing her 3 laps in 31min 32sec.

And so the riders continued to finish and the “sealed Envelope Of Handicap Time Corrections” was opened and times duly corrected.

Once all the riders had completed their allotted laps and calculations were completed, the night’s winner with a strong ride was Steve Curnow with a corrected time of 41min 17sec. This was a promising sign as Steve is travelling to Forrest this weekend to compete at the Otway Odyssey. GOOD LUCK Steve!!

In the minor placings we had Ariel Stava in her second race this season finishing 2nd. Cam Dobson in 3rd, Luke Vivash in 4th and Adam Baker 5th.

Full results have been posted here.

Congratulations to all competitors and we hope to see you all in two weeks for the Long, Long Lap of Riflebutts Dirt Crits extravaganza. The usual prize money has generously been quadrupled for this race so don’t miss out!

Baker Takes The Cake

By Ian ‘Stream of Consciousness’ Conrick.

Any cyclist considering a casual ride would wander outside to feel the wind, look to the sky and say, “It’s on tonight!”

Yes! Thursday night Mansfield Mt Buller Cycling Club racing out on the Mansfield-Whitfield Road with the turn around point at Long Lane finishing on Graves Road; a distance of 22km with 13 riders on the start list for the handicap race.

It means that you can be graded with fellow contestants; that could be a school teacher, a security officer, a sign writer or a poor, old, Aussie battler who’s had Vegemite soup for lunch. But we all have the same goal - to grab the moment; to say to ourselves “I’ve had a 30 minute nana nap this afternoon” or “I’ve had a handful of nuts and a mini chocolate bar” and call on your group and say “Let’s have a crack at winning this race!”

They might reply “Mate, I’m cooked, done. You go.”

Or you’re thinking about going around to your mother-in-law’s for a warm cup of tea.

By now those other blokes have got the jump on you and then you’re further delayed as a you’re stopped to give way to a vehicle.

That’s fine; as the wind has swung around onto my back and I’m flying to the finish line. My legs are burning and the lungs screaming for a rest but what a great nights’ racing!

Congratulations to the winner, Adam Baker, followed by Ian Conrick and Adrian Dowd. Fastest time went to Bruce Halket, which must have been a clerical error.

With fellow riders and their families we enjoyed a meal at the Mansfield Hotel, thanking the Brown family for their ongoing support of the MMBCC.

To the volunteers, as always, many thanks for your help. Also to Tony Copland, our photographer, the person behind the snaps and shots. Here are the results.

As always we welcome visitors, families and the like to have a ride or race with the club look at www.mmbcc.org.au for further details.

Next weeks race is a new event; the circuit is the Owens Creek Road / Merinda Way Loop, two and a half anti-clockwise laps starting at the cemetery, probably for a good reason.

Otway Odyssey Results

Congratulations to Ruby Dobson who was 6th in the highly competitive 100km Elite Women yesterday.

And… to Steve Curnow and Lise Andreasen who both WON their category in the 30km race today. Again!

Mt Baw Baw VDHS Results

U15 Men - Rueben Bateup, 5th (5 seconds faster than Dad); Keegan Carman, 20th (out of 32).

U17 Men - Spencer Carman, 25th (of 30).

Masters Men - Ant Bateup, 6th (of 19).

Elite Men - Matt Empey, 2nd (by just 0.21 of a second!)

Well done guys!

Finally…

Kudos to the RMB for clearing an absolutely massive tree from the Australian Alpine Epic. It was so big it was hard to clamber over - so getting this big boy out of the way will make a big difference. Many thanks to Dave McCoombe and the crew.

MMBCC News - Sat 17 Feb

“One of the most important days of my life was when I learned to ride a bicycle.”
Michael Palin

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Dirt Crits got ripped off

… by the weather again. But this coming Tuesday’s XC round will make up for the disappointment!

Bakker Plumbing Handicap 2024

By Dario Cippolini Gazzeta

Perfect conditions greeted Mansfield Mt Buller Cycling Club riders and volunteers at the start of one of the club’s marquee races of the season in beautiful Jamieson.

There was one late scratching with Campag Wilson suffering a broken spoke. And almost another but out marker David Jagger just made the start in time after fulfilling his fire fighting duties.

Jagger was the first to start by himself and had the job of trying to hold off the next 15 riders. Next off was a solid group of four, Adam Baker, Steve Curnow, Adrian Dowd and home town boy Allan Gerrans.

They were followed by a very capable quartet of Damian Grundy, Steve Duke, Michael Pearce and Darren Bakker.

Next to go was the biggest group of the night and probably the favourites for the win; Smokey Garrett, Ruby Dobson, Chris Miller, Bruce ‘Lead Out’ Halket and club President David Empey for his first race for the season.

They were being chased by the Scratch duo of Jake Lay and Talia Appleton.

The Jamieson course is beautifully scenic but also very fast; so most riders were chewing on the handlebars on the way to the turnaround at Ten Mile and there wasn’t time for sightseeing;

It’s also a unique course due to all the bends in the road, so you can’t really see if you’re gaining on the next group until the turnaround. After the turnaround all the groups were coming together, so they could look at each other’s progress.

