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Dirt Crits on the long, looong course
by Damian Grundy
Tuesday Evening dawned clear and fine. A perfect evening for some dirty fun at the MMBCC Mountain Bike Dirt Crit races at Riflebutts Reserve.
A good turn out of the usual suspects approached the start line for a Long Course extravaganza. Most trails in the Mountain Bike Park were involved on a combination of loops.
Early starters of the faster guys included Dan Friday Senior, Damian Grundy, Lee Noble, Bruce Halket and Matty Empey chasing 2 long laps and 1 short lap, then the intermediate lapper of Tom Hogan hit out a few minutes later for his 1 long and 2 short laps. The early starters were then followed a short time later by a large crew of riders doing 1 long and 1 short laps including David Bock, Dan Friday Junior, Talia Appleton, Jack Hogan (sadly destined to DNF), Rachael Grundy, Ruby Dobson, Bella Green, Alex Green, James Griffin, Elise Empey and Jason Parker.
Much tactical discussion prior to the start centred on what order might be best to complete the necessary laps; Short before long or long before short? In the end it became clear that the best strategy would be to ride FAST!! And to that end Dan Friday Junior was best at that and came away with the win on the day. David Bock rode super well and held on for 2nd followed shortly thereafter by Talia Appleton for 3rd and first female. Rounding out the top 5 were Dan Friday Senior and Rachael Grundy.
As always great fun was had by all. Here are the results.
Alain Guerin Memorial Handicap
by John Eisner
This week marks the fourth anniversary of the tragic death of our much loved member, Alain Guerin, and as usual for this week a memorial handicap was held in his honour.
Held on the challenging 29km Coombesberg course, over thirty riders entered including son, Jean-Daniel Guerin and several of his friends from Melbourne.
Judi Duke made an early move off the front of her group turning her race into a gutsy, solo effort. The chasing group of Alex Green, Di Condie, Dave Jagger, John Eisner, Craig Wilson and Janine Appleton worked well together until the fragmented remains of second block (Anthony Plummer, Cam Lachal, Rob Skinner and Kody Appleton) caught up on the final straight leaving each person to themselves in a blustery headwind.
The massive block group looked slick and menacing on paper but had all sorts of trouble working together with splits, regrouping and an attempt to chase down the sole scratch rider, Brendon Green, who worked through the whole field, catching Judi with two k’s to go and taking out the trophy for the second year in a row.
An impressive ride saw Kody Appleton take third with James Black and Cam Lachal fourth and fifth.
The riders then rode out on the Buller road to meet the rest of the Guerin Family for a tribute to Alain by his wife Coral.
Thank you to our crew of volunteers and to the Delatite Hotel. Here are the results and many thanks to Laurent Guerin for the pics.
Sadly the Police campaign this week highlights how many drivers continue to use mobile phones while driving. Hopefully technology, awareness and common sense will reduce the risk phones pose and reduce injuries and fatalities such as Alain’s.
Lacey Reeve - World’s Greatest Shave
Lacey Reeve is the sister of current road points leader Matilda Reeve and grand daughter of stalwart Rod Manning.
Lacey is turning 10 on the 11th of December and has decided to shave ALL her hair off to raise funds for cancer. She is a very determined girl and will not be persuaded to keep ANY of her hair at all. Please come join us on the 11th of Dec at 6pm at the Delatite Hotel to witness the removal of Lacey’s long hair.
The MMBCC has decided that all of the entry fees from the Graded Scratch Race on Thursday 22 November will be donated to Lacey’s effort. So if you haven’t raced for a bit, what better reason do you need to enter next Thursday?!
Club kit
Looks like we almost have enough people interested in buying club kit to get Seight to open the My Team Shop. We need a minimum of ten pieces of kit per order… and we’re almost there.
If anyone else is interested please email Bruce.