Hope you’re all enjoying the ‘long’ weekend. Here’s the latest from MMBCC Towers:
- Dirt Crits Gravity Enduro;
- 32km Handicap Road Race;
- Photoshoot opportunity;
- A Simon Gerrans photo gallery;
- A new take on suspension forks; and
- The 2019 Giro d’Italia route announced.
A week of MMBCC racing
by Kody Appleton
First race for the the Mansfield Mt Buller Cycling Club last week was Dirt Crits on Tuesday night. It was a Gravity Enduro - basically a downhill race with a bit more pedalling during the race than a traditional downhill and competitors have to pedal back up between runs (unlike a DH race where competitors are transported by bus, or even chairlift!) Each racer had to complete a run on two different courses with the cumulative time of both runs deciding the winner.
There were three classes on the night, Women, Sport and Open.
Despite a couple of punctures and a couple of small ‘offs’ there was no claret spilt nor dummies spat.
Not surprisingly the Empey name was high on the results list, after competing at the Australian Nationals in Adelaide last week, Matthew took out the Open Class and Elise the Women.
They were separated by James Griffin taking out the Sport Class.
Now we just need to install a chairlift so we can host a downhill race proper!
Many thanks to Shannon, Kate, Mel, Dave E, Dave M and the other volunteers.
And many thanks to Jason Parker for all the pics… and here are the results.
The weather was warm on Thursday night when the roadies came together for the weekly race. The course was the longest in use, a total of 32km including the feared Coombesberg climb. The riders would travel out Mansfield-Whitfield Road, turn around at Sawpit gully, ride towards Mansfield then turn left onto Barwite Road, right onto Old Tolmie Road, over the Coombesberg and finish on Graves Road.
Once the race began, two large groups quickly formed at the front end of the race because of small handicaps, the latter of which contained Alex Green, Ian Conrick, Matilda Reeve, Kody Appleton, Tim Hall and Allan Gerrans. By the turnaround these two groups were within sight of each other but surprisingly were not gaining nor losing ground.
There were complaints from the rear end of the race due to Mauro Brega pulling a 50km/h effort on the flats around the tomato farm corner which meant many strong riders started to struggle.
On the flats of Barwite Road, all groups started to close the gaps, with Alex Green pulling a huge turn for his group in a last-ditch effort to help Conrick, Reeve, and Appleton to pull across to the group in front which they caught on the crest of the Coombesberg climb. This was helped by some fracturing in the lead group with fatigue, uphill gradient and wishing-race-training-had-been-instigated-earlier likely causes.
Bella Green and Judy Duke had managed to get away on the climb but were caught on the downhill by Matilda and Kody, joined by David Jagger and Janine Appleton, hanging desperately onto their wheel. Three of those riders finished together with Kody Appleton beating Matilda Reeve in the sprint for 1st.
Final placings were Kody Appleton 1st, Matilda Reeve 2nd, David Jagger 3rd, Craig Wilson 4th and Janine Appleton 5th.
And again, a massive thank you to all the volunteers for supporting the event and to Tony Copland for the pics. Here are the results.
Next week’s race is a handicap race at Jamieson with a late (6.30pm) start - entries via SMS to John on 0428 503 437 by 8pm Wednesday. Presentations and dinner afterwards will be held at the Courhouse Hotel.
Tourism North East photo shoot
On behalf of the club, Ben Annear has been talking with Ric from Hand Cut Productions about a film shoot for Tourism North East (TNE) on Monday 12 November.
Please take a look at the scheduled shoot list (below) - this is a guide only, and is possibly more than what they will be able to achieve in a single day.
We’re hoping that MMBCC members might be able to assist as ride talent for the shoot, or at least help Ric coordinate a group of riders for the vision required.
Unfortunately it seems they have no ‘budget’ for talent as such, other than the offer of a cup of tea/coffee or maybe a beer after your ride, so please understand that this would be a “love” job for Tourism North East. Please also note this is nothing to do with Buller or the RMB, we’re simply asking a favour for TNE.
If you’re available on the day, have a set of MMBCC club kit to wear and want to be seen on billboards at Tullamarine airport to help promote our region, please contact Ric on 0434 815 358 or club president Damian Grundy on 0411 045 771.
More on photos - this time Simon Gerrans
Pez Cycling News has a good little photo gallery looking at Simon’s career in the pro ranks.
Is this the future of suspension forks?
Some very interesting looking suspension forks. Not cheap though.
Giro route announced
The route for the 2019 Giro was recently released. Here are the five key stages, according to Cycling News, to help you plan your holiday to Italy next May.