The Block group of five were down to three just before the turn with Empey blowing up after some mega pulls on the front and Millar puncturing. Scratch were making progress but had the job ahead of them if they wanted to feature in the finish.

Meanwhile the smooth movers Duke, Pearce, Bakker, and the big engine Grundy, were collecting all the front markers, thinking they were a real chance not to get caught.

It wasn’t to be as they were caught by the rampaging remnants of Block about 1.5km from the finish. It was set to be a cracking finish with 7 riders vying for the win.

With 600m to go Halket and Dobson were keeping the pace high to stop any attacks. Duke started making a move on the outside.

Then with 300m to go Halket attacked, Smokey Garret was straight on to his wheel and blasted past him with Bakker trying to get into the slipstream.

There was no power outage in the sprint as Andy (Watt Bomb) Garrett hit 1100 watts, smoking the field to win by a big margin. Bakker came in 2nd, Ruby 3rd, Halket 4th and Grundy 5th. All the others riders came not long after, a sign of good handicapping. Good Job Dave.

Jake Lay from the Scratch group rode the fastest time of 60:10; only 9 seconds faster than the winner Andy Garrett. “If I’d known it was that close I would have tried!” Andy exclaimed over a recovery ale. Here are the results. Thanks to Tony for the racing shots, Bruce and Cameron for the presentation pics.

Big thank you to all the Marshals, Commissaires and helpers and a special thank you to the Court House Hotel for their efforts after a trying week.

Good luck to MMBCC members competing…

this weekend at the Cannonball at Thredbo.

And next weekend at the Otway Odyssey in Forrest.

MMBCC News - Sun 11 Feb

“Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime. Teach a man to cycle and he will realise fishing is stupid and boring.”
Desmond Tutu

Dirt Crits Irish Handicap

By Damian Grundy

After the enjoyable first ride night on January 23rd, it was back to the serious business of racing for the first XC race night of Dirt Crits in 2024.

Using a very slightly modified course from the last race of 2023, a determined Baker’s Dozen of riders lined up for the start. The race format was the usual “Irish” Handicap. “How does an Irish Handicap work?” I hear you ask.

Here is an attempted explanation: With riders of all levels of ability and fitness the objective is to have a single race in which all riders have a chance to win. The handicapping takes into consideration each rider’s level of fitness and adjusts their number of laps to best suit their endurance abilities coupled with their predicted race speed based on previous performances. This permits the handicapper to give individual numbers of laps and individual start times with the objective that everyone approaches the finish at roughly the same time. The point is that we all have a chance, and the objective is FUN and FITNESS.

The course for this week was relatively short at 1.45km in length, nothing particularly steep or long in the climbing department and a generally fastish sort of layout.

Darren Bakker was the first out of the start with 6 laps ahead of him. Luke Vivash was the final starter 6 minutes later with 3 laps to complete.

It was great to see Ariel Stava and Shannon Rademaker making their first race for the 2023/2024 season. Welcome back and hope to see you regularly for the rest of the season.

Given that your reporter was in the thick of the action himself it isn’t possible to say much about how the race progressed however at the end It was Adam Baker who prevailed for the win after crossing the line in second place. Archie Smith crossed the line first but had to admit that he possibly misinterpreted the course and went the wrong way and has generously disqualified himself from the results.

On this I will say that I do recommend arriving a little earlier and doing a course reconnaissance for familiarisation and a warmup. The courses are usually well marked out by 5.30pm and usually short enough that a lap for warm up is more than achievable.

Luke Vivash, returning from a broken wrist, finished a creditable 2nd, 40 seconds behind Adam.

Yours truly finished a further 30 seconds back from Luke in 3rd, Dan Hall was 4th and Darren Bakker 5th.

Ariel Stava was first female.

Congratulations to all competitors. And I am eternally grateful to Kate Stonnill and Cam Dobson for managing the timing and the pics. Thanks!

Use this link to go to the full results.

Perfect conditions for a road race

By Jake Lay

Thursday night’s twilight road handicap attracted a field of 16. The race was held on course 9 over 22km and featured the dreaded Coombesberg climb.

Conditions were ideal for racing, with little wind. The only setback was recently completed (30 minutes before race start) roadworks on the Barwite Road. Some of the riders were nervous about getting fresh asphalt on their bikes (Andy). For rider safety, the road works was declared a neutral race zone.

A big MMBCC welcome back to Adam Baker for his first road race in a long, long time!

First off was Dave Jagger followed by four strong groups of three with Andrew Garrett and Bruce Halket off second Scratch with Jake Lay solo a minute behind. A total of 12:30 was all that separated the field.

Tony Copland was nominated Chief Commissaire for the night, as well as conducting his usual MMBCC pro tour photos of the field.

Jake had caught Andy & Bruce before the turnaround and the three worked well until the climb where Jake released the afterburners as the whole race was strung out up the Coombesberg.

After the descent he started reeling in each rider over the last few kilometres, except one. Congratulations Tim Hall on a nice solo victory.

Thank you to all volunteers, lead & follow cars, officials, Dave Moore the Handicapper and The Mansfield Hotel.

