Dirt Crits, Riflebutts Reserve, Monday 5 October
Welcome one and all to the first race of this new season of MMBCC Dirt Crit mountain bike races.
And might I say “What a sizzler for a mid-Spring race!”
Great to see friends and competitors after the winter break all ready and eager to go for the new season. A good number of familiar faces and some new faces fronted up at Riflebutts Reserve Mountain Bike Park on Monday night for the first of the seasons' races.
The race format was a little experimental with two shorter races in order to help us gauge form and fitness.
A mass start for two regular laps was the first effort with Ethan Lee first over the line followed closely by Matthew Empey and Bruce Halket in 3rd. Time gaps were a miserly one sec between 1st and 2nd and then a mere three seconds to 3rd. 4th David Bock, 5th Mike Davies, 6th Peter Coffey, 7th Brett Stevens, 8th Jem Davies, 9th Rachael Grundy (1st Female), 10th Will MacDonald, 11th David Jagger, 12th Adam Baker, 13th Trevor Arnold, 14th William Grundy (1st Official Sandbagger), 15th Ollie MacDonald, 16th Matthew Currie.
The second race was then a handicap for 2 laps simply reversing the order of finishing from the first event and using the finishing time gaps as the start gaps also in reverse.
At the finish of the final 2 laps it was Will Grundy, having obviously shaken off the sand from his first 2 laps. as the clear winner. Bruce Halket demonstrating the benefit of regular winter ergo sessions came through the field for a very commendable 2nd and David Jagger a strong 3rd. Rachael Grundy 12th overall completed the family sweep with a dominant performance in small but strong women’s field J as the first woman.
4th Mike Davies, 5th Jem Davies, 6th Matthew Empey, 7th Ethan Lee, 8th Brett Stevens, 9th Will MacDonald, 10th Peter Coffey, 11th David Bock, 12th Rachael Grundy, 13th Adam Baker, 14th Trevor Arnold, 15th Ollie MacDonald, DNF Matthew Currie.
Looking forward to next week’s race already. Grab your mountain bike and come out for some fun.
Graded Scratch Race, Whitfield Road, Thursday 8 October.
October brings lots of changes to Mansfield: warmer weather, daylight saving and Mansfield Mt Buller Cycling Club racing starts again!
Road racing kicked off on Thursday 8 October with a Graded Scratch race to welcome the legs back to competitive riding. 24 roadies woke from hibernation to turn the legs over.
One of the highlights of the night was the high number of familiar faces making a welcome return to racing after a hiatus; welcome back to Deb Sala Tenna, Louise Hopwood, David Jagger, Rob Skinner and Geoff Jones.
Another highlight was the new faces having a go at racing for the first time: a very warm MMBCC welcome to Cherie Worthington and Lucy Clapham. It was great to see so many ladies racing and having a go!
Five A-graders headed out first with Josh Hopwood being first back on his lonesome; he’d ‘simply’ ridden everyone else off his wheel. Mind you, a little mechanical incident between Mauro Brega and Darren Bakker helped his cause; while both bikes were nobbled, only the riders’ pride was hurt.
Despite being dropped before halfway, Tom Macmunn fought back strongly to finished second ahead of Brega.
The biggest field of the night saw 10 B-graders start in a leisurely, even sedate fashion. (11 were entered but Jason Parker was a DNS when he succumbed to the old electronic-gears-with-a-flat-battery trick.) The tempo increased after the turnaround when Dave Moore and Rob Skinner went clear. David Bock, John Eisner and Allan Gerrans worked hard to bridge across; but when Dave and Rob surged again at the Barwite Road, only John had enough in the tank to stay with them.
At the finish, Rob proved too strong ahead of Dave and John.
C-grade saw an orderly outward leg, with Di Condie giving some tips on race craft and bunch etiquette.
Will Grundy was prominent, covering all the important moves and conserving energy where possible. His strategy proved successful; he got away from the bunch with Louise Hopwood and won the sprint to take his second win in four days (on his other new bike!) Great result from Worthington coming in for third place in her first race.
Many thanks to our volunteer officials for the evening: Leonie, Julie, Jenni, Tony, Ian and Jarrod. (And a reminder to all potential road racers that a BRIGHT, constant beam tail light is compulsory for all road races!) Next week’s second road race of the season is another Graded Scratch Race, this time on the Mt Buller Road, starting at Rodwell’s at 6pm. Entries via SMS to 0428 503 437 by 8pm Wednesday.
More results here.