After yet another huge weekend, there’s lots to get through this week…
Pain and Suffering
By Damian Grundy
The saying goes “when the going gets tough the tough get going”! Well I was wishing. In truth, some were obviously going well. And yet some others took full advantage of their relative handicap obscurity (well done Steve)!
Steve Curnow is a LEGEND! He sadly doesn’t race often with the MTB crew but when he does he shows great ability. He scooted (metaphorically speaking) away for the win!
Ruby Dobson trains hard and her performance in this race was clear proof. A great second place and a quality race speed.
Ned Hall was focussed and rode strongly into third, Talia Appleton 4th and Elise Empey 5th.
Am I allowed to make note of the fact that the combined ages of 2nd to 5th did not equal Mr Curnow’s?
Regardless, in my mind this is proof positive that mountain biking can be sport for all ages.
Here are the detailed results.
Good luck to all the local riders racing next weekend in Bright at the National Mountain Bike Championships.
Racing in the rain
By Janine Appleton and Bruce Halket
Despite knowing the radar predicted rain, we were always hopeful it would be more like drizzle rather than the heavy wet stuff that drenched riders for the first half of the graded scratch races on Thursday 5 March.
There was only four on the start line for A-grade - Darren Bakker, Steve Brown, Ewyn Carter and Dave Moore set off from the Botanic Park just as the heaviest of the rain fell. Good timing!
The first move of note was when Moore attacked just after the turn into Old Tolmie Road. This was soon negated by the other three but showed a glimpse of things to come.
Moore tried again just before Soldiers Road, on the way up the Coombesberg and only Brown could join him the second time.
It came down to a sprint on Graves Road which Brown started very early. Moore patiently sat on the wheel until just a few metres before the line, taking the win. This time around his timing really was good.
Bakker beat Carter for third.
B-grade’s slow start until the Barwite hill meant minimal change to heart rates, but at least it confirmed Janine’s feeling that the "girls had it in the bag". After only a couple of turns by David Jagger and Craig Wilson on the Mansfield Whitfield Road, the girl team of mother and daughter, Janine and Talia Appleton, pushed the pace along Barwite Road.
By the corner the girls had broken free from Dave and Craig, and Janine’s prediction that she didn’t have anywhere near enough acceleration to stay with her daughter up the Coombesberg held true.
Talia stretched her lead to 20 metres, then 100 down the cautious descent and 150 by the finish.
Wil and Dave followed only 80 metres back, with Wilson taking third in a sprint from Jagger.
Here are the results. And it was so wet, no one managed to take a photo!
Next week sees racing Handicap racing return to the Buller Road for the first time in years!
Bike Buller MTB Fest
By Alex Green
A big weekend for the club with the running of the Bike Buller Festival 2020. Members of the club and local riders raced in the ABOM Down Hill Saturday and the Dharco Gravity Enduro Sunday.Numbers were strong with both events having representation of 10 or more local riders.
Huge numbers of younger riders took part, with Archie Hall taking out the youngest rider for the Enduro. At 9 years of age he took on the 35km course and was on the bike for over 4 hours.Many of the other Dirt Crit members took on the event for the first time in the tough muddy conditions.
The Empeys, Greens and Halls all made it a family event, with multiple members racing.
It was great to just be out with so many riders from across Victoria and interstate at our local hill, but several members also featured on the podium. Archie Hall for youngest rider, Maddi Smith for the down hill, the Green girls and of course the Empeys cleaned up in numerous categories.
Congratulations to the organisers, and special mention to Shannon Rademaker for organising the Highline Slopestyle event on Saturday afternoon. Part of the qualifying world events it was won by Mansfield’s very own Gaelen Slaney.
There were plenty of other familiar faces up on the mountain - riding, spectating and volunteering to make it a fantastic weekend.
ABOM Down Hill
• Archie Hall U15 M
• Phoenix Valerio U15 M
• Ned Hall U15 M
• Selina Green U15 F
• Finn Baker U15 M
• Arabella Green U17 F
• Tom Hall Masters Male
• Maddi Smith U15 F
• Zac Empey U15 M
• Sam Mosley U15 M
• Kevin Gannon U15 M
Enduro
• Archie Hall U15 M
• Tom Hall Masters Male
• Ned Hall U15 M
• Selina Green U15 F
• Alex Green Masters Male
• Arabella Green U17 F
• Zac Empey U15 M
• Elise Empey U17 F
• David Empey Super Masters Male
• Matthew Empey U19 M
MTB Interschools @ Falls Creek
By Ariel Stava
Nineteen young Mansfield mountain bike riders headed to Falls Creek on Friday 28th March to compete at the 2020 Victorian XC Mountain Bike Interschools and came home very proud of their efforts.
In an improved format for 2020, that saw boys and girls racing together over the same distance on a challenging but enjoyable course, Mansfield riders dominated. The weather was cool but sunny when 127 riders took to the course for practice on the shore of the Rocky Valley storage dam. The course included large sections of ascent on open gravel fire trail and flowing technical descents on single track.
The students from Mansfield Steiner led the charge for Mansfield with a team of 13 riders. This year’s event saw the addition of students from Grade 3/4, allowing more junior riders to compete for the first time.
On a 1.08km course the students rode 3 laps with Mansfield Steiner’s Avah Van der Heyden finishing 1st place in the Grade 3/4 girls and Ben Ross 2nd in the Grade 3/4 Boys ahead of Rueben Bateup in 5th, Finnigan Stokes in 6th and Archie Hall in 8th. A special mention must be made to Rueben who stopped to help Finnigan after he fell riding in particularly difficult section of downhill trail.
The Grade 5/6 riders tackled 3 laps of a longer 1.75km course and saw Mansfield Primary School’s three rider entries podium. In the Grade 5/6 Girls Selina Green led out strongly ahead of all the girls and boys for two laps before a mechanical set her back in the pack. She held on to finish as the first female rider ahead of Mika Smith 2nd for Mansfield Steiner and Cate Simms in 4th. Ryder Chadd from Mansfield Primary who celebrated his birthday in style finishing 1st very closely followed by Charlie Dobson 2nd ahead of Tom Williams from Mansfield Steiner in 4th, Finnegan Baker in 5th, Ethan Nealon in 10th, Spencer Carmen, St Mary’s Primary Schools only rider in 12th and Will Wettenhall Mansfield Steiner in 18th position.
The Year 7/8 riders stepped up with 4 laps of the 1.75 km course and saw another first place for Mansfield Steiner with Maddison Smith leading from beginning to end of the girl’s race and Ned Hall riding consistently to place 4th in the 7/8 boys.
The final race of the day was for our Year 9/10 riders who completed 3 laps of the longest course of the day at 3.64km per lap. The girls from Mansfield Secondary College dominated this event with Ruby Dobson finishing 1st nearly 5 minutes s ahead of her nearest female competitor. Tahlia Appleton finished 3rd and Bella Green finished 5th.
In the schools event Mansfield Steiner School again finished 3rd overall for the school’s trophy behind the much larger school of Cathedral College and the hometown favourites Mt Beauty.
It was an outstanding effort by all Mansfield riders and a huge thank you all parents for making the drive to Falls Creek, Mansfield Mt Buller Cycling Club – Dirt Crits and to coach Damian Grundy for his work developing our juniors on Sundays.
Best of luck to all riders heading to Thredbo for the Australian Mountain Biking Interschools on March 19-22.
Finally…
A good little read from Rouleur magazine about bike races being cancelled.