Here are Tony’s pics and here’s a link to the results.

Next week it’s back to Jamieson for one of the highlight races of the MMBCC season, the Bakker Plumbing Handicap. It’ll be followed by dinner and presentations at the Courthouse Hotel.

Dirt Critters is back!

By Tim and Luke

Great to have Dirt Critters up and going for the new term, with many of the old faces and some new ones. Nice to do a few laps of Rifle Butts to re-familiarise ourselves with the trails.

Next week (Tuesday 13th Feb) we'll meet at Rifle Butts, and then ride the single track alongside Rifle Butts Road to the lookout and back.  As usual the times are;

4:00pm     Grade 3 and below

4:45pm     Grades 4 - 6 (and we welcome any of last year's Grade 6 ers who aren't quite ready for senior Dirt Crits)

Weather is expected to be fairly hot, so sunscreen is the go, and don't forget to bring your water-bottle.

Dirt Critters is open to all Primary School children, with the aim for kids to enjoy riding and to learn new skills.  Parents are most welcome to come and watch or to help out.

A reminder that all riders must have an AusCycling membership.

Click here to go to the Join Now page and follow the steps to get your AusCycling licence (Race Off-Road is the one you want). An AusCycling membership is valid for 12 months and costs $81 for 7yo and under; $109 for 8 to 12yo. 

For those who haven’t previously had a membership, a free, four-week ‘come and try’ membership is available.  

Those who've had a previous membership please make sure it's current (Auscycling will send an email prompt).

Racing 

A big contingent of Mansfield kids headed to Beechworth on Saturday to contest Round 4 of the Alpine Cycling Club’s Junior MTB Series. The series comprises six rounds at a range of venues in NE Victoria, with a mixture of XCO and Downhill events.

Twelve Mansfield riders ranging from U9 to U13 took part. Podiums for Sienna (U9 girls) and Ben (U13 boys). Most of the group retired to Bilson’s Brewery for lunch afterwards to celebrate.

The series is well organised, and is a fun and low stress chance for kids to get into racing, with a focus on participation. Email if you'd like more details or call Luke on 0455 604 785 for more information.

See you next week!

MMBCC News - Sun 4 Feb

“Bicycling is a big part of the future. It has to be. There’s something wrong with a society that drives a car to workout in a gym.”
Bill Nye

A warm night of Gravity Dirts Crits

One race course, raced twice, fastest combined timed wins.

1 Archie
2 Elijah
3 Charlie
4 Zac
5 Luke

Great riding from all and thank you to our wonderful club volunteers for organising. Here are the detailed results. See you next week for XC race edition.

Many thanks to Shannon Rademaker for the pics.

Who knew John could sprint?!

By David Jagger

Thursday 1 February saw a perfect summer evening for a bike race, 25 degrees, clear skies and a south-westerly wind. The Howes Creek Road course is a good mix of flat sections and rolling hills; a variation that will suit most riders for some part of the course.

Like most of the club’s road races, this was a handicap race. The slower riders were sent off first and the fastest about fifteen minutes later with the aim that they all cross the finish line at about the same time.
Tony Morris, the statesman of the club was the first to set off. The head wind was quite strong at the start, so he wisely waited for the next riders (John Eisner and David Jagger) to catch him and provide support. Dave Bock joined the group and added valuable strength heading into the wind.

Tim Hall and Ian Conrick were the next group but were caught near the Preston Wool Shed by Craig Wilson, Adrian Dowd and Steve Curnow. This group of five steamed their way to the turnaround at Cummins Road and looked invincible.

Steve Duke, Darren Bakker, Damian Grundy and Tim Ross powered out of the start and set a cracking pace. This proved a little too fast for Tim who was dropped by his group a little earlier than he would have liked.

Andrew Garrett, Ruby Dobson and Chris Miller were making the headwind seem like a gentle breeze as they powered along to the turnaround. From there they seemed that they were sprinting on the way back, now with the wind on their backs.

Fresh from the Tour Down Under and the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, Talia Appleton was the last to start a further minute back.

The rolling hills took a toll on a few riders and were dropped from their groups, riding solo back to the finish. In the cruel outcome of many handicap races, Andrew, Ruby and Chris overtook many riders in the last few hundred metres.

Meanwhile, the first group of riders managed to just stay ahead, John winning with a short sprint over David. Chris caught Dave Bock on the last hill to finish third.

Chris had the fastest time of the race, but credit must be given to a lone powerhouse: Talia Appleton. She set a blistering pace right from the start, with 25km appearing like a warmup for this amazing girl. She finished the race only 90 seconds slower than Chris who had the assistance of his group for whole race. And Talia was the only one who had to be stopped by a marshal at an intersection due to an oncoming car!

Here are the results and many thanks to Tony Copland for the pics, below.

Thanks to all the helpers on the night to make the race possible. Their sacrifice enabled the race to run. The Mansfield Hotel award went to Dave Empey who is always around to support the MMBCC.

Next week we’re racing on the Whitfield Road, going around the ‘Barwite Loop’ and finishing on Graves Road.