When you've finally stopped puffing on your inhaler, here's this week's update:
- Final stage of the Tour de Dirt;
- Thursday's last road race of 2017; and
- Reminder about when we need you in 2018.
Tour de Dirt
Monday saw the third and final stage of the Tour de Dirt with an Irish Handicap.
Talia Appleton took the Women's event overall after taking out stage 3. She was joined on the podium by Elise Empey and Bella Green.
The Men's overall was won by Dan Friday who proved the most consistent over the three stages. Bruce Halket was second ahead of Damian Grundy and Tom Macmunn to tied for third.
Here are the results.
The Delatite Dash on Monday is the last night of Dirt Crits for 2017. After racing we'll 'reconvene' at the Hunt Club in Merrijig for dinner.
Jamieson handicap
The final race before the summer break for the Mansfield Mt Buller Cycling Club was held last Thursday on the picturesque road between Jamieson and Sailor Bills Creek.
Deb Salatenna was first off followed by Courtney Lynch and after a few minutes the dynamic duo of Di Condie and Craig Wilson.
Steve Curnow, Ian Conrick, Will Grundy, Dave Jagger and John Eisner were up next followed by Chris Taylor, Tim Hall, Mel Green and Belinda Cipa.
Dave Moore, Damian Grundy, Andrew Stephenson, Steve Duke and Luke Olver made up the next group while Aaron Peterson, Darren Bakker and Anthony Plummer followed one minute later.
Bruce Halket, Jock Brega and Ross Hopkins made up the Block group and with recent success, Dan Purcell, Kian Lerch-Mackinnon and Rob Curtis were set a challenging four and a half minute gap at the pointy end off Scratch.
Will and Di worked well and managed to hold off the smooth tuning Jagger bunch until just after the turnaround. On the fast return trip, Will Grundy made three impressive moves off the front of the bunch but was reeled in on each occasion.
In a very rare event, Scratch didn’t catch Block. Even though they rode the fastest time, Dan Purcell in a blistering 41.15, they didn’t feature in the top ten for the first time in ages!
With four hundred meters to go, most of the groups merged with Anthony dropping off having done a big effort with his group.
Just up ahead, Lynch put in one final effort to hang in for a good win. Will Grundy made a fourth and final break and was rewarded by a solid second place. With years of tactical experience, Bruce outmanoeuvred the bunch to come in third, closely followed by eleven others.
Presentations (and a few very enjoyable few drinks with pizza) were held after at The Wrong Side brewery who sponsored the night. If you haven't been to The Wrong Side, you should. It's terrific!
Thanks to our team of marshals, to the crew at The Wrong Side brewery and to the Delatite Hotel for supporting the club this season.
Here are the results.
Volunteers wanted
Please don't forget that there are three huge events coming up and we need your help with them. Here are the details of the events... the VDHS round on Mt Buller in January, the Bike Buller MTB Fest in early March and the Mansfield Tour in mid-March.