Lots to get through this week:
- Club kit orders;
- Monday's Dirt Crits;
- Sunday's Road Race;
- Thursday's Road Race;
- Some upcoming events; and
- a mystery.
Last day for club kit
Today (Wednesday 8 February) is the last day the My Team Shop on the Seight website will be open for MMBCC members to buy club kit. Click here to have a look at what's available and remember that MTB trail jerseys have been reduced in price (they start at just $55 for really good quality cycling gear.)
Email Bruce to get the password you need.
Back on the Dirt for 2017
Damian Grundy
Monday evening Feb 6th saw the second official night of racing but the first actual event for 2017 at Riflebutts Reserve.
It has been a start to the year of widely fluctuating weather. Last week's racing was cancelled due to the Total Fire Ban and this week at the opposite end of the spectrum many can be forgiven for thinking that the day's rain would be cause for a washout.
However wet it was the trails were in perfect condition and racing did proceed with a hardy group of 6 riders lining up.
In the end Dan Friday (the older) was victorious ahead of Bruce Halket in 2nd and visiting Geelong mountain biker Marty Keir in 3rd, James Griffen 4th, David Bock 5th and Mike Davies 6th. Here are the results.
Well done to everyone and here's hoping for more temperate weather and a big turn out for next week.
Remember kid's racing kicks off at 4 and adults at 5.45.
Sunday Hillclimb Race 1
Bruce Halket
Sunday saw the first of the Summer Sunday Series, a 3-race handicap hill climb series.
A wet Sunday morning greeted 15 entrants for the 10km climb along Whitfield Road from Sawpit Gully Road up to Spring Creek Road. But thankfully the worst of the rain had passed by the time racing started at 9.
Mel Green took a narrow win (and bragging rights at home) from Janine Appleton with hubby Alex Green just a bit further back in third. Fourth was Luke Olver just ahead of the fast finishing Rob Curtis in his first race with the club.
Fastest time went to Josh Hopwood off Scratch in a time of 24.44.
Here are the results.
The next Sunday race is in a fortnight, Sunday 19 February, from Jamieson to Bald Hill Gap (home ground advantage for Darren Bakker... but no pressure!)
Women Making Their Mark In Mansfield Cycling
Tony Williams
Thursday night’s race for the Mansfield Mt Buller Cycling Club had a strong contingent of female entries. There were 5 women in the field of 27 riders and 4 of the regular contenders were absent.
Similarly, in Saturday morning’s "Social Ride" 9 of the bunch of 15 were ladies. The club is making a firm statement that the quest by Victoria’s peak cycling bodies to attract more women to cycling is being taken seriously.
Many much appreciated helpers and spectators gathered at the Botanic Park for the start of the 32km race to Sawpit Gully Rd and back on Thursday evening. The course returned via Barwite Road and Coomb’s Hill for a finish on Graves Road .
The handicapper staggered six groups amongst the 28 riders. Limit, first away, was the largest with eight riders who worked together well for most of the course and looked like they may produce the winner.
The second group to leave had five riders and provided a setting for a race within a race. Hospital Executive Officer Mel Green, embarrassed her husband with her deft climbing skills to leave him at the foot of Coombs Hill. In fairness, the CEO is still recovering fitness after a nasty skiing accident.
A threesome of Anthony Plummer, Tim Ross and part time "Mansfieldian," David Dunn, were next off and had to work harder than most given their small number.
Bakker, Peterson, Skinner and Foura followed but failed to impress on the night.
The big question was whether the Scratch group, last away, with Josh Hopwood and junior international mountain biker, Kian Lerch-Mackinnon, could reel in the Block group in front of them and perhaps form their own strong peloton to catch the rest of the field.
Halket, Brega and Olver on Block, had a minute start over the two Scratch riders. Block held them at bay until the Sawpit turnaround approached. The spectators at the turnaround thought the two groups would combine but Kian and Josh were riding fast and strong. Kian, like the champion mountain biker he is, was not interested in any respite and forged ahead with Hopwood and Halket in his wake.
The limit group, despite looking strong earlier, were swamped at the start of Coomb’s Hill.
Kat Mckean picked up Jodie Batchelor as she went through limit closely followed by the threesome of Ross, Dunn and Plummer who were the only team to stay together until the end.
Kian finished first with fastest time, only 11 seconds in front of Hopwood and Halket a minute behind in third. Jodie was first unplaced lady in fourth followed closely by Kat and then the Ross, Dunn, Plummer combination .
Mel Green and Stephen Flew were well into the top ten championship points with commendable rides.
It was pleasing to see so many ladies competing well this week with Gretchen Nadenbousch and Di Condie just outside the top ten.
Club President, Wil Wilson rode with every group on the night as he was successively dropped by all of them. Too much ‘bon vivant‘ and perhaps not enough riding in Adelaide!
Ross, as one of the hard riding threesome, was this week’s recipient of the Ross-Bakker “tried too hard” award. (More on that below...)
There was only one DNF. Will MacDonald was seen by tail enders going the wrong way on Barwite Road, taking his bike pump home early, obviously disappointed in the length of the course relative to his state of fitness.
Results can be found here.
Next week’s graded scratch race starts at the Botanic Park 5.30pm for 6 pm. Text entries to John Eisner 0428 503 437 by 8pm Wednesday.
Many thanks to Tony Copland, Dave Moore and Dan Purcell for the photos at the start of the article.
Road bike for sale
Tony still has his Viner for sale which is really good value.
If you have something bike related you want to sell, put it on the club For Sale page. Just email the details to Bruce.
Upcoming events
Easter in the Alice
Alice Springs MTB Club is gearing up for our major event for the year, Lasseters Easter in the Alice. We’re asking all our MTB Club friends out there to help us by letting your members know about our race. Details can be found on the event website or on FB Lasseters Easter in the Alice Mountain Bike Stage Race (@easterinthealicemtb).
You may not already know that Alice Springs is one of Australia’s best kept mountain biking secrets. There is an incredible 200 km or so of tracks around the town, all within a few minutes ride of wherever you might be staying. We are truly spoilt.
Easter in the Alice is a 3-day stage race which we’ve designed to be as accessible to as many riders as possible, incorporating Round 3 of the National XCM series on Saturday 15 April. Stages are 75/58 km (depending on class), 24 km and 37 km and have a wide variety of tracks (mostly single). Starts are 7am / 8am in the cool of the morning so we’ll get people back and relaxing well before lunch time each day. That leaves the rest of the day for sight-seeing or just hanging around the pool with your mates. And yes, it will be perfect swimming weather at Easter.
Qantas have a national sale on at the moment and Lasseters, our event sponsor are offering 5-star rooms for only $120 per night. All the details are on our website.
Hope to see you out there on the tracks.
ChallengeMD Goldfields 2017 - 410km Bike Ride for A Cause
We are starting to organise our ChallengeMD 2017 Goldfields Charity Bike Ride and I was hoping it might be of interest to some of the riders at your club?
The ethos of ChallengeMD is to endure a significant physical challenge on behalf of the one in 625 men, women and children in our population affected by the devastating disorder - Muscular Dystrophy. Over four days, participants cycle over 400km through North Melbourne, Wallace, Maldon, Heathcote and Greenvale.
Further details about the event can be found on the website.
I also have a Participant Information Booklet I can send through to anyone who may be interested in registering.
We’d love to have some dedicated riders along for the journey!
Finally...
We're not sure what Tim was doing straight after the race last Thursday... lost a contact lens, perhaps?
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